Page 29

“Whatdoyouwant?”I asked, shoving past Andrues as I exited Madam Shath’s apothecary. The door slammed closed behind me, the wooden sign chained to the frame swinging with the movement.

“You missed tonight’s meeting in the war room.” Andrues’s tone was dry as he said the words and a lump formed in my throat.

This was the fourth month in a row I had missed it. I couldn’t bring myself to go. I couldn’t bring myself to help plan for a war I knew we had no chance of winning when I was already losing a battle to myself.

“Oh, was that tonight?” I asked with mock surprise, smirking as I started back to Vatham Street.

There would be no indulging in drink tonight it seemed, not with Dukovich and now Andrues tailing me. He ignored my comments, quietly walking beside me as we weaved our way through the streets.

I stopped, turning to face him and crossed my arms over my chest.

“Are you planning to leave me alone at all for the rest of the night? Or are you my new watch dog that comes out when the sun sets?” I arched a brow as the corners of his lips lifted.

I scoffed, knowing that there was no way around him. Dukovich I could shake, but Andrues . . . he knew me too well, knew my scent well enough to track me with his eyes closed—no matter the skin I was in.

“Very well,” I said, rolling my eyes as I stretched my hand out to him.

Andrues tethered us to the doors of my rooms, dropping my hand as soon as our boots hit solid ground. I pushed them open, feeling a twinge of embarrassment at the mess he was about to see as I gestured my arm toward the open sitting room.

I hadn’t realized until now that he had never been in my quarters; I had always gone to his. Shame pricked at my cheeks as I started gathering the clothing strewn about all the furniture.

A shriek burst from my lips, the clothes in my arms flying into the air as I jumped onto the armchair closest to me.

“What?” Andrues hissed spinning in my direction, his sword half drawn.

“There’s a fucking rat!” I yelled, grabbing onto his shoulders and pulling him in front of me. “There it is!” I screamed, pointing my finger to the ground as it peaked out from under the chair across from me.

I flung a dagger toward it and watched as it scurried across the floor, disappearing underneath the hem of the curtains. A deep chuckle left Andrues’s throat as he slid his sword back into place at his side and stepped out of my white-knuckled grasp.

“It’s not funny, that’s disgusting,” I scolded, cautiously stepping off the chair and scanning the perimeter of the sitting room.

“Well, maybe if you did not live like a wild beast, wild beasts would not find your rooms a cozy place to hide,” Andrues said, lifting a brow in my direction. I scoffed at him, picking the clothing back off the floor.

“I’m messy,notdirty and I swear to the Gods thatthinghas been following me around for over a month now. I see it everywhere I fucking go,” I snapped as I shoved my clothes into a basket beside the double arched doors opening into the bedchamber.

Andrues walked over to the window, pulling back the curtains and smiled. The rat was sitting on the windowsill, propped up on its hind legs with its long, furless tail draped over the ledge.

“You are afraid of this little guy?” Andrues crooned as he leaned down to look at it. The rat stilled, staring back at Andrues with two beady eyes.

“It’s a rat, Andrues.” I scoffed, walking over to where he stood and tried to shoo it from my window to no avail.

“Rats are still animals and it seems, you have found your familiar,” he said, inspecting the thing. “More accurately, your familiar has foundyou.” He glanced up at me with a devious smile.

“What the fuck is a familiar?”

“A companion that binds themselves to witches. Though, I have not seen one since the war.”

I groaned at his words.

“A rat . . . bound itself to me?”

A smirk slid across Andrues’s face.

“Seems fitting, does it not?” he asked, chuckling as I scowled at him.

“How do you know it’s a familiar, and not just some vermin?”

“I could be wrong, but it has your scent, and I can sense magic coming from it.”