“No, killing him would drain me far too much.” Julianne kneeled down and pressed her hands to his temples, wincing slightly at the smell of old blood and vomit.
She tried to sort through his memories. Snippets floated by, and she touched them, looking for clues.
His lord… ahh, he served Adeline’s brother, she thought. He was in Tahn. Robbing someone. Sharne? Ghosts. He saw ghosts? Wait, that’s…
“Oh, for Bitch’s sake!” Julianne snapped. “I’m going to rip him a new asshole when I get home, then break his teeth. He’ll be lucky if he doesn’t end up a blind-mute!”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jakob asked.
Julianne just shook her head. “Of all the dumb shit things to do, dragging those girls into this was the absolute worst!”
“I’m still lost,” Jakob complained. He hurried to catch up to Julianne, who was already storming through the trees back to the ruined campsite.
“Mathias, get my horse ready,” Julianne called as they approached. “Because if I go near her in this mood, she’ll bolt.”
“I think I’m going to bolt if your ears keep smoking like that,” he said, but jumped up to ready the horses.
It didn’t take long to circle back to the road, but Julianne had already cooled off by then. Not that she had forgiven Danil’s shenanigans—she had just moved from wanting to rip his head off to something a little more considered.
As her fury waned, so did her energy. By the time they reached the gates of Tahn, she was exhausted.
“Oh, who’s bloody there now?” Bette yelled down from the small lookout as they approached. When she saw who it was, she hurried down to open the gate. “People think it’s a bloody thoroughfare tonight.”
“I know,” Julianne said in a flat voice.
“Oh. Welcome back, anyway.” Bette ushered them through before closing up behind them.
“Jules, why don’t you stay in town tonight?” Marcus suggested.
The idea of skipping the long ride out to Annie’s was appealing, and would give her an upper hand in the morning, too. “Good idea,” she said, just before a yawn cracked her jaw.
“I’ll take Cloud for you,’ Mathias offered.
Julianne thanked him, then leaned into Marcus for support. “Carry me to bed?” she murmured, face against his chest.
“Really?” he asked, ready to scoop her up.
She shook her head and sighed. “Sadly, no. I need my bitch-boots on for this.”
“Your what boots?” he asked, confused.
“For stomping heads and kicking asses.” She had already given him a brief rundown of what she assumed had happened back at the camp.
She might not know all the details, but she had figured out that Danil and a couple of the girls from the theatre troupe had snuck in, using mental magic to scare the shit out of the soldiers.
Julianne hadn’t told anyone about Lord George’s son—that news would have to go to Adeline and her father, first.
She may not have seen the body, but Lawson’s memory of plucking out that little knife from his head told her all she needed to know. She recognized the weapon, and, being honest with herself, couldn’t blame its owner.
Polly had been George Junior’s preferred prostitute. He hadn’t been a gentle man, or a kind one. In fact, he was a complete dickbag. Julianne wondered again how that particular apple had fallen so far from the tree.
Pushing the door to Danil’s cottage open with one hand, she made a mental note to herself to get a lock installed. Not because she thought he could be broken into, but because sometimes, small towns fostered a sense of familiarity that could border on distracting.
Danil would need privacy eventually, and if people could just walk on in… Julianne cocked her head at the sound of creaking wood. It wasn’t footsteps. Far too rhythmic for that.
When she reached out with her magic, her eyes nearly shot out of her head. Polly? She thought, thankful her shields had already been in place. If they hadn’t, she would have sent that thought straight to Danil by accident.
Chuckling softly, Julianne pried off her boots and dropped her robe on the table. It was too late to try and find another place to stay, and she sure as hell wasn’t walking to Annie’s at this hour.
Crawling into a spare bedroom and pulling musty sheets to her chin, she wondered just what she would do with her errant mystic friend.
Chapter Twenty-One
Danil yawned and stretched, immediately sending out his magic to see if a pair of eyes was nearby.
When he found not one pair, but two, he almost dove back under the covers.
