Page 20 of A Taste For Lies (The Apex Kingdom #1)

Chapter 20

TARAN

I stand in the passageway outside the Lynx’s suite for far too long, bracing myself. It’s not enough that I had to sit in that tiny research room with her, albeit with the door open, thank Faunera. Now I have to somehow get through the linking in the hollow of the tree where her scent will be even more potent.

For the tenth time, I consider abandoning this plan. Continuing the search for the amulet alone. Letting her go after the guardian records instead. As she clearly prefers.

But trying to do this alone is what got us into this untenable situation in the first place. Every time I think I catch a whiff of the artifact, my father or Simon Winters or his fucking daughter manages to waylay me, and by the time I can check it out, it’s disappeared. Meanwhile, it’s been years of pretending to be the king’s loyal commander, executing feral Apex at his behest, as if I don’t know exactly how they got that way. I can’t risk Samhain resulting in yet another failure. My heart can’t bear it.

It’s more than that.

In the dim light of the passageway, with only my thoughts and my creature for company, I can admit it to myself. I don’t want the Lynx anywhere near Lord Winters. As long as he believes she’s Elite, he’d never risk turning her. But if he was to catch her stealing…

An instinctual need to protect the little thief roars through my veins. I’ve been fighting the invading feeling tooth and claw since the day we met. But like all the battles of my life, it seems I’m doomed to lose.

I check my watch. An hour past midnight. I’ve waited long enough.

I brush my right pocket—a quick, superstitious check. Then my canines are elongating. I raise my finger to my mouth. A drop of crimson wells before I swipe it across the warded stone. The wound is already healing as the wall opens to her suite.

A dark apparition is within, incongruent in the lady’s sitting room. Hidden in a black cloak, clad in dark pants and boots that seem to blend into the room’s shadows, the Lynx looks every bit the professional thief I hired. Without a word, she sweeps into the passageway, her scent licking me on her way past. She pads up the tunnel on silent feet before pausing and turning back and facing me. I can’t see her face in the deep hood, but the message is clear: What are you waiting for?

I square my shoulders and snatch up the unlit lantern, closing the hidden door behind me before catching up with the little thief. The tunnel is just wide enough for us to walk abreast, and I automatically shorten my strides. “Mei?” I murmur.

“Asleep,” she answers in an equally low voice. We continue in silence, the Lynx following my lead. As I promised, most of the passageways are empty this time of night, but as we make our way to the exit, I catch the scent of a few guards. A ghost of a touch to her lower back is all it takes to redirect her.

She doesn’t shy away from my touch, though it’s not on her bare skin like it was in the garden. I suppress a shiver at the memory of my fingers brushing the soft skin of her face. I don’t know what came over me, even secluded as we were.

As the prince, I’ve never lacked for female companionship. Even after I emerged, I was already familiar with the Apex guardians from training. If anything, they were more enthusiastic lovers than the court ladies I’d bedded in the past. We certainly shared more in common— similar interests, our heightened senses, and the companionship of our creature always thrumming beneath the surface.

But since the day I emerged, I’ve been caught in between two worlds—unable to pursue a real relationship, if I even desired one, which I don’t. What would I do with a vapid courtier who genuflects in person only to smear me behind my back the moment I’m gone? It would never occur to me to touch any female that intimately in public, much less an Elite lady.

And yet.

When she rolled her eyes—something else no female would ever do in my presence these days—I didn’t even think. Just reached out, clasped her chin, teased her as if we were two normal people from a less complicated time in my life. I didn’t second guess how it would be perceived or interpreted if anyone might be watching. And that is a dangerous precedent.

For both of us.

But her reaction? That was the bigger shock. The responsive deepening of her scent, the musk of her arousal made me want—

I pull up sharply, and the Lynx mimics me at my side, her hood tilting in question. I mime putting a finger to my lips, and she nods.

Because the scent of arousal that tickles my nose now isn’t the woman standing next to me. It isn’t mine, either.

It’s two Apex I know very well.

And they’re blocking the only exit to the wooded forest.