Page 49 of You Only Love Twice
He kissed her hand again—the back of it this time—but his eyes smoldered as he took his leave.
What an interesting man. She was still smiling when she turned to look for Sergey.
Only to realize he’d vanished during the course of the dance.
And she hadn’t noticed at all.
Chapter 12
Obsidian rested one arm against the open arch of an abandoned clock tower, staring at his target. The Ivory Tower speared into the heavens, but despite its height and glory, he barely saw it.
If you cannot remember what happened in Saint Petersburg, then someone had to have told you. Do you trust their version of events?
Curse her to hell.
The first time you kissed me, I forgot the role I was supposed to be playing, the game I’d set into place. I forgot everything, but the taste of your mouth.
Gemma was playing with his mind, manipulating him. He knew it. It was what she did.
And yet, there was a faint whisper of doubt deep in his heart.
Could he believe what she’d told him?
Had she truly loved him?
Opening his clenched fist, he stared down at the button he'd taken from her dress. There was no scent on it, no reason to consider it a memento, but he couldn't stop his thumb from rasping over the soft silk and thinking of her skin.
Footsteps echoed through the gloom of the clock tower's attic, disturbing a pair of nesting pigeons who cooed in sudden nervousness. Obsidian cocked his head, but he'd heard the door open below, and seen the familiar figure enter.
"Are you just goin' to stare at it all night?" Silas asked, stalking out of the shadows behind him. "Ghost's growin' impatient."
Obsidian snapped his fist closed and slid the button into his pocket, mastering his expression before he turned to his brother.
"Lord Balfour is expecting an update as soon as possible. You know how Ghost gets," Silas said with a shrug.
"Ghost is going to get us dead if he's not patient."
"You're the assassin," Silas said. "I trust your instincts. But I don't trust his temper."
Trust. Silas justhadto repeat that word.
Obsidian had trusted Ghost once.
"This is not a task to rush," Obsidian said. "The Tower's guarded by over five hundred guards. There are cannons mounted on the walls, and a metaljacket legion held in reserve. The stables are full of the Trojan cavalry. And we have only thirty-eightdhampir."
"The tower's full of secret passages," Silas countered. "The humanists got in during the revolution, so surely we can do it."
"And the Duke of Malloryn was working with the humanists," Obsidian pointed out. "What do you think the first thing he would have done when they took the tower is? Do you think he'd just leave all those passages open? Undefended? Every tunnel I've found so far has been filled with rubble. He blew them all."
Silas rubbed at his mouth as he squatted in the open window. "Good point."
"Bloody Malloryn." Obsidian turned his gaze back to the tower. "The only way inside it is to use someone they'd never expect."
"Project: Chameleon?"
They both knew how he felt about that.
"Ghost might have already played that card," he said roughly. "Killing Jonathan Carlyle was a foolish move. Now they know they're vulnerable. The Coldrush Guards have been like a kicked ant nest ever since."
