Dark Dealings

by Kim Knox

  “What?”

  “To the past. Tell yourself to grab Reist. Tell him about your itch. How I’d been sniffing around.” His smile was wry and the urge to take his mouth gripped her. “Should get him moving and the rest will literally be history.”

  “No.”

  “You can pull more than enough power from me.”

  She could. And it would probably kill him. “He wouldn’t kiss me.”

  “So you said.”

  “It was the deal he made with Fallon.”

  Heyerdar winced.

  “Yeah. He was fucking me with her permission.” She shook her head and pulled in a heavy breath. “And even if he wasn’t, even if he had a sudden falling into sense. Even if he kissed me stupid, it would still be wrong.” A smile twisted her mouth. “The first thrust of his fingers and I pushed him away.”

  “Little thief...”

  There was something in his voice and it forced Ava to bite the inside of her cheek. She had to admit the truth, but she couldn’t hold his gaze. She looked down at her fingers. “He wasn’t you.”

  A low growl rolled from him, spiked with anger. “More games?

  Her gaze snapped up. “No.”

  The memory of Reist trying to make love to her gripped her. Of how her body hadn’t reacted and how the thief in her burned fire against the underside of her skin to deny her pleasure. Reist had pushed his fingers into her body and everything, everything about it had been wrong—his body, his scent, the feel of him inside of her. She couldn’t. Not with him.

  Even before she’d known his involvement with trying to twist the wards, of his reluctance to step forward and admit responsibility, the want for Reist had fallen away. Compared to the Left Hand, he was...lacking.

  And Reist didn’t want her to be herself. He never had.

  She’d shoved him away and he’d staggered back, arousal and guilt in his gaze. Her only thought had been to run, to melt into the shadows...and hours later she’d found herself outside Heyerdar’s door.

  “He was involved.”

  Heyerdar frowned. “Involved?”

  He had to know everything. She couldn’t keep this secret for Reist. Wouldn’t. He didn’t deserve that level of loyalty. “He could’ve stopped it. Clay. The thieves. The deaths. But he wanted the wards twisted, broken. He said it was to allow him to die, not to become one of those chambers...”

  Heyerdar stilled. “Do you believe him?”

  Ava had to look away, to give herself a moment to think. “I don’t know.” Her mouth twitched upwards. “The ward on his chest looked similar to others I’ve seen. He wasn’t able to see his plan through.”

  “How many have you seen?”

  There was an edge to his voice that she wanted to label jealousy. It was more likely that he needed to trust her reasoning. “A few. Reist’s was changed to reflect his becoming Highest Mage.”

  “You asked to see it.”

  It wasn’t a question. Embarrassment burned across her cheeks. Her obsession with Reist had been very obvious. To everyone. “I got to see his chest. That was my objective.”

  Heyerdar grunted. “And he kept silent to preserve his position?”

  Ava nodded. “Clay was his grandson. Some sort of bastard mix of mage, thief and elemental. He trusted us, me, to find the truth.”

  Anger burned in Heyerdar’s gaze, the twist of magic threading through his irises. “Noble of him.” He swore under his breath and the spill of his magic was a temptation. “He has to be watched.”

  “Watched?”

  “What choice do I have?” Heyerdar flexed his hands, and the little bubble of warm need low in her belly grew. She wanted to shift, to squeeze her legs against the hard muscle of his thighs. Ached to. But his expression was grim. “So many died. And if it’s widely known that a mage can break his ward...? We’d have anarchy. This is something Reist will keep to himself. His ambition demands it. And if he’s told you the truth, I’ll be more than happy for him to find a place next to Balint.” He tilted his head. “That’s the real reason you refused him. His lies.”

  Heyerdar didn’t know her anymore. She closed her eyes and willed away the pain in her chest. They were broken. “No, before that.”

  “You need to hide out here now? You know his secret.”

  “I came here for you.”

  “Because I can protect you.”

  Ava frowned at him. “I’m not defenseless.”

