“Who is he?” I swivel back to Mother Kadris—only to find her gone.
Damn. I shouldn’t have taken my eyes off her. No doubt I’ll only find her again when she wants me to.
She didn’t explain why she needs the three rubies, but then… I didn’t tell her why I need the revival spell, either.
We’re both carrying secrets.
I snatch up the drink she left sitting on the table and gulp water to moisten my suddenly dry mouth. Approaching dangerous men is not my forte. I never learned to flirt, only to freeze people out. Distrust was always my friend. Well, that’s what I told myself.
I clamber out of the sunken couch, discovering that they’re much easier to slide into than to get out of. I grab one of the spells attached to my hip, the words burning in my mind moments before my fingertip glides across the leaf.
“Levitate and leverage lightly,” I whisper to myself.
Magic lifts me up, and I glide to the edge of the couch and onto the floor. Tipping my head back, I take gulps of air like a confidence pill.
With bold steps, I stride across the distance between me and the man at the bar, angling around a warlock who casts a smoky neon illusion of a fierce dragon that sails over the heads of the patrons in the sunken couches I’m leaving behind.
My gauzy dress floats around my legs as I reach the bar and carefully lean into the empty space beside the man who is Kadris’s target. The other patrons have crowded in a little since his arrival, but there are still several clear feet on either side of him.
The tantalizing scent of sandalwood fills my senses.
Pasting a confident smile on my face, I turn to him. “I thought you could use some company.” I gesture at the space around him. “Since you scared everyone away and all.”
I sense his sharp inhale before he turns to face me fully, his hair falling away from his face as he tilts toward me.
“I have that effect on people.” His eyes meet mine. Stormy gray eyes and a growing smile greet me. “But you were never afraid of me.”
My heart stutters inside my chest.
Alexei…
It’s him.
It’s… really him.
CHAPTER TEN
Alexei’s presence is like a glass of liquid happiness, and I just drank a whole bottle of it.
My instinctive magic begins to glow, this time not from anger or fear but because I can’t help it. Alexei Mason is one of the most violent assassins I’ve ever encountered, preferring to kill with his bare hands or, if he’s in a hurry, a single shot to the head. I once saw him break a target’s neck with a twist of his wrist. And yet… he is one of the kindest, most astute men I have ever met.
He’s a spectrum of contradictions wrapped up in a broad-shouldered package that destroys my inhibitions.
But he’s human.
He can’t be here in this place of monsters.
My jaw drops in shock. “Alexei?”
One corner of his mouth hitches up as his gaze drinks me in, passing from my face to the curve of my exposed neck, returning to pause on my lips. “Blessings on your power, Tansy Gray.”
Everything else disappears from around us—the supernaturals, the music, all of it.
Being near Alexei has always been like stepping into a safe haven. All of my worries, pain—even my defenses—fall away.
Without thinking, I close the narrow gap between us to reach up and brush the hair falling across his cheek, my fingertips grazing his ear.
He allows me to rest my palm against his strong jaw.
