Dark Dealings

by Kim Knox

  “I heard the rumor of thieves.”

  Ava stared at him. Was that why he’d helped her? Had she been a part of a deliberate hunt? “Is that what you do? Chase us down?”

  “I don’t judge what you’ve done. Thieves are the other half of us, of elementals. It’s forgotten. Pushed back and hidden by the mages.” Zarand’s tongue wetted his lips. “To share yourself with a soul-stealer—”

  Heyerdar blocked her from his sight. “Not her.”

  “No, she’s not mine to have.”

  Heyerdar gave a terse nod in reply.

  Ava ignored their exchange. She wasn’t meat. “I don’t remember you.” He had the beauty of an elemental—or what she assumed came from their magic—a mirrored darkness to Heyerdar’s golden perfection. “What did we do?”

  “You devoured me, Ava Kalle.” A gleam lit his dark eyes and Heyerdar tensed, his knuckles white around the hilt of his sword. “Took chunks out of my shoulder, arm, chest. I should’ve stopped you...” His grin gleamed. “But you yanked magic from me with every distorted bite, and fuck—”

  Heyerdar growled. “I want you out of the city.”

  “The power you took, you used it to forget. Forget the past, our journey to the city, what you’d done to...with me.”

  Ava’s heart was a stone in her chest. “With you?”

  Heyerdar turned his hand and the sword tip twisted in Zarand’s flesh. “Out.”

  A muscle jumped in Zarand’s jaw. “Nahum...”

  “I don’t know you.”

  “We’re brothers.”

  Heyerdar laughed, the sound hard and bitter. “So you say.”

  Zarand took another step back and blood ran free down his neck to stain the collar of his tunic. “Going to run me off?” His gaze moved back to Ava, and the heat there made the embarrassment burn in her cheeks. What had she done with this man that made her want to cut it from her memory along with her past? “We could always share her...?”

  Heyerdar swore. “We meet again? I kill you.”

  “I will catch my thief, Nahum.” His gaze was flat, bleak. “I always do.” He took another step back and some of the tunnel shadows swallowed him. He wiped at the blood on his skin, a sliver of magic healing it. He rubbed his sticky fingers together. “You can’t deny me that.”

  “I won’t stop them eating you. Good enough?”

  A smile touched Zarand’s mouth. “Good enough.” He nodded to Ava. “A pleasure.” The shadows swallowed him and a swift surge of magic spun in the darkness. Zarand had taken himself away.

  Ava sagged and let go of the breath she’d been holding. What had she done with Heyerdar’s brother? And there was that connection, she could almost taste it in the echoes of magic that lingered in the air. She hadn’t fucked him, and pushing at her empty memory only gave the brackish hint of his blood and sour flesh. Elementals had started to dog her life.

  “You don’t remember?” Heyerdar sheathed his sword and tugged on his undershirt. Anger lined his voice. He yanked the shirt down and his flat gaze held her. “Did you eat him in other ways?”

  The thought scorched across her mind, but nothing fired memory within her. Ava gritted her teeth. And even if she had, if she’d sucked him hard and long and he exploded in her mouth—and she let that image linger—it had nothing to do with Heyerdar.

  “I am going to my room to wash.”

  “Ava...”

  Fire pushed through her flesh, the heated rise of want chasing it. She closed her eyes and her hands fisted at her sides. She’d fight him. She wasn’t his bedtoy. A gasp broke from her as his large hand cupped her jaw. His thumb brushed her lips and she tasted earth and sunlight.

  The ache to suck his thumb into her mouth, to mimic the image she’d tried to burn into his brain, gripped her. “I’m not yours to play with.”

  “I’m just one in a long line of men that play you.”

  “Bastard.” She bit down on his thumb, involuntarily drawing his magic into her mouth. Her heart hammered, and the swift and sudden rise of desire caught her.

  “I could fuck you here. Now.” His breath burned against her ear, the tease of his lips making her chest tight. His fingers dug into her hip and pulled her against him. The need to wrap herself around him shamed her. “Pull you out into the arena. Bend you over. Take what’s mine.”

  Her belly tightened, the need between her thighs flared, and the thief in her ached for it, for him, for everything he offered. The power of him thickened. But she couldn’t...