  Heyerdar’s lips pulled up into a dark smile and her heart missed a beat. His brief, sarcastic smiles twisted her insides. Her want for him stung. “No, you took down a bastard mix of mage, thief and elemental. So...” His pause, the way his mouth parted made her simply ache. “When will you forgive him?”

  “Forgive who?”

  “Reist. He fucked practically every woman he ever met—with you as the exception. I give you a week. Two at the most.”

  Her palm itched to slap him. She was sitting on his lap, ready, willing to offer herself completely to him, knowing it could never be as it was, but wanting anything. Anything. And he thought she still hungered for Davin Reist? “Three,” she muttered. “Three weeks, then I’ll stride naked into his office and order him to finish what I ran from. Any hole he wants. No. Not any. All.”

  Heyerdar’s face darkened and he pulled in a breath. His chest lifted.

  Her smile was pure thief. “Better yet, the balcony. Give all your admirers something else to watch.” The low rumble rose up from his chest and her smile deepened. “What? You wanted to fuck me in your arena. As with the Left Hand, so for the Right.”

  His hands tightened on her hips, crushing the silk of her cloak. Color flashed across his cheeks. He rolled his hips against her and the press of leather and the length of his dick against her sex almost broke a groan from her. “Say my name.”

  Ava blinked, fighting to find focus. “Your name...?”

  “Say it.”

  She wet her lips. “Heyerdar.”

  He took her mouth. Hot and hard. The kiss deepened and he grabbed her backside, pulling her against him, fingers digging into her flesh as she licked and bit, pulling sweet, endless power from him. She fisted her hands in his hair and the thief in her surged forward, taking everything he was. An elemental, bound to the earth, to the sun, with infinite and beautiful power. He could fill a thief’s empty soul. Would fill it.

  Heyerdar pulled back, his breathing fast. “You didn’t fuck him.”

  “I said that.”

  He grinned and his fierce beauty caught her. Was he hers now? She hadn’t broken their bond. Was it different now that he had? Did it apply to elementals or could he fuck who he liked and still have her?

  Ava closed her eyes, hating her fear, the uncertainty. Fallon had said she’d agree to anything to be with him. “Why did you want me to say your name?”

  His large hand stroked over her hip, playing the warmed silk, the brush of it against her skin delicious. “What we have, little thief...” He let out a heavy breath. “Let me say your name.”

  She frowned. “Why?”

  “Ava...”

  She was kissing him again, her fingers tugging at the ties of his breeches. She had to have him inside her. Strip his magic. Now. Ride him till bliss broke joy over her. Heyerdar pushed her back and she snapped at him, anger and fear rushing her.

  “Now who’s playing games?” She caught her fingers in her hair and denied the wild surge of need still attacking her. “I didn’t fuck Reist, so now you think you can still make me your puppet?”

  Heyerdar lifted an eyebrow and little bits of fact started to fall into place. How he had said they weren’t the same as Zarand and his thief. How he reacted when she said his name. “It’s mutual?” Her mouth opened and no words came out. It was mutual. He was as much her puppet as she wa
s his? “But, you said... You’ve been with Lunete for hours.”

  “No.” His mouth curved into a bitter smile. “You assumed. You had to choose me, little thief. Had to want me.” He stroked fingers down her cheek and she leaned into his touch, wanting him, wanting so much more. “I could’ve kept you, used your name.” His thumb played across her bottom lip and a trickle of magic warmed her skin. “I wanted to be that selfish. But Reist was there. All over you like a bad smell.”

  “You needed me to refuse him.” As he’d done in the Moon Chamber, he’d pushed her away, let her go. The decision to be with him had to be hers.

  “I didn’t go to Lunete. I sat here and drank and tortured myself.” He let out a bitter laugh. “How he’d touch you, sink into you, rip through what we had.”

  “You never wanted Fallon back.” It wasn’t a question and her gut tightened.

  “After that first kiss to seal the deal? No.”

  “But...”

  “You got me curious, little thief. I knew Fallon would never come back. Too much fear.”

  Anger surged. He’d been playing her. “You...”

