by Eva Chase
After a quick peek into Shadow’s stall to confirm the Nightwood scion wasn’t around—which earned me a pleading whine from the wolf—I turned to Cressida. Her nose had wrinkled as if the incredibly faint doggy smell offended her.
“You were in Ashgrave Hall when Imogen was killed,” I said. “I passed you on my way to the stairs—and she was already dead when I got up to the dorm.”
Cressida lifted her shoulders in the most subtle of shrugs. The dim daylight that streaked through the kennel’s few windows washed out the purple and pink streaks in her white-blond hair. “That doesn’t sound like a question.”
She sounded as if she didn’t care about the topic at hand, but a flutter of fear passed from her into me. She’d seen something she was afraid to talk about.
I willed my hands not to clench in frustration. “What were you doing up there? I’m going to assume the actual murderer didn’t let you wander into our dorm while she was toying with Imogen.”
“I was going to grab something from my room but realized I didn’t really need it. Nothing particularly shocking about that.”
I studied her expression. She’d kept a casual air, but her stance had tensed. Under my scrutiny, she narrowed her eyes at me. “I hope you’re not trying to accuse me of killing her.”
“No,” I said quickly. “Of course not. I know it wasn’t you. The point is, I think you know it wasn’t me. And it’s kind of important to me that I don’t end up sanctioned for a murder I didn’t commit.”
“Well, I can’t say I care either way.” Cressida flicked her braid over her shoulder with obvious contempt.
Keeping my cool was getting harder by the second. “Maybe you’d care if you realized how much I already know. You went into the dorm room under ours, didn’t you?”
Her eyes didn’t give away more than a twitch, but a sharper jolt of anxiety hit me at the same time. I’d been right. She’d been the one who’d made that sound right after Imogen’s attack. And why would she be scared of me revealing that if she hadn’t heard evidence of the murder?
“What makes you say that?” she hedged, crossing her arms over her chest.
Of course, I didn’t have any evidence I could put on display. “I put the pieces together,” I said. “Other people might too. Won’t you get in trouble if it turns out you were keeping quiet about important evidence that could exonerate a scion?”
“Is that a threat now?” She cocked her head. “I think if you had any real leverage, we wouldn’t be talking about this in the doghouse. I have no idea what the hell you’ve gotten yourself into, Bloodstone, but you obviously have a lot of people out to tear you down. It’d be pretty stupid of me to do anything other than stay as far away from that mess as I possibly can, don’t you think? Why the hell should I put my neck out for you? What the hell have you ever done for me?”
I hadn’t hit back at her for all the ways she’d tried to undermine me with Victory or on her own, which I thought was pretty generous. Clearly Cressida didn’t agree.
“Why make this about me?” I tried. “The whole fearmancer community is going to be affected if a soon-to-be baron goes down for a crime they had nothing to do with. Do you really want the kind of assholes who’d set me up like this to win?”
“If they win, then you don’t deserve to be baron anyway,” Cressida said tartly, and spun with a swing of her braid. “You asked your questions, and I answered them. We’re done.”
“Cressida.” I took a step after her, but I really didn’t have anything else I could say. All I could do was glower at her back as she sashayed away.
Her testimony could be the deciding factor in my hearing. The confirmation that she knew something gave me hope, but not enough to lift my spirits.
How the hell could I convince her it was worth the risk of giving that testimony?
Chapter Twenty-One
Rory
“I don’t know much about Cressida’s family,” Connar said as we ambled together across the green. “The Warburys are definitely respected, but they’re a little distant from the other top families. They always give off a vibe like they prefer to stick to their own inner circle.”
I made a face at the building in front of us. “So you don’t have any idea what they might want that they don’t already have.”
“They seem to have pretty much everything they could want. I mean, maybe they’d want to mingle with a barony if they had the chance, but Cressida’s never pushed the flirting all that hard, so I’m not sure—and anyway…” He trailed off awkwardly.
I gave him a playful tap of my elbow. “Don’t worry, I won’t try to marry off you or the other scions to clear my name. There’s got to be something other than that.”
“The trick will probably be getting her to tell you. If you could get a peek in her head with an insight spell, that might help.”
“I don’t think I’m going to win any points with her if I start stealing her thoughts without permission. She’ll only hate me more.”
“I don’t think she hates you,” Connar said quietly. “The crap she and the other girls pulled—it’s all the same power struggle, you know. Jockeying for position, making themselves look powerful to anyone watching. Pretty much everyone here does it if they can get away with it. She thought she could lord it over a scion.” He shot me a quick grin. “Clearly a major miscalculation.”
It was hard to get into that fearmancer mindset—to understand the ways they might think automatically that were so different from how I’d been raised. I rubbed my forehead as the warm September sun beamed down on us.
The day was gorgeous, between that sun and the woody scents of the forest carrying in the air. I’d have been able to enjoy it a lot more if the problem of convincing Cressida to speak up for me hadn’t been gnawing at me.
We came to a stop by Killbrook Hall, Connar tucking his hand around mine. We’d just left an early afternoon class, and I didn’t have another today, but I couldn’t summon any enthusiasm for heading back to my dorm—where Cressida would be hiding from me again, no doubt. There wasn’t any point in making another attempt at talking to her until I’d figured out a better strategy anyway.
