Page 31 of A Taste For Lies (The Apex Kingdom #1)

Chapter 31

ALORA

“ W ho the fuck was that?” the prince demands the moment he reaches my side.

I lift my chin. “The key master.”

Taran casts a glance back to the terrace doors where Harlan has already disappeared. Except for Astrid standing sentry, we’re alone.

When his gaze returns to mine, a guilty expression has replaced the fuming Apex. He opens his mouth as if to respond, then abruptly freezes, his entire body going preternaturally still. Slowly, so slowly, he cocks his head to the side in that predator way he has, silver-gray eyes thinned to slits, his nostrils flaring.

“Are you wearing his clothing?” His low growl raises the hairs on the back of my neck.

At first, I’m not even sure what he’s talking about. And then it hits me. Harlan’s coat. “Yes. I was cold,” I snap.

The prince pulls in a deep breath as though attempting to gain control. “Lady Lynx, I recognize that you are rightfully angry with me. I know we need to talk about what happened in the ballroom—”

“You mean what you did in the ballroom— ”

“But,” he continues over the top of me in an even tone, “at this moment, I feel as though I am holding on by the very tips of my fingernails and you are rapidly shredding what remains of my resolve. Would you please, for the love of all the gods, take that coat off .”

My eyes narrow. “Is this an Apex thing?”

“Yes. It is…an Apex thing.”

I throw my hands in the air. “Fine.” Shoving the over-large coat down my shoulders, he reaches out to help. In two heartbeats, the suit coat is off my body and in his hands.

With absolutely no warning, he hurls the key master’s coat over the balustrade as if it’s on fire. It catches the air like a black bird, fluttering down out of sight. We both stare after it, the prince dragging down gulps of the icy air as though he’s surfaced from deep water.

I raise my eyebrows.

Taran takes one last deep, calming breath in—and screws up his face like he’s smelled a decaying rat. Lip still curled in distaste, he shrugs off his own formal coat and drops it over my shoulders. The prince’s familiar rain and pine scent envelops me along with the borrowed warmth of his body, and the tension eases slightly from his expression.

He steps into my space, pulling his enormous coat closed by the lapels. “Better?” he asks in a low rasp that makes me shiver, though not from the cold.

I meet his smoldering gaze. “Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?”

Instead of answering, he maintains his grip on the coat, crowding me with his huge frame and backing me up along the terrace edge. “My dear Lady Lynx. You have the most intoxicating scent I have ever experienced. Like an explosion of jasmine, hot in the sun. But the combination of his and your scents together…” My back hits the cold stone of the turret wall, and my eyes widen. The prince continues to invade my personal space, leaning closer until his hair brushes the skin of my neck. His hot breath grazes the shell of my ear as he murmurs, soft as a lover, “It makes me want to kill him. ”

A gasp sneaks out of my throat, whether due to the shock from his words or the rumble of his tantalizing voice that close to my ear, I can’t tell.

“I am feeling an almost undeniable instinct to follow that criminal’s scent down those stairs and rip him apart with my bare hands.” He leans back only enough to make sure I can see the flash of his savage smile. “Or maybe my teeth. Probably both, frankly.”

His words should scare me. I should be running away in terror of his stoneclaw’s overly possessive temper. I should absolutely not, under any circumstances, feel this taboo thrill, this illogical instinct driving me to push him further. But here I am, anyway. “I’m not wearing his clothing anymore,” I point out. “I’m wearing yours.”

His eyes heat. “Yes, you are.”

“You’re unhinged,” I complain, but my traitorous voice is breathy.

He finally drops the lapels of the coat, staying close enough to touch. “Never claimed not to be.”

I shift against the wall, the cold of the stone seeping through the fabric. “That didn’t sound like an apology.”

His eyes darken to silver-gray storm clouds. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked you to dance. I shouldn’t have cut in when you were trying to distract Lord Winters. I abandoned the plan we all agreed to, and I’m sorry for it,” he repeats.