  Her hand did fly for his face now, but Heyerdar caught it. “Belong to me.” His grip loosened and he teased his fingers down her wrist, the light touch firing under her skin. She fought not to squirm, to release the tension by pressing herself against his hard body. “As I belong to you.”

  Her heart squeezed and tears pushed at her suddenly hot eyes. “You don’t even like me.”

  Heyerdar laughed and pulled her close, her breasts pressing up against the warm, smooth linen of his shirt. The need to taste him, take him and to simply hold him wove through her. “I like you, little thief. I like that acid tongue and your sharp brain. I like the fact that you’re not scared of me. In bed or out.” His grin curved against her temple “But right now, I’d really like to make you scream.”

  “They won’t allow me to keep you.” Joy and fear twisted hard inside her. Reist had been willing to betray his growing love with Fallon—and that woman had let him—to stop the bond forged between a thief and an elemental. Heyerdar was the emperor’s Left Hand. He was important—

  “You’re important.” Heyerdar murmured, pushing back tangled strands of her hair. His lips brushed her jaw and Ava couldn’t hold back her groan. “Mages have broken nature. They’re not breaking us.”

  She found his mouth and sank her teeth into his bottom lip, drawing a soft, sweet slice of magic from him. “Find me some whitebane tea and I’m all yours.”

  Heyerdar grinned. “Always practical. You have a deal, little thief.” He paused. “But first, I want something from you.”

  She pulled back, meeting the seriousness in his golden gaze. Her nerves stretched. Was this the anything Fallon had hinted at? Heyerdar was older than Reist. Who knew what his jaded palette needed?

  “Jaded?”

  Ava winced. “Can you stay out of my head?”

  “I’ve touched you. I know you.”

  “That must be inconvenient...” She pressed her lips together and met his narrowed gaze with an expectant one.

  “I’m going to trust you.”

  She blinked and followed his gaze down to where their bodies met. Heat bloomed in her chest. He was trusting her completely. She swallowed. “You’re going to let my nasty mouth near your dick?”

  “When you put it like that? No.” He leaned forward to taste her lips, magic playing across her skin. She drew it in with her breath, letting it chase warmth into her belly. “But I trust you.” His hands gripped her backside and she couldn’t help the moan she released into his mouth. “And you have to trust yourself.”

  His attention snapped to the door. “A mage and one of the senior civil servants. They have a warrant.” He swore under his breath. “Find one of my tunics.” He eased her away from him. “We have to explain ourselves to the emperor.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Heyerdar held her hand, his grip sure and strong as they followed the mage and the civil servant through the weaving corridors to an antechamber behind the throne room. Two armored guards snapped to attention as Heyerdar approached. He gave them a brief nod, his fingers flexing around hers.

  Nerves ate at her and she wondered if any of them were Heyerdar’s. The emperor would make a decision on whether they could be together. Mages had always loathed her and feared him. It was their perfect opportunity to throw her out of the city and deny Heyerdar the other half of himself.

  “Presumptuous, little thief.” He whispered the words into her hair and she could hear and feel his growing smile.

  “I own you.”

  His hand tightened around hers. “You do.”

  Ava’s heart gave a little flip from joy and then panic as the guards pushed open the doors. The little windowless room beyond was dimly lit from mage-lit sconces, the edge of a desk visible. The black-robed civil servant gave a curt bow, murmured, “The emperor awaits you,” and scuttled away. The mage dragged his gaze over their joined hands, sneered and followed him.

  “Shall we?” Heyerdar said.

  Ava willed her feet forward, resisting the need she had to yank magic from Heyerdar, to let it bolster her courage. But she didn’t need him to be distracted. The guards pulled the doors closed with a heavy thud and the air inside the room thickened. Grabbing at her dark center was beyond her. So she controlled the wild thud of her heart and eased air in and out of her lungs. She couldn’t panic, not now.

  The Emperor Morgant Eldon Cadmus the Sixteenth, a slight man with dark hair turned to grey, sat in a huge leather chair behind a wide desk. Reist stood to his right.

