Chapter 10
“How did it go?” Xaydin asked as Masakage rejoined them.
“Taken care of. Gisela has achieved her goal and so have you. The ataswere will live and the contract is gone.”
Xaydin smirked at Gisela. “Guess diplomacy can work. Don’t ever tell Dash. I don’t want him to get cocky…er.”
Gisela rolled her eyes. “But you don’t have a head to deliver to your evil overlord.”
“Dash is neither evil nor my over anything, least of all my lord.”
“’Cause you answer to no one,” she teased.
“Exactly.” Xaydin sighed. “But I have to admit that it feels weird to achieve my objective and have no head to show for it. Rather anticlimactic, if you ask me.”
Masakage shrugged. “Guess you could always take another ataswere head. Dash wouldn’t know the difference.”
“I don’t kill the innocent.” Even when they were ataswere.
There were plenty of them like Fenrys who had easy contracts and who didn’t ruin the lives of others.
He only wanted the ones who were like the greedy bastard who’d murdered his father.
Those who refused to exercise humanity and reason to see who was innocent and who wasn’t.
Xaydin only wanted the corrupt ataswere. The rest had nothing to fear from him.
“Shall we retrieve our horses and get home?” Masakage asked.
“Let’s. You lead the way.”
Masakage headed back to where they’d left Fenrys.
Xaydin held Gisela back.
She looked up at him with a frown. “Something wrong?”
He turned around to walk backwards while facing Gisela so that he could mouth the words, “My brother never calls Dash…Dash.” Being raised with the Tenmaruns, Masakage was more formal than that. Unlike Xaydin, Masakage wasn’t really friends with the king.
No. Masakage either called him king or by his full name, King Deciel.
And now that he thought about it, Masakage had said and done several things that didn’t ring true.
Every part of him was on alert now, and in case he was right, he wanted Gisela to be wary, too.
She cut a suspicious glance to his brother before meeting Xaydin’s stare. “What do I do?” she whispered.
“Act naturally. Watch him.” He turned around and quickened his steps. “Kage!”
His “brother” slowed to allow him to catch up. “Yes?”
“Did you leave a coin with the ataswere?”
“Why would I leave coin with him? He didn’t charge me for the service.”
Right…
Xaydin silently cursed. This definitely wasn’t Masakage. How had he missed that? Masakage would have offered one of his fortune coins to Fenrys and Saress.
Why hadn’t he realized that sooner? That annoying habit of handing out coins was one Masakage couldn’t stop himself from doing. It was compulsive.
Damn it!
Which begged the question, who was with them? They’d started this quest with Masakage.
Was his brother still alive?
Grinding his teeth, he cursed himself for being distracted. This was his fault. Had Gisela not been with them, he would have realized the masquerade sooner. Too much of his attention had been on her and not what he should have been focused on.
If his brother was hurt, he’d never forgive himself.
What if they killed him?
Not possible. Masakage was too powerful for that. He refused to believe that his brother could be killed by some two-bit animal who was playing this game with them.
Which was the real question. Why do this? If they wanted to stop him or Gisela, why not just attack?
Who hired them?
It definitely wasn’t Dash. The king would have never called in someone else after telling Xaydin to do this. While Dash was as suspicious as anyone Xaydin had ever known, Xaydin was one of the exceptionally few Dash trusted.
No, something else was going on here.
Something sinister, and he would find his brother, then kill this bastard.
Forced to stay calm, Xaydin didn’t say anything as they made their way back to Fenrys who looked completely crestfallen.
“Did you kill him?” the boy asked with a catch in his voice. “Was he in pain?”
Xaydin knelt down by where he sat on a rock, waiting. “You wanted to spare him pain, didn’t you?”
Fenrys refused to look at him.
“Don’t worry. Your father’s no longer suffering.”
The boy sobbed.
“No!” Xaydin added quickly. “I mean, he’s still alive. And he’s no longer suffering.”
He caught the last sob in his throat. “What?”
“We didn’t kill him. We healed him.”
Fenrys blinked in disbelief. “How?”
“Your father was poisoned and Masakage—” he almost choked saying the name, “—cured him. He’s all better now.”
The boy drew a ragged breath. “He’s been in so much pain for so long. You have no idea.”
Actually, he did. He’d seen more than his fair share of such deaths while in captivity. Poison had been a preferred method of murder for those who’d been thrown to Meara’s care. The twisted queen had taken great pleasure watching others suffer a prolonged, painful death.
