by Cate Corvin
Shane leaned his head back against the bars and huffed. “Let us do it for you, Bambi.”
Even Locke’s hands had tightened around me.
“No. He said he did what he did for me. He’s not going to spill what he knows to one of you. He’d lose his only bargaining chip.”
The twins didn’t look happy, but they knew I was right. Dominic was stubborn as hell. He’d lasted a year in Cimmerian while he searched for just one spirit.
For now, though, I was going to enjoy every moment of my time in Locke’s arms. I’d worry about my traitorous lover later.
Chapter 3
Lu
Several days later, I borrowed a pair of Daphne’s six-inch-high Louboutins, pulled on the shortest of my mangled skirts, and undid an extra button on my shirt.
The more time I spent in Cimmerian, the pettier I found I was capable of being. The Giltglass ring still gleamed on my finger.
I scratched Demonseed’s head, where he was sandwiched between the Frosts. The twins were flopped on my massive new bed. Shane’s brow was creased, lips set, but Roman had acquiesced to me going to Dominic alone with relative ease.
Maybe he had a little more empathy for the other man, having fucked up himself not so long ago.
“That’s just cold, Blondie.”
I smoothed down the short skirt. “Or is it well-deserved punishment?”
Every day that passed, I came to terms a little more with what Dominic was. But he still deserved some torment of his own, and nobody, not even a Justiciar of the Tribunal, could fake the deep lust (and love, my traitorous brain reminded me) he felt for me.
If he’d really kissed Ivy and driven knives through my heart for my benefit, then what he’d gotten out of her had better be worth its weight in gold.
And the time had come to pay up.
“Definitely a punishment,” Shane said.
Roman licked his lips. “Can you bend over just one time before you go?”
Oh, why the hell not? “One time. But you’re not touching till after we get what we need.”
The twins groaned and Roman crawled across the bed. “Wait, no, come back…”
I bit my lip, already wet from the heat in Shane’s eyes, but I had a mission first.
Walking down the corridor, I had a sudden epiphany as to why Daphne liked her crazy-high shoes so much. The snap of the heels on tile were satisfying as hell.
They were thin enough to stick through someone’s eye.
And they made my ass look great. I had the twins’ word for it.
I stopped in front of Discipline’s door, my hand shaking a little when I knocked. Only two months had passed here, but it felt like it’d been years since my first Discipline session.
My heart jumped when Dominic answered the door, but I braced myself against the flare of hope in his eyes. “Are you alone? We need to talk.”
He opened the door and let me in, locking it behind me.
“To what do I owe the pleasure, Lucrezia?” His sleeves were rolled up, shirt unbuttoned, and his hair looked like he’d repeatedly run his hands through it.
His rumpled state was much more appealing than it had any right to be, and the heels lifted me so my head reached his chin, bringing me that much closer to his lips. He’d also clearly noticed the clothes, or lack thereof; the way his hazel eyes darkened had been irresistible to me from the day I’d met him.
Maybe I’d screwed up by not bringing the twins with me.
“I need to steal something from Gilt’s office. When you said I had access, did you mean I can get into her personal safe now?”
Aradia, I should’ve kept it professional. The clothes were just to piss him off and let him know what he was missing out on, not to actually seduce him, but I’m underestimated what he did to me. I crossed my arms over my chest and lifted my chin.
Dominic gave me a crooked smile. “In a manner of speaking. Sit.”
He pointed at the couch in the back of his classroom. I raised an eyebrow. “I’m not here to sit and chat with you. All I want to know is how to use this-” I waved the Giltglass ring in the air- “-to get what I need.”
“And if you want to know that, you’ll sit.”
Dominic strode to a bookshelf, and I held back a sigh. I knew him too well; if I didn’t bend to his commands, I wasn’t getting anything out of him.
The worst part was that he couldn’t issue me an order without my brain flipping to the single glorious weekend I’d spent in his house, following his every whim.
I swallowed my pride and sat on the couch.
