Page 89 of A Pact of Blood

I step back from all of the men, my joy bittersweet. “Let’s end this wonderful evening here. I shouldn’t stay away from my room for too long.”

The trappings of an Accasian parlor fall away, leaving theabandoned servants’ room that looks even drabber now. A sigh slips from Lorenzo’s lips.

I grasp his hand to emphasize how much I loved his offering. “It was lovely. I had no idea… No one really knows how much you’re capable of, do they? Have you even told your family about your real gift?”

He shakes his head and answers with his hands.Safer if secret. They’d still think I’m broken.

I bristle instinctively. “You’re notbroken.”

They see it that way. Can’t talk long even with gift. Tires me out.

“That shouldn’t matter. You can express yourself in all kinds of ways.”

Lorenzo shrugs and cups my face with one hand while he swivels the other.I don’t care. This is my family now.

He indicates the other two men and me. A lump rises in my throat. “It’s an honor to be part of it.”

When I step toward the panel, Raul joins me. “We’ll see you back to your apartment like the gentlemen we supposedly are.”

Bastien and Lorenzo follow without complaint. As we weave through the shadowy passages, we drop our voices to mere murmurs.

“I did get a chance to do some research into the Creaden rite,” Bastien tells me. “Unfortunately, the information I found is about as vague as with the Prospiran one. It sounds as if you’d be leading citizens in some way—that might be metaphorical—and as if it relies a lot on your sight. There were multiple references to ‘seeing the right path’ and ‘discerning the route.’”

I consider those details. “I can probably concoct some kind of ‘cure’ that’ll sharpen my eyes temporarily. Let me know if you come across any other descriptions.”

“Of course.”

“And we’ll keep doing what we can to encourage support for you as empress,”Lorenzo says, his illusionary voice a little rough after the energy he’s already expended.

I shoot him a nervous look. “Be careful not to be too overt.”

His smile turns sly.“My gift makes subtle nudges much easier.”

“I can pull off a trick or two myself,” Raul puts in. “What I’ve mainly been trying to figure out is how we’re going to topple that prick when we’re ready.”

That is the big question that’s haunted me too. I worry at my lip. “How did the four of you expect to do it back when you were making your own plans?”

Bastien answers for his foster brother. “Come at him with all our gifts in quick succession—an illusion to startle, a shadow solidified so he’d trip, a gust of wind pushing him in an unfortunate direction… Something like that. But it wouldn’t work. He has protection from any kind of direct magic as well as from blades and other weaponry. And we need it to look like an accident. How?—”

He cuts his hushed voice off completely at a much louder remark that reverberates through the wall up ahead, just beyond the panel leading to my room.

It’s Marclinus’s spirited tone. “Here you go. I’ve brought you some company while I enjoy my wife’s!”

He must be talking to my guards—referring to his own staying outside with them while he comes in.

My heart lurches. “I have to get back into my room.”

Raul is already lunging ahead down the passage. As he presses the spot to open the hidden panel, I dash after him.

There’s no time for good-bye kisses or even a loving glance. I spring out onto the rug next to the bed, the panel whirs into place behind me—and my bedroom door swings open.

Marclinus saunters in with a jaunty stride. I smooth the skirt of my dress and smile through the racing of my pulse.

Am I flushed from that last short dash? Gods help me, where would we be now if I’d returned even half a minute later?

This is the first time my husband has called on me after he’s seemed to take up with other women for the night. I’ll have to be even more cautious about my clandestine meetings in the future.

“Husband,” I say, managing to smooth my nerves out of my voice. “What a wonderful surprise.”

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