Dozan stepped forward and pulled the door closed behind Clare. He didn’t immediately face Kerrigan. Just stared at the door for a few precious minutes in silence.
“I can handle Clare,” he finally said.
“Handle her?”
“So that she doesn’t seek revenge on you.” His voice was barely a whisper but filled to the brim with power. “Though she refused to tell me who she’d sold those weapons to. I’m sure she knows it’s her only bargaining chip.”
“So, you have nothing.”
“I cleaned up your mess,” he growled.
She couldn’t take it any longer. “You knew,” she snarled. “You knew this whole time.”
He turned around to face her. His face was, as ever, unreadable. “Knew what?”
“You knew about my magic.”
“You told me about your magic.”
She stepped forward until she was right in front of him. “Don’t play games with me, Dozan. Five years ago, I was beaten to within an inch of my life. You found me. You brought me back here. You told me that you saved me, that you killed those men, that I was safe.”
“Did I?” he asked, a glint in his honey eyes.
“Yes,” she snarled. “You failed to mention that I used some kind of… I don’t know… energy bomb to kill all those Fae.”
“Do you regret killing the Fae who would have killed you?”
“No,” she immediately said, but her stomach twisted. “But you told me that you did it!”
“Did I?” he repeated. He brushed a lock of her hair out of her face, and she slapped his hand away. “Or did I let you come to your own conclusions? You didn’t know what had happened. You woke up here, with me, safe. You assumed that I’d killed the Fae who had done that to you and that I’d spirited you away to safety. There was no reason for me to let you think otherwise.”
“Other than the truth?”
“The truth? Kerrigan, you were twelve years old and had just been badly beaten. It was a mercy that I did not tell you that you had murdered a half-dozen Fae. How would you have reacted to that news?”
She stumbled at that thought. How would she have reacted? She never would have recovered. At the time, she had been young and innocent yet jaded. She had seen the world as having done her a great injustice. It was only through that beating and subsequent journey to help Cyrene that she had realized she wanted a bigger purpose in her life, to take action for herself. If she had known she was a murderer…
She shuddered.
“Exactly,” Dozan said.
“Don’t act like you were simply doing something altruistic,” Kerrigan said, taking a step away from him. “Everyone knows that you only act in your own self-interest. That you surround yourself with unique, magical people. I thought it was my visions that you coveted when I returned last year, but I should have known better.”
“I covet you,” he said baldly.
She laughed at him. “You want my powers. Nothing more. I’m just another instrument of the king of the Wastes.”
“Is that so bad?” he asked, closing the distance once more. His hand came up under her chin and tilted her head up to look at him. “Is it so bad to be wanted? For your powers, for exactly who you are, Kerrigan? I don’t want you to be anything else. You don’t have to change for me. You can be as brilliant as you are, right here, with me.”
His lips dipped down toward hers, but she wrenched back before he could finish. She was not going to fall helplessly into Dozan Rook’s arms. She didn’t want to play that game.
She slapped him across the face—hard. “Don’t you dare presume to kiss me.”
He grinned like a Cheshire cat. “I do love your fight.”
“You lied to me. You want to use me. You’re a scoundrel and an asshole.”
“I am what I am, Ker,” he whispered her name like a prayer, holding his hands out in front of him.
“I’m done,” she spat at him. “I’m just done. The fight is off.”
He straightened even further to his considerable height. He went from the supplicating man to the crime lord in the blink of an eye. “You can’t walk out on a deal with me.”
“Watch me!”
She yanked open the door to his rooms and flung them wide.
Dozan grabbed her wrist. “You’re making a huge mistake. No one double-crosses me without facing the consequences.”
“Maybe you should have thought about that before you lied to me. I promise you that I am a much more formidable opponent than you want to take on,” she challenged him.
His eyes glittered with ferocity. A challenge. Oh, how he loved challenges.
“We’ll see then, won’t we?”
34
The Explosion Isa
“You have got to be kidding me,” Isa growled as she burst into the home of her benefactor.
Her black mask was securely in place, and those she passed hastily scurried out of her way. She was a force today.
She thrust her hand out at the door, and it burst open with a jet of air. She didn’t often get angry enough to use her magic. Her greatest triumph was that she was skilled enough not to have to use it if she didn’t want to.
“Isa,” the man said, once again facing the window.
He wore a red velvet coat, long in the back, with a top hat. His pants were navy blue with a strip of velvet down the side of the leg. He looked ostentatious and ridiculous. A man who had money but no class.
“Tell me that she didn’t ruin the weapons deal with that Rahllins’ bitch,” she snarled.
“You were supposed to kill her,” he reminded her coolly, his voice frigid.
“And I would have if she hadn’t been working with that House of Shadows competitor. She never goes anywhere alone anymore.”
“I didn’t promise you an easy target.”
“Yeah, well, targeting the competitors would be beyond foolish, especially after what happened five years