Don’t even bother, I know you’re awake, Julianne sent. Hurry up and get dressed. Polly and I are about to join the theatre crew for breakfast.
“That’s not good,” Danil muttered. He reached for his clothes and pulled them over his head. “She sounds way, way too calm.”
He headed downstairs, almost tripping over his pants in his sleep-soaked daze. Polly immediately averted her eyes.
“Good morning,” she said into her mug.
“Um. Hi.” He looked at the two women, Polly trying to avoid his gaze, Julianne giving him a blank stare. “Am I… in trouble?” he asked tentatively.
One of Julianne’s eyebrows twitched. “Why would you ask that?”
“Because you’re looking at me like you want to cut my nuts off and feed them to a dog.” He was well and truly in the shit, he could tell. But was it his fling with Polly—unlikely—or his escapade last night?
He embraced his favorite coping mechanism, denial. It had to the be Polly thing, not helped by the girl’s silence.
Through his magic, he could see the hot steam rising from Polly’s cup and occasionally Julianne’s furious glare as Polly flicked frequent glances at her. Nothing else. Julianne had him blocked out of her mind tighter than a virgin in a chastity belt.
“Look,” he pleaded. “Is this about Polly? Because I swear, I wasn’t taking advantage of her. I really like her!”
“Danil, apart from your newfound devotion to Polly, is there anything else you feel the need to tell me?”
Oh, shit. She knows. She knows everything. Danil felt a drop of sweat inch down his neck. “What? Oh, that. See, someone snuck into the town and attacked Sharne and her mother. So… we took care of it.”
“You… took care of it.” Julianne stood, then gave him a bright smile. “Thank you, Danil, for looking after the town so pro-actively. I’m glad you made sure none of the townspeople or our guests were endangered.”
He balked at that. Her smile is too bright. She should be yelling at me for taking the girls. Hell, she should be yelling at me for not keeping an eye on Bastian, too.
Wondering what kind of torture awaited him, he slowly gathered his things. “So… should we go?”
“I can’t wait,” Julianne said. Her grin was genuine this time.
Polly stood. “I… just can’t,” she whimpered, voice choked. She ran out the door, hands over her face.
Alarmed, Danil went to go after her but Julianne pulled him back. “She’s fine, I promise. Come on.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Danil muttered as he walked outside.
The small cottage he had taken over was right by the hall. At this time of morning, the streets were bustling, at least as much as a tiny farming town could bustle. Normally, the people of Tahn would rush about from job to job, used to the mystics that had come to live amongst them.
Today, however, they must have been excited about the return of the mystic master. As Danil navigated the short distance to the hall, he struggled to find a person looking where he needed to go, instead of looking at the two mystics.
Julianne lifted her head high, and the curious watchers suddenly remembered they had somewhere to go.
“Geez, Jules. They really missed you.”
“Did they?” Julianne’s eyes twinkled as she shouldered her way past a couple of burly performers.
“Good morning, ladies,” one said
with a bow and a chuckle.
The other one shoved his friend. “Come on. Don’t be a tease. Maybe he just likes the breeze.”
Danil’s brain turned over the exchange as he tried to work out what they had meant. His face turned pink, then purple.
“Julianne?” he said through clenched teeth.
“Yes, Danil?” she answered sweetly.
“Am I wearing a dress?”
“Do you think you’re wearing a dress?”
He thought back to that morning, his detail-oriented mind going over what he had done.
Woke up. Pulled my clothes on. My clothes? Yes. Went downstairs. Tripped on my… Wait. My pants aren’t long enough to trip on. He slapped his face with a palm. “I didn’t trip on my pants this morning. I tripped on a Bitch-damned skirt, didn’t I?”
Grinning proudly, she nodded.
“Can I at least see what I’m wearing?” he begged.
Julianne gave him a skeptical look. “Are you sure you want to know?” she asked.
He nodded, and the patchwork of images he saw through the eyes of others blurred, then refocused. He swallowed.
