Page 9 of With Wing And Claw

The phantom image moved.

Smiled.

Stretching out lazily in the cushions, looking not unlike a contented housecat after a long day of catching mice, Naxi cooed, ‘Morning, Sashka.’

Chapter 3

If someone had pusheda whetted dagger to her throat, her body could not have reacted more vehemently.

It was that sharp-toothed smile. The brush of golden sunlight over pink-blonde hair. Most of all, the sound of that gods-damned nickname from those gods-damned rosebud lips, savoured with a sweetness that glossed over a century and a half of hostility – a sound that after all these years still filled her with a maddening echo of softness, of pleasure, ofsafety.

Her heart leapt into her throat. At once, her hands were clammy, not with fear but rather with the certainty that came one step beyond fear – theknowledgeof imminent trouble.

Which Naxi had to know.

Those demon senses could register every goosebump, every prickle of cold sweat … and yet the deadly little creature on her couch was still smiling that same bubbly smile. As if her appearance was the happy surprise of the century. As if she hadn’t pulled out all solid ground from beneath Thysandra’s feet two days ago, then left her to rot in that prison cell as soon as her games had led to the betrayal she needed.

As if her pretence of kindness had ever meantanything.

It was that thought that broke the paralysis, a much-needed flare of anger that had Thysandra turn on her heel, slam the door shut, and snap, ‘How did you get in here?’

‘Oh, don’t be so alarmed,’ Naxi breezily said, draping herself over an armrest and tucking her chin into the palm of a small, rosy hand. Her blonde-and-pink curls bounced around her slender shoulders, the result a fraction tousled in the most deliberate of ways. ‘Your newly appointed subjects don’t know how to open your door, I promise. Creon helped me get in.’

Subjects.

Gods help her.

And only then did the next sentence land, impossiblymorealarming than the disastrous title of High Lady of the Crimson Court that had just been dumped onto her shoulders – because what in the world was Creon doing, helping people get intoherrooms? Since when did the bastard even know how to open her door? And what in the world had made him think thatthiswas the company she needed right now, some treacherous little half demon beaming at her when all she wanted was to take a bath and hide beneath her blankets for the rest of the day …

Had Emelin known?

Really, what were the chances shehadn’tknown, when her lover and foremost ally had colluded on the plan? Perhaps even Agenor had been aware. Tared, chuckling behind her. All of the Alliance, laughing themselves to stitches over the next curveball about to hit her in the face.

‘Get out,’ she numbly said.

Naxi snorted a laugh. ‘No.’

‘Oh, for fuck’ssake.’ It took all she had not to drain the last reserve of colour from her now dark pink dress and obliterate both the couch and the unwelcome visitor on it. As tempting as the impulse might be, she’d likely be too slow to surprise her sort-of-nemesis, and she knew how their last fight had ended. Instead, she clenched her fists and bit out, ‘What do you need from me this time, then? More secrets? Moretreason? More heartfelt confessions you can use against me whenever the time comes?’

‘Oh, you wound me,’ Naxi drawled, not looking particularly wounded at all as she dreamily twisted a pink curl around her finger. ‘Is it that unthinkable that I might just want to keep you company? Now that the Mother has helpfully kicked the bucket and we’re technically no longer enemies, I figured—’

‘Technically?’ A razor-sharp laugh burst from Thysandra’s throat. ‘You’re turning this thing between us into a matter oftechnicality? Never mind the fact that we don’t evenlikeeach other? That we’ve never spoken an amicable word to each other? That—’

If Naxi hadn’t been so gods-damned deadly, the abrupt shift of her expression might have been amusing – from mirthful carelessness to the shocked, indignant pout of an innocent accused. ‘Icomfortedyou!’

‘Yes, until I fucking talked! And then you vanished!’

‘Because you told me to!’ A newborn lamb could not have looked more blamelessly aggrieved; those wide blue eyes, more nymph than demon, suddenly gleamed dangerously. ‘You screamed at me to get out of your sight! So I thought I’d mercifully give you some time alone, even though ofcourseI’d rather have stayed with you – I even told the rest of the Alliance not to disturb you while you were coming to terms with yourself …’

Her voice died away, wobbling with perfectly calculated emotion. Or perhaps there was no calculation behind it at all, and that was an even more disconcerting thought – because fine, therehadbeen some mention of being left alone in peace in that cell, and admittedly, the volume of the conversationhadreached a point that some might hypothetically describe as shouting …

Oh, fuck.

How did the little terror always manage to twist these interactions into the same tangled arguments, into the constant, inevitable conclusion that Thysandra had no one to blame for her troubles but herself?

‘I didn’t expect you to give a damn about my requests,’ she ground out, unable to think of anything better but similarly unable to back down. ‘Itold you to leave me alone every single time you visited me these past weeks, and you always came back.’

Naxi’s eyes narrowed abruptly – a keen, almosthungrymotion, like a predator catching sight of its prey. ‘Are you saying you wanted me to come back?’