“Why did you?” My words are soft, easily lost to the whipping wind, but he hears them anyway.

Taran braces his hands on the wall on either side of my head, caging me in as he searches my face for something. “I think…it might be the linking. The books did say it would bring my instincts to the surface. Make them more intense. And mine are—protective.”

I shake my head. “We only tried it a few times.” I wave at his too-close body in illustration. “And I believe you mean possessive , not protective, as the bigger danger here is clearly your murderous impulses over my choice in dance partners. ”

“I danced with Victoria because I didn’t want to draw any more attention to you than I already foolishly had,” he says in a complete non sequitur, raking his hand through his coal-black hair until the waves are deliciously mussed. “I thought my dancing with her and not you would get Victoria and my family off your back. Keep you safe. It’s the same reason I couldn’t stand to see you with Simon.” He finally retreats, giving me some much-needed breathing room. “I’m barely restraining myself from ripping a man’s arms off because you wore his coat for probably five godsdamn minutes.”

“We need to stop this, whatever this is. Whatever the linking is doing to us, I don’t want it.” And now my voice is the one that sounds reedy with desperation, but I can’t help it. It’s not only his instincts that are worrying me.

“I think you’re right, Lady Lynx.” His worried expression is a mirror of my own. “The linking is obviously bringing too many of my creature’s instincts to the surface. I’ll resume the search for the amulet on my own.”

“But that’s the whole point of me being here!” I protest.

He buries his face in his hands, and his next words come out muffled. “I know.”

With gentle fingers, I pull his large hands away, revealing his face. Silver eyes find mine, full of too many emotions for me to name. “Taran,” I murmur, his bigger hands still clasped in mine.

He leans forward, hanging on my every word. “Yes, My Lady?”

It takes me a moment to steel my spine well enough to ask the question. “This doesn’t make sense, but…is there something else it could be besides the linking?”

The prince jolts back, making me drop his hands. The cool night air rushes over my body as soon as he’s no longer there to block it. “Why—why do you ask that?”

Because I’m not an Apex, but I’ve been feeling it, too. Because I’ve felt connected to you and unable to escape it since the moment I first heard your voice. Because I sensed your stoneclaw. “Just a feeling. ”

His right hand slides into his pocket. “There’s something I need to tell you—”

The terrace doors bang open, and our heads swing to the entrance. Astrid is already closing them behind Maeve and Carter, who rush to join us by the turret.

I set aside this fraught conversation for another time. “Did you get to the records? Did Lord Winters catch you?”

Carter sweeps into an overelaborate bow, presenting me with my lockpick kit as though it’s a crown. “Good as new, My Lady.”

I snatch it back, a smile forming. “Thank you.”

“I managed to waylay Lord Winters,” Maeve cuts in with a pointed look at her cousin. “Carter got the time he needed.”

My stomach feels full of rocks as, for the first time, I consider what happened in the ballroom after I stormed off. “Does anyone suspect…?”

“Running off was the best thing you could have done,” she assures me. “Your cover is intact.” She sends a sidelong glance at Taran. “Though His Majesty’s interest in you is piqued.”

A muscle tics in Taran’s jaw.

“What did you find?” I practically beg Carter.

His eyes dart to the prince.

“You first, Lady Lynx,” Taran insists. “What did you learn from the key master?” I turn a frustrated glare in his direction, but he’s unmoved. “We need to be sure all of our covers remain intact,” he reminds me.

“He knows about Maeve, but I don’t think about any of you.”

Maeve nods. “We knew that much after Meiling saw us together.”

My heart pangs. I wish I didn’t have to treat Mei like a foreign spy, but she’s the guild’s asset. I already knew, and Harlan just upheld it. “He didn’t confirm that he’s an Apex, but he didn’t deny it, either.” I pull Taran’s coat tighter around my body. “He offered to assist. For the right price.”

“This is becoming an expensive endeavor,” Maeve mutters.

