Chapter Twenty-Five
I stared at the ‘inn’ dubiously. Most of the windows were broken and vomiting streams of ivy.
The intact ones were gray with decades of caked dust. Rot ate away at the wood of the door, softening it into a pathetic slump.
Had the floorboards or stairs fared any better?
If we walked inside, would we find a mound of plants growing from the dead bodies of their ancestors?
“I thought you said it was intact?”
Maybe we should have gone straight to the lair.
Part of me wanted the others to follow us, to apologize or keep arguing, anything that allowed me to hold onto Prince Treasure Banes a little longer. The other part wanted to skip to the epilogue without having to see the betrayal, the battle, the end.
“I said ‘relatively.’”
“Only if the relative is a third cousin twice removed.”
Wilde huffed in amusement. “You’re right, this is no place to bring a lover or a royal.”
Even a fake one. Because none of it was real, was it? Our relationship was a lie to explain his presence. I wasn’t a lover, I wasn’t a prince, I wasn’t anything to anyone.
I opened my mouth to tell him we should just go to the lair but stopped when he raised his hand.
His fingers swept through the air like a paintbrush on a canvas. Each stroke changed part of the inn. The glass reappeared in the windows, crystal clear and freshly cleaned. The door straightened and the rotting holes disappeared. The musty smell of decay faded into something sweet and floral.
He opened the door for me as magic rolled over the room.
Debris cleared from the floors. The broken counter snapped back into an upright position.
The only thing missing was a cheerful innkeeper to greet us.
The sagging ceiling tightened up and the water stains all shrank before fading away completely.
The stairs to the rooms had cracked and shifted to accommodate a dozen little saplings. The trees shrank, disappearing into the slats, and the stairs rearranged themselves into perfect order. Lights came to life along the walls to fill the inn in warmth and comfort.
I gaped as I stepped inside, testing the floorboards. They held firm under my feet. Even the rug had been dusted and cleaned so that the bright blues, reds, and purples popped. I flinched as I walked onto it, leaving muddy, black footprints behind.
“This is an amazing glamour,” I said as I turned in a circle to take in the full room. Every invading plant had been cast out, every speck of dust cleaned, and every broken piece of furniture repaired. Like the curse had never touched this place.
“It’s not a glamour,” Wilde said as he followed me. “It’s more like … a bubble.”
“A pocket dimension?”
He shrugged, as if he hadn’t just admitted to magic beyond most mage’s capabilities. And he was still an apprentice.
Unease twisted my stomach. Why the fuck was he working with the old man? The Lord of Grimnight was incompetent. He couldn’t hold one kingdom for a lifetime, let alone five. But Wilde … Wilde could rule the world.
“Does it meet your standards now, Your Highness?” His dark eyes glimmered as he picked up my hand and brought it to his lips. He didn’t kiss it—one taste of ink was enough to learn his lesson—but his hot breath brushed across my knuckles.
The false title made my heart twinge, reminding me of every lie that had brought us here. “You don’t have to call me that.”
“Why not? It’s so much more satisfying to bring a prince to his knees.”
“I’m not on my knees,” I reminded him, stomping one foot as proof.
“Yet.” He dropped my hand and rubbed his ink-stained fingers together. “Let’s clean you up first. I want to taste you, not whatever miserable monster you’ve slain.”
You smooth motherfucker. Every word Wilde said, every spell he cast for my safety or comfort, made me wish this was real. That he was a normal apprentice, and I was a normal prince, and we’d fallen in love during a quest to defeat evil.
He started up the stairs but stopped when I didn’t move from the doorway.
Swallowing the volatile mix of emotions, I gestured to the building he’d revived. “I’d hate to mess this all up.”
His lips quirked and his eyes crinkled with mischief. “Would you prefer to bathe in the front room? I had no idea you were an exhibitionist.”
What the fuck is he—oh shit, the others. If they followed us and found the inn, the first thing they would see when they walked in would be my naked ass. Possibly Wilde’s too, if he decided to join me. I could already hear Delilah dramatically screaming “My eyes!”
“Upstairs is fine,” I choked and hurried over to him.
“Honestly, I’m open to it,” he assured me as he followed me up. “I’d especially like to see the expression on the big brute’s face when he sees you worshipping my cock.”
“I’m not going to worship anything!”
His smug silence followed me up the stairs.
All the doors in the hallway were closed except the last one.
I hurried through it and only stopped when I saw the interior.
An enormous canopy bed with matching red drapes and silk sheets.
A cozy fire warming the fireplace. A wardrobe near the bed.
A rolltop desk with ink and parchment already set out.
And off to the left, a huge, clawfoot tub.
My pack wasn’t as covered in ink as the rest of me, but I still didn’t want to stain the plush carpet, so I set it on the desk’s chair where it would be out of the way.
Wilde followed me into the room and closed the door. He leaned against it lazily and looked me up and down, slowly, his eyes caressing me. “Strip.”
The filthy, sticky clothes clung to my skin, itchy and uncomfortable. All I wanted to do was discard everything and climb into the bath. But now that he’d told me to, of course it couldn’t be that easy. “Make me.”
