“Steward?” I know I sounded stupid, but I couldn’t believe what she was saying. After what I’d just seen, which she didn’t know I’d seen, she was telling me I had to sneak out and take over a fortress without her crazy sister or pet birdcats catching me. All without any training.
“Yes. Sayer will hand you over to your own steward and return to me. When he brings word of your safe arrival, I shall come to you and we will plan our next move.” She turned away from me then and addressing him, whined, “I must lie down, I have a sudden headache. Return as soon as you can.”
Sayer bowed his head and inquired, “Will you be all right, Lady?”
She leaned over and placed a lingering kiss on his cheek. I had to clench my teeth against the reaction my stomach gave, and I turned away as she murmured something into his ear. I kept moving down the hall, wondering what the hell was wrong with me but not wanting to turn back to whatever that was, and made for the door to my room on the opposite side of the corridor.
I didn’t close the door behind me, knowing one or both would follow, and walked directly into the bathroom. I heard the bedroom door close, but I stayed where I was, staring at myself in the mirror.
“Ella.”
His voice carried through the silent rooms, and I heard the concern and hint of accusation.
I closed my eyes, ready for a reprimand for not following his orders.
“Ella, what did you see?”
“What do you expect me to have seen?” I countered, playing dumb.
He didn’t say anything else.
I let out a tense breath and turned around. He was standing in the bathroom doorway, leaning casually against the doorframe with his arms folded across his chest, and looking at me with his eyebrows raised. “A legion of griffons? A single rider?” he suggested. “Were you seen?”
“On the couch?”
He clearly wasn’t buying it. “In the reception room, through the window, by the red griffon that landed on the veranda.”
I swallowed. How the hell had he known that? I wasn’t planning to admit to anything. But then he smiled. I broke. I never was a good liar. “I’m sorry, I just… I was worried when you didn’t come back, and I wanted to know what was happening. Oh shit, does Glinda know I did that?”
He pushed off the frame and took two steps toward me. I took one back and hit the sink unit. “She saw you?”
I opened my mouth and closed it again, not sure if he meant Glinda, her sister, or the griffon, and he took another step forward. He wasn’t the same servile Sayer that was out in the hallway five minutes before. Not that I wanted him to be servile. I much preferred the relaxed guy who’d shown me the falls and drank wine with me the day before. Right then, I didn’t know who he was, but he wasn’t the steward Glinda thought she had working for her. He pinned me with his eyes, holding me there, keeping my attention. Then his eyes flicked down to my mouth and he closed the distance between us, leaned in close, just as Glinda had done with him out in the hall, and lowering his voice to a whisper, murmured, “You have to trust me, Ella, or we both die.”
I swallowed again and nodded my head as the feel of his breath on my skin sent a shiver down my spine. Then he stepped back and turned away. “We must leave as soon as possible, Glinda expects us to be gone within the hour. Do you think you could manage a defense if we needed it?”
He left me in the bathroom and moved into the bedroom when he asked, his voice returning to its usual volume. I remained there. I needed a second to collect myself. Between random bird attacks and being told I was in a trust or die situation, my head was in pieces. Not to mention how I was beginning to feel about Glinda. Something was very wrong here in Oz, and I was certain it came down to more than a sibling squabble.
“Ella, we must leave. Now.”
His voice snapped me out of it. The insistence in his tone and the way he demanded I go with him caught my attention. So I followed him into the bedroom.
“I haven’t agreed to go anywhere, Sayer. Glinda, and now you apparently, decided that. Just like you decided to kidnap me and lock me here in this…” I waved my hands, gesturing to the ridiculous furnishings. “If I’m so damn important, you can just slow down and tell me what’s going on or I’ll get pissed and have you take me home.”
He paused as he was about to open the door and turned to face me. “I explained why I did that.”
