by Kim Knox
A stone sank into Ava’s stomach. He cared for her. He in all likelihood was starting to love her. “Am I here with Fallon’s permission?”
“Little thief...”
“Don’t call me that!” The sudden force behind her voice surprised her and she put quick fingers to her mouth. She swore. “He called me that, because to use my name...” She winced and changed the subject. “Fallon?”
“We talked about this.” Reist’s hands gripped her shoulders, the heat of his palms seeming to sear to the skin beneath. “She is...aware. She knows that this has to happen.” His hands moved down, tugging at the warm silk, easing it down Ava’s body. Her skin prickled at the wash of cool air and she fought to keep her hands loose. The urge to cover herself was fierce. “And I admit, I’ve always been curious.”
“So I’m a curiosity?” It sounded so much worse coming from him than it had from Heyerdar. More...sordid.
“No. We’ve been through a lot, you and I. We’re friends.” Her robe dropped to a puddle of cloth on the floor. “I want to be able to do this as friends.”
“Just this once?”
“Fallon and I...”
Ava pressed her lips together. “It’s getting serious.”
He smiled, the one she knew, her friend, the one who brought her tea and breakfast on their balcony in their years-old ritual. “It’s...unexpected.”
His voice was soft, reflective, and the warmth in his eyes wasn’t for her. Fallon had caught his heart in a way she never could. The twist of pain into her gut was sharp.
“She came to me. Wanted to use me as a cover, until Heyerdar grew bored. It became more.” His smile turned wry. “Not what you want to hear, I know.”
“I used Heyerdar’s power against you. Against Fallon. I thought I could...change your mind.” Her confession came out in a rush. “I found a treatise on sex magic...” She closed her eyes, waiting for the surge of his anger. The sudden need to admit her actions surprised her, but for the first time in a long time they were being truthful with each other. She had only this time with him. “I—”
“I left the book in your alcove.”
Ava stared at him. “You?”
“You were unraveling. You couldn’t exorcise the thief in you with blood and bone, but with life energy it could be satisfied. Bolstered.” He shrugged and his hand framed her jaw. His touch was hot, burning, and she almost shied away from it. “You spend so much time wandering the lower halls. I was certain the apprentices wouldn’t miss a little pulse of sexual energy.” He took her hand, and his thumb brushed over the faded lines of her teken. “I never wanted to use Words to hook you. Your choice, your freedom, means a lot to me.”
She frowned. “Why?”
“I needed to know if I could hold you without it. How being free could still tie you to me. The way a thief’s loyalty to a warlord held and protected him.”
She was an experiment. She yanked her hand from his. “I don’t know you at all.”
His eyes darkened and his thumb traced her mouth. “You will. You have to.”
Ava wet her lips and inadvertently licked the tip of his thumb. The salty taste of skin caught her breath. And there was something...something familiar about it. Her stomach lurched and she stiffened. She closed her eyes. It didn’t make sense. The insanity of it burst a question from her. “How can you taste like Clay?”
Stupid. How long had she lived in the Institute? Woven around the games the mages loved to play, the mess of politics and power. She’d given herself away. “I mean...”
Reist’s fingers pressed into her shoulder and she ignored the bite of pain. “It’s not what you think.”
She fought to stay calm. Even a thin wrap of her darkness eluded her. He was her friend. He’d never lied to her... Her gut was in a knot, and fear clutched her. Had he played them all? Let Clay take the blame for his plan? And fuck, she was completely alone with him. “I...I don’t think it’s anything.” She had to deny it. The fact that she would have to devour him pushed horror into her chest. She gave a quick nod. “We should—”
“Ava...”
She bit her lip, tasting skin, and closed her eyes. He knew that she knew. And he would kill her. Reist was cold and ambitious and a little thing like ten years of devoted service wouldn’t stop him. She was an experiment to him. A mage’s thirst for knowledge taken beyond the pages of their vellum books. He could at least satisfy her curiosity before their fight to the death began. “How could you? All those people—those children—who died, because you, what? Wanted to be emperor?”
