Page 23 of Shadows and Flames
She was so upset, she hadn’t yet reacted to the steady footsteps starting up the stairs. One of the guards had decided to do a sweep of this floor, most likely.
Over my shoulder, I smirked. “If you’re so insistent, seems like we’ll just have to see who gets to him first.” Before I dropped down to the grounds below, though, I called, “I’ll give my brother your regards.”
The manicured grass noiselessly met the bottom of my boots, and I was already slinking away when her frustrated curse reached my ears. Took her long enough to realize the guard was coming.
All mirth seeped out of me as I made my way into the trees.
How the fuck was I going to tell him I’d seen her first?
“What thefuckdo you mean you saw her?” Just as I’d guessed, my best mate wasnotelated to hear that my reconnaissance had included speaking with the female he was still in love with and had been searching for, to no avail, for years.
The male should have been elated, but his possessiveness had already turned to misplaced anger.
I flopped down onto the worn leather sofa of his Morovan apartment. Well, it was more of a safehouse. There were no personal effects—just the necessary comforts to be a resting place during or between contracts. It wasn’t really even meant for two people to stay for longer stretches but, this was a far better option to crowded or expensive inns.
My hands folded underneath my head as I leaned against the back cushions. If I were to receive a tongue lashing from him, I’d at least get good and comfortable for it. “Imean, just as I was finishing up, she crept into the room. Thought she was up there for some good old petty thievery, but it would seem that we have some competition.”
“And?” By how much louder his voice got, I knew that Elián was standing over me, no doubt seething at my lackadaisical attitude. But if I fed more into the thin but very present thread of desperation in his voice, I’d only make things worse. I was certainly not going to get upset over the female.
“And,” I drawled, “she told us to back off, and I left.”
“What—”
My lips pursed, and then I continued, “Well, her exact words were telling us to ‘back thefuckoff.’”
“What else did she say, Tom,” he demanded.
I opened my eyes just to roll them. “That’s all she said, mate. She seemed miffed that I didn’t know her name, though.”
Elián ran a hand over his face then brought it up to pull at his hair. “What do you mean she wasmiffed?” He mimicked my accent on that last word, but I decided to ignore it. Noruh had chastised me for coming on too strong with my worrying about him, and after flat-out disagreeing with her at first, I’d slowly begun to realize that my nagging had been getting him nowhere.
I huffed. “She acted like she expected me to know it. And then she tried very hard to not seem interested when I mentioned you.”
He slowly lowered himself into the armchair beside me, and I watched his throat bob with his swallow. He rested his elbows on his thighs, eyes gazing down at his hands, and it was a long moment before he spoke much more quietly, “But she didn’t say anything else.”
I thought back to the way she’d appeared, beneath the snarls and curses. To the stillness that took her over when I mentioned my brother. To the sharp glint of interest.
What sort of interest, though, I wasn’t sure.
“She didn’t say, no. But…she certainly hung onto my words once I alluded to you.”
His fire eyes flickered with an echo of her expression earlier. He stilled, only his lips moving as he asked, “And how did she seem?”
How was I supposed to know? “Not sure. Annoyed. Even conjured up some daggers to threaten me,” I scoffed. The more I’d thought about it, the more certain I’d become that she’d used some sort of magic to will the weapons into existence. I’d not personally witnessed it done before, but with a brother who’d been blessed by the Goddess of Strategy and Combat Herself, this development didn’t surprise me in the least. My stomachgrowled. “Didn’t even get to take some food,” I grumbled. And it’d smelled divine, too.
“Tom. Focus.”
“Iamfocused.” I told him the rest of the information I’d gathered about the contract. The invitation marked foranotherevent. This one, though, was at the home of our mark. Surely, Nogón’s female would be there, too. “She’s obviously still stuck on you in some way. Hopefully the same way you are for her. The way I see it, you have three days to get yourself together and prepare to meet your queen.”
My brother sagged into the chair opposite my supine sprawl, gaze going faraway. And I watched him, a bit warily. What if I’d gauged her reaction wrongly and she held nothing but enmity for him? Or was she longing for a fling she intended to pick up and promptly put down again?
Either of those cases would probably be the thing to kill him.
“Did you read the letters Noruh sent?” I reached out and plucked them from the small table beside the sofa. In her curling script was reassurance that our young acolyte was doing fine. But the other three pages were from the kid, wishing us well, updating us on his training. He’d even drawn a few sketches of the weapons he was learning about.
I snorted at the lightly shaded scimitar and his determination that the curved blade was not among his favorites.
Elián took a while to respond, but eventually, he grunted. “He is thriving.”