  “Captain, sir.” A cough followed the young man’s voice and his boots scuffed the sandy stone floor. “You are requested to attend the Moon Chamber.”

  Whatever hold Heyerdar had on her fell away, her thoughts clearing, and she tried to shove him from her. But his strength—even with her magically enhanced muscles—was too much for her.

  “Have Thief Kalle’s breakfast delivered to the chamber, Tabor. We’ll be there directly.”

  “Sir.” And he was gone.

  Ava let out a slow breath. She wrapped coldness around her to deaden the embarrassment of having one of the guards seeing her pushed up against the wall. The wild insanity of wanting him had to stop. But it wouldn’t. He’d made her glory in what she was, the dual power of emptiness and the thief at the core. She hated and craved him for it.

  Ava tamped down on those fierce emotions, pushed her need from her thoughts. They had thieves to find.

  The Moon Chamber was a sacred place. In the ten years she’d been in the Institute, she’d never crossed farther then the threshold of the huge blackwood doors. To call Heyerdar there had to be serious. “Dorien will have complained.”

  Heyerdar stamped his feet into his boots and strapped them up. “The mage scholars saw the power of an elemental. I’ve tied them in knots for years. To become a mage, they had to give up instinct.” He frowned. “Balance.” He pushed her into the shadows. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

  “Think I’m off to fuck your brother now I’ve had a taste of you?”

  Heyerdar laughed. “You’re saving yourself for Reist.” Sunlight burned in the air, lifting the gloom. “Maybe he wants to fuck you there, strip you and bend you over that sacred table of his.” The sliver of sunlight flared. “Or make me watch.” His brief smile was wicked. “Join in.”

  Ava ignored the constriction in her chest. She swallowed and willed sarcasm into her voice. “You’d share?”

  “A hole’s a hole.”

  She loathed him in that moment. Ava bit the inside of her cheek, tasting herself and using it to fight down the need to hit him. He’d only say her name again. She had to pick her fights.

  Her pace increased. She wanted to know what had the mages fired up enough to drag Heyerdar into their sanctum. Then she’d enjoy seeing him rebuked. That would be her revenge. See the flat gold in his gaze, the tightness of his jaw. Would he lash out? The mages in the chamber would restrain him, burn him with high magic...

  “I’m the Left Hand.” He strode past her, leading the way up to the Moon Chamber. “They can’t.”

  The antechamber bustled with mages. Ava frowned. Most Mages usually didn’t rise until well after sunup, and these men and women didn’t look like they’d just rolled out of their beds. They weren’t bleary eyed, rumpled. They looked too sharp. Magic swept over them, brittle and sour. Her instincts screamed at her to get the fuck out because something was very wrong.

  Heyerdar wrapped thick fingers around her wrist and pulled her to him. “With me, little thief.”

  The mages parted, their long robes brushing against the stone floors...but that wasn’t the only hiss. More than one drew in their breath, hard eyes fixed on her. They’d never liked her. Never trusted her. She understood it now. She was what they could have been but for an accident of fate.

  A
woman spat at Ava’s feet. Ava stared at her. Mage Cyprine, one of the more sane and stable mages, but hatred burned in her, the magic that sliced around her hot and sharp. It bristled in her flesh. Fuck, was Cyprine going to attack her?

  Heyerdar growled and tucked Ava closer to his body. The slither of his sword from its sheath stilled the mages. The tang of his magic wrapped around the blade. “You want her? You go through this.”

  “Captain.” Reist stood in the open doorway to the Moon Chamber. He wore the long black robe of his office, the gold chain and medallion of the Highest Mage looped over his heart. “Bring her.”

  A stone dropped into Ava’s belly. What had she done? Was it more than the stupid library incident? Had he realized that she’d used Heyerdar to push magic into Fallon? That she’d tried to control him? That she knew what they were now? One step away from the horror of being thieves themselves.

  “Control yourself.” Heyerdar muttered the order against her ear. “Now.”

  Ava bit her lip, the sharp edge of pain, the tease of blood surging her inner darkness. Ice wrapped around her, pressed down on her and she pushed out a breath. Reist watched her, his expression fixed. Anger and disappointment tightened his body. This wasn’t how she planned to see him. He was supposed to be shocked by Fallon’s defection and wanting to see her, his friend...not whatever this was.

