Chapter 19 #2
She moaned and the bed shook, and for the second time the world stood on end.
Her body pulsed around mine in frantic waves, looping the power back into me, and I kept driving, heady and undone, driving magic into her, and gulping it in return, until someone roared and I was coming into her with a force that I didn’t think possible.
Her legs fell to the side, tremors and aftershocks pushing and pulling the waves of wild magic, and I collapsed on top of her, breathing in deep clutching breaths, the echoes thrumming from her chest, her mouth.
I pulled her up with me as I crawled the bed, my knees catching upon her ravaged dress, the bodice pulling down and exposing a neglected breast.
I leaned down to kiss her bared skin. “Luscious Marietta, or Marvelous Marietta, perhaps that should be your new name?” Her breath hitched, gaze still unfocused.
The edge of a perfect nipple peeked over the frill, and I ran my tongue over the top. She gripped the back of my head, her fingers pulling through the strands.
I rose on my elbow and lifted my knee to release her dress. Her eyes met mine and desire, devotion, and freedom spun through me. I tucked her against me and she curled into my chest.
“You should stay with your older brother for a few days. It won’t be long now. I can feel it.”
“And if I refuse? Will you lock me up with Ferris?”
I threaded fingers through her hair. “No.”
“And then?”
“We find the murderer and set your brother free.”
Unspoken, echoing, was the question: And after that? But she said nothing, her fingers gripping my hip. Neither of us uttering promises that could be broken.
Tomorrow was a new and unknown day. Today had been difficult enough without worrying about where I would be, where she would be—where we would be—tomorrow. I needed to think through some things, while others I didn’t want to face at all.
Some things did need to be said, however. “High Lady Steelcrest made a list. My father is trying to locate two men on it.”
“And the rest of the visit?” she asked hesitantly.
“She was her normal, lovely self.”
“She didn’t...do anything?”
I laughed darkly. “She can’t do anything.”
“Oh.”
She was silent, but her curiosity was palpable. “What do you want to know, Marietta?”
She ran two fingers along my unmarked wrist, then slid her protection token off to touch her marked one.
She pressed lightly to one of the stars and the push echoed, the sensation looping to me then back to her.
Her breath caught. “So many things. My exhaustion is gone. And this—does the vow mark feel this way for everyone?”
“No.” I pushed at the knot of the vow, tracing where it had moved from a more guarded place to one nestled closer to my heart.
“It depends on the relationship between the caster and the spelled.” A horrible thing, to be on the receiving end of a bad mark.
“And your exhaustion is gone because we...shared magic. Shoring up weak points and smoothing out vulnerabilities is part of the loop. The feedback between two people can grow so strong that weakness disappears altogether. Or so they say.”
She swallowed. “Confluence.”
The complete and permanent weaving between two people. “Yes. Profound shared power. That was not this.” Not yet. The thought should have scared me more.
“Most don’t choose it. Not even the power couples in the gilded. They choose a slighter merging instead.”
“It’s a true vow. Unbreakable. Most people find merging more than adequate for high level power transfers—and they can be done with multiple people.” Not so confluence.
She stroked my wrist. “When did you start?”
“Start what?”
“Doing this.” She pressed the stars on her own again, sending another throb through us both. I grew hard with it—with the desire to press into her and complete the circuit.
I drew two fingers along her leg. Her breath caught, but she captured my fingers before I could continue.
“Not that part. When did you start, and how did you get to the point where people would spend ten thousand gold for your services or offer you three future favors?”
I ran my fingers along her side and stared at the ceiling, willing my body back under control. That hadn’t been the question I thought she would ask. I didn’t know if it was an easier or harder question to answer, the topic dancing along the edge of the darker issue.
“It didn’t start with ten thousand gold or the favors.”
She nodded, waiting for me to continue.
“I ran from the Steelcrest estate, as I’m sure you’ve deduced.
Took Lucian with me.” I took a breath. “We hid in Gildon for a while. We had nothing to our name, but we had contacts, knowledge. I started with a smile and the comprehension of how to work with the different classes. Desperation breeds other types of knowledge as well. Something that was very useful at the Steelcrest estate and later.”
