Steal the Sun (Thieves #4)(17)

“Give me a kiss,” Dev said, his voice low and sexy.

I pulled the curtains open with one strong tug of my hand. If she hit me with a magical fireball or some shit, at least I’d stop that freaking kiss.

The two people on the bed froze like an erotic tableau. Dev was naked, his lean muscular body on display. I got the best look at his backside. He had an amazing ass. He’d stopped in the act of climbing on top of someone who looked just freaking like me. I flashed back to earlier in the day when Mara had commented on how we would have to tame my hair. She’d complained about the waviness. I’d thought it was weird when she ran her hand across my hair, but now I knew why. They needed a strand of hair to make the spell work.

I had to admit, looking down on myself in bed with Dev, I looked pretty damn hot. I always worry about that extra five pounds I carry around, but it was all curves. No wonder Danny liked to watch.

“Zoey?” Dev looked between the two of us, his gorgeous green eyes confused.

The Zoey who wasn’t me cowered and held on to Dev. “Husband, it is a trick. She is a witch trying to confuse you. She will kill us both. Please save me.” She clung to him and gave her role everything she had.

I rolled my eyes and promised myself I would never cower. It didn’t look good on me. Gilliana could look like me all she wanted. The spell hadn’t given her my personality. I looked at Dev with a flat frown. He was trying to pull away from the woman in his arms, but he still seemed a bit uncertain.

“Here’s the deal, baby. I’m going to talk for a minute and you can decide which one of us is real.” I looked down at Gilliana and pulled my knife. She shrank away. “All right, bitch, this is how it’s going down. You get one warning and one warning only. I’m his wife. He married me and not because he was forced to screw me by some spell. He chose me. You had your chance and you blew it. Keep your hands off my husband or I’ll be forced to remove them.”

Dev practically leapt off the bed to get to my side. “The scary one is definitely my wife. What the hell is going on? I was about to come and look for you, but I got so tired. I laid down for a nap and you woke me up with your lovely naked body. I was quite happy to see you.”

“How did you find out?” Gilliana asked, looking petulant and annoyed. “I set everything up perfectly. You should be with Mara now. You should be trying to fix the chaos.”

I reached onto the bed and pulled myself out by my hair. Now the spell broke because her hair felt different from mine. Gilliana screamed as I hauled her off the bed and her glamour fell apart. I was left with a lovely, if bland, blonde. She had brown eyes and a skinny body. She probably had five inches on me, and I bet I outweighed her. The woman also had no idea how to fight. She didn’t punch or try to take out my legs. She just yelled. She apparently thought screaming was going to make me let her go.

“Gilliana.” Dev greeted his ex through clenched teeth. He crossed his arms, and I knew it was to keep himself from hitting her. “How dare you try this on me? I will have you imprisoned for this.”

“Call the guard later, baby.” I started to haul Gilliana out of his room by her long blonde hair. I had a good grip on it now, and she was surprisingly easy to drag. I had way more trouble with the friction of her bare ass on the marble than I did with her weight. Skinny bitches are good for something, I had to admit. “I have a reputation to stake.”

I hauled the witch out of Dev’s room, and she obliged me by kicking and screaming the whole way. Her screeching brought everyone out. Neil, Bibi, and Dev followed in my wake. Dev had slipped on his robe but followed me down the palace halls in his bare feet. He didn’t try to explain anything or apologize. He knew there was no need. He also knew the value of a ferocious reputation. On our home plane, Dev had a reputation as a smooth talker who would smile one minute and stick his knife in the next. He was not a man you crossed.

I reached the greeting room after a long walk, all the while gathering gawkers. There was a huge crowd waiting to see why Her Grace, wife of the High Priest, was hauling a naked noblewoman through the halls of the royal palace. There was no way this story didn’t make the rounds. By the time dinner rolled around, my reputation as a badass would be secure.

I was gratified to see Mara looking on with a horrified expression on her face. I gave her my most savage smile because she needed to remember this.

“Lady Gilliana decided it would be a good idea to trick my husband into her bed,” I announced loudly. “I’m going to persuade her ladyship that this was a misstep.” I let her head drop to the marble and before she could move, I shoved that cold iron into her chest making sure I stayed away from her heart. It would hurt like hell, but it wouldn’t kill her. I stared down into her face, which was contorted with agony. “Next time, I’ll kill you.”

I pulled my knife out because I wasn’t going to waste a perfectly good knife on her.

Dev grabbed my hand and pulled it to his mouth. He kissed my hand gallantly, letting everyone know he approved. When I looked over the crowd I noticed Danny, Lee, and Padric had joined. Danny was laughing but Lee and Padric looked almost paternally proud.

As Dev began to lead me away from the screaming Gilliana, I realized something. It made me frown and turned my stomach a little. If Gilliana had hired the assassin, why would she go to the elaborate trouble of this plan? It was intricate and depended on flawless execution. This had been her plan, not the archer.