“Yeah, you did. Now I need you to explain what went on over there,” I demanded, pointing to the door. I was tired of half-truths and feeling like a pawn in an unknown game. “I didn’t hear anything. I didn’t see much. How did an attack turn into a friendly chat at the window?”
“I’ll explain. I will, I promise you, but we must leave this place before…”
“Before?” I pressed, but he turned his back on me.
“Go downstairs. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” And then he opened the door, stepped through it, and closed it quietly.
I could have screamed in frustration. I wasn’t sure how it happened, but somehow he’d gotten right under my skin and I was letting him call the shots. Who was I kidding? He’d been calling the shots since he’d dragged me here, and when that thought occurred to me, I didn’t know what to do. Go down and wait for him, or dig my heels in and stay where I was, risking Glinda coming to find me? I’d agreed to help them, hadn’t I? I wasn’t sure anymore what I had even agreed to. No wonder my great grandma was nuts after dealing with these people. I’d only been there for two days and my head was a mess.
But, the options were clear—stay here with the high-pitched cotton candy or go with Sayer.
My stomach flipped with excitement at the prospect of being alone with Sayer. What was that about? Yeah, he was a nice guy, and okay, he was cute, but this wasn’t the time or the place. Besides, I wasn’t even sure he was truly attracted to me. With him breaking the unwritten proximity rule and my body reacting like this at the thought of being alone with the guy, I ground my teeth. I didn’t need this. I needed answers to my questions. And explanation as to why Tati came flying in with her entire aerial attack force just to turn around and fly out without so much as a cross word.
My feet tingled. I didn’t bother to look—but could tell by the extra inches added to my height that the heels were back—and hauled open the door. He might have crossed a line or two with his flirting, albeit subtle, but I’d noticed how he looked at me sometimes, and how he seemed happier around me. Plus, my body’s response to him wasn’t ideal given the circumstances, but there was no contest between him and Glinda. He could keep flirting. I handled flirty men for a living and I could certainly handle him.
Chapter 7
Glinda hadn’t bothered to say goodbye. I don’t know why I was surprised, but she could have at least shouted down the stairs before we departed. Given his shady behavior, I wasn’t surprised when Sayer failed to head for the main entrance, and instead ushered me down a long hallway at the back of the palace.
“This is insane, where are we going?” I questioned, as the click of my heels echoed around us.
“Through the cellars. We can avoid any prying eyes this way,” he explained, closing a door behind us. “There should be a pack just inside the pantry. Could you grab it while I open the door?”
I did as he asked. The pack was heavy, but I shouldered it and moved toward him as he hauled open a door in the floor. “You want me to climb down that?”
“Yes. You should probably change your shoes,” he suggested with what could have been a smirk. I didn’t quite catch it, since he turned away from me and began to climb down the ladder attached to the wall.
I didn’t bother to respond, hitching the pack farther up my back and eyeing the trap door.
He muttered something under his breath, but I didn’t hear what it was. “What?”
“I said suit yourself. It’s a hell of a walk, but if you want to do it in those, carry on.”
I lowered myself into the cellar, finding my footing on the ladder, and tried
to keep myself balanced on the balls of my feet. Sayer had been right, but there was no way I was giving in, I was going to enjoy my little act of defiance, so I allowed my right foot to slide a bit until the heel caught on the rung. Balanced and feeling a bit more secure, I began to climb more quickly, wrinkling my nose against the damp smell that was becoming stronger the farther down I climbed. “Do you have a flashlight?” I asked, concentrating on my footing and not on his change of attitude toward me—he’d gone from stiff, to sweet, and then commanding within the span of a few days.
“What’s a flashlight?”
I gripped the ladder a little tighter and sighed. “A light. Do you have a light of some type?”
Silence, and darkness, apart from the light coming from the kitchen above, was my only answer.
“Sayer, we need to see,” I pressed, stepping from the ladder and looking up. He didn’t say anything to me, but I noticed the trapdoor above was closing. I opened my mouth to protest being locked in the dark, but his warm hand took mine and I turned toward him instead. “Who was that?”
