“No,” I admitted, coming to a stop outside my bedroom door. “Can you maybe be lesscryptic?”
She thought for a moment. “Maybe. I might be able to giveyou...”
Saoirse trailed off when I opened my door. My room wastrashed.
“Blimey,” Saoirse whispered. “Stay here. I’ll be back in amo.”
I edged into the room while she vanished down the hallway. The glass window had been shattered. The bedsheets had been sliced in half, and the old, sagging mattress had been ripped to shreds. The desk had been overturned. The rug had been yanked away from the floor. Even some of the floorboards had been pried open to reveal a cold empty darknessbelow.
Shivering, I took a step toward it and peered down. I couldn’t see a damn thing. If a Sluagh hand reached up rightnow...
“Moira?” King Lugh sauntered inside. He took one look around the room and whisked me into his arms. I yelped as he carried me out into the hallway and deposited me into a heap on the floor. Pain lanced through my bum. And then he slammed the door behind him. An unexpected concern flickered across hisfeatures.
I blinked up at him, dazed. “Are you serious right now? You can’t just yank me into your arms and then throw me onto the floor! I know you’re the King of this castle, butI—”
A muffledpfffffftechoed from inside the room. Blue smoke drifted out through the cracks around the door. Lugh reached down, launched me to my feet, and dragged me even further down the hallway. Everyone else who happened to witness Lugh’s startled reaction followed suit, rushing away from the mysteriouscloud.
“Hmm.” Saoirse shot Lugh a frown when we were a safe distance away from the blue smoke. “That I didn’t seecoming.”
I shook my arms until I was free of Lugh’s grip. “Is someone going to explain to me what the hell is goingon?”
“It seems that someone doesn’t like you,” Lugh said dryly, his cocky boredom quickly replacing whatever concern I’d thought I’d seen in hisexpression.
“No shit,” I said with narrowed eyes. “It doesn’t take a puff of blue smoke for me to figure thatout.”
“It’s not blue smoke,” Saoirse whispered. “It’s a sorcerer’s potion. I’ve seen it before. It’s supposed to make you...” She cleared her throat. “Pliable.”
I scrunched my eyebrows. “Pliable?”
Lugh coughed, and I could have sworn his sharp cheekbones looked just a tad more on the pink side than they normally did. “It’s called Sapphire. Consider it the magical equivalent of the human ecstasy drug, although it seems to heighten libido evenmore.”
“Oh.” My own cheeks got hot. “Who the hell would put a magical libido potion in mybedroom?”
Probably not a question I wanted answered, if I were being honest. A secret admirer, trying to catch me unaware? Not that I really thought I had one of those inside the castle. Only a few fae had even bothered to talk to me, much less try to woo me into bed. Or maybe it had been the hobgoblin. This was exactly the type of trick they liked topull.
“The heightened libido isn’t the focus, in this case,” Lugh answered, jaw rippling. “Whoever left this here only wanted to make youpliable.”
“You sound really sure ofthat.”
“This isn’t the first time it’s happened,” Saoirse added. “There’s, ah...” And then she clamped her mouthshut.
“We should all leave this hallway before the vapours reach us.” Lugh turned to Saoirse, speaking over my head as if I weren’t even there. “We’ll need to move Moira out of this room and into another. Let’s cordon this one off for the foreseeable future. And we’ll need to burn the sheets, and her clothes. Otherwise, the effects will be impossible to get ridof.”
“Um, hi,” I said, raising a single finger. “No burning my clothes, please. I only have a couple extra shirts with me, and I would like to not walk aroundnaked.”
“You can borrow something of mine for now,” Saoirse said. “Let’s get you to your new room, and I’ll find something for you towear.”
My new room sat on the very top floor where the heating system had failed months ago. There was a tiny electric radiator in one corner, but it did little the warm the space. Other than that, it was almost exactly the same as the other room. Same bed, similar blankets, and a very threadbare rug thatmatched.
Saoirse gave me an apologetic smile. “Unfortunately, we don’t have any open rooms on the floors below, but I’ll see what I can do about finding you somewhere warmersoon.”
“I don’t mind. Honestly.” I stopped her just before she turned to go. “Saoirse, what’s the real deal about that smoke bomb? You said it’s happenedbefore.”
She nodded, nibbling on her bottom lip. “Yeah, and that’s why you don’t have to worry. It wasn’t aimed toward you. Several other fae have been hit with it, includingme.”
I arched a brow. “Yougot hit withit?”
“Yeah, I’m close with Lugh, and...” She shook her head. “What I can say out loud is that there are rumours going around that you and Lugh are...” Her cheeks went red as she cleared her throat. “You know.Involved.”
