Page 11 of This Monster of Mine

Light flashed in the distance, the thick air starting to pick up speed. Storm clouds churned above, blotting out both moons. With mounting panic, she spun in a circle in search of refuge when a hand locked around her wrist.

What in havïd?She fought the hold before the hand’s owner pointed at an enclosed garden folly barely visible some yards away.

Thank the Elsar. The world narrowed to the air scraping the back of her throat and the blood rushing in her ears as they ran. By some miracle, she and her rescuer managed to drag the garden folly’s door open and squeeze in right as the storm hit. She peered through the windows in horrified awe as the sky cracked open as though one of the hells had opened above Edessa. Rain pounded down in heavy sheets, granules of cobblestoneflying at the impact. The Academiae’s sconces sputtered out. She could barely see her hands.

“Thank you.” She turned to the man who’d just saved her from death by deluge. “I owe you, Magus …?”

“Drenevan.” The stranger’s baritone was a caress. Butter smooth, every word richly, impeccably enunciated.

Her jaw dropped.Gods alive.She stared at the patch of darkness where he sat as unease slid down her spine. Inhaling sharply, she quelled the memories of the Fall. Just because the man had a stunning voice didn’t mean he washim.

“I’m Sarai.” Realizing that she hadn’t properly thanked him, she reached for her coin pouch. “I’m sorry. I only have an aureus. If you’d like it.”

Part of her hoped he didn’t. It was her last coin.

A long pause. “You don’t owe me.”

“You had my life in your hands. It’s hard to believe that you don’t want something for it.”

Gods, please don’t let it be sex.Her fingers slid to her armilla, seeking outbeshaz’s ridges. The rune allowed rudimentary access to a body’s organs to those with any healing ability and was equally useful as a weapon. Despite her ruined hands, she could still mangle a tendon or two.

More silence. Then, “Have you always seen life as transactional?”

“Itis, even if those in gilded places like this think otherwise. Coin trumps common sense, decency, law. We’re all borrowers or lenders, chasing it—” She bit her tongue, realizing that she was inches from a tirade and had indirectly insulted him to boot.

“Is that so?” He sounded amused. A flash of lightning seared his silhouette into her eyes. He was taller than she’d first glimpsed. “Which one are you? Borrower or lender?”

Odd.She normally didn’t do well with strange men and confined spaces. “You first.”

The magus didn’t move, and she had the strange sensation of being assessed through the dark. “I’m a debt collector.”

“So, law enforcement?”

“Yes.” Again, that sense of him staring at her. “Your turn.” His voice slipped down her spine, sliding to a part of her that she’d long ignored.

She swallowed, grateful for the dark enclosing them.I bet his bed’s never empty.The storm made the world fall away, took her to a realm where she wasn’t a woman whose face had once made a child cry, but a Candidate talking to a man with a voice like the smoothest icewine. And it was all so foolishly peaceful, a cocoon of quiet outside time itself, that she gave him the truth.

“I just want to give,” she said quietly, watching rain punch the ground. “Taking is inevitable in life. But I’d like to give more than I receive.”

He was quiet again. Outside, the Academiae blanched as a bolt of lightning arced above, halting its downward progress to ricochet in the sky instead. The magi on the battlements must be hard at work.

Hold on. “Aren’t you supposed to be aiding with the storm?”

“I always do.” A wry note entered his velvet note.

“Until you had to stop me from being roasted alive.” She winced. Not showing up for duty would get him severely reprimanded, if not worse. “Gods, I’m sorry. I’ll vouch for you if you get in trouble. You were still saving lives—well,alife. Is it too late for you to get to a Tower Gate or up on the ramparts? How can I help?”

A pause. “What if that means entering the storm?”

She glanced at the madness outside the window and sighed. “I owe you. I’d prefer not to.” Debt seemed more dangerous than stormfall in this city. “What do you need?”

This silence was the longest yet. She’d begun to wonder if he regretted helping her when he finally spoke.

“Stay here.” A rustle of clothing indicated that he’d stood. “I can get there.”

“Oh,” she faltered.Then why did you stay with me in the first place?

Booted footsteps crossed the distance to the door and paused. Lightning streaked above just as he inclined his head.

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