“Not emperor.”
His thumb played back across her lip and she inhaled his scent. How had she missed it, his connection to Clay? Because that man had masked it, played with who he was with disturbing ease. Only with his magic broken and his flesh bare in her mouth could she know him.
“What then?”
“Freedom.” His forefinger traced a slow line down her throat, no doubt feeling her nervous swallow. “From what I had to become.”
Ava stared at him, the fear pushed aside as disbelief fired through her. Was he trying to tell her that his ambitions, his inexorable rise to become Highest Mage, meant nothing to him? “I don’t believe you.”
A dark smile touched his mouth and his hand slid lower. “Questioning your master?” He cupped her breast. Ava sucked in a quick, startled breath.
“Reist!” His name came out on a burst of air. She wasn’t ready. She wanted to run, to hide, to put as much of the Institute and the city between her and the man pushing too close. His bare hand on her bare skin pricked little stabs of fire. “I—”
“I’ll share the truth with you and we’ll never speak of this again.”
Ava focused on his words, stiffening as his hand slipped over her waist, his fingers stroking lower until he teased his fingertips across her backside. “The truth.” Her words came out on a squeak. Magic threaded through the darkness of his eyes, but the thief in her didn’t rise to its lure. She pressed her lips together. He wouldn’t taste like Heyerdar. “What’s the truth?”
“Clay was a test.” He squeezed her breast, trapping her nipple. The sharp tug forced her to bite her tongue to deny the quick dart of pain. “I had to know if wards could be changed.”
Ava clamped her hand over his. She had to drive the thought, the need, for Heyerdar out. She hated that she still had to do this. “Tell me. Then we fuck.”
Reist frowned and his hand softened. “I’m not going to fuck you. I’m not...him. I don’t call it fucking.”
“Why Clay?” She gripped his wrists, stopping his hands from finding more of her flesh. She didn’t know this man, the one who could allow the murders to happen. It was a physical pain in her belly that he’d fooled her...and that she would still have to let him into her body. “How did you find him?”
Reist let out a long, slow breath, and it stirred her skin. A shiver ran over her. “I’ve always known about Sentos Clay.” The magic faded from his eyes and something like regret moved over his face. “As a mage, when the realization takes you that you’re not like anyone else, that you’ve stopped aging, that there’s this well of power that’s just yours...” He closed his eyes. “It’s called the insanity. It swept me up about a hundred years ago. I fathered a child.”
Thoughts pushed together, connected in her mind. “Davia Clay. His mother.” Bile pushed into her mouth and she fought it back. A hot flush of guilt and horror wrenched her insides. “Sentos was your grandson.” She paused. “But why wasn’t he or Davia brought into the Institute?”
“They didn’t breed true enough to hold the tattoo.”
“They weren’t cattle, Reist.”
A flush of red burned across his cheeks. “You say that with chunks of him in your belly.” Reist pulled himself free of her and stepped back. “I tried to look out for them, but Vina, Davia�
�s mother, hated me. Hated that I...moved on from her. She took him out to the northern lands, got some insane thief to carve him up.” He shook his head and his attention returned to her. “I healed him as best I could. But a mage’s power... We no longer hold the subtle talents that a thief can work. We have no instinct for magic, only finding it through books and experimentation.”
Ava thought of little Kaia, how she and Heyerdar had healed the tiny child. Another link in the chain as the thieves, bound by Words, tried to identify the men driving them. Only old magic could cure. High magic was too selfish, too bound to muscle and bone. “You got over your regret and decided to use him.”
Magic flared in him, bright and bitter white. “You will never understand.”
Ava poked him in the chest, just above his heart. “You have a ward. Right there. One that binds you to the emperor. I’m sure, like a lot of mages, you’d like that little symbol of your servitude gone. How am I doing?”
Reist frowned and closed his hot hand around hers. “I don’t want to rule the empire. I want to be able to die. Not spend eternity locked in a wall, my soul feeding some worthless emperor’s bath.”
