Page 52 of A Blade of Blood and Shadow
I bit down on the inside of my lip so hard I tasted blood. I didn’t speak — didn’t dare give away the burning lump that had formed in my throat. I just nodded. Those precious seconds bought me time to re-erect the walls of stone and ice that I’d stupidly let fall around Kaden.
His gaze was cold as he looked me up and down, and I felt the dark caress of his magic. Tight warm leatherreplaced the gauzy fabric that flowed around my legs, and when I looked down, the gown was gone. In its place were my fighting leathers and boots. My weapons, too, were sheathed at my thighs exactly where I always put them.
It was as clear of a dismissal as any, and I hated how much it stung.
Without a word, I turned and strode back into the house, heading straight for that magnificent staircase. Down, down, down I climbed, tears blurring my vision.
The muggy air of the Quarter hit me like a wall the second I stumbled through the front doors and left Kaden’s glamour behind. The cloying scent of freesias clung to my skin — maybe some residue of the magic left from my bargain with Caladwyn.
A leaden weight settled in my stomach as I realized I no longer had the cipher. Kaden must have whisked it away when he magicked me back into my clothes.
Bastard.
After everything, I couldn’t think why I’d aligned myself with a faerie. They were all the same. Manipulative. Scheming. And ultimately, not to be trusted.
Kaden had the cipher now, which meant he held all the power. Even worse, I had the feeling that Kaden was somehow entwined in the bargain I’d struck with his cousin.
Chapter
Seventeen
The rage and hurt I felt at Kaden’s dismissal had crystalized into a gnawing resentment by the time I sensed his night-dark magic slip beneath Imogen’s door the following afternoon.
Although I’d been expecting him, I allowed myself a groan that I knew he would hear before I hauled myself off the couch and slung my short swords over my back. I was already dressed and waiting for him, and I threw open the apartment door before he had the chance to knock.
Kaden was leaning casually against the door frame in his usual black attire. He didn’t have a weapon on him — at least not one I could see — but his gray eyes glittered with satisfaction as he took in me sheathed in all my weapons.
“Someonelikes to be prepared,” he said in that same sultry, amused tone I’d come to associate with him.
I narrowed my eyes. “It’s not as if you told me what we’d be doing tonight,” I countered. “Or what time.”
“True.” Kaden cracked a smirk. “Though if I’d toldyou we were only looking for a book, would you have dressed any differently?”
“No,” I said, pulling a saccharine smile. “Not as long as I’m with you.”
Kaden’s grin faltered, but he covered his slip so quickly I might have missed it if I hadn’t been watching him so carefully. “Smart little huntress.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, annoyed that he was going to make me ask. “And how exactly is a book going to help us figure out how to work the cipher? Are you hoping we might stumble across an owner’s manual?”
“No. But everything having to do with the Coranthe line is based in runes. Intent alone might be enough for you to unseal a magically locked drawer, but I don’t think it’s going to help you use the cipher.”
I frowned. “How did Caladywn use it?”
Kaden quirked his eyebrows. “I don’t think he ever did. He knew the cipher was a Coranthean relic, which made it interesting enough to hold on to. But I doubt heeverwould have let you take it if he indeed knew how to work it.”
I nodded, gritting my back teeth as I strode past him into the hallway. I felt sick that I’d struck that bargain with Caladwyn and furious that I’d let my guard down around Kaden.
I wasn’t angry withhim, exactly. It wasn’t his fault that I’d let myself forget what he was — or that he was using me.
I was angry with myself.
Kaden must have sensed my mood, because he kept a safe distance as he followed me down the stairs and out onto the muggy street corner. I stopped. I didn’t actuallyhave any idea where we were going, so I waited for him to lead us down Imogen’s street.
Through the empty Quarter, we wound down side streets and narrow alleyways. Then Kaden slipped into a gap between two buildings, and I saw a small tattered green awning protruding over a doorway with a wooden sign that readSalandar’s Rare Books and Tomes.
Inside, the shop looked dark, and the peeling gold letters on the door announced that it was open by appointment only.
I stared as Kaden let himself inside, a bell tinkling musically over the door as a gravelly old voice called, “I’ll be with you in a moment.”
