Page 23 of Fool's Bargain

Looking from one man to the other and making a point to meet each of their eyes in turn, I said, “You’ll leave and go about your business and let us enter this door. I think we can all agree that no bloodshed would be good, yeah?”

All six of the men stilled and stared at me, jaws going slack while my eyes did all the work. Finally, they gave me synchronized nods and the rearmost guy swiped a card across a pad beside the door, then held it open.

We left them outside, blinking and shaking their heads as they muttered in confusion over what had just happened. The hypnosis would leave them believing whatever plausible explanation their own minds could concoct for what they’d experienced.

Within the shelter of the building, the cold December breeze couldn’t reach us and my urge to huddle into myself went away. I reoriented myself to the tug in my midsection. She was close, the strange link between us giving me no choice but to seek her out. As a unit, Kyril, Dorian, and I started down a hallway but stopped after only a few steps when that sense of her location shifted. She was closer.

“You’re his brothers, aren’t you?”

We turned to face a side corridor and came face-to-face with a breathtaking woman. My heart stopped. She had a face so delicate and beautiful there was no doubt higher-races blood running in her veins, with smooth, olive-toned skin and full lips. Her eyes were big and pale blue, almost gray. Her hair was long and black, with a few wisps falling over her forehead, the rest pulled back, revealing ears that glinted with rows of silver rings around the outside edge of each. When she turned her head as Kyril moved, a dark design was visible curling up the side of her neck and behind her left ear.

“Whose brother?” Kyril asked, taking an eager step forward. The woman took a cautious step back, keeping distance between us.

“Deva’s sex bomb of a boy toy. Or mate. Whatever you guys call yourselves when you’re pussy whipped.”

“She means Llyr,” Dorian said. “I guess she’s met our absent brother then. Please don’t use him as an example of what all Thiasoi are like.”

Her dark eyebrow arched. “Well then color me disappointed. What exactlyareyou like?”

“Saner than that idiot,” Dorian answered with a chuckle. “We don’t fall in love with women we’re not allowed to fuck. He was just lucky enough to get away with it.”

Her pupils flared and she licked her lips. The tug in my midsection sharpened and she leaned in as if pulled by that same tension.

“This is too fucking weird,” she said. “Deva told me you three were off-limits. I hoped I’d still get to meet you. I mean, if I’ve got to choose someone to besoul boundto, I need to know I’ve got options. This shit’s permanent, isn’t it? So are you or aren’t you available?”

I moved closer and she didn’t pull away this time. “We are very much available. What doesn’t make sense is why I can sense you under my skin already. How close are you to Deva Rainsong anyway?”

The closer I got, the surer I was that there was more than a blood link at work. The bond I felt to Deva was still there, my awareness attuned to the chimera’s presence somewhere to the northeast of us. But it was all but obliterated by this woman in front of me.

When I was barely an inch away, her breath hitched, her eyes widening when I bent to scent her, the primal part of me needing to fill all my senses with her but obeying my restraint for just this one ocean-scented breath.

“Deva and I just met today,” she said. “But I guess you could call us Eskimo sisters. She’s fucking my ex. Er... I guess they’remated, or whatever you call it.” In a quieter, more reverent voice she said, “Soul bound.”

She raised a hand to my chest, resting it in the center. The touch made the Diviner’s mark grow hot, sending a jolt of understanding into me.

My eyes widened as I stared down at her and said with utter certainty, “You’re the one who will break the bond.”

12

Zarya

Ididn’t know what bond the big guy meant, but I was really fucking confused all around.

“I don’t even know you,” I said. “This makes no goddamn sense.” I stared at my hand where it pressed against this perfect stranger’s sternum, his heartbeat drumming just beneath. Digging my fingers in between the two hard mounds of his pectorals, I bunched the fabric of his shirt into my fist, working hard to suppress a crazy urge to fling myself at him, but not able to find the will to walk away.

His hand came up to cover mine and he held it tighter. I looked up into pale blue eyes that seemed to spin for a second before he blinked. He had thick, wavy, red-gold hair that looked soft as silk, and I might have touched it if I hadn’t been focusing so hard on tryingnotto throw myself at him entirely.

His friends closed in on either side of me, one a brown-haired god who practically glowed, the other dark and sensual and as silently graceful as a moray eel. I could still leave—there was an opening behind me—yet I didn’t want to. What I wanted was to be encompassed fully within their circle, the way Deva had been with her men, but despite them closing in, I felt that emptiness behind me less like an escape than an entire wall that was missing from my heart.

I closed my eyes and inhaled a fortifying breath. The delicious scents that followed only added to my confusion. Deva had said that her hounds would find my soul mate. Was he one of these men? Sweet Jesus, was heallof them?

“Let’s start trying to make sense of things then,” the brown-haired one to my left said with the eager expression of a happy pup. I’d only retreated because he was so fuckingbig, not out of any real fear. He had an open, eager expression that reminded me of Bodhi when a good swell was headed toward the coast. “Tell us your name.”

“That makes too much sense,” I said, relaxing a little and smiling at him, grateful for a suggestion as benign as offering introductions. “I’m Zarya Neilos.”

His eyes brightened and he shared a quick look with his cohorts. “A true nymphaea name if I’ve ever heard one. I’m Kyril Leneus. That’s Dorian Maron.” He pointed to the dark, broody-looking one that could’ve been Llyr’s twin. “And this big beauty is Theo Astraeus.” He patted my hand-holder’s shoulder. “We’re three of the Haven’s oldest Thiasoi soldiers. And the last three unmated satyrs. Hopefully that’s where you come in.”

I laughed and shook my head. “I don’t think exchanging names means we’re ready to commit. You’ve gotta give me time to absorb all this.” I wrenched my hand out of Theo’s grasp, already missing his touch and regretting the hurt expression that crossed his face, but I took a step back, just to find room to breathe.

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