As I stood there waffling, Declan came out of the building with a couple of the professors. He nodded at something one of them was saying and then offered a remark that made the other chuckle, carrying himself with ease. But I recognized the strain in the slight stiffness of his posture, the flicker of fatigue that crossed his face when it was partly hidden as he swiped his hand up over his hair.
If I felt trapped by this situation, how much more confined must he feel, working himself to the bone to keep up appearances and prove himself every second of every day since he’d been a child. Even the brief respite I’d given him at the nearby Bloodstone country property had ended with more stress.
He deserved better than that.
The idea sparked in my head and traveled to my tongue before I had a chance to second-guess myself. “Connar,” I said, squeezing the Stormhurst scion’s hand, “I think we could use an escape, don’t you? And Declan could definitely use one too. Why don’t we all go up to the cliff for a little while and leave this place behind? Maybe getting away will give my mind a chance to come up with some brilliant plan.”
Connar hesitated. The cliff where the two of us had first talked—and first a lot of other things—had been his private place for a long time, from what I’d gathered. I didn’t think any of the other scions had ever joined him there before I’d stumbled on the spot. But he only balked for a second, and then he nodded. “Yeah. Why not? I’m sure a little time away would be good for him. I’m still impressed he managed to talk circles around the blacksuits to get you out of their custody in the first place.”
Declan had just parted ways from the professors. Connar raised his hand with a quick wave. “Declan! We’re going down to the lake. Why don’t you take a break and come along?”
The Ashgrave scion’s expression turned a bit puzzled at the invitati
on. As he seemed to waver, I smiled at him. “You don’t have any classes to run off to, do you?”
“No,” he admitted. “I’m not in much mood for a swim, though.”
“We’re just going to take a walk,” Connar said, lowering his voice as we came up beside Declan. “There’s a great spot a little ways down the shore that’s great for just… thinking, and putting all the campus’s tensions aside for a while.”
The other scion didn’t look any less bemused, but he nodded. “All right. You’ve been holding out on the rest of us, huh?”
The teasing was gentle, but a faint flush colored Connar’s face. “None of us have many places we can feel are just ours.”
“No denying that. I guess I didn’t realize…” Declan trailed off as if recognizing that he couldn’t end that sentence in a positive way. He hadn’t realized that Connar was sensitive enough to be bothered by a lack of privacy? None of the scions had really seen the big guy as anything other than a musclehead. The Ashgrave scion course-corrected quickly, though. “You don’t have to share it now.”
“I want to,” Connar said firmly. “I think… the last few months have proven that we have to be able to count on each other if we’re going to get through this.”
Declan gave him a longer, considering look, and a more relaxed smile crossed his lips. “Yeah.” He caught my eye for a second, extending the smile to me, and I had the urge to reach for his hand too. But I knew better than to attempt that when we were in full view of the green.
We meandered past the campus buildings toward the lake and then veered down the path that rambled through the east woods. Connar walked with the confidence of a guy who’d taken this route dozens of times in the past.
He left the path with an assured turn of his heel, and Declan and I followed through the brush, up the forested slope. The leaves rustled overhead, and birds called to each other in the distance. As we neared the top, I made out the hiss of the lake’s waves washing against the base of the cliff now far below us.
When he stepped from the line of trees at the edge of the clearing, Connar let out an audible breath. The brightening of his face made me wonder how much he’d needed a break too.
Declan stopped beside me, taking in the stretch of grassy ground along the cliff, the fallen log that bisected it, the warble of the water below, and the warm waft of the breeze. His stance relaxed by increments.
“This is nice,” he said with a bit of awe in his tone. “I can’t believe I didn’t know this clearing was here.”
Connar smiled with obvious satisfaction. “I stumbled on it when I was hiking around burning off steam. I’m sure I’m not the first person who’s ever come up here, but most people don’t go far off the paths.”
“No, I guess they don’t.” Declan moved forward cautiously, as if he thought he might overstep in some way, but after a moment he headed over to the log and sat down on it to gaze across the lake. Something in my own chest released seeing him relax, if only for a short time.
“We should cast a spell to make sure we have this place to ourselves right now,” I said to Connar. “I don’t really trust the appearance of privacy these days.”
“I’ll cast it,” he said. “Who knows what the blacksuits would make of that spell if you did?” He tipped his head toward the cuffs circling my wrists.
“Good point.”
As he murmured a spell to block anyone from roaming this way, I wandered farther into the clearing, soaking in the sunlight and the fresh air. Other than the light weight of the cuffs, there was nothing here to remind me of everything I wanted to escape back in the real world.
Declan glanced over at me, his expression turning thoughtful. “You’ve been up here before,” he said, not even a question.
“Just a few times.” Who knew what he’d make of that.
Connar hunkered down in his favorite spot with his back against a tree trunk, and I walked all the way to the cliff’s edge. I sat down there with a little thrill at letting my legs dangle over the distant water beneath. If the most nerve-wracking thing in my life had been this thirty-foot drop, I’d have been ecstatic.