He brought over a book bound in black leather, with silver engravings stamped on the cover and spine. “Cruciatibus Librum. The Book of Agony.” I had simultaneous urges to both melt against him and fling myself away when he sat next to me, only inches between us.
I compromised by becoming a statue.
Dominic opened the book, flipping to pages marked with bits of paper.
“Astrictus. A curse to bind the victim in place, locking their bones together.” He turned to the next marked page. “Delirium. Self-explanatory, but this curse endures long enough to drive the victim to madness. Excruciatus, the curse of pain and torment. Far, far worse than vampire venom, Lucrezia.”
Dominic found the last page, his eyes flicking up to my face. “Lethaeus, a curse created in Death. The victim irreversibly forgets who they are. The person who set off this chain of curses in conjunction would be bound and driven mad, their sense of self erased completely and leaving them with only endless torment.”
I’d come in here expecting to keep the upper hand, but instead I found myself speechless.
“This is what I traded my time to that insufferable bitch for.” Dominic tapped the page that had a gruesome image of an Excruciatus victim. “These are the curses that Gilt’s set over her private locks, and they’re keyed so they can only be opened by a member of Giltglass. But even being part of her coven won’t make breaking them easy. These are high level Malefica- the deadly curses.”
These curses were the reason he’d let her induct me into her coven. The Rites of the Cage and its answers would’ve been permanently out of my reach without my new status.
“Ivy told you all this?”
His jaw tightened. “It wasn’t free.”
An anchor dropped into my stomach. “What did you have to give her for that information? Why would she sell out her own aunt?”
“Because she’s under the impression I’m going to help her murder Mallory.” He let out a short, sharp laugh. “If it wasn’t for your induction into Giltglass, she might’ve made an attempt herself by now. With you in line to inherit first, you threw all her plans into turmoil.”
The anchor was still in my stomach, even though I felt a twisted satisfaction at how deeply I’d ruined my coven-sister’s plans. “You didn’t answer my first question, Dominic.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, I mentally kicked myself. I’d been so good at rebuilding the wall between us… but his eyes lit up when I said his name. All it had taken was a few minutes of being alone with him again.
“I gave her a fake coven ring and I let her kiss me.” He gripped my hand, pulling it off my lap and resisting me when I tried to pull away. “That’s all I ever did, Lucrezia. If there’s any way to get down to the cornerstone, it’ll be in Gilt’s files, and I needed to know those curses first. I wouldn’t be any help to you if I was a mindless, screaming invalid… and if you’d tried on your own, you or the twins would have died without a prayer of surviving. This humiliation was worth it. I’d rather you be alive and well to hate me, than dead with your feelings intact.”
My throat tightened and I looked away from the Book of Agony’s pages. “I know you hate her. too. It’s impossible for you to hide, no matter how good an actor you are.”
“Being under her thumb is hell, and it’s my own stupidity that landed me here.” Dominic’s tone was bitter and cutting. “If she hadn’t found my medallion, I might’ve had
some leverage against her. But I’d let her sell me to Gilt before I’d handfast or fuck her.”
It was galling how quickly my heart fluttered to forgive him. I clung to the last shreds of my anger.
“I know why you agreed to her terms.” I wanted to pull my hand away, but his fingers were wound through mine. They felt so terribly good there. “I know you did it for us. But… you’ve been here for a year. You could’ve done so much in that time.”
Dominic’s lips pressed flat. “I could’ve brought a modicum of evidence to the Tribunal, where Mallory would’ve contested the evidence, and the whole case would’ve been swept under the rug. That’s why the covenmasters fight tooth and nail to keep the Covenstead Sovereignty Pacts intact, Lucrezia. We can’t just walk in and do what we please. Covensteads are sacred grounds.”
“Even when people are dying?” My anger grew a little hotter.
“Imagine this was yours.” He held out a hand to encompass Cimmerian. “Your home, your family, the wards bound to your mind. Would you be fine with the Tribunal walking in and telling you how to manage your coven?”
