Page 33 of By the Horns (Royal Artifactual Guild #2)

Twenty-Four

Raptor

I can’t believe what I’m hearing. How the muck does Gwenna know that I have a knot? Only a sex worker could tell her the truth—or maybe Naiah, who supplies my potions—but the women I go to know that I pay extra for their silence. There’s only one way that Gwenna would know that about my body….

I close my eyes and put my hands on her hips, ignoring her startled squeal as I grope her in the street.

I’ve imagined getting Sarya in my arms again so many times.

I still know what she felt like, and she felt like…

this. I open my eyes again just in time for Gwenna to slap my hands away. “A tall, busty blonde, eh?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Gwenna says in a prim voice.

“Admit it. You’re Sarya.” I’ve cursed that blindfold and my healing eyes a dozen times over since that fateful day.

I’m practically giddy with relief that she’s stumbled over her own words and shown herself to me.

If she truly is Sarya, this is the best possible outcome for me.

I haven’t been neglecting locating the woman I’m obsessed with.

She’s not a figment of my fevered imagination.

She’s been right here under my nose the entire time.

And considering that I’m wildly attracted to Gwenna, this is perfect.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She puts her nose in the air, glaring up at me. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m tired and hungry and I’d like to go home.”

“First, tell me that you’re Sarya.” I move to stand in front of her, blocking the street. “There’s no point in lying any longer.”

“I don’t know what it is that you think I’m lying about,” she maintains, but her cheeks are bright pink with color. Far better than the bleached white they were down in the caverns. She’s bothered by my words.

She’s bothered because she’s been caught in a mucking lie. How has she hidden who she is all this time? How has she not said anything to me?

Unless there are more secrets she’s hiding from me…like being the thief.

Surely not. I can’t picture her as the thief in question.

I can’t picture Gwenna—or Sarya—working with a bunch of cutthroats, opening up necks the moment a foolish repeater is no longer needed.

It doesn’t match what I know of Gwenna. She can be a little jaded at times, sure, but who isn’t?

And she cares for those she views as her family.

Gwenna’s cagey responses just irritate me. I point a finger in her face. “You and I are going back to the nest, and you are going to do some serious explaining.”

She swats my finger away from her face with her good hand. “There’s nothing to explain! Just leave me be.”

As if I could possibly walk away from a mystery like this without getting to the bottom of it? After learning that she’s Sarya?

She might not be the thief, but it doesn’t mean she’s not working with him. Or her.

I fight the incredible urge to throw her over my knee and spank her.

Then again, that might not be irritation making me want to do that.

It might be pure lust. I’m off my potion, so I’m going to be impulsive and turned on.

There’s a small part of me that feels an overwhelming sense of relief that Sarya isn’t missing or hiding from me. That she’s been here all along.

That the charmingly tart human I’ve been fighting my attraction for is the woman I’ve been dreaming about, even if she lied to me.

But there are a few too many lies for me to be comfortable. Not when my task is to ferret out the truth of the conspiracy going on. I say nothing, just turn things over in my head as we walk across Vastwarren’s heart and return to the dorms.

When we get to Master Jay’s nest, Gwenna immediately heads for the necessary. I glance in the sleeping quarters, but they’re empty. Checking the rest of the house, I find only the nestmaid, busy chopping vegetables. “Get out,” I tell her. “You’re done for the day.”

The woman turns around, her mouth opening. “I don’t—”

“Out,” I say again, putting a growl in my voice. The woman nods, terrified, and races out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron.

As she races away, Gwenna enters, a towel around her hand. She frowns at me as if I’m the problem. “What did you say to Marta?”

“I told her to leave.”

“She has work to do. It’s not her fault you’re in a shitty mood.” She moves to the counter, eyeing the unfinished vegetable chopping on the counter. “If someone complains they weren’t fed, she’s going to be the one who gets in trouble.”

“No one’s here but you and me,” I point out. Even Kipp’s shell isn’t in the corner it usually inhabits. “Which means we’re going to talk about what’s going on.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” Gwenna picks up the discarded chopping knife with her good hand and attacks the vegetables.

I move to her side and pluck the blade out of her grip, ignoring the glare she shoots at me. “I want to know what your game is.”

“I cannot even begin to know what you’re talking about,” she says with a huffed laugh.

