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Would he?

4

LUCIAN

“No clue who you could possibly mean,” I blatantly lied.

Herwas five foot six of smooth, lightly freckled skin and easy smiles, wild fiery curls and those eerie blue eyes, the shades of the varying waters in the deepest ocean.Herwas my opposite. As light as I was dark, her very presence tasting of sunshine, while they call me the prince of darkness—to my face, in any case. I knew they had other names for me behind my back.

Kleos Valesco. Sweet, big-eyed, kind-smiled, infant-kissing, puppy-cuddling darling of the vale.I was certain that was what her badge would say, if archivists received them.

I found it fascinating that she genuinely kept that image, when all I felt around her was pressing, imminent danger.Why didn’t anyone elsefeelit?

It was inherent to my core power to feel the living energy of anyone, any living thing around me. My ability reached for it, tasting, testing, assessing all potential prey.

Kleos was a wall. Shielded, reinforced, impregnable. I only had a chance to analyze her from up close once, last year, but one little probing against her and I was certain. I’d metgodseasier toread than her. I had no clue what she was exactly, but one thing was certain: between us, I wasn’t the freak of nature.

A lesser man, with that knowledge in mind, would have fled. Instead, I watched. From a safe distance.

As a trainee, aiming to work in the archives, she worked on the lower floors, while I was on the seventh level. I believed there was little to no chance our paths should ever cross. Frankly there was no reason at all we should ever stand within spitting distance.

Then I learned my mistake. Gideon was hercousin.

There was no reason why I would have guessed: the colossus and the dainty little witch neither looked nor felt like the same species, let alone actual relatives. With Gideon, what I saw was exactly what I got. Kleos? Not so much.

I didn’t know her, and I didn’t want to. The one instance we’d exchanged a word was when she, her friend, and their mentor turned up at my door at the crack of dawn—all right, noon, but it was the night after a revel—escorting a client for a demon summoning. It should have been a typical Thursday, but her presence in my home made it…strange.

I warned her my cat might bite. That was it. Twenty-something years in the same city, and we never addressed another word to each other.

In the last six months, Kleos joined Gideon for lunch, came up to our floor for a cup of tea if we weren’t on an assignment, and we’d never spoken.

HowdidGideon notice the girl was a problem for me? I supposed it was proof that he wasn’t the complete himbo he appeared to be, despite the ripped muscles, long blond hair and general surfer looks.

My partner laughed in my face. “Right. And if I told Kleos we’re throwing you a goodbye party and invited her, you wouldn’t turn up, huh?”

I hesitated.

The situation he painted was an alluring one. Drinks. People let their guards down around alcohol. I could lurk and observe her some more. I could even, if a copious amount of wine was involved, ask her what the hell was wrong with her, andfinallyput the mystery to rest.

Unsolved riddles irked me.

In normal settings, Miss Valesco, daughter of the high magistrate and the white witch presiding over all priestesses in the city, did not speak with the likes of me. It was a miracleGideontook to me despite our respective families. Kleos was wiser; she stayed away. I stayed away.

But with alcohol…

The evil light wizard smirked. “She asked about you, you know. Wondered how you’d ended up here. The first dark sorcerer to ever work as a protector.”

I feigned indifference. I wasnotbothered by what I did to end up here. If I got the chance, I’d murder the guy all over again, never mind the fact that it earned me months of filing paperwork for at least four mind-numbing hours a day, and getting hexed at occasionally.

The hexes were fun.

“If the pay was better, I wouldn’t be the first,” I retorted, avoiding his point.

“Posh git. The pay’s fine.”

I let out an undignified cackle. “A hundred gold adayfor risking my skin isfine?”

“Two thousand gold a month is tons of money,” Gideon argued. “If you went out in the outside world, you’d know. A gold is, what, ten dollars? Eight euros? Six pounds? Portal to any city, and ask the first hundred people you see if they make twenty thousand dollars a month. Go on, I dare you.”