Chapter 8 #2
Moncho scoffed. “You didn’t look in control when I walked in on you with your dick waving about. Or did you confuse it with your sword? I realize it’s just as mighty looking…”
“Really, Monch?”
“Really, Baz.” Moncho spread his legs wider than hip-width apart and crossed his arms, mirroring Baz’s posture. “We got thirteen prissy-ass nobles running amok through the castle, all whining about the scary shadows that are gonna gobble them up.”
“If only,” Lev said with an eyeroll.
“For once, I don’t think they’re exaggerating,” Aziza said. “The castle is scary, and you all know I don’t scare easily.”
Lev grunted. “You don’t scare at all. Not ever.”
Aziza tried to hide a smile behind a curtain of shiny, straight black hair. “Your advances scare me, Lev. Every time I turn around you’re trying to jump my skeleton.”
“Damn right I am, Zi. It’s a sexy-ass skeleton you got.”
Aziza hid another smile.
Moncho looked Baz in the eyes. “Lest you forget, we don’t just have skittish nobles on our hands.
Terencia is—” He flicked his eyes to me, then appeared to censor what he’d been about to say.
“Terencia is asking for the emperor and for you. She doesn’t care about the parvtit, but she’s got plenty to say about Junot. ”
“I don’t blame her,” Baz said, looking to Lev. “What about the two feeders she asked for?”
“Was able to scrounge up one male. Plenty of females in the kitchens, once Mauldrene let me find them. But only the one guy.”
“She wants two.”
“I know. I’ll do it.”
Zi sat up straight. “You can’t. We’ll find someone in Galmeen.”
“There’s no time for that, not with all that’s going on. And if it’s not me, you know she’ll be coming for Baz.”
My frame stiffened before I made myself relax.
“Still,” Aziza said.
Lev shrugged like it didn’t matter. “If it’s me or him, you can’t blame me.”
Zi shook her head in waves of silky black.
“Sent the one guy to her alone since we didn’t know where the fuck you were, Baz. But I’m gonna have to go to her soon or she’ll, you know, go all fiery on us.”
Baz breathed so loudly I glanced up at him.
His nostrils were flared, his jaw clenched, his muscles bulging.
He was all strong, sexy man. My core clenched at the sight, dammit, and I hurried to stare blandly at the nearest lumoon.
A moment later, I heard seven s?nglures scent the air, no doubt noticing my sudden arousal.
For fuck’s sake. I crossed my legs tightly.
Silence drew out for several seconds until Moncho said, “Baz?”
I glanced up at him. He’d been staring down at me, and now he shook his head as if to clear it. He ran both hands along his face, through his hair, tangling in the small plaits and his long tresses.
He sighed. “We have bigger problems than Terencia. Junot’s missing.”
“Whaddya mean, ‘Junot’s missing’?” Lev asked, then laughed nervously. “He’s the scorching emperor. Emperors don’t go missing.”
“Tell that to Mauldrene.”
Several of them sucked in quiet gasps.
“You’re kidding…” Night said, his voice a rough grumble that suggested he didn’t use it often.
“I wish I were. I went after him, but by the time I caught up, he was gone. Just … gone. The only exit was a trapdoor.”
Ed narrowed her eyes. “That hall doesn’t have a trapdoor.”
“Not normally, no. Led straight to the dungeon.”
“Ah,” Night said, like that made sense of everything.
“Caught the goblin trying to let her out.”
All of them glared at me, like I was at fault that my faithful servant friend would try to free me.
“And my prisoner,” Baz said, making my breath stutter absurdly at hearing him call me his prisoner—something was seriously wrong with me—“was in bloodlust.”
“Logical,” Lev said. “What else did you expect to happen when you wouldn’t let ’er feed off anyone but you, and she refused?”
Baz scowled. “I couldn’t leave until I dealt with the bloodlust.”
“Didn’t matter that Junot was missing, huh?” Lev said.
“No. She’s too dangerous.”
“Like we keep telling you,” Moncho said.
“I don’t need the reminder.”
Moncho pursed his lips into a firm line, as if desperate to tell him that yes, yes he fucking did.
“I know exactly just how dangerous she is to me. What about Crute? Is he safe?”
Ed nodded. “Handed him over to a few of the maids for now. They’ll take care of him till things calm down.”
“Good. I need to find Junot, calm Terencia, and contain the nobles.”
“And the goblin?” Félix asked. His voice was refined and smooth as silk.
“I’ll deal with her too.”
I stiffened. “Don’t you hurt her.”
“You dare to demand anything of our general?” Moncho said.
I tipped up my chin. “She’s not the one to blame here.” Baz was to blame, for all of it. If not for his choices, his actions, I wouldn’t be here, and neither would Marina.
“Of course she’s guilty,” Moncho said. “She tried to free a prisoner of the dominion.”
“The goblin is the least of my concerns right now,” Baz said. “I owe you guys some explanations.”
Lev arched a brow and bent to pick up his pipe. “Like why you’re bonded to the woman you shouldn’t allow in the same territory as you, let alone close enough for her to lunge and try to kill you again.”
“Fair point,” Moncho said. “I barely recognize myself with all this agreeing with Lev. The sooner we get rid of her”—her, meaning me—“the better. Time to get back to normal.”
Baz laughed darkly, sparking memories of how ferociously we’d consumed each other in the dungeon’s darkness. “There’s no going back to normal, not anymore.”
Lev flicked a spark to life, then let it float above his bowl while he and the rest of Baz’s friends anticipated whatever he would say next.
“The reason I’m bound to my prisoner with a Rillis rope is because Mauldrene seems to be friendly with her.”
Ed sucked in a breath that sounded like affront. “What, really?”
“Maybe not ‘friendly,’ but Mauldrene doesn’t seem out to get her like she does us.”
“That’s some dragonshit,” Lev exclaimed on a cloudy exhale.
Baz sighed loudly. “There’s more.” He looked at me, and I thought I could feel his regret that he was going to share my secret.
“I know who she is.”
“I thought—” Ed said.
“I know what I said, or rather what I didn’t say. I had my reasons.” Again, he looked at me, his ocean eyes warm in the yellow lumoonlight.
“Before you react, remember that she’s collared, and that it’s Cal’s collar. No way is she accessing her powers. Cal won’t let her, not ever.”
“Oh-kay…” Lev said.
Baz inhaled deeply, exhaled slowly.
“Oh, for dragon’s sake,” I said, and stood. “I’m Soravelle Davana, ‘Power Princess’ of the D’Arcos. And in four days, everyone in this castle is gonna know it.”