The memories of all those needless deaths haunted him eternally.
Fenrys reached out and hugged Xaydin. “How can I ever repay you? I know! I’ll cancel your contract!”
“It’s all right. Keep the contract and go see your father. I’m sure he’ll be delighted.”
Squealing, Fenrys released him and flew off.
Gisela glanced away from Xaydin’s sheepish grin as he watched the boy leave. Her giant troll would die if he knew how adorable that made him appear.
He had a much bigger heart than he wanted anyone to know. But she saw it, and she was touched.
Biting her lip, she turned her attention to Masakage. Was Xaydin right? Could he really be an imposter? Had the real Masakage ever been with them?
She wished she knew him better so that she could help Xaydin find out the truth. It had to be driving him crazy to think that someone had taken over his brother’s place.
Which meant whoever was pretending to be Masakage was a shifter…
No wonder he hated them so much. It was frustrating to know that such a creature could step in at any time and “replace” someone you thought you knew.
Someone you cared about.
It was why her mother loved them so. In fact, her mother even paid some to masquerade as her from time to time. Most of those fools ended up dying from an assassination. Poor things to not see that end coming.
Unlike unicorns, any shifter could pretend to be a centaur. The only way to identify her mother was a unique mark that existed underneath her mother’s tongue.
A mark only three people knew about.
Gisela, her mother, and the poor, now tongueless man who’d placed it there.
He was kept alive to identify the mark should there ever be any question of someone trying to impersonate her and remove her from power.
Not that Gisela had ever met or even seen him.
Her mother had told her about it, just in case.
While Gisela knew the mark was there, she didn’t know what the mark was or even what it looked like.
You’ll know if you ever see it. I’m not like any other and neither is my mark.
Which had always made her curious as to what it could be, but not so much that she’d risk her life to find out. Her mother would have her head if she dared such an affront.
But that had also made her curious if all shape shifters had such a mark so that they could tell each other apart.
One thing was certain, she had no idea that Masakage wasn’t Masakage.
Or was Xaydin so paranoid that he was suspicious without cause?
She could drive herself mad trying to reason this out.
What was the truth?
Xaydin led them back through the woods until they reached the waiting horses. “Shall we go tell Dash the good news?”
“Sure.” And with that, another thought hit her.
Rushing to catch up to Xaydin, she pulled his head down to hers. Shock registered on his face as she pressed her lips against his ear. “You said you knew a shape shifter?” she whispered.
He nodded.
“Can you send for him?”
Scowling, he looked down at her.
“Trust me.” And with that she kissed his lips.
It was supposed to be a meaningless thing. Nothing more than a friend might give a friend or a child to its mother. An act to keep the imposter thinking they were being intimate and that she wasn’t scheming.
Yet the moment her lips touched his, electricity went through her. Not just because they were softer than she’d ever imagined, but because the spicy masculine scent of him hit her at the same time.
More than that, he pulled her against him with a heated passion the likes of which she’d never experienced. His tongue swept against her lips. Instinctively, she opened them and welcomed him with every part of her.
Xaydin couldn’t breathe as he tasted innocence and passion. Never in his life had he ever been kissed like this. She fisted her hands in his hair and held him close.
A part of him wondered if he were dreaming or if she were trying to bespell him. Something that should be impossible, and yet he had no resistance to her. Especially not at this moment.
Holding her close, all he could do was imagine what it would be like to lose himself inside her. To make love to her until they were both sweaty and spent.
Had she ever been really and thoroughly loved?
Sadly, neither had he. But that truth had never bothered him. As a prince, he knew he was nothing but a trophy to the fairer sex. He’d never expected to be loved by anyone.
Not really. His own mother couldn’t stand to be around him. Why should anyone else?
And he’d been content with that all his life. Yet now…
He wanted something more. Something impossible.
The touch of a loving hand…
A dream he knew would never come.
“Umm…” Masakage began coughing. “Do I need find a water bucket? I was debating a bolt of lightning, but that might cause permanent harm.”
Xaydin cursed the bastard as Gisela pulled away and ducked her face behind her hand.
“Sorry.”
He hated the sound of her embarrassment. If that had been his brother, Masakage would have vanished and not interrupted. Of all people, his brother would have known how rare an event this was. That he didn’t just reach out and molest any woman near him.
No, Masakage would have respected what he saw and made himself scarce.