Darkness hovered at the edges, but it was lighter than it had been, less thick.
“I did a few favors, introduced people who could help each other, that type of thing. I didn’t realize how useful that talent was or what I could do with it until later.
” My fingers skimmed her hip. “I had earned some money by then, a lot of contacts. I took a chance and charged fifty gold to a man who could well afford to pay. He did. It was the beginning. I just kept moving up. Kept growing.”
I trailed my fingers over her stomach.
“Soon I was able to easily charge whatever I needed. I had the network in place to get nearly anything done or discovered.”
“Do you get a lot of paying clients?”
“Yes.”
She leaned on her elbow. “If you charged less, you would get more.”
“I know.”
“Why don’t you?”
“I don’t need the money. I have more than enough. And there would be too many seeking services in their own interests, but no one else’s.”
She touched my side. “You are more interested in people who can’t afford your services. Workers. Who pay with favors that end up benefiting each other.”
“Yes.”
“You took my case because it was favor bound.”
“From a purely predatory standpoint, I knew immediately you’d be a strong asset. With your ability to blend in, the innate skills you’ve developed. You were determined and loyal. Interesting. Your brother’s situation was also interesting. Frostwood must have known I’d think so.”
“What did you do for Frostwood?”
“You’ll have to ask him.”
“He’s rather like you about not wanting to be in debt to anyone, though he’s on a tight monetary leash with his father. I assume whatever you did for him, his father paid?”
I didn’t answer, instead running my fingers along her rib cage. She arched into them as they grazed her breast.
“Why had I never heard of you?”
“When people think they can buy anything, horrible things become demand. Saying no to the powerful requires equal might, continuously flexed. A lesson learned hard and early. I made sure no one could make me do anything.” Hard, ruthless years spent cultivating to that level of power.
“I found a better balance in referrals. The network works better in secret, without magical oversight.”
“How did you know Frostwood had referred me? I couldn’t feel any magic in the card.”
“Each one is physically different. In subtle ways, but it is the best way to avoid forgery and to verify the identity of the sender.”
“You enjoy it too, the intrigue, the suspense.”
I smiled faintly. “I do.”
“What will you do when you want to retire?”
“I’ll turn it over to Lucian.” I hesitated. “Or one of Lucian’s children, should he have any.”
“What about your own children?”
“Lucian seems more inclined to marry, doesn’t he?” I rolled so I was looking down at her.
“I suppose that is true.”
I slid my hand into her hair, tipping her head back on the pillow, pressing a kiss at her throat. “Is that all you wanted to know, Marietta?”
~*~
MARIETTA
I wanted to know everything. It was hard to imagine the man ever being taken advantage of. I hadn’t known the boy. That he wasn’t interested in marriage was no surprise, so why did it make my heart wrench?
My fingers curled into the coverlet, the marks on my wrist sending pulses through me as he pressed kisses down my neck. “Why stars?”
He continued his path without answering for so long that I didn’t think he would. “Because they cast away the night.”
I swallowed, then pulled him to me, connecting his lips to mine, but for something softer, gentler. “Will you tell me what happened? Before?”
He leaned back against the pillows, tugging me over so my cheek pressed to his chest, my eyes facing away from his. His chest rose, fell and rose again beneath me. “Yes. What do you want to know?”
“How did they—how did they get you involved?”
His finger traced a pattern along my back. “The attention was flattering at first. Odes have been written to the High Lady of Steelcrest and Nightshade’s hair.”
Luminous silk, and cascades of gold, woven by the heavens’ hand!
He lifted a lock of my own mousy brown between his fingers. Vines of unwatered moss spreading across the dead riverbed, maybe.
He brushed it against his lips. “I had some experience with women, though having the estate butler as a father was something of a noose. The maids found reasons to linger and doorways to haunt, but father was strict and didn’t condone relationships beneath the stairs.
” His tone changed. “There was nothing he could do abovestairs, of course.”
I moved my cheek along his chest.
His fingers continued brushing my hair against his lips. “Melissande Nightshade started her venture in the same way I later did, I suppose. With a smile. She started with willing villagers, visiting men. But revenge, power, and control are hardly to be found with the willing.”