She wanted to believe him, that it wasn’t about ambition. Maybe if she made him think she did, she wouldn’t have to open her soul and devour him. And he wouldn’t try to kill her. “You set him on the path to twisting wards, to the belief that the empire was his?”
“He was...curious about magic. Vina raised him, but never mentioned me, so I approached him as a mage to a curator. He had access to books I wasn’t allowed to see. Understood magic in a way I’d never seen before, and we had discussions into the night. It gave me hope that his trials, his experiments with the chambers, could break the ward over my heart.
“When I realized he was using the books and chambers for his own benefit, I campaigned to have them moved.”
“Why didn’t you stop him?”
“I thought I had, but he’d hoarded the chambers. Magically created worthless copies. I didn’t know until you found the twisted wards. By then he was too strong. Could protect himself from me.”
“You could’ve told us.” Disappointment soured her belly. In a strange moment, she wanted to believe he was lying to her. Then the man she’d admired for so long wouldn’t be a spineless coward. “You knew it was him. From the beginning.”
“I’m the Highest Mage. For me to be overcome by an ephemeral...how would that look?” He lifted his chin and, for a second, the conceited fire of his station burned in him. “But—” and the fire died away and her friend was back, “—I knew I could rely on you. We’ve always been allies...”
Her friend’s voice, smooth and deep and with that hint of humor. She’d heard the truth—as he saw it—and now they’d move on. It was all a game to him. Selfish, arrogant bastard.
Reist’s thumb teased under her palm and little darts of fire skittered up her arm. Yes, now she had to fuck him. After all he had admitted.
Magic surged over his skin and his clothes simply fell away, leaving hot, bare skin. Her gaze fixed on the golden lines traced over his sternum. Had he twisted the ward? It looked the same. But was he free of the emperor’s hold? Her heart jumped as he pushed her back against the cool wall, the sudden panic of beats almost making her dizzy. She wasn’t ready.
“I promised Fallon I wouldn’t kiss your mouth.” He looked down before he found her gaze again. “But I will do everything else.”
The darkness of his eyes threaded with magic, but the thief in her stayed still, silent. She was grateful the emptiness in her was sated. She didn’t want to draw anything from him, make it a pleasure for her, or for him. She tried to concentrate. He wasn’t going to kiss her. Something so simple. The fantasy she’d held down the years. A fantasy, she finally had to admit, she’d actually thought little beyond.
His dick pressed against her belly, hot and hard, a firm hand lifting her thigh. He urged her leg over his hip and pressed his forehead to hers, the warmth of his breath brushing her face. The temptation of his lips was there, and the ache in her to kiss him twisted a pain in her chest. Simply because it was forbidden.
“Heyerdar is an animal.”
Anger edged his voice, but still his other hand skimmed over her ribs to dip between them. He teased lower and she sucked in a quick breath. The sharp stabs of fire burst over her flesh and down between her thighs, anticipating his touch.
Discomfort pressed against the underside of her skin. Not this. Not like this. She bit her lip till it bled. In a moment, the hold Heyerdar had over would be gone. She’d be free. Of him and of Reist. So what the fuck was her body doing?
“Ava, I’m not like him. We’re starting afresh. No past.” He pressed his mouth to her neck, his tongue tracing a path to the curve of her shoulder. Ava closed her eyes and fought to breathe. “I’m not going to hurt you. You need this.”
Not this man!
He pushed his fingers inside her, and her thief started to scream.
Chapter Eighteen
Ava stood outside the heavy door to Heyerdar’s chambers. The magic securing it tasted different. Bitter. Thicker. Lacing through the wood in bulky strands. He’d lashed protective magic at the door and her thief rose, the familiar hunger cutting into her flesh. It surprised her. She thought Clay had sated it, as it had hardly stirred when Reist touched her.
The door swung open and Heyerdar stood there. He mirrored the pose from when she had sought him out five days before. His arms against the lintel, leaning in to it, his animal strength making her blood rush.