  She wet her lips. “Reist...”

  “Silence.”

  The single word edged with fury cut her.

  He stood to one side and allowed Heyerdar to move into the small room—little more than a corridor—that separated the Moon Chamber from the sea of mages. With a wave of his hand, magic moved through the air, grabbed the doors and slammed them shut. Sconces lit the tiny room, carving Reist’s bleak face.

  Ava tried again, ignoring the panic in her gut. “Reist...”

  “Where were you?”

  “When?” She frowned. Suspicions ran through her mind. His wondering why she hadn’t slept in her bed wouldn’t have drawn a crowd of mages to spit at her. His eyes were cold, hard, unlike anything she’d ever seen from him. Heyerdar’s hand tightened around her wrist, hot and strong. She fought not to rip magic from him.

  “Before sunup.”

  Heyerdar sheathed his sword. “She was with me.”

  Reist’s gaze flicked to him. “You?” His frown deepened. “What have you done, Captain?”

  “What you wouldn’t. Or couldn’t.”

  There was a dark-humored edge to his voice and Ava willed down her blush. He’d said he’d never deny his fucking her...but she never thought the first person to hear would be Reist.

  The Highest Mage blinked. “What?”

  “I didn’t tease her for ten years.” Heyerdar shrugged. “Who else was going to take her? Certainly not you.”

  Reist’s mouth thinned and he took a single step closer. Magic flared white-hot around him, and Ava fought fear, shame and the thief within her that hungered for his power. She wanted to close her eyes, not be at the center of the animosity that had swirled around these men for months, maybe years. And Heyerdar had to shut the fuck up. “Captain—”

  “Is this about revenge, Captain?” Reist narrowed his gaze. “Is this what you’ve been waiting for? Fallon is with me for good reason. You’re an animal. And if you think that using my servant harms me, then you’re wrong. You’re only hurting her.”

  Servant. Reist couldn’t have stabbed a hole harder in her with a metal pick. That was what he thought of her? And his first thought was of himself—and Fallon—not that he’d lost her. Bastard. The thief in her railed, wanting to rip away the power that shrouded him, let him feel as physically hurt, feel agony in his soul.

  “She begged me. Begged this animal and I took her.”

  Ava could hear the pride Heyerdar’s his voice. He was right. He’d played her, used her just as other men did. She wrenched herself free and found Reist’s gaze fixed on her. Cold and blank.

  “And she was sweet.” Heyerdar looked around the smooth stone walls and a dark smile touched his mouth. “The stones hold her screaming my name.” He tilted his head. “Can’t you hear it?”

  The man who had offered himself to her totally was gone. “Fuck you,” she muttered.

  “You did. It was good.”

  She lifted her chin, ignoring him. “What am I here for, Reist?” She jabbed a thumb behind her to the closed doors. “Why are they here?”

  “She was with you all night?”

  That wasn’t anger, or jealousy, or indifference in his question. Something else had happened. Beyond her sleeping with Heyerdar, or his actions in the library or any new knowledge. And Reist could talk to her. Sex hadn’t removed her brain. “I was with him—in his bed—from yesterday afternoon.”

  A muscle ticked in Reist’s temple, the only outward sign he’d given. “A mage found your door open this morning. She discovered a body.”

  “A body?” Heyerdar almost growled. “This is my investigation. Why—”

  “We only know the remains are of a mage.” Reist pulled in a breath and his fingers flexed. He wanted to run them over his jaw, she knew it, knew his every tic, but he wouldn’t show weakness in front of Heyerdar. “Mages have gathered so that we can discount them.”

  Ava pressed her hand to her mouth, wanting to deny what her gut was telling her. “The mage was devoured and rendered by a thief.”

  Reist gave a slow nod. “We have her in the Chamber. Physician Fane said that you would be of help in determining who she was and who attacked her. She believes it’s the act of a single thief.”

  “You thought it was me. That I husked her.”

  He paused a heartbeat too long, before his quiet, “No.”

