Page 14 of Needed in the Night (The Fortusian Mates, #2)

ISLA

The shop’s doors were wide open to welcome customers. The Sirrah’s voice followed us inside and blended with the soft music playing in the showroom.

To my relief, we were the only shoppers, so we had some privacy while I tried to rein in my runaway emotions. I didn’t mind so much if Mikas saw my anger and tears, but I didn’t want Scar to wonder why seeing and hearing the Sirrah had upset me so much.

Mikas bent his head again, squeezed my hand between his arm and the hard muscles of his torso, and murmured, “You forgot to limp, Isla.”

Oh, damn it to all the hells—I’d been so captivated by the singer, and then so angry and upset, that I did forget. Only four months after starting my involuntary leave of absence from the Web, I was already getting rusty on basic ruses.

His gaze searched my face. “I did not mean to upset you. I am sorry.”

“I’m fine,” I said, and forced a smile .

He didn’t believe me; that much was clear from the furrow between his dark brows. When he started to speak, I raised my free hand.

“She’s right outside,” I murmured, with my back to the shop’s doors like his so our lips couldn’t be read and even eavesdropping tech would struggle to catch our voices. “Our shadow. You saw her, didn’t you?”

“Yes.” His expression hardened. “I was not sure you had noted her presence until you feigned that stumble so we could speak quietly.”

I liked very much that he’d seen what I’d seen and understood why I’d wanted to hang onto his arm. And even after only knowing him a few months, I felt so comfortable and safe around him—even more so now away from the bar, despite Scar’s presence.

That wonderful sense of safety was one of the reasons I’d brought him with me to the perfume shop…which like me was more than what it seemed.

With a real smile this time, I gestured widely at our surroundings. “Have you ever been in an authentic Engareni perfume shop?”

“I have not.” He scanned the seemingly endless shelves of bottles, jars, and flowering plants gathered from a hundred planets. “It is certainly wondrous, although the scents are quite strong for those of us with keen senses.”

I winced. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t think about that.”

He smiled slightly. “There is no need to apologize.”

We turned at the sound of footsteps. A beaming, feathered Engareni woman emerged from the back, her hands outstretched.

“Hello, hello!” she crowed, her voice tinged with a squawk. “So lovely to have such beautiful customers come into my shop.”

“Thank you.” I inclined my head in a traditional Engareni greeting. “I’m Isla Mair. ”

“I am Madame Ycari,” she said, returning my nod. “Purveyor of the finest perfumes on all of Fortusia.” Feathers ruffling, she craned her neck to look up at Mikas. “My, you are a big one. A beastly beauty of a male.”

Mikas blinked twice. This was certainly the first time since I’d met him that I’d seen him at a loss. I bit my lip to stifle a chuckle.

“I am Mikas Auren,” he rumbled, with a nod.

“Mikas and Isla. Yes, yes.” Ycari trilled. “What a lovely couple you are.”

Mikas’s expression remained neutral, but his spines bristled. Did her assumption that we were a couple upset him? But why would it?

“Oh, we’re not a couple,” I said quickly. “Mikas is my good friend. And we work together.”

“Hmm.” Ycari made a strange clicking sound with her tongue and teeth and eyed us, as if unconvinced. “Not a couple, not a couple. Hmm.”

“Thank you for coming out to meet us,” I said to distract both of them. “I’m here to sample some scents. I’ve heard good things about the Centenian gregarus.”

She clapped her hands. “Oh, very good, very good. Yes, that is a personal favorite.” She looked up at Mikas again and chuckled. “Big, beastly man, I will have to put you two in our largest sampling room.”

Ycari turned and half-flew, half-walked back in the direction of the rear of the shop. “Come, come,” she called over her feathered shoulder. “Come, come.”

I affected a limp once more and leaned heavily on Mikas’s arm as we followed.

“What is happening?” he asked in an undertone.

“Madame Ycari is a master perfumer,” I explained.

“You don’t simply buy a pre-blended perfume from her.

She gathers the ingredients and creates the perfume to match each customer’s body chemistry.

You leave with a bottle of scent that is unique to you alone, and smells precisely how you want to smell. ”

“Yes,” he said patiently, still keeping his voice low. “I understand how the establishment works. But what is happening? ”

Ah. I’d wondered if—or when—he’d catch on.

“Bear with me a little longer,” I said with a smile, and limped a little extra for Scar’s benefit.

