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“You may speak now.”

Oh, can I? How fucking magnanimous of you.

“Thank you,” I say through gritted teeth, acting politely though I resent him with a hot, passionate anger. “I don’t know if you’ve ever been handcuffed before, but after an hour, it starts to sting.”

Otho grunts from across the chamber, where he’s still setting up the water catcher.

“It was only half an hour.”

Brennan grins. His cruel, arrogant face softens for a moment – but then it returns to his signature, implacable intensity.

“She knows that, Otho. She was plugging us for information. She wanted to know how long we were flying, so she can judge the distance we’ve traveled. She’s probably already worked out roughly where we are from that alone.”

Brennan’s eyes flash as he turns to me and warns: “Don’t make me put that gag back in your mouth, Natali.”

I look down, but not out of shame. For some reason, I actually feel pride. The Aurelian isn’t looking at me like I’m an idiot – he was actually impressed.

But why do I care about impressing one of my kidnappers? It’s stupid!

I should be doing the opposite – working to make him think I’m dumb…

…yet there’s a warm satisfaction to know he thinks I’m smart.

But he’s smart, too. Brennan was clever enough to see straight through my ploy.

I dare to lift my eyes, and I find myself staring up into Brennan’s slate-grey gaze.

“Admit it,” he growls, his voice flat. “That’s what you were doing, right?”

I crane my head to look up at the seven-foot-tall beast of a man. I can’t keep the defiance out of my voice as I respond:

“Damned right, I was.”

He nods, the corner of his lips twitching with the tease of a smile.

Then, the towering Aurelian twirls his finger in the air, motioning for me to turn around. I do so, and feel his huge, hot hands on my wrists as he unlocks the handcuffs from behind my back.

I groan in relief as my strained arms flop forward. I rub my wrists as I turn back to face him.

“You’ve never done this before, have you?”

I can’t believe the boldness of my words, even as they leave my own mouth.

Nor, apparently, can Brennan. He cocks his head on one side, holding the handcuffs up in front of him.

He jingles them threateningly.

“Whatdo you say?”

My eyes narrow. I don’t want to give him any excuse to cuff me again, so I might have to temper my attitude.

“Thank you, Brennan,” I repeat through gritted teeth.

I bristle at having to thank my captor for such a basic human dignity – but I have no interest in drawing Brennan’s ire. If I’m going to be spending days, or evenweekswith these three Aurelians, I need to find a way to keep things civil between us all.

I take the gag off from around my neck, handing it to him silently.

If all goes well, I’ll be spending justhourswith them. I scan the room, already looking for a way out. Nothing suggests itself.