Page 42 of Tethered Souls

“With what time and energy?”

He laughs. “Don’t worry, Micha. No guy can keep this up for long. I bet he only makes it a few more days.”

“Varius isn’t a guy. He’s a –” I stop, the word ‘god’ on my lips. Although it has been centuries since a person has been struck down by lightning or turned into a spider for comparing themselves to the gods, it’s just one of those things you don’t risk.

Then again, if I really put some enthusiasm into my claims, maybe Zeus will strike him down in a fit of jealousy and I can get some sleep.

“You think I can fake a period?”

“I don’t see why not. It’s not like he’s going to check, but it might make it quite awkward when you hit it again in a week or two.”

I wave my brush at the mirror, happy enough with my foundation to call it done. “Eh, that happens to some girls, so it’s not outside the realm of truth.”

“Will he punish you if he catches you in a lie?”

“I’ll just say I’m pregnant. He won’t hurt me then.”

“Micha,” he says flatly, his humor suddenly gone.

I sigh as I start working on my eyes. “I don’t think so.”

“Just because no one’s hurt you so far –”

“I know,” I say. I am well aware of the honeymoon phase a lot of bought wives go through. The calm before the storm.

He pauses for a moment, then grumbles, “I don’t like not being able to feel you. I keep thinking the worst every time I…”

My chest squeezes. “I’m okay, Dayne. Honest. I’m just tired. But you got an invitation to the engagement party, right?”

“Yes.”

The tightness in my chest eases. “Good. Then I’ll see you in a couple days. You won’t even recognize me.”

He doesn’t laugh, and my forced smile drops. I always loved who I was, and he knew it.

“I have to go,” I say hurriedly, not wanting to dwell on things I can’t change. “I’ll see you soon.”

“Yeah.”

Hanging up, I close my eyes briefly. Then I finish putting on the finishing touches to my make-up and thread my nose stud back in. The piercing in my eyes, implanted under the clear surface of the sclera, mocks me with their presence. As dangerous as they are to get for humans, so much so many doctors won’t perform the surgery, I need them to see my ethereal flames. The piercings are platinum alloy runes, no more than a few millimeters wide, and they were a bitch for me to create. But glasses are too easily knocked off and are a pain to push up against a scope or binoculars. So Dayne put them in for me when I was twelve, when I was foolishly determined to be the best damn assassin there ever was. So I’d be too valuable for my father to lose, to trade…

A fucking fool.

Turning from the mirror, I head downstairs, my new life shackled around my ankles.

Thirteen

HIM

Talon stands as I enter his sleek, modern office, a smile on his face, his green eyes easy. My skin is pulled tight by paranoia, and my nostrils flare slightly as I breathe in his scent, checking for the sour tang of fear, the rich odor of adrenaline or rage. But there’s nothing under his deodorant, applied liberally beneath his simple black tank top. Still...the hairs on my neck do not relax. And my fingers twitch with the desire to pull one of the many knives I never go without. I have a gun too, but there’s just something more calming about holding a blade.

“Congratulations on the engagement,” he says, his smile stretching across the full of his face. There isn’t any strain to his lips, no tightness that belies genuineness. I want to just ask him if he wishes to kill me, not tiptoe around the real reason I’m here, but if Talon isn’t the traitor...I do not want to destroy the relationship we have.

So I keep my mouth shut and simply nod as he lifts the phone off its receiver on his large black desk. The piece of furniture is perpendicular to me on this side and a wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling window with an amazing view of Miami Beach, Florida, and the crisp, blue-and-green stretch of the Pacific on the other. He presses the button to call his assistant. “Louise? Bring in the good stuff.”

“Yes, sir.”

Hanging up, he looks at me. “I knew you had it in you to last more than fifty-nine seconds. Won me twelve hundred, that did.”