Come on, Shade. Stay alert. Defend yourself for once.
Roarke’s voice is so smooth and silky that I’m using more of my energy trying not to fall into complete lust with the guy than I am trying to survive. I’m winning, but these women are not.
The blonde starts to unbuckle her weapon belts, dropping them to the ground one at a time. The scent of a rose garden on fire hits the back of my throat, but on my next inhale it’s gone. Roarke makes a wickedly seductive sound that could almost be a laugh if it wasn’t all heavy with motive and a reaching sense of desire, but he doesn’t move.
A feeling bubbles up inside me. One that has nothing to do with these women and everything to do with Roarke. Not jealousy, though. We’ve been ambushed, and there’s a dead woman nearby, so I am definitely not feeling jealousy right now.
“The Crown’s orders,” the commander says, stopping to run her tongue slowly over her teeth. “Anyone who brings her back alive – damaged is fine, but able to talk is essential – will walk away with ten thousand gold pieces and the Cobalt Castle. I was thinking about removing a leg – can’t escape on one leg.”
I jerk my legs closer to my crouched body. I would rather keep my legs, both of them. Especially since I currently only have one functioning arm. Only having one leg would be a death sentence.
Roarke’s shoulders tense, and he adjusts his grip on his sword, but his smile doesn’t falter.
“So you’ve been following us?” Roarke asks, his magic sliding deep under my skin and ordering everyone who hears it to get naked.
Killian’s blade slips from my fingers, and I awkwardly start working at the buttons on my shirt.
“We haven’t been following you,” the commander says, unbuckling her leather chest armor from the side in three well-practiced movements. “We were Sealed to annihilate Eydis.”
She pulls it over her head and drops it to the ground. They all do, and within a few heartbeats, they all have their tunics off too. In another heartbeat, they’re pulling at the ties on their breastbands. Their expressions are calm, with smiles that lift their pretty cheeks, and gazes full of seduction.
“Show me your seals?” Roarke asks.
They all hold their hands out. The burnt marks of their seals have begun to dissolve, but I can’t tell how long they have left.
“So no one suspected we would be here?” Roarke asks. “We weren’t part of your orders?”
“No,” the one on the left says, drawing the word out in a low raspy tone. “Your orders were to patrol the border, everyone knows that.”
“Who delivered the assignment order? Who was the Sealer?” The order, Tell me everything is woven into the under-fabric of his question.
I suck my bottom lip into my mouth, and even with Allure heavily poisoning the air, I manage to stay quiet, helped by the distracting pull of a nearby jasmine vine filling the breeze with the sweet scent of spring.
I’ll deal with the fact that it’s autumn later.
“Sealer Corym. Three triunes were dispatched to remove three of the northern border Potion Masters. Sealer Flynn and Sealer Zen sent triunes towards the southern and western borders. But we are all keeping our eyes open for your pentad.” The commander, now three-quarters naked, spits on the ground as soon as the word ‘pentad’ leaves her mouth. “No matter how secure your position is – your backs have targets on them. Sabers are a sacred race – and your commander has turned us into a joke. ”
She’s referring to me – I’m the joke – and the deal Pax brokered that took me from the lowest of the lows, a soot-servant-slave, to the highest of the Sabers – my guys are practically second only to the Crown himself.
One thing is very clear – me going back to the home of all things Saber, the White Castle, is not going to end well.
“You were all sealed to assassinate the Masters manning the Power Springs?” Roarke asks, ignoring everything else she just said.
The girl on the right snickers as she unclips the belt at her waist and lets her pants drop to her ankles. I pull my gaze away, but the other two are doing the same thing, and unless I want to completely turn my back, I’ve just got to get over it. Nakedness is not my thing – but Roarke makes a sound that ignites the rose gardens again. A sound like maybe I should be enjoying this more.
The idea makes me even more uncomfortable.
“How is that even possible? The assignments require three signatures. The Crown always needs at least two Councillors, and they’re in short supply,” Roarke asks – well, he starts out asking, then he kind-of starts babbling.
“His Highness can move his warriors wherever he wants by making the Sealers alter each design just a little. An order to protect the Potion Master can easily be altered into an instruction to protect her even from herself, at all costs – if you choose the right words to put in front of a council member, it’s easy to make amendments once the document has been signed and before the seal has been drawn,” the commander says. “It’s easy to have your head, and your pretty little pet’s too – once he’s finished with her.”
She trails her finger from the corner of her lip, over her chin, and down her neck.
Roarke snickers at her, an evil little twist to his tone.
“The assignment system was our fail-safe,” he growls low and almost inaudible, before adding, “Kitten, cover your ears.”
The women don’t register that he’s spoken, not a blink, nothing. It’s like I don’t even exist.
I stop struggling to get my shirt off, which I had forgotten I was doing. Thank the gods button number two is stubborn, and one-armed button skills are beyond me. My left hand is covering