One pale eyebrow arched at the challenge.
He pushed off the door and prowled toward me, a hunter stalking his prey.
He stopped a few inches away and looked up at me through his lashes.
“If you need help undressing, there are better ways to ask for it.” He touched my sides, just under my ribs, and dragged his hands down the ruined fabric of my jacket.
The heat of his skin seeped through my clothes, burning hot with building desire.
When he reached my waistband, I tensed, hoping he might travel lower. Instead, he released the last jacket button from its hole and slowly worked his way back up. His other hand slipped between the layers, stroking up my side until he reached my shoulder and gently nudged the jacket off.
Undressing myself would have been so much easier than this slow torture.
“Raise your arms.”
As much fun as it might be to continue stubbornly refusing his demands, I wanted to see where this led. Slowly, I lifted my arms, allowing him to peel the jacket from me, like he was unwrapping a present.
Instead of moving on to the next part, he stepped away. “I’ll draw you a bath. Take off the rest and wipe yourself down with some towels before getting in.”
Irritated, I yanked my boots and the rest of my clothes off and tossed them to the floor. Ink splattered over the plush carpet and along the walls, but I no longer cared about creating a mess in Wilde’s pretty pocket dimension.
The whole time, Wilde worked with his back to me, not even trying to steal a peek. Pretending indifference to my nakedness just to be frustrating.
The wardrobe was stocked with spare sheets and a stack of fluffy white towels.
I used two of them to clean the worst gunk away.
Every swipe made the papercuts sting, and I hissed my pain through clenched teeth.
When the towels had been dyed completely black, I dumped them on the floor next to my unsalvageable clothes.
Wilde leaned over the bathtub, testing the water as it poured from the faucet. Satisfied with the temperature, he glanced at me and ordered, “Get in.”
“I’m not following your orders,” I said as I approached the bath. “I’m doing what I already planned to do.”
His lips twitched. “If you say so.”
I glowered at him even as I climbed over the side of the tub. “It doesn’t count.”
“How’s the temperature?”
I let him change the subject and settled into the deep basin, resting one arm on the ledge. Letting my eyes drift half-shut, I focused on the warm water surrounding me. “Could be a little hotter.”
The faucet creaked as he turned it, and new warmth flowed around me.
I sighed, content, and slipped lower into the water.
“Do you want me to shampoo your hair?”
Words stuck in my throat. The question was oddly sweet, different from his usual arrogant demands. The only reply I could manage was a simple hum of assent.
Nimble fingers slipped through my greasy, filthy hair, massaging the shampoo into my scalp.
It’d been a long time since someone had taken care of me.
Brendon and Rick were attentive, but when I met them, I’d been old enough to take care of most things myself.
The old man had left my care to various nannies, but the women willing to work for an evil mage never had such gentle hands.
When Wilde finished with my hair, he moved on to my arms, scrubbing gently yet assertively down each limb. As he revealed the thin cuts beneath, he paused. “How did you get these?”
“The catalog cards,” I explained, opening one eye to examine them. Now that they weren’t covered with ink, I could see the red, swollen edges.
Lips pressed in a grim line, Wilde traced one of the long papercuts. The light touch sparked both a sharp sting and gentle heat along my skin. “I don’t know healing magic.”
“I’ll be fine,” I assured him. “We brought health potions with us. I’ll grab one when I see the others again.” If they were willing to share.
Wilde said nothing as he nudged me forward to wash my back. My whole body felt loose and pliable from the warm water, so I didn’t have the energy to protest his silent commands. Allowing him to take care of me gave my mind time to wander.
I thought back to his confrontation with the librarian. His instant fury. Fitz’s whispered words: He’s going to destroy the library. And Maximus’ accusation: he didn’t want to help—he wanted to hurt. “Why do you care if I get hurt?”
Wilde’s careful hands stilled. “What?”
I rolled my head back to look up at him. Upside down, I felt like I was gazing up at the stars. “Are you protecting me as one of your master’s assets, or as a person?”
He scanned my face, searching for the right answer. “Would it change your opinion of me if I said both?”
“I … don’t know.”
His hands started moving again, massaging the ache from my shoulders.
“We are both tools for the master to achieve his grand purpose. So, one asset to another, I will protect you to protect his interests.” His touch softened to a caress as he ran his hands down my ribs, sending goosebumps over my skin despite the warm water.
He leaned forward until his lips brushed my ear.
The water soaked his sleeves up to his shoulders, turning the fabric translucent.
“One person to another, I would be your shield and your sword. If you need protection, I will guard you until my last breath. If you need vengeance, I will bathe the world in blood until you are satisfied.”
My eyes widened in surprise at his passionate and violent confession. Our flirtation had always been a game—he commanded, I defied, both of us intent on driving the other a little bit mad. Now he’d tossed the gameboard aside and asked me to really look at the man behind the pieces.
I nervously licked my lips and whispered, “What do you want from me in return?”
Wilde spoke his answer against my lips, “Everything.”