Page 83 of The Study of Poisons
“No. It’s a perfect world. No weapons allowed.” She moved her hands lower.
No one had touched him like this since… Ever.
“How about a scholar?” she asked. “You’ve read all these books lying around, haven’t you? Or are they just to make it difficult for someone to sneak in?”
He had indeed. “Books serve me in so many ways. But I doubt your perfect society would need a scholar on murder.”
The massage stopped. Did he just ruin the mood by mentioning murder? He’d been talking about himself, but perhaps it reminded her of Reyad?
“No. Definitely not,” she said.
He moved on. “A sculptor? I could carve extravagant statues. We could redecorate the castle and liven things up. How about you?” he asked as she pressed her fingers into the small of his back. “What would you do?”
“Acrobatics.”
“An acrobat! Well, that explains a lot.” No wonder she had glided through the trees with such ease and learned how to fight so quickly.
Her hands reached around to his stomach. His confusion over her change in direction burned away into sudden desire as she fumbled to unbutton his pants.
CHAPTER16
Red hot desire raced through him, igniting his blood and setting fire to his heart. He’d been waiting for some sign of her affection, and he’d love nothing better than to be with her, but not this way. Not when she’d regret it in the morning. Not when he didn’t know if it was her or the alcohol fueling her actions.
He grabbed her wrists, stopping her. “Yelena, you’re drunk.” His voice was hoarse. Releasing her, he stood, and swept her into his arms. Fighting the urgent need to kiss her and draw her tight against his chest, he carried her to her bedroom and laid her on the bed. “Get some sleep, Yelena,” Valek whispered. All he could manage when the rest of his body was staging a revolt.
Fleeing before he could change his mind and join her under the covers, he rushed to the balcony outside the suite and sucked in big gulps of cold night air. To extinguish the burning inside him, he chugged icy water from the pitcher he kept there. Leaving her had to be the hardest thing he’d ever done.
Valek had lain with several different people as part of his undercover assignments. No one like Yelena. No one who stirred his passion. No one who he admired. No one who was as smart. In all his years, he’d never metanyonelike her. And he’d been perfectly fine with that. He didn’t need this complication in his life. But what were the odds that he’d meet another like her? Slim to none. Even so, he decided to admire from afar unless she made the next move when sober.
With his emotions back under control, Valek changed into his all-black sneak suit—his favorite. Pulling the hood over his head, he donned a pair of dark glasses. There were a few hours until the sun rose, and his curiosity needed to be sated. He stopped by his desk to pick up a few supplies. Tucking them into various hidden pockets, he returned to the balcony. Then he found hand holds and toe holds among the stones of the wall and climbed.
The unusual shape of the castle made climbing easy. Navigating was another matter. Just as the maze of hallways and rooms on the inside confused many new people, it was easy to get just as lost on the outside. However, after all the years of practice, Valek knew the quickest and simplest way to the guest suites.
Practice also allowed him to open the shutters without a sound, drop into the room, and perform a search. There was enough moonlight coming from the windows to avoid bumping into the furniture.
Valek started with General Brazell’s suite. He crept on silent feet, but, by the loud snoring emanating from the bedroom, he doubted a slammed door would wake the general.
Brazell’s briefcase was lying on the desk in the receiving room. Valek removed the envelope with the puzzle piece. Pulling out a small knife, he lit a lantern and heated the blade in the flame for a minute. Then he slid it under the wax seal that secured the flap. The technique allowed him to open the envelope without breaking the seal.
He removed the puzzle piece and copied the letters and numbers onto a piece of paper he’d brought along. Valek would have loved to read through the other documents in Brazell’s briefcase, but he had seven more visits to make before dawn. He heated the knife again to melt the wax and reseal the envelope. Then he headed to Dinno’s suite.
It took him a couple hours to find and copy the rest of the puzzle pieces—eight sets of numbers and letters. It was an hour or so before the sun rose when Valek returned to his suite. Movement on the balcony drew his attention. He fingered his knife but recognized Yelena clutching the water pitcher. Ah. Probably hungover. He landed lightly just in case she had a headache as well as a dry mouth.
“Valek?” she whispered, uncertain.
He smiled then removed the dark glasses.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Reconnaissance. The generals tend to stay up late after the Commander leaves the brandy meeting. So, I had to wait until everyone had gone to bed.” Valek went inside and pulled off his hood. Lighting the lantern on his desk, he took the paper from his pocket.
“I hate a mystery. I would have let the identity of the Commander’s successor remain a secret, as I have for fifteen years, but tonight’s opportunity was too tempting. With eight drunken generals sleeping it off, I could have danced on their beds without waking them. Not one among them has any imagination. I watched all the generals put their envelopes from the Commander right into their briefcases.” Valek motioned her closer. “Here, help me decipher this.” He handed her the paper.
She hesitated. Would she mention the incident earlier or pretend it didn’t happen? Perhaps she didn’t remember because of the alcohol. Either way, he’d treat her as a professional and a part of his team. But he was inordinately glad when she pulled up a chair to help.
“How did you break the wax seal?” she asked.
“Rookie trick. All you need is a sharp knife and a tiny flame. Now read me the first set of letters.” He wrote them down: G, E, S, E, I. They didn’t form a word, so he moved the letters into different combinations until they made the wordsiege. He opened a book of symbols leftover from the monarchy and flipped pages until he reached the one that matched the word—a large blue star-shaped symbol centered in the middle of three circles.
