“I think we need to talk.” He turned to the girl. “You put poison in Lane’s food?”
Her lip trembled. “He promised to take me away. He said to just put a little powder in her food and she’d get sick and not be able to finish the negotiations. It’s so awful here. I just wanted to escape.”
Stupid girl. “You’ll find the mines a good deal less comfortable, assuming they don’t hang you.”
She started bawling and Damien gagged her with a strip of soul force. He should feel sorry for her. The guard clearly used her and it sounded like the baron took advantage of her. Maybe if she’d poisoned Kannon he would have been more understanding.
He turned his attention to the bodyguard lying on the ground. The cocoon around his head vanished.
“Help! Sloan! James! Anyone!”
Damien crouched beside him. “No one can hear you. We’re going to have a chat. If you tell me what I want to know I won’t crush you into a bloody mush.”
“I won’t tell you anything.” He spat at Damien.
Thankfully the spit slid right off Damien’s personal shield. Damien clenched his fist and the cocoon shrank, squeezing the guard’s body. The man gasped for breath.
“Who told you to kill Lane?”
“Go to hell!”
Damien shook his head and squeezed again. The guard moaned and fell silent when he couldn’t refill his lungs. Damien let him suffocate for a minute before he allowed the guard take a breath.
“The next squeeze will break ribs. Consider your words carefully.”
“All right, I’ll tell you whateve—”
The guard screamed when dark fire shot out his eyes and ears. Black tar oozed out of his nose and he stopped breathing.
“Damn it!” Damien slammed a fist on the stable wall. A warlock had put a binding on him. Poor bastard probably didn’t even realize it. He turned to the servant and found her unconscious on the stable floor. “Damn it!”
Now who could tell him what was going on?
Chapter 34
Lane yawned, stretched, and rolled out of the soft, warm bed. After Damien’s revelation about the poison it had taken her a while to relax enough to fall asleep. Her beautiful dress hung in a wardrobe. She wouldn’t be wearing it to today’s meeting. This would be all business.
She debated telling the barons about the poison, but if they were behind it she’d be alone in a room with ten men who wanted her dead. If she kept her mouth shut it would probably be safer. Safe was good.
Her stomach groaned and she reached for the pull rope. Her arm was halfway to the silk cord when she caught herself. What if they brought more poisoned food? Better wait until Damien was up and could check it. She pulled a tunic over her head, but didn’t bother with trousers.
Lane studied her long, bare legs. Plenty of men had complimented her on them and she wondered what Damien’s reaction would be when she walked in. She smiled, a little heat in her cheeks.
Lane had spent some time with men, of course, but never anything serious. Most found her mother too intimidating and she was often busy on a diplomatic assignment. Some found her success hard to take, but she hadn’t gotten to be one of the kingdom’s top diplomats by worrying about some man’s disapproval. Ultimately the only man she had to please wore the crown.
Damien didn’t strike her as the type to be intimidated by a successful woman, or anything else for that matter. His door opened then thumped shut. He’d been up and gone out already? She took a deep breath and let it out slow. Was she really considering getting involved with a sorcerer? She didn’t even know if Damien liked her. Considering how she’d treated him for most of the trip it wouldn’t surprise her if he couldn’t stand her.
Well, all she could do was apologize and tell him how she felt. If he rejected her she couldn’t blame him.
Lane knocked once on the connecting door and pushed it open. Her jaw dropped. Damien was halfway across the room, an unconscious girl over one shoulder and a basket in the opposite hand.
He stopped and looked over at her, a sheepish smile on his face. He held out the basket. “I brought breakfast.”
A million questions whirled in Lane’s head, but she couldn’t force a single one past her lips. She took the basket from him and Damien continued on to the wardrobe. The doors opened at his approach and he set the girl gently inside before closing them.
He rolled his shoulders and turned back toward her. All Lane could manage was to stare dumbly at him, the unopened basket still in her hand.
He took the basket back and sat on his bed. When he opened it the mouthwatering aroma of bread and bacon wafted out. Her stomach groaned and jolted her out of her stupor.
“Why did you carry an unconscious girl into your bedroom?”
A golden table appeared in front of Damien and he spread the contents of the basket out on it. “She’s the one that tried to poison you yesterday.”
Lane sat beside him. “What happened?”
Damien told her about his adventure this morning. “So when the hellfire ward went off and the guard’s charred brains leaked out his nose the girl fainted. She saw me use sorcery and tried to kill you once already, so I decided to take her into custody. I put a block in her brain that’ll keep her out for a day or so. The real question is, what do you want to do now?”
Lane’s head spun. This was too much for her. She was a diplomat and she’d dealt with some tricky situations
