Page 43

This was the day from hell.

If Landers ever forced him back to Ammord with me, I would scream. I would actually scream, maybe even set this damn familiar loose on him. I cursed my body for the need it felt toward that insidious man.

His face was the only pretty thing about him.

His insides were poison.

But this place didn’t care, didn’t care about the history we had or the pain that it caused. It only preyed on your emotions, feeding on the smallest desires and bringing them to the surface. I found comfort in that knowledge, knowing that anywhereelse—in any other realm—my body would be repulsed by him. Anywhere else I could hide the curiosity that had begun to grow.

This place wasn’t good for anyone.

The sheet slipped from my body as I slid off the bedside table and waved my hand over my skin, erasing the blood that was coating it. I could still feel the essence of it—of him, clinging to my skin. I would need to scrub myself raw to get it off of me. But first, I needed to get the rest of this night over with.

I was not going to give another inch of my skin to gawk at, I thought to myself as I slid a loose tunic over my head then pushed my legs into my leathers. I pulled the dagger from the door, twisting it between my fingers as I stepped into the quiet corridor. Sounds of flames crackling in the hearth flowed up the stairs and I steeled myself to face him again.

A twinge of embarrassment prickled at my skin and I shoved it down into the deepest parts of the pit in my stomach. I had nothing to be embarrassed about; he had barged intomyquarters without permission.

A sharp breath slid between my teeth as I made my way down the stairs, my eyes locking onto his back as he poured two fingers of amber liquid into a glass and brought it to his lips. He downed the drink then poured himself another glass, this time pouring one for me before placing the cork back in the bottle and turning.

“Thought you might need this,” he said, smirking as he stretched the glass out toward me. I strode across the room, snatching it from his hand and plopped down in the corner of the couch.

“It doesn’t seem like you think at all,” I snapped, lifting the glass to my lips. The liquid burned as it slid down my throat, and I welcomed the sensation. “Let’s just get this over with,” I said, dropping the cup on the table in front of us. “Malik—how do we contact him?”

“We would need to go to The Silliands,” Dukovich started, pulling the decanter off the bar cart and refilling my glass on his way to the other end of the couch. “There are ruins that we used to explore when we were kids. If I go there and raise the signal we used to use as children, he will know to meet me.”

I scoffed as I reached for my glass. “And you truly believe that Landers is going to let you go to The Silliands?”

“From the looks of how today went, it seems like there may be no other option.”

Well, he got me there. Today was an absolute shit show.

“Who is Nox to you anyway?” I questioned, sipping on the liquid swirling in my glass and sinking further into my corner of the couch.

Dukovich’s muscles tensed at my question, at the reminder of who was in this house with us.

“His real name is Brakan.” His response was a low snarl, like he was trying to contain centuries of rage as he said his name. “And he deals in secrets.”

“So . . . ? Is that not exactly what I do as an Intelligence Officer?” I pressed, confused as to why that suddenly made Nox any worse than him or me.

“No,” Dukovich snapped and my back straightened.

It occurred to me, as the bite in his tone nipped at the edges of the room, that I had never heard him speak to me in such a clipped way.

“Okay, then what did he do?” I shot back.

I waited for him to explain, but he stayed silent, staring into the flames licking at the inside of the hearth. Annoyance rose in my chest as I watched him ignore my question.

As I opened my mouth to snap at him, he finally let out a long sigh and I pressed my lips back together. He dragged a hand over his face, leaning forward so his elbows rested on both his knees and a few short strands of hair fell over his brow.

“He collects secrets, and sells them to the highest bidder. He has no loyalty to anyone or any realm—all he wants is power. It is one thing to gather information for your realm, it is another to sell your knowledge to anyone that will pay without care of the havoc that knowledge could bring to innocent people. He is how The Silliands were able to get into Redelvtum and attack your academy. The High Priest of Redelvtum gave Brakan the information, and he sold it to The Silliands.”

I stared at him for a long moment, trying to understand how he could reason so easily through his hypocrisy.

“Youbought that information, Dukovich, you are the one he sold that secret too andyouare the one that chose to act on it.” I scoffed in utter disbelief at the complete lack of accountability he was willing to take for a single one of his actions. “If you are looking for someone to blame, look in the fucking mirror.”

A snarl left Dukovich’s throat and before I had a second to scramble away he’d dragged me from the couch, his body pressed so tight against mine that I could feel every ripple and curve of his muscular chest as he pinned me to the floor. My heart raced frantically as I stared up into his gaze that was burning a hole into my skull.

“If I did not buy that secret, someone else would have. I did what I had to do to keep Hyacinth out of the hands of Ammord. They knew she was the GodThe Storiesspoke of and they wanted her dead. She was my only priority and I did not care who I had to hurt to keep her alive.” He hissed, his breath feathering across my skin.