“It’s more than worth it,” Taran counters in a sure tone. “Anything else? ”

“He wants our silence.” I frown, thinking. “I can’t be sure who he’s most worried we’ll tell his secret. And he wants me and Eleni gone when this job is done.” With a start, I realize he only specified that I had to leave Ravenscrest. I’ll have to worry about that another time.

“What’s your opinion?” Maeve surprises me by deferring to me over her cousin. “Do you think we should take his offer of assistance?”

Reluctantly, I shake my head. “Not yet. We still have a bit of time. I want to try searching those places I picked out on the blueprints first. The key master is a last resort.” My eyes find Carter’s, the torchlight reflecting their glow. “Now tell me what you found.”

He looks stricken. He keeps glancing at Maeve and Taran as if they’ll relieve him of this responsibility somehow.

“Carter, whatever it is, just tell her. She can take it,” Maeve says, surprising me for the second time in as many minutes.

He lifts his chest and refocuses on me. “First, I looked back at the older records. From when your parents might have emerged. Nothing. No lynx as an inner creature, no power having to do with memory manipulation—nothing that points to an Apex being your parent.”

My heart sinks. For the first time, I consider there might not be any answers waiting for me here at the palace. Taran places a supportive arm around my shoulders, and I don’t shrug it off. I’m too disappointed, and it feels too comforting.

Carter pulls in a deep breath. “But…”

I perk up. “But?”

“I remembered Taran said you were fifteen when you were found in Shanterra. And you told Maeve that first night on the road that you’re twenty-five. So I checked the records from ten years ago.”

My heart stops. Vaguely, I’m aware of the arm around my shoulders tensing.

Carter pushes out a loud breath. “There was a female who emerged. With a lynx as an inner creature. Auditory. Her gift was—”

“Languages,” Taran breathes from beside me. All the blood drains from my face.

Carter nods. “And possibly even the ability to crack codes. There was a question mark written there; I don’t think they had the chance to examine her.”

Examine her.

Me.

My body is frozen solid, just another column of stone on the terrace.

“What else did the records say?” Maeve prompts, with a concerned glance in my direction.

Carter shoots me a pitying look. “That she was from Lord Temshal’s territory. That the royal guard came to pick her up to commandeer her for the palace, but—”

“Go on,” I rasp. I feel torn in two. As if I’m floating above, looking down at myself saying the words.

“But the girl had disappeared. Her parents were the only ones there.”

“What happened to them?” Taran asks for me.

“Dead,” he answers.

“Killed,” I correct, my voice trembling. “For her disappearance.” I can’t bring myself to say my . I turn in the circle of Taran’s arm and meet his conflicted gaze. “This can’t be—it isn’t true, right? I would know, you would know—”

“You smell like a human to me,” he confirms. “I can’t sense any inner creature or power level. But—” I raise my hand to stop him there, yet he plows on. “The ache you described, the feeling like an essential piece of you is missing. That’s what it would feel like to be without your creature.”

Maeve crosses her arms over her chest. “So what, someone somehow removed her creature and made her human again?”

Taran shakes his head. “No, that’s impossible. If she’s the one in those records, she’s Apex. It must be…buried somehow. In hiding.” He frowns. “I’ve never heard of someone losing the connection with their creature after emerging without… ”

“Going feral,” Carter finishes in a grim tone.

“You’re sure that entry was about her?” Maeve jabs her head in my direction. “You said her scent is human. Her eyes don’t glow. I understand the timing matches up, and there’s the lynx thing, but still.”

“There was something else,” Carter admits. “Something that might confirm whether the lynx they’re talking about is our Lynx or not.”

I shut my eyes, unable to look at them as they talk through this impossible possibility—one that’s somehow feeling more and more possible.

Taran’s thumb rubs my arm in soothing strokes. “What is it?”

“I know you don’t know your surname, but the entries are meticulous. They recorded everything. Even…even the first names. The name of the girl, the one who emerged with a lynx as her creature, was…Alora.”