Page 22 of Court of Lies and Deceit

I cast a quick look towards the front of the gardens while Draven and I cut across a patch of neatly trimmed grass. Yellow and orange flames flicker faintly from one of the outbuildings at the front. All six guards who were stationed in the gardens are converging on the small fire.

My heart patters in my chest.So far so good.

Gravel crunches and clatters slightly as Draven and I skid to a halt outside the back door. His storm clouds are still rippling around us, keeping us hidden from view. I shove down the handle and yank the door open. Except it doesn’t move.

“It’s locked,” I state, rather superfluously.

“Of course it is,” Draven replies, looking entirely unworried about that fact.

While keeping his magic swirling around us, he reaches into one of his belt pouches and pulls out a pair of lockpicks. I draw back slightly and stare at him in surprise as he gets down on one knee in front of the door and begins picking the lock.

“You know how to pick locks,” I blurt out. Again rather superfluously. If there was a queen of obvious statements, I would surely steal the crown from her tonight.

Draven casts a quick glance up at me before continuing his work. “That surprises you?”

“Uh, yes. I’ve always taken you for more of a kick-the-door-down kind of guy.”

A surprised laugh escapes his throat, making him almost drop one of the lockpicks. With a smile on his lips, he shakes his head and shoots me a look before concentrating on his task again. “Kind of hard to pull off a stealth assassination if you simply kick the door down.”

“True.” I slide a considering look over his body. “Got any other secret talents I don’t know about?”

The lock clicks open.

Draven gets to his feet and slips the lockpicks back into the belt pouch. Mischief sparkles in his eyes as he replies, “Oh, lots.”

Warmth fills my soul. It’s followed by a sudden burning hunger. A desperate craving that sears through my entire being. Because I want to learn everything there is to know about Draven Ryat. I want to spendcenturiesgetting to know every single part of him. Unraveling all aspects of him. Every secret talent and every odd quirk and every wonderfully complex emotion. Everything that makes him who he is. I want to know it all.

“You—” I begin, but the sudden sound of crunching gravel interrupts me.

Draven and I whirl towards it.

Outside the dark clouds that Draven is keeping around us, a figure rapidly moves towards us. I let out a relieved sigh when I realize that it’s Alistair. He squints and turns his head from side to side. It takes me another moment to realize that he can’t see us in the darkness of the clouds.

Draven moves the clouds aside a little so that we become visible from his direction. It makes Alistair jump since he was much closer to us than he apparently thought. Then he quickly closes the final distance to us.

“It’s done,” he says.

“Good,” Draven replies. “Then we?—”

An explosion booms across the grounds.

I duck and throw an arm up to protect my head, and it takes me another second to realize that it wasn’t an attack on us. Straightening, I dart to the corner of the building and peek around it in the direction that the explosion came from. Draven and Alistair appear next to me a moment later.

My mouth drops open as the three of us stare at the scene at the front of the gardens.

The outbuilding where the small fire was located is now… gone. And the three buildings next to it are all engulfed in flames. Dancing firelight illuminates the entire estate, and red and orange flames lick their way up the walls of the outbuildings and towards the dark night sky.

For a moment, no one says anything.

Across the grass, the guards are running around and screaming in panic.

Then both Draven and I slowly turn to stare incredulously at Alistair.

He scowls back at us and lets out a huff. “What part of loud and messy did you clearly not understand?”

Draven flexes his hand and then rubs his face in exasperation. “Azaroth’s fucking flame.”

“Call for reinforcements!” the guards bellow. “The liquor storage just exploded! The fire is spreading! Water magic! Get people with water magic! Call for reinforcements!”

---