Irritation bubbled in my stomach. He had a point. “I suppose not.” I would fight to my last breath to keep the Tribunal from walking through my front door.
And if Cimmerian was truly mine, the mansion itself would be like another sentient being tied to me. Allowing someone else power over it would be unfathomable, like allowing them to control me by extension.
“You’d be surprised at how little power Wardens really hold. Short of committing murder right in front of my eyes, it would take much more evidence than what I have to remove Gilt as the covenmistress.” He shook his head. “I’ve never witnessed a student die. In the Tribunal’s eyes, I have next to nothing worth storming a covenstead for. And if we did attempt it here, the most powerful covens in the world would riot. It goes against the sacred right to a coven’s secrets.”
I bit my lip. It was an annoying dichotomy to consider, and I’d never imagined that the Wardens were anything less than all-powerful. It was difficult to accept.
“But most importantly, Simon Wicke died on these grounds. I refuse to turn this over to the Tribunal before I’ve ensured he’s at peace. So, you see my conundrum, Lucrezia.”
“I do.”
His face softened a touch as relief crossed his features. The Book of Agony fell to the side as he drew closer, and my heart thumped.
“I’m truly sorry for lying to you.” It seemed harder to breathe when he cupped my face, his forehead touching mine. It felt right to be so close again, no matter how angry I was. “I’ve worked alone for years, Lucrezia. It’s taken everything I have just to allow myself to get this close to another person.”
I ran my fingers along his jaw, the stubble of dark, copper-tinted hair tickling them. Aradia, I loved the feel of him. “I understand, Dominic. We have to endure hateful things to win in the end.”
Long lashes brushed my cheek when he closed his eyes, and a storm of butterflies came to life in my stomach.
His lips had just barely touched mine when I pressed my hand against his chest and pushed him back.
“But I won’t do this as long as you’re promised to Ivy, and you’ve given me no reason to fully trust you again.”
Dominic gazed at me in disbelief, but his expression slowly shifted into resignation. “I had no choice in that, Lucrezia. Ivy threatened your life, and I fully believe she’d destroy you if she could. I’d endure any amount of humiliation before I’d let her touch you. She might not be a Gilt, but she has the cunning to make your death look accidental.”
I wanted nothing more than to fall into his embrace, destroy the Gilts, and lay Simon to rest together.
But I couldn’t stomach the idea of touching him, knowing Ivy would have every right to come along and erase any traces of me on his lips. She held the noose with a tight, jealous grip.
“Then Ivy needs to go.”
His green-gold eyes narrowed. “What are you asking of me, Lucrezia? I’d kill her in a heartbeat, but that would ruin whatever cover I have left.”
I smiled coldly. “Gilt wanted us to be together, Dominic. You’re useful to her. She’s been planning to induct me into Giltglass from the start, and if she has me, she has you. Now that I’m the heir, Ivy’s nothing more than a footnote in Gilt’s plans.”
Why she wanted me was a mystery than remained to be solved, but I had a horrible feeling it was all part of Grandfather’s plan.
“The fact remains that I am a Justiciar,” he said. “Ivy won’t leave without dropping that tidbit.”
I searched for something I could hint at that the geas wouldn’t choke back into my lungs. “The head of Giltglass has other things to worry about,” I said carefully.
Dominic examined my face so intently I blushed. “I understand.” I wasn’t entirely sure he did, but it was better than nothing. “You forgive me, Lu?”
“Possibly. If you get rid of Ivy and help me break into Gilt’s safe.” He didn’t need to know I’d already forgiven him just yet, even if I couldn’t stand to touch him, or make myself any more vulnerable, while Ivy remained his official fiancée.
If any one of the men I loved had died on Cimmerian’s grounds, I would’ve done the same as Dominic. I would’ve lied, stolen, and broken every rule in the book to make sure their spirits were laid to rest the right way.
Simon was lucky to have had Dominic for a brother.