“Cook,” he replied simply, as something heavy was dragged over the wooden door above us. The sound was terrifying in the dark, but I managed to hold my composure. Then a light appeared. It was soft at first, growing steadily brighter, and I blinked rapidly to accustom my eyes to the change. “Is this better?”
“What…” I knew what. I meant how, but he seemed to understand and smiled.
“How else would I help Glinda in a confrontation, serve tea?”
I scowled. He laughed. “I’m not very good with protective magic, so that’s your job until we get you to the fortress. The Watcher expects us and he’s preparing as we travel.”
“The… he… what?” I must have sounded as stupid as I looked in these shoes, in this hole, planning to sneak out of a palace, but everything was happening too quickly for me to keep up and I still hadn’t had a suitable explanation. I dropped the pack, tired of being led around with zero understanding of what in the hell was happening. “Will you just tell me what’s going on?”
He dropped my hand and reached for the pack, swinging it onto his back as I looked at the hewn stone walls of the cellar, and wondered why they weren’t opal. “Change your shoes, I’ll explain later.”
I looked at the floor. More hewn stone. While I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of being right, I also didn’t want to totter through here in stilettos, so I blinked, clicked the shoes, and decreased them in height by several inches. He didn’t say anything, but I watched his lips quirk up. I ignored him, focusing on how easy I’d found it to make the change, and enjoying the relief of being out of those awful heels and in a pair of Doc Martens. It was too gloomy to tell, but I knew they’d be a glittering red. I just hoped they weren’t studded with precious stones.
He stepped to the side, revealing a small orb of light that hovered behind his head just out of sight, and turned around. “This passage leads under and out. It’ll bring us to the western edge of Glinda’s lands and to the border of the western lands. Your lands. When we emerge, we shall have to decide on a path and stick to it. Until then, I’m afraid it’s going to be a tedious walk.”
The orb of light began to move and I began to follow it. Sayer adjusted the pack and took my hand again. I held his tightly and set off into the black tunnel before us, wondering if anything sinister was waiting to ambush us as we moved farther from the palace.
“We’re safe enough until we cross the border,” he said, as though reading my thoughts. “The worst thing here is the claustrophobia.”
“I’m not claustrophobic.”
“Everyone is down here. The passage narrows considerably.”
I glanced at him. “So, you bring girls down here regularly?”
His thumb brushed my hand. “Only the special ones.”
And there it was. Confirmation. If there had been any doubt that he was interested in me outside of what I could do for Glinda, it was well and truly buried now. He was, in fact, attracted to me.
I focused on the little orb floating before us, lighting our path, and kept my thoughts to myself.
There was no way to tell the time, so I counted my steps. Six hundred and twenty-nine later, he broke the silence.
“I’m curious,” he stated.
“Among other things,” I quipped, unsure where this was going.
He laughed quietly. “You didn’t seem too surprised when I used my ability.”
“Why would I be surprised?”
He was quiet for a moment, and I added, “You went to help Glinda when… like you said, unless you were serving tea and cake there was only one other way you could be helping her. And there’s no reason for me to be surprised by anything that happens here, really, is there? It’s easier to just go with it.” I didn’t add that I’d seriously considered I probably was already crazy, so whatever he had to throw at me really couldn’t hurt.
His hand tightened around mine. “I am sorry.”
His contrite tone was unexpected. “For what?”
“Forcing this on you. Bringing you here against your will. I was sent to look for you twice before and I feigned failure. I hoped to prevent you being brought here at all, but Glinda was insistent. I couldn’t risk… well, I had little choice.”
“Care to elaborate?” I asked, as he dropped my hand and slowed.
“Not yet. The passage narrows from here, we’ll have to walk single file. Do you want to go first?”
I looked up the passageway, beyond the glowing sphere that was lighting our way, and frowned. “Yeah. Can we stop for a minute though? I need to drink.”
