My heart thudded. I thought I would have had some time to properly hide my trinket before confronting any of the Hytons.
Tingles of magic in the bathwater danced around my legs and belly as my white flame flickered around my heart. I tightened my grip on the edge of the tub and bit my tongue.
I did not want to use sorcery in front of the Hytons! Why the fuck was my magic activating?
Duchess Hyton waved a hand at the maids. “You girls are dismissed. Let Madame Bloodstone have some privacy.”
The maids bowed their heads and left us. I cut a glance to Duchess Hyton, who did not move from her stool.
Privacy, my ass.
Duchess Hyton’s blue eyes flicked down to the bathwater. “What joyous news, another one of my kittens does not have an heir on the way.”
Kittens? I followed her eyes to the trail of crimson swirling up from my hips in the water.
Shit! My cycle had started. I should have been keeping track!
I looked away and the magic in the water quieted.
Duchess Hyton scoffed. “Oh, do not be embarrassed. The longer you can go without getting pregnant, the easier your life will be—right Brie?”
Brie? When did Duchess Hyton start calling Brietta by her shortened name?
Brietta’s voice was stiffer than I had ever heard it. “Right, Freya.”
Freya turned back to me. “Not that you had to worry about that—you still have that virginal look in your eyes.”
The flames inside me burned hotter and a scowl broke through my stoic mask. I was not completely untouched, but a couple of Riyan’s fingers coaxing an orgasm out of me was apparently not enough to satisfy the terms of Fraleigh’s blood bond.
Even though it had felt…very good.
The memory of Riyan’s massive hands gently parting my thighs invaded my mind. He had tugged on my hair while his other hand explored me, my mouth grazing his as I gasped, my fingernails piercing his arms as I…
Then I remembered where I was and my cheeks burned. Freya took one look at my face and cackled in effervescent glee. What a ridiculous old drunk.
“Well,” she slurred, “looks like you two are still synced up from Ashmore.”
I held down a smile. Despite Brietta and Derrick sealing their blood bond, Brietta was not with child.
“The monthly curse is a blessing now.” Freya sat on the edge of the tub. “Just as I was telling Brie, these men will keep you happy because you are theonlyperson in the world that can give them what they need—an heir.”
She gestured to Brietta with her goblet. “Thanks to that damn blood bond, the heir to Lycasterhasto come from her. Keep holding out and even the strongest man in the House of Hyton will bend over backward to get you anything you want. But the instant you push out that male heir…all your power is gone.”
Freya tipped back her goblet and her voice echoed in the metal. “Gone, gone, gone…it is all gone.”
A tiny bell tinkled and Freya removed her goblet from her lips. “Ah, His Excellency came to join us.”
I covered my chest and crumpled into the bathwater. The Duke was in the bathing chamber too?
Freya barked out a laugh. Brietta glanced down and said, “She means the cat.”
Brietta bent over and lifted a large mound of brown fluff with green eyes and white paws into her lap. The gigantic cat nudged Brietta’s palm as she stroked its ruff and ears. “Magnus the Bed Warmer, or Magnus for short.”
“I call him ‘His Excellency,’” Freya said, “because it pisses my husband off.”
The door creaked open again. My stomach tensed until I realized it was only Merri, Freya’s personal maid. She helda ceramic cup and saucer in her hands and glanced at Freya expectantly.
Freya nodded toward me. “Give it to her. She must be starving after that long journey from Bloodstone.”