When we reached the back hallway, Ycari shooed us into the third suite on the left. This sampling room contained several very plush sofas, a counter with chairs on both sides, and very little else. The air and furniture were completely sterile and odor-free.

“I will join you soon,” Ycari said, dipping her head to me and sliding a glance at Mikas for some reason. “Perhaps…one hour?”

“Perfect,” I said with a smile.

Ycari squawked and closed the door to the hallway, leaving us alone.

I let go of Mikas’s arm, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly to release my tension. No place could be called safe , but this room was the closest to it I had found on this planet, or any other I’d been on recently.

“Isla.”

I looked up. Mikas was studying me, his brow furrowed in concern rather than anger. “You believe we can speak freely in this room?” he asked.

“Yes.” I settled on the enormous sofa, took off my cross-body bag, and set it on the cushion beside me. All the furnishings were clearly designed for Fortusian customers, making me feel like a child using adult-sized furniture. “How could you tell? My body language?”

“That, and your scent.” He hesitated, then sat in a chair to my right, his back very straight—and not because he worried his spines might poke the chair cushion. He still seemed very uneasy. “Forgive me for noticing it. ”

“There’s nothing to forgive.” I smiled, hoping to get him to relax a little.

“I understand your senses are keener and more finely tuned than mine. It doesn’t bother me.

I do try not to dwell on the fact that as a human living among Fortusians, I have a fraction of your abilities.

If I did, I’d develop quite an inferiority complex. ”

“Nothing about you is inferior,” he said automatically. “Your voice, least of all.”

My face warmed at the very unexpected compliment. Hopefully he didn’t think I’d been fishing for one.

“Well, thank you,” I said. “So, you’re probably wondering why I think we’re relatively safe in this room.”

“I am.” He leaned forward, his forearms on his thighs and gaze searching my face. “And why we are here. It is not to sample perfumes—or not just to sample perfumes.”

How much should I divulge? The question had gnawed at me for at least the past month or so. My instincts told me Mikas was a good man and I could trust him at least to some extent. What those limits were, I wasn’t quite sure yet, so I couldn’t risk anyone else’s safety by revealing too much.

Maybe I could confide in him a little and give him a chance to earn more trust by inviting him to confide in me in return. My stomach churned, but I took a deep breath and took the plunge.

“If you can tell when I feel protected, or at least less on edge, then you know I’m often worried about my safety,” I said. “Without getting into any details, I’m in hiding. I came to Fortusia for a fresh start. Which you probably already guessed.”

“I did guess that.” Mikas’s tone was gentler now than I’d ever heard him be, but his brow remained furrowed. “And this shop and its owner?”

“A designated safe harbor, vouched for by people I trust completely.” I managed a small smile.

“That’s as much as I can tell you other than this room is swept for listening devices almost hourly and nothing we say in here can be heard beyond these walls.

It takes about an hour to select a perfume blend, so that’s about how much time we’ll have before our watcher becomes suspicious about what we’re doing.

You have no reason to trust me, I suppose, but it’s the truth. ”

“I believe you.” His frown faded. “But why did you trust me enough to reveal this?”

“Instincts,” I admitted. “Gut feeling. You’ve always been so kind to me, but more than that, I just feel…safe with you. And that’s not a feeling I get very often.”

Mikas smiled then—a real smile, the first I’d seen on his lips in all the time I’d known him. “I will accept that as the highest praise.”

His golden eyes with their vertically slit pupils really were remarkable—and very piercing when his gaze locked on mine.

“Since you have been honest with me, I will be honest as well,” he said.

“I saw your dagger tonight when the Hardanian touched you. I have known you wear it at all times and you can use it to great effect because you fear some threat. And I spotted your shadowbat companion the day you auditioned at Zaa’ga.

I have said nothing of these secrets to anyone and never will. ”

Up until now, I’d feared anyone, even Mikas, would notice either my forearm sheath or Brae’s presence. But to my surprise a weight lifted off my shoulders knowing those secrets were safe with him.

Much to my chagrin, tears welled up at the feeling of being safe. I blinked them away, but not before Mikas slid to the edge of his seat.

“Please do not weep,” he said earnestly, his voice suddenly rough. “I swear on my life you do not need to fear I will betray you.”

“No, it’s not that.” I took a shaky breath. “I’ve held these secrets in for a while. I guess talking about them and thinking about what a good friend you are just hit me all at once. ”

Something flashed in his eyes—some emotion I couldn’t quite identify. And then it was gone, replaced with kindness. “I am glad to be your friend, Isla. And very honored to be trusted with this information.”