Her demeanor changed so rapidly that I’m left spinning. The quiet woman she was moments ago is gone, replaced by a witch of stony determination. Light glints across her face, her colorless eyes reflecting the neon rainbow around us.
For a second, her focus shifts to the people around us before it flashes back to me.
Only something important would have distracted her… Something that made her change course…
I glance left and freeze.
Alexei storms toward me across the rooftop, his assassin’s magic gleaming around his silhouette. Blazing silver light glows with every powerful step he takes.
I’m surprised he hasn’t put his shirt on. I’m not the only one who seems to notice. A number of women in the seats nearby crane their heads to watch him pass.
He stops at the edge of the sunken couch, a mountain of muscle towering over me.
His voice is a stern command. “Tanzanina Gray, we need to talk.”
Without conscious thought, I float up out of the couch to hover at eye level with him. My hair wafts out around me, and my dress swishes in the growing storm of my emotions.
Shame and guilt make my power spark. If I don’t calm down, the other partygoers will need protection fromme.
Regret fills my heart. “Alexei, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what the rubies meant to you.”
His gaze softens, a perplexed crease forming across his forehead.
He sighs, shaking his head. “Tansy, you don’t need to?—”
Movement to my right draws his attention. He freezes but only for a second. His arm darts out, and he pulls me into his side, holding me close, while his other hand rises toward Mother Kadris, his palm out in a defensive gesture. “Mother Kadris!”
Mother Kadris returns Alexei’s glare with a haughty expression and a growing smile.
She floats up out of the couch to hover above the table, staying out of his reach. “Hello, Alexei. This meeting has been a long time coming.”
“You’re damn right it has. Your assassination has been sanctioned for hundreds of years, and my Faction is the last with a chance to try. Whatever you’re doing here, you will walk away. Right now.”
The look on his face tells me that if he could kill her, he would, but The Proprietor’s magic stops anyone dying here.
She arches an eyebrow at him. “Oh, but Tansy and I were about to make a deal.”
Alexei’s arm tightens around me.
Mother Kadris’s cold gaze falls on me, and my heart sinks.
In my mind, I replay every comment she made, every move… her initial desperation to get her hands on the rubies, then the surprise and concern when I brought them to her.
Her reactions have been a series of contradictions that I struggle to make sense of. The only answer is that she wanted to make sure I would be desperate to get the rubies back from her.
I made a deal with a witch who consumes souls, and she played me. Well and truly.
Alexei growls. “You can’t have Tansy’s soul.”
Mother Kadris gives a cold smile. “Well, that’s up to Tansy, isn’t it?”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Am I willing to risk my soul?
As I fight the shiver raging down my spine, a glance to my left tells me we’re drawing attention.
I murmur, “Perfect power protect this place with my presence.”
