Page 75 of Tales of a Deadly Devotion (Tales of a Monstrous Heart, #2)

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Kat

I wasn’t completely certain I wasn’t hallucinating. Worried that maybe there was more in the air than simply pleasure smoke. This version of Emrys in his leathers, as if he’d come straight from meeting Lady Ramsey. Not looking like a brothel patron at all.

Then again … I didn’t know what Emrys would wear to a brothel.

Why was Emrys in a brothel?

‘Can I help you?’ I demanded, suddenly angry enough to feel my flame stinging my fingertips as I untangled myself from his hold. Why was he talking to whatever version of me he saw? And what was he doing declaring that whoever she was … was his .

His dark eyes narrowed for a moment, before a huff of breath left him.

‘I know it’s you, Croinn.’ His fingers curled around my wrist, before he tugged me into one of the dark alcoves. Out of the path of another passing group of patrons. Crowing with amusement as they found the three men sprawled in the hallway.

What? My thoughts felt as clouded as the air before us.

‘How?’ I demanded, looking down at his hand. At the gold band still on his finger. At how my father’s blade had stayed with him all this time.

‘Glamour doesn’t work on Verr.’ His dark brow raised, pulling on that scar at the side of his face.

Of course. I knew that. Well, not exactly, but the myths did say some summoning didn’t affect Verr as they would fey or even ancient fey.

‘Of all the dangerous and reckless things I could anticipate you doing … this has won. By far . I was absent for a few hours and you’ve turned to … espionage .’ That exasperated crease at his brow didn’t cease, making a delicious shiver run down my spine. ‘And you’re dreadful at it.’

‘You said I was remarkable at everything,’ I countered, suddenly unable to stop playing with the buttons of his shirt.

He ducked his head so those pitch-black eyes met my own. ‘Croinn, sneaking about isn’t your strongest suit.’

I should have been aghast at his observation, however he had found me here with little difficulty. I continued to let my fingers play over the buttons, all the way down until I reached the waistband of his trousers.

‘Kat.’ He caught my curious hand.

I felt like a ghostly caress was brushing over my overheated skin. My magic practically fluttering in my abdomen at his presence, making it impossible to stand still.

‘I think something is wrong with me.’ I blinked, thankful he was holding my hand because I was fearful I was about to rip his clothes off. Or put it between my thighs.

He caught my chin, examining my eyes. ‘It’s the smoke.’

‘You seem fine,’ I accused, tongue darting out to taste that sweetness on my lips. Noting how he tracked my every movement.

‘ That doesn’t affect Verr either.’ He released my chin, making my lips pucker, but he slid his fingers between my own, trapping my hand from any further wandering. ‘Let’s go.’

‘No.’ I stood my ground, pressing myself against his firmness for nothing more than my own pleasure. ‘There is a relic here. The gobrite said so.’

‘Gobrite?’ His brow furrowed, his fingers pressing against my forehead as if I was ill.

‘Orin,’ I answered absently. Only then I shook my head, realising Emrys wouldn’t know William had given the creature a name yet. Maybe I should tell him.

But my thoughts halted as Emrys caught my face between his rough palms.

‘Croinn, have you taken something?’ His frown deepened, as I felt the pinch of his magic with concern or anger.

‘The gobrite turned into a hound and William wants to keep it. He’s called it Orin.

’ I shook my head and ran my hand over the strong line of his throat, up his jaw to trace his lips.

‘The Compendium of Souls was open. My mother opened it. The Greymark line mixed with all the Lord’s lines … so I can open the compendiums too.’

I showed him the cut on my palm, only he didn’t seem too pleased about that, so I hid it behind my back. ‘Anyway, in the book there was a map of the Verr temples, exactly where the fey ruins are now. I think the fey hid them.’

‘This house was built on desecrated fey ruins,’ he answered, but my gaze fell back to the golden band on his finger.

‘Why are you still wearing that?’ I ignored the thrill that went through me and how my stomach swooped. That desire only coiling tighter there, painfully so.

His lips twitched, his eyes suddenly molten despite his annoyance. ‘It won’t come off.’

‘It must like you,’ I smiled, only then I had to bite my lip. That incessant need brewing inside me refusing to be ignored. ‘You’ve caused a problem.’

He closed his eyes as if pained before he shrugged out of his jacket. My breath caught with wanton excitement, only to earn myself a sharp reprimanding look as he held it out to me. ‘Put it on, Kat.’

‘You don’t like it?’ I looked down at the slip William had found for me. It was revealing but it wasn’t hideous. Not as bad as some of the ideas Thean came up with.

