Page 120 of A Tribute of Fire

“Why are you in this neighborhood tonight? Were you hoping to get robbed and murdered?” Jason asked in a conversational tone.

“What are you doing here?” I countered. He had to know as well as I did the kinds of services they offered in this area. “Looking for the nearest warm body?”

“Are you offering?”

I glared at him and he laughed.

“Were you the one who was planning to rob or murder me?” I asked.

“If I was going to do either one, I would have done it already.”

He was stronger than me. I knew that for a fact. I very clearly remembered how much I had struggled to get up when he had held me down in the courtyard in my palace—how had I been able to pin him against the wall?

Had he just allowed me to do it?

“So, have you missed me?” he asked.

There was no chance I was going to tell him the truth. I knew what he would do if I told him I dreamed of him every night, in very explicit ways. “It’s been a month. I forgot you existed.”

He placed both of his hands over his chest. “You wound me!”

I peered over my shoulder at him. “I can, if you’d like.”

That wicked, delicious glint in his eye nearly made me trip over my own feet. Fortunately, we had arrived at the building I’d been searching for. It was a bit different locating it at night.

I raised my hand to knock and Jason unnecessarily announced, “This is a brothel.”

“I know.”

“What business do you have at a brothel?” He sounded both intrigued and confused.

“It is none of your concern.” I knocked and a younger hetaera answered the door.

“I’m here to see Mahtab,” I told her.

“Give me a moment,” she said, closing the door.

“Are you really not going to tell me?” he asked and I ignored him.

The front door opened again. The hetaera’s gaze darted over to Jason’s face and a smile lit up her features. “Come right in.”

“Stay here,” I told him as we entered the house. I didn’t want Jason to know what I was up to.

“Mahtab is upstairs,” the young woman told me. “The first room on your right.”

I thanked her and pulled the edges of my cloak down to shield my face. I couldn’t risk anyone being able to identify me later. Seeing a temple acolyte in a hetaera house would be gossip too good not to share.

When I reached the room, I knocked on the door.

“Enter.”

Mahtab was sitting in a chair near the window. Her eyebrows shot up. “It’s you.”

“Yes. I wanted to make sure that you and your house weren’t affected by what I did the night of the race.” If they had suffered in some way, I would have to make reparations. This was the last place I’d spent time with Quynh and I wanted to honor that.

“We weren’t affected in any way,” she said gently. She walked across the room. “How is your friend?”

Her words were like an arrow straight to my gut. “She didn’t make it.”

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