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She hissed at the first press of the needle into her flesh but remained silent for the first complete suture. Watching him still, he knew. To see if the blood would affect him, if she’d be able to get away if she needed to. She wouldn’t.

“Silver is becoming harder and harder to source, and I need your money to buy it,” she said at last, but there was concern laced with the words.

“To equip the humans with your enchanted trinkets.”

“Thosetrinketshave reduced human deaths considerably over the last few years.”

He knew she was right; the numbers spoke for themselves. “So you think Demesia could be something better too.”

“Not whilst your kind run the city. Not whilst your war with the Fae takes out everything else in its wake.” Another hiss. “Never run from an immortal. It’s the first thing humans are taught when they join a faction, no matter which you join. It’s the only thing we all agree on.”

“Only you’re not human.” Aidan flicked his eyes up to hers, hating that he needed to rely so much on his other senses for her reaction.

She didn’t seem bothered that he knew. If Aidan was right, she’d already suspected it. “Humans accepted me with open arms,” Rae said, her brow pinching together for a moment. “Took me in when no one else would. All they ever gave me was opportunity after opportunity; all they’d ever been were playthings for your kind.”

“Because we’re all the same.” He repeated his words from the first night they’d met. Just like all humans are the same, he’d mocked, and Rae had said nothing. “I’m surprised the members of Omnia accept a Witch for their leader.” Rae held his stare, and more pieces clicked into place. “They don’t know,” Aidan murmured. Another scrap of information to use against her.

“You’re stacking up a rather neat pile of chips there, aren’t you?” There was a hint of laughter to her voice as she said it, though no amusement accompanied her words.

“Deliver on our agreement, and I won’t need to use them.”

Anger, sharp and hot, blistered to the surface. “That’s her life you’re playing around with,” Rae seethed.

“Believe it or not, Farren, I value life. I visited a contact earlier to get us some more information; he’ll deliver his update soon.”

She blew out a breath, her anger diminishing with it. “I got an update too. Tried to. I met with Baxter; he’s Tripp’s right hand. Aera.”

“I know who he is.”

“Well, all he did was waste my time. Again.” Another pinch of her brow, but whatever she was going to say, it was gone.

Aidan finished the sutures in silence, keeping his opinions about Baxter to himself. When he’d tied off the thread, he brought the needle to his mouth, licking her blood from the metal, and it took everything in him not to wrap his hand around her throat for more. Gods, the taste of her. Blood had been like ash for longer than he cared to remember, butthis, this had his heart racing, and he fought to keep his composure as Rae glared at him.

“Waste not,” he said with a shrug, discarding everything into the bin beside the sink, fighting the reaction his body was having to her like he was some blood-starved adolescent. The way his heart beat like a damned sledgehammer in his chest. No wonder his uncle had kept a Witch as a pet for all those years; they tasted like fucking starlight.

Rae inspected his work as he tidied everything away, the burn in his throat turning to an ache. “Thank you.” Gratitude accompanied the sentiment, and he knew she’d done it intentionally. Genuine, nothing disguised beneath it. She shivered again, and this time Aidan turned on the shower. That earned him a questioning look.

“Get in. Your skin is like ice,” he said with a jerk of his chin.

Rae didn’t move, and he could almost see the thoughts turning over themselves. Whether she was putting herself in a positionshe couldn’t get out of. Whether she already had. She cast a look over her shoulder at her reflection in the mirror before catching his gaze, her fear spiking and levelling.

“I’ve had my fill today, Farren. I’ll help you with your shirt so we don’t have to redo the stitches, and then I’ll be on my way.”

She watched him for a fraction of a second longer, then slipped off the basin, discarding her damp towel and peeling her good arm out of her shirt. She nodded once, the only permission she gave him to step closer and help ease the bloodied garment over her wounded arm.

Aidan had already known she’d seen Baxter earlier, could still scent the human on her skin. Whatever they’d been doing, they’d been close. Baxter’s stench was all over Rae’s chest like they’d been pressed up against each other, but more than that, his Provident abilities allowed him tofeelBaxter’s presence all over Rae, and though Aidan hated to admit it to himself, it irked him. He prised her wet shirt away carefully, sliding the fabric up her raised arm, and she shivered again where he grazed her skin.

“He touched you here,” he said, knuckles hovering over her cheek but not touching, “and here,” he murmured, his thumb tracing her bare shoulder, stopping at the strap of her bralette. “And you didn’t like it.”

Rae swallowed, her eyes dipping low for a moment before flicking back up to meet his. “Bold of you to assume I like it when you touch me there.”

Her sharp inhale and her rapid heartbeat told him otherwise. He may not have been able to use his Provident abilities on her like he could with everyone else, but she didn’t hide her physical responses as well as she thought she did. Like the way her thighs squeezed together, the way the scent of her arousal had him wanting to taste her, to have it mix with the blood still coating his tongue.

Her attention was on his mouth again, her skin pebbling beneath his touch at her shoulder. Despite the nature of their arrangement, he wanted to push her up against the wall. Hear what sounds she made when he made her come. But he wouldn’t be able to resist sinking his teeth into her, and that would shatter what little trust they’d built. Would destroy whatever goodwill there was between them, whatever chance he stood of getting his magic back.

Aidan took a step back, his eyes on Rae’s mouth. A mouth that he would be thinking about later when he took his own shower in an attempt to shake her from his thoughts. “Goodnight, Witch.” He didn’t wait for a response, just left Rae alone to get warm, to sleep off what was left of the night.

He’d already taken one step into the hallway when he heard her.