  Her gaze flicked to him. What had he said to the emperor? She could implicate him in the plot to take the throne. Indirectly, Reist had aided Clay. Had he struck first? Panic fisted in her belly. Heyerdar had let Ehren go. A murderer, a conspirator against the palace and the Institute. The Left Hand had broken his own law.

  “I see what the Right Hand reported is true.” The emperor’s pale gaze fixed on their joined hands and Ava’s fingers burned, the urge to pull herself away from Heyerdar too strong. She didn’t. She wanted him. Wanted what they had. Her stomach hollowed as Cadmus’s gaze moved to Heyerdar. It revealed nothing. “You took a virgin.”

  “I did, Highness.”

  There was no apology in Heyerdar’s voice, no pride. It was simply a fact.

  “The mages—” Cadmus’s gaze flicked to Reist, who stood stiff and silent at his side, “—have always said that if you did, then you would feed off and destroy the soul of the woman you took.”

  “No, Highness.”

  Cadmus frowned. “No?”

  “I could bind them to me. They would...crave me. I’ve always been very careful in the bed partners I’ve chosen.”

  Ava knew her face was burning and she stared at the floor. Fuck, this was embarrassing. But it did explain away his time at the brothel and she herself had accused him of always seeking out well-used women. And it was better to be embarrassed about this than the fact Reist could have revealed another truth.

  “And yet you bedded Ava Kalle.”

  Heyerdar stiffened. “She is a thief. Old magic. Elementals and thieves were bound for each other, long before the mages intervened and corrupted nature.” He let out a slow breath. “Every mage in the Institute has denied themselves their other half. If they had the Words of a thief pressed into their skin...” A wry smile pulled at his mouth. “We’d be overrun with elementals within a month.”

  Cadmus’s frown deepened. “Is this true, Reist?”

  Reist paused before he gave a slow nod. “Yes, Highness.”

  Cadmus balled his slender hands into fists against the dark wood of the desk. “Why was I never told this?”

  “No mage would self-mutilate in such a way. To take on the insane h
unger of a thief...” Reist shook his head. “We fight hard to suppress the inchoate nature we’re born with in the lower halls. We do it or die.”

  The emperor sat back in his chair, his face slipping into shadow. “And what threat do these two bring?”

  Ava’s pulse jumped. There was something in the tone of his voice, as if he’d already made a decision. She was too scared to pick apart the sound logically. Was he agreeing to their bond? Or was he looking for an excuse to break them up?

  “Highness, we cannot allow an elemental and a thief to remain together. The surge of old magic would undermine—”

  “The Right Hand loses absolute power over his pet thief.” Heyerdar growled the words over Reist’s. They should’ve caused her pain, but her view of her former master had slipped. The implicit trust, her belief in him being always right, was gone. He had not given up Heyerdar but he wanted her now, as she knew his secret. “The only threat from her, from us, is losing me.”

  The emperor lifted both eyebrows. “A bluff, Captain?”

  “No, Highness.” Heyerdar straightened. “But I believe the depth of the connection between an elemental and thief is being underestimated. I died for her.” A muscle jumped in his jaw. “And I’d do it again.”

  Ava closed her eyes. He’d died and, in that moment, she’d killed and eaten a man in revenge. Even she, until that moment, had underestimated what she shared with Heyerdar. The thought of what she’d almost thrown away shocked her, forming a knot of pain in her chest. Heyerdar’s thumb stroked across her skin and the pressure eased. They were together. No matter what.

  Cadmus sighed. “I agreed to her living in the Institute because of the worth Reist convinced me she would have to us.” He sat forward again. His gaze fixed on Ava, and her stomach lurched. He’d made his decision. “And she has, in accurate reports over who should become a mage. She will continue with this role. It’s too important to the welfare of my city and my empire for her to stop. However.” He held up his hand as Heyerdar had opened his mouth. His teeth came together with an audible snap. “Her being under the sole guardianship of the Institute is untenable.”