“Probably because you’ve been lying to me so much you can’t even keep your own stories straight.” That earns me a dirty look, which confirms that I’m on the right track. “Give me your hand.”

She shoots me an indignant glare.

I gesture that she should hold it out. “Just let me see it. I’m not going to sit here and watch you chop up vegetables while you’re bleeding and in pain.”

Her jaw clenches, her expression mulish. Well, I can be stubborn, too. I hold my palm out, waiting patiently. Eventually she slaps her hand into mine. I gently pull the towel off, and I’m not entirely surprised to see that she hasn’t tended to her wounds. “Why didn’t you put an ointment on this?”

“Why are you fussing over me?”

Gwenna is being unusually grouchy, and there’s a distracted look on her face, as if she’s having trouble concentrating.

Her pupils seem a little wider than normal, her gaze a bit glassy.

Is something else bothering her? As the most experienced on the team, without Master Jay around, it’s my duty to look after her.

At least, that’s what I tell myself, since I’m going to fuss.

I pick her up, settling her backside on the counter next to the cutting board.

“You sit right here and wait for me to get the salve. If I come back and you’ve moved, I will hunt you down and pin you to the ground until you let me doctor your hand. ”

Her jaw drops and she makes a sound of protest…but she doesn’t get off the counter.

Good. “I’ll be right back.”

I head across the kitchen, pulling open the cabinet that every nest is stocked with—herbs and potions for headaches and muscle aches, bandages for wrapping twisted ankles, and a tea that helps the too-tightly-wound sleep at night.

I pull out a small jar of ointment and a roll of bandages and move back to Gwenna’s side.

This time, she doesn’t protest, just extends her hand toward me.

I tend to her brutalized palm, saying nothing as I wash her hand with water and then dab the herb-laced ointment on her skin. “Did something happen when we were down in the caverns? Something that caused this?”

She doesn’t answer.

“If there’s something dangerous down there, it affects more than me and you, Gwenna. Tell me.”

“I did it to myself,” she says after a moment. “No need to fuss.”

She tries to pull her hand away again, but I refuse to release her. “I’m not done. Hold still.” I finish with the ointment and then carefully wrap the bandages around her hand. “If you did this to yourself, why?”

Again, she hesitates. “Focus. I needed to focus.”

I’ve heard of people injuring themselves to block out mental anguish. Is that what this is? “What did you need to focus on?”

She’s silent again.

“You’re quiet.”

“You’re not listening to me when I say anything, so why should I try?”

I hesitate. Is it possible that I’m wrong? Is it possible that she’s not Sarya and I’m racing off with the idea like a fool? I pretend to fuss over the bandages and close my eyes to focus. “Say my name.”

“I’m not doing anything for you when you’re behaving like an arse.

” Her tone is indignant, but there’s no question in my mind that it’s Sarya after all.

With my eyes closed, there’s no mistaking it.

How did I never see this before? Have I been so blinded by the thought of a tall blonde that I never saw the woman right in front of me?

Mucking hells, I don’t even like blondes.

Gwenna being Sarya brings new complications, though.

In addition to the pile of lies, it poses a problem that we’re both fledglings on the same team.

We’re both supposed to be concentrating on getting ready for the future tests (and I’m supposed to be finding a thief).

I know I can pass the guild tests again, but it’d be unfair of me to distract Gwenna from her studies.

Even so, I need answers. “Why’d you fuck me? That day when I was in the hospital?”

“No idea what you’re talking about,” Gwenna says, voice crisp.

I want to pluck her off the counter and shake her until the truth comes out. “Give up on the bullshit and tell me the truth already. We both know that you’re lying.”

“I don’t know why you think I’m lying.”

I grit my teeth. I grab her chin and force her to look me in the eye, and then I recall something else she said earlier. Figured you wouldn’t be into fucking right now.

“Do you still want to fuck?” I demand.

Gwenna goes still. Her eyes go wide as she gazes up at me, but her pupils betray her. They dilate, growing larger, and I can feel her breath speed up.

Well now. That’s interesting. “You want me to touch you?”

“I didn’t say that!”

I stroke my thumb along her soft jaw. “So I shouldn’t touch you?”

Her lips part, and when my thumb grazes her lower lip, she captures it in her mouth and sucks on the tip. When she releases it, she gazes up at me with hot, hungry eyes. “I didn’t say that, either.”