"It was a dream! It shouldn't have been possible," Tenebrys snarled in self-defense. That fang graze was a riddle he needed to solve.
"A mark is a mark, whether it was intentional or not. You couldn't leave her with the other males. Your lion wouldn't allow it," Felix said, shrugging. "Goddess only knows what you're going to do with her now. You can't keep her locked in there."
Tenebrys scowled. "The fuck I can't. She is a prisoner."
"Where would she go that we couldn't find her? She didn't know who we were, so Narcisse and Cassia obviously didn't tell her anything about their time here."
Tenebrys ran a hand through his mane. "She said she didn't know alchemy, but I canfeelthe magic vibrating off her. I don't understand any of this."
"Cassia always had stronger magic than Narcisse, so she probably got it from her. Leave her for the night and figure out what to do with her tomorrow," Felix advised. He was always the more level-headed of the two of them, which was why he had been Tenebrys's best friend for their entire lives. He nodded and followed Felix back down to the main hall.
A small furry creature fluttered through the doors and landed on his shoulder. Luna had been a house cat that had been caught up in Narcisse's magic and now had raven wings.
She was also Tenebrys's spy in the woods and could follow magic trails better than a bloodhound when she wanted to. She had been the one to find Delphi, where Narcisse had hidden her in that pockmark of a village. The bright flare of her magic during the dream the night before had given her exact location away.
Narcisse really should have trained Delphi to hide her magic and protect herself from any wandering sorcerer who happened to see her.
Tenebrys frowned, not liking the thought of Delphi being exposed and in danger without her realizing.
Fucking Narcisse.
If one of the fae had found her in the forest before Tenebrys had…he really didn't want to think about it.
With a sigh, he placed Luna on the ground. The night was almost gone, and he still needed to hunt. He had another mouth to feed now, and he had no one to blame but himself.
8
Delphi woke still on the threadbare couch that Tenebrys had dumped her on the previous night. Someone had put a blanket over her while she had been sleeping, but she hadn't heard anyone come in.
She sat up slowly, wincing when pain lashed against her ribs. She unlaced her corset and lifted her tunic. Dark bruises were flowering on her ribs and sternum from where she had been carried for hours the previous night.
"Just what I need," she muttered. She pulled out a breast band from her bag and put it on. There was no one here who would chide her for not wearing a corset, and it was too painful to put back on.
She stood and stretched, looking around. Sunlight was coming through the glass windows, darkened by dirt and dust.
The laboratory looked like a mirror of the one Narcisse always set up wherever they moved. That would have been enough evidence for Delphi to know that he had been there before. She touched the books that she had placed on the worktable the night before. She reached for them and stopped. No, she wasn't ready for what they held. Not yet.
Delphi heard Tenebrys bolt the door the night before, but now it sat ajar.
Had he come back in and given her the blanket? It seemed unlikely. He had been so pissed off that he had barely looked at her.
So much for my fantasy dream man, she thought and rubbed a hand over her face.
Howhadhe managed to get into her dreams anyway?
Narcisse had known how to protect his own dreams and hadn't bothered to teach her.
"How fucking like him," she grumbled under her breath.
What else had Narcisse been hiding all these years? She wasn't an idiot. She always knew there were things he didn't teach her.
He had an idea in his head that only men could be promising alchemists. It was one of the reasons she had learned all that she could from any books she could get her hands on.
Delphi's stomach grumbled angrily. She needed to find some food before she could think straight.
She opened the door a bit further and looked about the hall. There was no one around, so she slipped out of her room.
In daylight, the château's slide from splendor to squalor was even more noticeable. What had happened to turn it to such a state?