Molten gold eyes raked over her, cold and assessing. “Good fuck?”
Ava stopped herself from clenching her fists. She’d walked away from him. Had wanted to break the power he had over her. And he’d gone off to fuck Madam Lunete. It had been a couple of hours. He would’ve whored his way through the entire brothel.
She tilted her head. “Can’t you see it already?” She smiled at him and slipped under his arm into his room. His growl followed her.
“I haven’t invited you in. Again.”
“Sit.” She pointed to the chair set before the hearth, a fire flickering in its blackened depths. He’d obviously pushed himself out of the worn leather. The imprint of his body and the dark bottle of whiskey and half-empty glass set on the small table screamed it. “Please.”
Heyerdar slammed the door and magic skittered and reformed across its surface. “What the fuck do you want here?”
“I want you to sit.”
He frowned and dropped into his chair. “Leave.”
Ava straddled him, worming her way onto his lap before he could think to push her off. His hands wrapped around her upper arms, his tight grip pushing white pain under her skin. He’d had his fun and fucked her. They were over, obviously. He had other bodies to hold his interest.
She shoved down the quick spike of pain and focused on her objective. “He wouldn’t kiss me.”
Heyerdar stared. His body tensed under her and his voice dropped dangerously low. “Is that your game? Fuck Reist and get kisses from me?”
“I didn’t fuck him.”
“I can see where he touched you.” Heyerdar’s hands glided over her, not making contact, and Ava could feel the dip, the flow of energy around her, felt it change to the familiar pulse of want that seemed to overtake her with him. She wanted him. Always.
His fingers dropped and found her, pressing the golden silk hard against her bared sex. She gasped, and the pulse of need flared. His mouth drew to a thin line. “He stuck his dick in you.”
She blushed. A hardened thief and all talk of sex still embarrassed her.
“You got what you wanted then.” He didn’t give her a chance to answer. “So why are you here?”
“As I said, he wouldn’t kiss me.”
Heyerdar’s face darkened. “You
want to make a deal so he’ll kiss you?”
“No.” She touched his temple with light fingertips, feeling the tension in every muscle. She was stupid for coming here. Naïve. They were over. She forced a smile. “Reist hates you. Thinks you corrupted me.”
Heyerdar grunted.
She ran a fingertip along his jaw line, unwilling to break contact. Touching him still felt right even though the bond between them was broken. That wound was raw. She forced out the next words. “We found a wall and...started.”
A growl rippled from him. “I don’t need to know this.”
“He wanted me.” For a moment, she closed her eyes, the memory of Reist weaving around her. Maybe Heyerdar could still see into her thoughts. She didn’t know. “I tried to want him.” She opened her eyes. Her lips pressed together. But then he’d revealed the truth about himself and Clay. “Maybe we should’ve fucked two months ago, before any of this happened.”
Heyerdar didn’t say anything.
She focused on him. It was another lie. Reist would still be involved with Clay, but when Fallon’s fear overcame her, the Highest Mage would’ve been unavailable. Heyerdar would have had the woman he needed. “Before Fallon left you for him. You loved her.”
He shrugged. “She was mine. But she was afraid of me, of what I am. What I need to be. That kind of fear leaves a stink I can’t live with.”
He met her gaze, his golden eyes calm. Magic wove through his irises, a slow, glistening flow that held her. He was beautiful...and had been hers. She’d been stupid to panic. She pushed her fingers through his hair, smoothing its thickness.
His eyes gleamed and the familiar ache of hunger twisted through her. “So you want to use my power to bend time? To walk into the past and prod your younger self to find Reist and proposition him?”
“I never thought of that.”
“It would be easier.” Heyerdar pressed his thumb to her lip, teasing across the softness. He was the only man who had ever kissed her. And she wanted him again, the feel of his lips, his tongue, his teeth grazing her mouth, nipping and biting. It would never be the same now. “Use me to take you there.”