Chapter Thirty-Seven
THIRTY-SEVEN
HAWK
The Conquest Moon
Outside, I can see the rounded body of the Conquest Moon looming in the early dawn skies. The hand of the god will be fully upon me tonight. There’s no more time to waste. I need to find Aspeth and prepare her for our mating. There’s still time for me to get a charm for her, still time to find a cream to ease my way into her tight, virginal body….
But when I find Magpie seated in the dormitory kitchen, sharing drinks with a well-dressed stranger, all logic vanishes. I think of the frustrating night I just spent digging in a tunnel, and for some mucking reason, it looks like she’s celebrating.
Something’s wrong.
“Who the fuck is this?” I demand as I storm in. “Why are you drinking again?”
She stares at me in open-mouthed surprise. “What are you doing back so early?”
A hot, hostile anger comes over me. “Early, am I? Exactly who am I supposed to be digging out, Magpie?”
“How would I know?”
She feigns ignorance, but it only makes me angrier. I recognize the full-throttle anger churning in my gut, but I’m helpless to stop it. I storm over to my quarters, but Squeaker is waiting there by her empty bowl. She howls at the sight of me, plaintive, and circles around her empty food dish. There’s no sign of Aspeth.
I return to the kitchen, where Magpie is fighting back a smirk. “Where are the others? Where is my wife?”
“Your wife,” the man sneers. “Your marriage has been annulled, bull-man. Not that it should have happened in the first place.”
Red floods my vision. “Aspeth wouldn’t do that.”
“She’s not here, though, is she?” He sounds so very confident.
“And where is she?” I demand again.
“Left,” Magpie says, slurring her words. No surprise, she’s had too much to drink once more. “Poor little lady left town and went back to Daddy’s hold.”
It’s a lie.
They’re mucking lying to me.
Aspeth is infuriating and spoiled and hardheaded, but she’s no deal-breaker. I think of last night in the alley, and how she’d looked up at me with such heated eyes. How she’d reached for me.
None of that was a lie…was it?
I think of Aspeth’s soft expression as she gazed up at me. How she’d let me eat her soup as we talked. The nights we’d lain awake in bed while she petted her cat and told me about her excitement over joining the guild.
Her cat.
Squeaker’s bowl was empty, the cat indignant. Aspeth would never abandon her cat. Aspeth would never let it skip a meal.
I eye Magpie and the oddly triumphant stranger, and then I move forward. I grab Magpie by her brown master’s jacket and haul her to her feet.
“Wh-what? What are you doing?”
“I’m bringing you both to the Royal Artifactual Guild,” I announce. “You can tell Rooster what you’ve done to your fledglings.”