Page 46 of The Beast Of Gloomenthrall

“You okay?”

Miraculously air inflated his lungs and Talac’s dimming vision cleared enough so that he could see Alia’s dirt smeared smiling face looming above him. “Rem… remember, we’re only trying to make… it look as if you… are trying to kill me.”

“Oh, you.” Alia thumped Talac’s shoulder chidingly. Levering herself up and off of him.

Hell, despite all his aches, Talac found himself missing the feel of Alia’s weight and the heat she emanated.

Talac wasn’t actually sure he would have gotten to his feet as gracefully or as quickly without Alia’s helping hand. Giving her a rueful smile as she stepped forward to whack his back several times… perhaps a bit too heartily. Dust rising in a small cloud behind him, his lungs and ribs issuing a protest.

Quickly he took a step away from her ministrations. “Thanks. I’m good.” Or he would be, although he feared that tomorrow morning all his muscles would not be as pliable as they were right now.

“Come on.” Alia signalled that she and Talac were leaving the field. Two waiting players, one with a blue ribbon tied around their arm and one with a red ribbon trotted out to take their places. Keeping the ball game in progress.

On the side lines Talac took a seat on an available crate, accepting gratefully a large goblet of water, drinking it all down in one go.

Taking a seat beside him, Alia was aware of a large number of children side eyeing them, trying to gauge Talac’s well-being. “Let me guess, you intend to keel over any moment now, grapple for your throat and issue a death rattle in order to entertain our watchers?”

Talac shook his head. “I believe I might be done for the day. To be honest, if I lay down right at this moment, I’m not necessarily sure I could get up again right away. You hit hard.”

“It’s a competition. You’re on the opposing team. I’m supposed to hit hard.”

“It’s just a game.”

“Oh-ho, just a game. Says you, who sent Pelsie to the healers when you took the ball away from him. Or how about when you swept Trevor aside? The man flew half way down the field after your hit.”

“It seems we are quite the competitive pair.” Talac grinned.

Yes, they were. And not just that. All day they’d worked surprisingly well together to entertain and thwart their trailing group of badly hidden stalkers. Setting up incident after incident where it looked like Talac’s life might be imperilled, and yet each and every time… thanks seemingly to luck, he survived.

At the stables he missed having a haybale dropped on his head by the sheerest of margins. Even Alia’s heart had skipped a beat for a moment, but Talac’s reflexes proved superior to the task.

During a stop at the tannery Talac ended up having to save himself from falling into a vat of red dye, after Alia accidently stumbled and elbowed him in the back. The tanning master’s whispered assurances that the pulley hook situated above the vat could take Talac’s weight had thankfully been proven right.

Talac’s brilliant idea of being locked in the cold room yet another clever ruse. Alia hiding herself nearby, watching the children’s eyes widen with dismay and surprise as Talac removed the hinges, opened the locked door, and then kindly reaffixed the door. All the while exclaiming how bizarre it was that he’d found himself in the locked cold room.

Talac gratefully accepted another goblet of water, the crowd around them roaring at the antics on the field.

Alia lifting her face to the sun. Enjoying the rare almost peaceful moment. “Thank you for being such a good sport today.”

“I had fun.” Surprised to discover it was the truth. He’d enjoyed every moment plotting and executing all the incidents with Alia.

“Congratulations, you survived the day. I think even the children will concur that an adversary that could survive all the Beast’s traps and snares deserves to live.”

“No plans to fake poison me at dinner?”

“Poison is a weak weapon. Only cowards and the conniving would utilise it.”

“So, we can enjoy our dinner in peace then?”

Um, was that an invitation? They did have to eat. However, they’d spent the whole day together. Talac wasn’t tired of her company yet? They never seemed to run out of topics to talk about. Perhaps they really were becoming friends. The master spy and the Beast? One whose job, whose entire life, revolved around uncovering and bringing into the light other people’s secrets.

Well, Alia was neither naïve nor foolish. She was the Beast. She ruled the Lair. Governed a thousand people. Ran a multitude of successful businesses. She would not stumble and spill anything of value from her lips because a ruggedly handsome man with sturdy shoulders treated her… treated her like a woman and an equal.

A woman who was in truth right at this moment plotting a murder, don’t forget that little fact Alia, she reminded herself.

Gods above, life was complicated and getting to know Talac was making it more so. Damn, and she was forgetting that if Perri did manage to get them an invite to the Golden Palace, then she would be travelling with Talac to what was effectively his home.

Alia’s head beginning to ache just thinking about what Talac would make of her being chosen as Gloomenthrall’s bridal candidate. Would he think it a joke? Would he try to uncover her real reasons for wanting to go? Most importantly of all, would he get in her way if he did uncover the truth?

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