Page 20 of Mated to the Enemy
“You,” he said, stabbing one of his slender fingers at Jessica.
Klaue stood in surprise at that, towering over the slightly hunched Magi. It disgusted him how much the man had let himself go. By all reports, in his prime he’d been a magnificent specimen of Ursa. Tall, shoulders wider than a tank, some had said. Now, Klaue doubted he could beat a child. Physically, anyway.
The Magi was a powerful man in his own way, and Klaue knew better than to cross him. Magic had come naturally to him, and there were none more versed in its methods than Korred.
“Is there a problem here?” he asked. Well, perhapsgrowledwas more appropriate.
Korred hadn’t been happy about being disturbed the night before, and had made that pointveryclear to both Klaue and the Queen after he’d been forced to intervene and stop the rogue. Personally, Klaue thought the Magi was upset because the mage had escaped, but he very quietly kept that opinion to himself.
“Yes. She has the taint of magic about her.”
Klaue’s eyebrows rose on their own. “She what?” he asked in surprise before he could stop himself. Then his brain engaged. “Yeah, remember, a mage showed up last night?”
Was the old man going senile?
“I know that, you insolent whelp! But closer than that. Much closer. Stronger. I can feel it all the way to my chambers. She practically reeks of it.”
“I don’t smell,” Jessica snapped.
“He means like an aura,” Klaue supplied. “You’ve been close to a mage.”
She looked away, but didn’t say anything.
“Last night at the gates wasn’t the first time you tangled with one of them,” Korred snapped, stepping closer when Jessica didn’t say anything.
“Okay, that’s enough,” Klaue said, stepping in. He didn’t like this revelation any more than Korred or anyone else, but he wasn’t about to let him berate Jessica in public either.
“You dare to stop me?” Korred demanded with a hiss to his words.
“Yes. Get out of here.” He moved to put himself between Korred and Jessica, noticing that there were many other faces turned his direction, all of whom would have been privy to everything just said.
Great, as if there wasn’t already enough suspicion being directed Jessica’s way.You had better be worth it.If Kincaid was wrong, and this wasn’t his mate, he was going to be livid for sticking his neck out so far for her.
Korred looked up at him and lifted a hand, but Klaue just smiled. “I wouldn’t test me.” He glanced down.
The Magi followed his gaze and saw Klaue’s hand holding the steak knife less than an inch away from his stomach, ready to jab it in and rip the old shifter open.
“You will regret this,” Korred said, but he backed off.
“Let’s go.” He dropped the knife on the table and motioned for Jessica to get up and leave.
They left the kitchen in a hurry, Klaue very aware of the grim attitude he was getting from many of the other occupants. Mages were not welcome amongst the shifters, and if Jessica was working in close company with one, then he would be hard-pressed to protect her. In one sentence, Korred had just made his job infinitely more difficult.
“Asshole,” he muttered.
“Pardon?”
“Not you,” he said, waving off the comment. “Korred. The old man doesn’t think shit through anymore. He could have come to me in private and revealed that. I take it last night at the gates wasn’t the first time you saw the mage?”
Jessica hesitated.
“You’re going to have to give mesomething,” he said fiercely. “I just put my own ass on the line back there. You’re already not well liked, many people figure you for a spy. Throw the accusation of being close with a mage on top of it, and, well, that’s not helpful for either of us.”
“Magic is real.”
It wasn’t a question.
“Did you think you were dreaming when he stepped out of thin air last night?”
