Page 30 of This Monster of Mine

Her jaw dropped when she entered the bath. Gold-speckled tiles encased a pit above which a metal pipe stuck out of the wall, studded with runes for scouring and heat. Reluctantly impressed, she scrubbed herself under a warm jet of water, and donned her robes, tracing the gilded vines twining around the cuffs and branching up to the shoulders.

They could be her attacker’s robes.

Nothing felt real—the job, the comfort, the Hall of Records containing her answers only some tens of miles away. Everything she’d yearned for, and it felt unnatural. Trepidation weighed her steps toward Kadra, and not just because of the Fall. In Arsamea, she’d been guarded, unwilling to show much of herself to anyone who could use it against her. But she’d faltered three times now, as though one look from those penetrating eyes made every bitter word she’d trapped behind her teeth strain to break free.

Approaching the front door, she took a steadying breath.He’s just a man.She gripped the handle and prepared to push.

“I didn’t think you’d be smiling with a Petitor shackled to you.” Cato’s voice was muffled. Her fingers faltered. She pressed herself against the door to hear better.

“The shackle runs both ways,” came Kadra’s mellifluous voice.

“What I and everyone else at the Aequitas saw begs to differ.” The mild-mannered coachman had shed his skin. Whoever Cato really was, he spoke to Kadra as an equal. “She disobeyed you. People are saying that you only accepted her as your Petitor to make her pay for it. And those aren’t even the more unsavory theories.”

Please don’t tell me they think—

“A few fools think you’re interested in her.” Cato confirmed her fears.

“Interesting.” Kadra sounded unperturbed.

“Drenevan, why is she here? Weren’t you going to run her off before the Robing?”

I was right. But then why hadn’t he gone through with it? Hells, he could have easily let her perish in the storm.

Kadra seemed to be mulling over his answer. Moments passed before he spoke. “I changed my mind.”

What?

“Why the hells did you do that?” Cato’s reply echoed her bewilderment.

“She’s dangerous.” Her pulse surged at the dark menace in his response.

“Certo, to us!” Frustration edged Cato’s voice.

“She’ll be useful.”

“She despises you,” Cato said firmly. “You have to admit that your nature won’t convince anyone to choose you.”

“If not, we’ll leave her to the wolves. Her decisions are her own.”

The hairs at the nape of her neck stood on end. Cisuré’s fears were well founded. Whatever these men had planned for her wasn’t anything as benign as doing her job. She retreated inside Kadra’s tablinum, wondering if it was too late to flee.

She waited for the front door to open before exiting, pretending she’d been about to leave. She forced a placid smile at Cato as she passed.

Who is he?Either Kadra allowed his coachman to berate him, or the rumors of him never having taken a lover weren’t true. She grimaced.Wisdom and Wrath, Cato’s over twice his age.

Icy wind ribboned around her when she stepped outside. The two moons painted swaths of cloud in blue and iron gray, highlighting Kadra’s profile as he saddled a horse.Herhorse. Caelum looked quite pleased to be nibbling on Kadra’s grass as he made short work of securing the black-and-gold saddle.

“Good morning.” Kadra glanced over his shoulder, dark hair brushing his collar.

Her breath stuttered. “Good morning.” She kept her tone curt. Politesse was all he’d get from her. “Tibi gratias agofor bringing Caelum. And for the saddle.”

Black eyes roved over her before he extended a hand. Her heart pounded as she realized he was offering to help her into the saddle.

“I can manage.” She quickly put some distance between herself and that callused palm.

Settling onto the new saddle, her eyes widened at the sleek leather stretched over a sturdy frame, a far cry from the Arsamean contraption that had rubbed her tailbone raw on the journey to Edessa.

“I take it you like it.” Kadra mounted his horse with a faint smile, and she suddenly wished she could burn him and the saddle.

---