“I—” voice squeaking, he cleared his throat. “I might just go home and change, then?” He looked at Julianne, beseeching.
She shrugged. “I’m not controlling you, Danil. If you want to go—”
He turned and ran, doing his best to cover himself back and front. The soft, see-through cloth of Polly’s costume from the night before last slipped beneath his touch, driving home the images he had seen.
Images of himself, walking around in a see-through dress, in broad daylight, in the middle of Tahn.
He tripped on the front and slammed into the door. It swung open and something soft enfolded him.
“Oh, Danil, that was just the funniest thing I’ve ever seen,” Polly breathed into his ear. Giggles overtook her again.
He pulled back, haughtily wrapping the blanket tighter. “You were in on it, weren’t you! I thought you were upset this morning. I thought you were crying!”
“I was,” she choked. “Crying with laughter!”
She couldn’t take her eyes off him and, through her, Danil could see what he looked like. Furious, proud, and altogether ridiculous.
He tried to maintain his composure, but it was ruined by a loud snort of suppressed giggles. Finally, he let it out.
Throwing off the blanket, he stuck a hip out. He beckoned to Polly seductively, and she screamed with laughter. Tumbling into his arms, she planted a kiss on his lips.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly as she melted into him.
“Don’t lie,” he said.
“Fine. I’m not sorry in the slightest. Still, I can make it up to you…” She ran a finger down his chest and looped it through one of the ribbons on the dress. “Tonight.”
She dropped the ribbon, turned, and walked out the door.
Danil ran to the window. “I’ll hold you to that!” he called.
When he finally turned up to breakfast, he was drowned in applause. Rather than shrink away, he played it up, bowing and tipping an imaginary hat.
“Thank you, thank you. Glad to have had the chance to make your stay enjoyable.” He winked at Julianne, then went to load up his plate.
“I never knew mystics were so… generously endowed,” Tansy said as she loaded his plate.
“Education is our prime objective, so I’m glad you learned an important lesson,” he replied.
She gave a pointed stare at his plate, and when he looked down, a fat pork sausage nestled between two tiny potatoes stared back. He nearly dropped it in shock.
“Go on, mystic, sit down,” she said, waving a fork at him threateningly.
He slid in next to Julianne. Before she could speak, he waved her down.
“I know what you’re going to say. I should have let that army be, and stayed home to focus on our defenses. And I definitely shouldn’t have taken three women for backup.”
“I’d stop now, before you end up naked on a roof somewhere,” Julianne said. “Or, I could let you explain to Bette what’s so wrong about taking a woman for backup?”
Danil groaned and dropped his head in his hands. “I can’t get it right, can I?”
“I’d have been satisfied with ’I should have stayed home, Julianne’.”
He peeked at her over one hand. “I should have stayed home, Julianne?”
“I’m glad you’ve learned a lesson. Do I need to have a similar talk with Bastian? I recognized his face in one of the memories I saw.”
Danil sighed. “No. As much as I’d like to share my pain, he’s already terrified enough of what you’ll do to him. When he finds out what you did to me, he’ll already be praying to the Bitch to spare him.”
Julianne speared a sausage and lifted it on her fork. She examined it, then snapped off a chunk with her teeth. “This is tasty,” she said.
Pointedly ignoring her, Danil broke open one of his potatoes and layered some butter on it. “So, how’d it go in Muir?”
Julianne’s answer was cut off by an eruption of cheers and whistles. She looked up to see Adeline standing at the door of the hall, hand in hand with her father.
Lord George beamed and stood straighter than Julianne had seen him in Tahn. He had left his cane at home and walked steadily, though he leaned on his daughter a little as they navigated the crowd of people that all wanted to speak to them.
Julianne lifted a hand and waved, but Adeline was too busy answering the million questions the troupe threw at her. She was clearly a favorite of all of them, but Julianne could see the lord’s daughter was still tired from the long ride.