‘You’re cold, Croinn,’ Emrys replied, his tone darker as he glanced over his shoulder, as if hearing something.

Then I noticed my skin was covered in gooseflesh. How had I forgotten I was cold?

‘Nobody can see me,’ I muttered but obediently put it on, glad to be covered even if it did brush my oversensitive skin. Being enveloped in Emrys’s scent wasn’t helping my focus.

Only then I noticed how still he was, how his head was tilted, listening. Only I knew it wasn’t to the ruckus of the brothel around is.

Darkness calls all dark things back .

‘Can you sense it?’ I whispered, worried instantly. Remembering the agony it had caused him last night. Hating that I’d brought him closer to something so old.

He nodded. ‘It’s here.’

He slipped his hand into my own. The barest touch did the strangest things to my body.

I pressed up onto my toes to whisper in his ear. ‘When we get home, you’ll need to bribe the house to leave us be for a long while.’

An amused – or frustrated – huff of breath slipped from his lips.

‘When you’re sober, my love, I’ll give you anything you want.’ He pressed a kiss behind my ear as if to seal the promise.

‘I could ask for a book,’ I challenged. Maybe to see what lay in those cellars beneath the house I still hadn’t been able to look though yet.

‘No book is as interesting as what I’m going to do to you, Kat.’ He kissed the heel of my palm, right over the healing cut before pulling me from the dark. As if knowing I needed the distraction of movement.

‘We should get Alma and Thean,’ I worried.

‘Gideon is on it,’ he answered, moving with predatory ease down the corridor.

‘I’m sure he’s thrilled with that responsibility,’ I muttered, suddenly very distracted by how his trousers hugged his backside. Had it always looked like that? And if so, how had I not noticed sooner?

‘Croinn,’ Emrys half-growled. Making me wonder if he could in fact read minds. The wishing stone gave a flutter against my skin in strange contentment.

Nobody looked at us as we made our way through the halls. They were all too busy doing … other things. I kept my gaze firmly on Emrys’s broad shoulders, where his shirt clung to the strong contours of him.

Thankful I was behind him. I didn’t need any further ideas. Emrys ducked into one of the passages, moving as if pulled by a soundless command – where we found an old arched wooden door hidden between two large cabinets.

It was locked. Emrys’s dark-tipped fingers curled around the padlock and with one sharp twist he snapped the metal. It hit the stone with a clang. Making me wonder just when he’d started being able to do that.

The door opened to narrow stone steps that curled around and around as they led downwards. Strings of dust webs rippling in the slight breeze.

We moved down the stairs, where the air grew close with damp. Unease prickled my skin at the darkness before us, at Thean’s warnings of what could be lingering down here.

When we reached the bottom I let flame consume my hand, the lavender illuminating nothing but damp stone and a small circular space where someone had dumped crates and old candlesticks a long time ago, judging from the dust coating them.

‘It’s a dead end,’ I whispered.

Emrys’s gaze swung to me, brows knitting together. ‘You can’t see it?’

His eyes returned to the shadows before us, fixed on a point ahead. What seemed to be nothing but crumbling stone.

Glamour didn’t work on Verr. The doorway was hidden. It was why nobody had found it, and even if Verr could, they couldn’t open it without the right blood. Just like those compendiums.

‘Croinn,’ Emrys ordered softly, his jaw tense with disapproval as if knowing my next movement. I extinguished my flame and slid my father’s blade easily from his finger. It hummed with energy, displeased with being used against its own blood but turning into a small sharp blade.

I pressed it into the just healing wound, ignoring the painful pinch.

‘Show me.’ I held my palm out to Emrys. He wasn’t pleased to see the blood pool in my palm, but he turned and pressed it gently against the stone.

A moment of silence, then it began to quake and rumble. The large stone blocks shaking, mortar cracking and spilling down the wall. My hand dropped as the glamour faded. The bricks moving to reveal a narrow passage strung with thick webs.

Emrys didn’t pay it any attention, ducking to the bottom of my flimsy slip and tearing a strip of fabric free. Then he made quick work of bandaging my wound.

I felt the blade in my other hand curl itself back into a ring. Clearly having a new preference for how it wished to be concealed. One far too big for my hand.

I couldn’t blame it. Emrys wouldn’t lose it like I had a tendency to.

I slid it back onto his finger for safekeeping, then his hand captured my own once more.

‘Ready?’ he asked and my mouth suddenly felt dry. A strange wariness consuming me as I looked at the darkness beyond.

Everything seemed to have come together too easily. Thean’s warning about what could be in there.

I couldn’t speak, too much of a coward, so I nodded – and let Emrys pull me through.