  A servant and a murderer. Reist had torn up her world in a matter of moments. “You think I changed the wards on the South Gate to let these thieves in. Led them to kill those people. Those children. Why d’you think I’d do that, master?”

  He knew. Reist knew how she felt about him. He thought that she’d turned against him and the Institute.

  “Ava...” He shook his head and, for a brief moment, something flickered through his gaze before he straightened and the Highest Mage was back. “I have confidence that it wasn’t you.”

  “Now,” Heyerdar added.

  Reist ignored him. “We need to know who this mage is to perform the rites over her body and disrupt the power he took.” He opened the doors to the Moon Chamber. Morning sunlight stretched across the round room, spilling over the large table and the emaciated body placed there. “Ava.”

  She moved forward, her legs wooden. Sahar Fane stood back from the body and gave a short nod. Ava gave her a bleak smile. She rubbed her hands together, feeling the lack of blood in her fingers.

  The body of the mage was withered, her skin flaking and paper thin. Her hair, bleached white, flowed around her shoulders and across the dark wood of the table, and she still wore a long, pale grey nightshirt. Its silk gleamed softly in the morning light. Her face was simply a skull, all features lost.

  Heyerdar stood behind her. He’d witnessed her doing this twice now and he was her only option for when her reaction took over. She couldn’t rush out into a crowded room of mages with the wildness of a thief in her veins. They’d tear her to shreds.

  Ava pulled in a breath, the heavy scent of leather teasing her tongue. The hint of flesh traced through it, a sinuous hint of fresh meat. Her mouth watered. Fuck. Her hand hovered over the dead woman’s skull, and she opened her soul, letting the thief in her rise and taste the energy the killer had left.

  Her room. The familiar scents and smells, the warm darkness and—her—pushing open the door. Ava’s breath caught. Shit. No. “Mage Lene Narve.” She’d liked her. A woman who’d only just broken free of the lower halls a few months before.

  He
r heart thudded. The thief...more controlled, not the one in the Searlaim house. He’d been waiting in her room. Waiting for her. He knew about her, what she was in the Institute... Wanting her for something. Narve had stared, shocked, her magic flared white hot around her. So beautiful, so sweet, but he wasn’t there for her.

  Ava’s heart drummed. The thief hadn’t wanted the mage. Had expected her to walk into her room, not some other woman. Fire swept through Ava, hot and blistering. Fuck, he fed fast and hard, his ferocious mouth melting her skin and muscle from her skull, pulling her meat and energy into his empty soul in chunks.

  She’d never tasted a mage. Lene was pure meat. Sweet, succulent and there were so many mages outside, young and fresh, hers for the taking, and her thief craved—

  “Control, little thief.” Heyerdar pulled her against him, turning her into the solid wall of his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, and his heat, his strength and the powerful surge of his magic emptied into her soul. He groaned and pressed his face into her hair. “That shouldn’t feel so fucking good.”

  Ava breathed. His magic wrapped a hot calm around her mind, her body. She strained against his hold until he let her go. The twisted bastard liked her stripping his strength. She stared at the stone floor, using the balance and power to push at the memories she’d gleaned from the body.

  “Sahar was right. There was a single thief. Waiting for me. Narve surprised him.”

  “He expected to recruit you?”

  Reist’s question dug at her again. Something had broken between them now. He thought she could kill Narve and all the others out of jealousy of Fallon. It hurt and she wanted to hate him. She looked up. Sunlight caught his stern beauty. He’d never doubted her before. “Yes. No. I don’t know.”

  “What’s his name? Description. Was he wearing a skin?”

  Ava let out a long breath and focused, ignoring Heyerdar’s blast of questions.

  The thief wasn’t like the one who’d attacked and eaten the children. There was more control. He was more defined. She could feel the shape of him as if she wore him over herself. His...shadow itched across her skin and she shivered. “He was the fourth one, the more restrained man who fed on Searlaim.” She winced. “He doesn’t feel...right.” Whatever it was, something tugged at him, ran deep into his bones, a sensation that the others had masked. “His name is Ehren.” She lifted her hand, feeling the edge of his height and the phantom memory of short, white-blond hair. “He’s taller than me by a good few inches. Slim. Strong.”