Come sit with us, we’re down the back, she sent, glad to see that Adeline’s shields were up, but flexible enough to allow Julianne to mind-speak to her.
Adeline made a beeline for Julianne, tugging her father along behind her. Jakob appeared and whispered in her ear, and she nodded at something, holding up two fingers.
Finally, Adeline slid into a chair beside Julianne. “My goodness, I didn’t expect that much of a reception,” she gasped.
“Do you want me to get you some food?” Danil asked. “It’s the least I can do, now that you’re the topic of the day instead of me.”
Shooting him a narrow-eyed look, Adeline shook her head. “Jakob is getting Father and me a plate. Why were they talking about you?” she asked innocently.
Danil blushed. “Nothing interesting,” he said.
“It was the exact opposite of ‘nothing interesting’, Danil,” Polly said. She pulled back a seat next to Danil, then froze when she saw Lord George. “Oh. Um… hello, my lord.”
“Polly!” he said with a wide smile. “I did see you were here in Tahn and have been meaning to speak with you. Are you well?”
Uncomfortable with the attention, Polly ducked her head. “Yes, my lord.”
“Oh, don’t be shy, now. Sit down and eat. No need to worry about me,” the old man said.
His congenial tone and relaxed posture put her at ease. She sat, though she poked at her food a bit without eating. “If you don’t mind me asking, my lord… how do you know my name?” She had never had him as a client, that was for damn sure.
Brothels weren’t illegal in Muir, but they weren’t exactly celebrated by Lord George. It was well known his men would come in frequently to nose around the rooms, asking intrusive questions about the girls, the takings, and the customers.
George’s face fell. “I know you were… visited by my son, quite frequently. And, I know he wasn’t a kind man, wherever he may be now. As much as my men made your lives miserable, their visits were to make sure none of you had bruises or damage from your clients, my son included.”
Polly nodded, realizing that fit with the actions of the local guards.
“It’s the agreement I have with the madam at Friendship House—I supplied all the medical treatments, no questions asked, but if anyone was rough she was to report it immediately,” George explained.
> “I had no idea,” Polly said, before shoveling a hunk of bread and onions into her mouth.
“I know your profession carries stigma, but I pride myself on taking care of my citizens—all of them,” George said softly. “Though, I fear I have failed on a much larger count than I ever expected.”
“You haven’t failed, Father,” Adeline said. She put a hand on his arm. “We’ll take back our city. We’ll destroy Rogan and make our people safe again.”
“I hope so.” George gave her a brave smile. “In fact, I don’t just hope it will happen. I believe it, too.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
After eating, Julianne left George and Adeline to celebrate the young woman’s return with her townspeople.
“Heading off so soon?” Danil asked, following her out.
“We need everyone we can rally to stand with us,” Julianne explained. “Or, more to the point, every mind.”
“Oh. You’re going to see Artemis?” Danil scratched his face, wondering if it was too late to disappear.
Julianne nodded, and looped her arm through his. “And no, you can’t leave me alone with this. It’s too important.”
“Come on, Jules. He won’t say no to you.” Danil didn’t resist her pull, but his mind raced for an excuse to leave.
“He's never once said yes to me,” she reminded him. “Though it would help if Bastian—oh, there he is.”
Julianne’s eyes shone white and Danil felt the slightest shift in her mind as she reached out to their friend.
“I don’t know why he’s so reluctant to help,” Danil said. “When Little George attacked with his band of armor-clad assholes, he was jumping for joy every time he took one of them out.”
Julianne snorted. She hadn’t even known the old man was fighting with them. She knew magic was being used, but had attributed the sudden influx of animal illusions and random fires that did no damage to Danil and Bastian.
Artemis had hidden himself away behind the wall, an old blanket over his head to block out the sun, and thrown illusions and mind control spells into the oncoming army.
He wasn't a particularly strong mental magician, but he was smart. His spells had targeted the weakest soldiers, forcing them to flee or to attack their comrades. The whole time, he had been feeding a three-way shield with Danil and Bastian.
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