Both of my guys have gone tense. Seth rolls his hand into a fist, then forces his fingers to uncurl again. Roarke’s tremor wouldn’t be noticeable if I weren’t watching the shake of the book in his hand.
“I don’t think he was a Saber – there was only one of him, and he wasn’t as pretty as any of you.” Pretty is the word that makes Seth relax a little. “Dustin made himself scarce, worked the fields and the Brahmans mostly. But he hung around me like a bad smell every time he was at the Manor house. His jokes were all terrible, and his conversation lacked intelligence,” I throw the insults around, trying to get Roarke to relax too.
In truth, Dustin was a nice guy; his looks were above average, but he was always smeared with dirt or cow shit. A fact that I now wonder wasn’t deliberate and designed to hide something – or to give people plenty of reason to look away and not remember him beyond the guy who smelled bad.
His conversation was nice enough, and he even got along well with Jake when the three of us were in the barn playing darts, but those occasions were limited. I played darts most nights; Dustin maybe joined us once a week.
But he’s the only option. It can’t have been Jake – he grew up out there with me. None of the other servants were around when I burnt myself or the time I almost drowned, even Jake.
Dustin scared Lord Martin off with the snake, then picked me up and carried me inside to Cook. He didn’t actually say anything and never mentioned it again, but Leon knew something.
“Leon,” I gasp his name.
Both guys are super tense all over again.
“What about him?” Roarke asks.
I pat his leg. “Both of you stop being so male!”
“We’re not,” they both chorus.
“Someone explain how Leon factors into all of this?” Seth asks.
“The mortal mage mentioned that he knew Shade had been purchased, so he’s been to the Manor, and he was also working with Eydis. Logic says either he’s her mole –”
I cut Roarke off. “Can’t be, I’d never seen him before.”
“Or they’re all working together.”
“Eydis, Dustin, and Leon,” I list their names, trying to link them together, and the Potion Master is the odd one out.
Was Dustin a mage? Did he have powers?
I don’t bother asking because neither of these guys have an answer, and neither of them seem too happy about the topic either. So instead of asking more questions I try to move the conversation along. “But the Manor gets all sorts of people passing through. Hunters and miners and people who ran the wrong way – fresh out of luck – from the cities. But Dustin never quite felt like he belonged; he wasn’t broken enough, which actually made him scary.”
“If he was working with Eydis, he was probably a Saber, and we shouldn’t feel right to mortals,” Roarke says.
“That’s never been an issue for me before.”
“But it would have for Lord Martin and the other servants. Would explain why he spent so much time away from the Manor.”
“And that would have given him a chance to meet with Eydis and compare notes.”
“Keep reading,” Seth insists, patting my leg to highlight his instruction.
Not sure how my leg affects Roarke’s voice at all, but it works.
“Okay, next entry. The problems within this Realm have grown insurmountable. The odds are stacked too high. The mortal girl is a lost cause. Shade, she’s called. Which sounds nothing like the name her mother gave her. Leon has finally arrived, but his accomplice will remain at the Manor for now –”
“Aha! I was right,” I announce, but Roarke doesn’t stop reading.
“– There’s no better vantage point, and as a mage, he’s sworn not to intervene with the Lord – though I can see he wants to. I have come to the conclusion that the only way back into this realm for that child will be right back through the Darkness that she’s already traveled – and that I am too old a woman for such an enormous task. The girl will stay with the mortals, and we will begin looking for other solutions ~ Eydis. After that there’s just a weird diagram, circles and lines that make no sense.”
Roarke closes the book, sitting it softly on the floorboards.
“Does it make me a bad person that I want to slap her right now?” I ask.
“No,” Roarke says, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “But none of that gave us the information we need.”
Roarke can’t really meet my gaze since he’s behind me, but Seth can. I offer him a worn-out smile. The guy reaches up and wraps his hand around behind my head, shifting so he can pull my face down to his.
“Don’t tell Roarke,” he whispers, then presses his lips to mine.
I don’t fight him, not one bit, giving in to the pressure of his hand behind my head, of his lips on mine, and of the wild fluttering of my heart. Pretty sure I’ve forgotten how to breathe. His tongue explores my mouth, and his hand runs up my back.
No, not Seth. Seth has one hand in my hair, but his other is pressed to the floor, lifting his weight just enough to keep our lips together. It’s not Seth’s hand tracing down my spine and hooking under the hem of my shirt – it’s Roarke’s.
A new rush fills me, hot and alive with a fearless desire to break the rules. To have both of them. All of them.
Roarke lifts my hair, twisting it to the side, before leaning forward to put his lips beside my ear.
“Roarke already knows,” he says.
My insides skip warming up or simmering and go straight to the boil. Seth is kissing me in front of Roarke. Roarke is enjoying watching Seth kiss me. I’m not sure what to do with this information – except that it’s a lot less confusing than