His answer was the sound of the pack hitting the floor. He handed me a small bottle and leaned against the wall while I drank, watching me.
I wiped my hand over my mouth self-consciously. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“There’s something, you don’t look at someone like that unless…”
The light dimmed and went out. “S—”
Still holding the bottle in my right hand, I tried to see where he was, but there was no point since it was pitch-black and I couldn’t see a damn thing. But I could feel his warm breath on my cheek.
Instinctively, I turned my head and his lips found mine. I lost myself immediately, kissing him back with enthusiasm I hadn’t realized I had. I mean, he was attractive, but I’d tried to blame the occasional flutter in my stomach on nerves. Even with him taking my hand at every opportunity and changing his demeanor as soon as Glinda was out of the way, I tried not to give in to it. I was a hit and run type of girl. I had my reasons, all to do with protecting my fragile heart, and the system worked. Yeah when I first met him on my porch, I would have gladly jumped him and moved on, but this was different. I didn’t know how long I’d be here, or if he was stringing me along on orders from Glinda. But he was kissing me, without warning or encouragement, and I couldn’t honestly say I minded. His hands were on my waist, holding me there against the wall, and while they were gentle, they were firm. His chest was pressed against my own, and I could feel my body responding to his proximity, to his scent. To the feel of his lips on mine. Then he broke the kiss, moved back to my ear, and whispered, “I’ve been dying to kiss you for days.”
I was breathless, but I managed to whisper back, “Why?”
It may sound like a stupid question, but it was genuine. I had no idea why anyone would want to. Not when they’d met me with a full face of makeup then experienced me the morning after with said makeup smeared over my face. Guys usually went for the image over the reality. At work I was pristine. I was almost perfect. Dating was different, you weren’t yourself, not at first. That was a façade you put up and slowly lowered as you got to know them. Even then, they never stuck around to get to know the real me. I could be sarcastic and they thought I was a bitch, not understanding the walls I’d built to protect myself. Plus, being asked out at work was different, those guys didn’t want me, they wanted the fantasy of screwing
a pole dancer. So, this was entirely unexpected, if not unwelcome.
His reply came in the form of another kiss. Slower this time. Gentler. His lips teased mine apart, while mine complied to allow him access. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been kissed like this. It had been a while. I’d given up dating when I’d started at the club since guys just couldn’t handle it, and I honestly didn’t miss it. But with Sayer so close, feeling his body pressing against mine, tasting him… God, I was ready to let someone in again.
When he moved away the light returned, and I looked at him, pressing my lips together.
“You honestly don’t know?” he asked, raising his brows.
I shook my head trying to remember what I asked. I honestly didn’t understand why he’d decided to do that. I knew what I’d felt, but I hadn’t expected him to reciprocate.
And there it was. I’d gone and caught feelings. However small, even in their infancy they’d come sneaking in, and they were strong.
Crap.
He picked up the pack, swung it back over his shoulder, and then stepped closer, lifting a hand toward my face. I stayed still while he brushed my bottom lip with his thumb, my eyes not leaving his.
“Ask me again when we get over the border,” he murmured.
His lips brushed my cheek a final time, then he stepped away, gesturing for me to lead the way into the darkness of the passageway. I nodded and handed him the bottle, then turned and started walking. The small light stayed just in front of me, illuminating the path a few feet ahead, and I heard Sayer’s steady footfalls behind, but I didn’t look back. I didn’t dare. I was more than a little bit intrigued by what he’d said and wondered why being over the border would make much of a difference to his answer. I was confused, as per usual these days, but I also didn’t trust myself not to throw myself at him if I stopped to press the issue. It was best to keep moving, get out of that awful tunnel, and over into the western lands. It seemed safer, but I was in Oz and I knew only too well that anything could happen in this crazy place.
The Ruby Fortress (Kingdoms Of Oz Book 1) Page 5