After a while, the tug of the wind right over the water became too insistent. As I got to my feet, Connar did too. He came to join me in the middle of the clearing, setting his hand on my waist. I let myself lean back into his solid frame at his soft tug, but my senses sprang into sharper awareness of Declan several feet away. I didn’t want to remind him of what he’d decided he and I couldn’t have.
Connar touched my jaw to turn my face toward him and leaned over my shoulder to steal a kiss. I couldn’t help melting into it for the few seconds before I eased away. My gaze twitched toward Declan, who’d turned to look at us. Connar followed my gaze.
“It’s okay,” Declan said. “Don’t worry about me.” That last bit he obviously meant more for me than Connar. His tone had stayed even enough, but his throat bobbed with a thick swallow, and there was enough hunger in his eyes to heat my skin. My mind slipped back to the other day in the lounge, the delicious burn of his kiss, over too soon.
Maybe I made some motion I wasn’t aware of, or maybe Connar could pick up on at least some of what’d passed through Declan’s expression. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen how much I enjoyed having the attentions of two guys at the same time before. The Stormhurst scion considered his friend for a long moment, and then he said, low but steady, “You could always join in.”
A deeper flare of heat unfurled inside me at the thought, with a pang at the thought that Declan would refuse. His eyes widened, and he wet his lips, the brief movement of his tongue setting off all kinds of sparks through my nerves even across that distance.
To my surprise, he got up. “You’re sure no one’s going to make their way up here?” he said.
“If someone breaks the spell I put up, I’d feel it well before they got to the clearing,” Connar said.
Declan’s attention shifted to me. Our gazes locked, a quiver of anticipation racing through me. I lifted my hand toward him. If he’d changed his mind about what he was willing to let himself get into with me, I was totally on board.
He crossed the last distance between us and twined his fingers with mine. “Rory,” he said, his voice raw, before he dipped his head to kiss me.
It wasn’t like our kisses before. So many of those had been hasty, lust on the verge of being reined back in again. Even when we’d had sex in the country house, every caress had come with the sense that our time together was strictly limited.
This kiss captured my lips with a tender pressure that spoke of an expanse of pent-up desire, desire that could go on and on without fading away or being tamped down. As if Declan were offering himself up to me as he was, no boundaries or restrictions—all of him. A heady flutter passed through my chest.
Another set of lips brushed my skin. Connar kissed his way across my shoulder, adjusting the neckline of my dress for better access. His fingers trailed over my stomach. As he stepped around me, Declan pulled back from the kiss with a wildness in his bright hazel eyes that I’d never seen before. He seemed to waver for a second and then pressed his mouth to the side of my neck, leaving my lips for Connar to reclaim.
As their mouths sent heat searing through my body, I released their hands to curl my fingers into both of their shirts. Just having them on either side of me—these guys I wanted so much and was coming to care about so deeply—made me tingle from head to toe.
Connar’s tongue slipped past my lips, and his hand came up to cup my breast. The swipe of his thumb pebbled my nipple in an instant with a jolt of pleasure. Declan grazed his teeth across the crook of my neck. At my ecstatic shiver, he stroked his fingers over my other breast.
The contrasting sensations of Connar’s firm caresses and Declan’s light teasing brought a gasp to my throat. The tingling condensed between my thighs. I wanted so much more than this—I wanted all three of us gasping—I wanted the pleasure to carry me away from my worries completely if only f
or a few moments.
My grip on their shirts tightened. As if picking up on my growing urgency, Connar reached for the hem of my dress and eased it up, letting the smooth fabric trace a path over my thigh. He released my mouth to nibble along my jawline, and Declan was there to catch my lips with his.
Connar’s fingers settled over my panties. Bliss careened from my core. I made a hungry sound against Declan’s mouth and stroked my hands down both guys’ chests, wanting to pay back the sensations they were provoking in every way I could. They both stood several inches taller than me, but their differing frames, brawny and slim, felt like the perfect combination.
When my hand brushed over the bulge in Connar’s slacks, he growled against my neck. The circular motion of his fingers between my legs intensified, each pulse of pleasure making my knees wobble. I traced my thumb over Declan’s erection, taut against his fly, and his breath stuttered as he deepened our kiss.
Connar gave my clit one last flick of his thumb and yanked down my panties. I squeezed him through his pants encouragingly. His next growl turned a groan.
“Down,” he murmured, half command and half plea, with a guiding nudge of his hand. I sank onto a grassy bit of ground on my knees, and he dropped with me, slicking his fingers over my arousal from behind. I rocked into his touch.
“Yes,” I gasped out as his forefinger dipped right inside me. At the same time, I gripped Declan’s pants, tugging both him and them down to my level. He knelt in front of me. As I flicked open the clasp and delved inside to free his cock from his boxers, he inhaled sharply.
“Rory?”
I gazed up at his face, reveling in the bliss thrumming from my core with each pump of Connar’s fingers, in the silky stiff feel of the cock I held in my grasp. Nothing in Declan’s expression looked anything but eager other than a hint of concern about me. As if I hadn’t wondered what he’d taste like from the first moment I’d touched him like this months ago.