“We’ll need time to go over these curses. They’re far more delicate and volatile than most cantrips, and needless to say, the damage to your mind would be irreversible if we failed.”
The longer I stayed with my hands entwined in his, the more my resolve weakened. I broke away from him and stood up, annoyed at how gratifying it was to see his eyes trace the line of my legs from the high heels to the scandalously short hem of my skirt.
“It has to be soon, Dominic.” I took a deep breath as Grandfather’s desiccated face and marble-like eyes popped into my head. “I don’t know how much time we have before it’s too late.”
To both my relief and disappointment, he didn’t reach for me. Dominic put the Book of Agony aside and walked me to the door, ever the gentleman.
“Perhaps you should wear this to class more often, Lucrezia.”
I gave him an incredulous look. Perhaps not such a gentleman.
When Dominic’s stern façade broke and he smirked like a Frost, I practically felt my knees become jelly. “You wore this just to get under my skin.”
I raised my chin. “You deserve a little torment of your own.”
When he took a step closer, I realized how neatly he’d penned me in the corner between the door and the bookshelves.
“Living under Ivy’s thumb isn’t enough torment?” He braced his hands on either side of my head and pushed his thigh between my knees, forcing them apart. “Being so close and having you turn away isn’t enough? I did all of this for the people I love, Lucrezia. Because they- you- needed this. Not because I wanted to hurt you.”
“I know you did,” I whispered, every inch of my skin covered in pleasurable goosebumps. Was I being too harsh on him?
“And now I get to be tormented knowing that you’ll go upstairs to the twins and they’ll be the ones fucking you senseless.” His breath was warm against my ear.
I shivered when his tongue flicked my earlobe. It’d been a mistake to think he’d let me walk out of here without at least a little torture of my own. “Neither of them are engaged to someone else.”
On the other hand, he was engaged to someone who’d threatened to sell him out to a murderous bitch and have me tortured…
“I gave my family ring to you.” His lips found the trembling pulse in my neck. “Before I was blackmailed into a sham.”
Okay, yes, so it’d been blackmail…
I was rationalizing. I’d drawn some pretty hard lines on the sand of this battlefield, and by Aradia I was going to stand by them.
“When. Ivy. Is. Gone,
” I hissed, pushing his shoulders and trying not to notice how firm he was under my hands. I could sink my nails right in-
Nope. No way.
But he wasn’t going to let me get away that easily now that he’d made headway back into my good graces.
Warm, soft lips captured mine. I gasped against his mouth and his tongue slid between my lips. He sucked my lower lip into his mouth and nibbled gently, sending a jolt of desire right through my abdomen.
He pushed my legs further apart and his hard cock pressed against my inner thigh, already throbbing, and just far enough from my aching pussy to torture me.
I was panting by the time he released me. “You don’t get to do that again until it’s done,” I said, but he just licked his lips with a sly grin.
“No, but you’ll be thinking of me while they’re riding you.”
There was no way I was dignifying that with a response.
He was also right, and he knew it.
Dominic was still smiling in satisfaction when I yanked the Discipline door shut behind me and stalked down the hall.
It was strange to think of how much things had changed since the first day I’d walked in. If I could have told my past self on my first day in Cimmerian that I’d end up in love with a Warden, a vampire, two therianthropes, and spent a significant amount of my time plotting murder, I would’ve laughed in my own face.
So many people had turned out to be something else, and I was no exception.
But was I turning into my best self… or my worst?
Chapter 4
Roman
I scratched Demonseed’s ears. The little beast had just started purring when Blondie stormed in, looking disheveled, flushed, and incredibly irritated.
She shut the door quietly, but from the look on her face she wanted to slam it.
“I take the mission was successful?” I asked. Were those wobbly knees I spotted? “Maybe a little too successful?”
“I didn’t sleep with him,” Lu snapped, stepping out of the high heels. I held back a sigh of regret. I’d been entertaining some pretty vivid mental images of bending her over the bed in those.
