Iron and Magic (The Iron Covenant #1)(35)

Elara glanced at him. “Any idea what brought this on?”

“She thinks the balance of power shifted in my favor,” he said. “Now, what the hell was so bloody important?”

“You found an abandoned palisade.”

He got up, poured a glass of water from the pitcher on the table, and drank. He missed the wine, not the alcohol, but the taste.

He realized she was waiting for him to answer. “Yes.”

“Were you planning on telling me?”

“No.”

“What do you mean, no?”

Something peeked out from inside her. Something cold and lethal, a power coursing through her. Her hair was down again, and it floated about her like a silver curtain. Her blue dress was cut wide, leaving her delicate neck exposed.

“It doesn’t concern you.”

“It does concern me.”

“It’s a matter of safety. There is no immediate threat. If there was one, I would tell you about it.”

“We have to report it.”

He frowned. “Report it to who?”

“The sheriffs. The county.”

“No.” The harpy was insane.

She turned, pacing back and forth. “You’re not listening to me. Something weird happened in the woods on the border of our land. If we don’t report it, we will be blamed.”

He crossed his arms. “Who will blame us?”

“The authorities.”

She was really wound up tight. It was kind of amusing. He decided to stab and see what happened.

“Is this paranoia recent or is this something you’ve had for a while?”

Elara stopped in midstep and spun toward him, the long skirt of her dress flaring.

“We are always blamed. I’m speaking from experience. Whenever anything weird happens, they come after us.”

“‘They’ won’t find out.”

Elara missed the sarcasm in his emphasis. “They will. They always do. We have to report it. You should’ve sent someone to report it the moment you found it.”

“Do you trust your people?”

“What?” She tilted her head, giving him a look at the fine line of her jaw all the way to her neck. He wondered what she looked like under the dress.

“Do your people report to the authorities on a regular basis, because I have to tell you, I wouldn’t tolerate that if I were you.”

“Hugh! You can’t possibly be this dense. No, my people don’t talk to outsiders.”

She’d used his name. Well, well. “Mine don’t either. So, who’s going to tell?”

“It will get out. It always does. Someone will come to check on them—"

“To check on three families of separatists living alone in the middle of the forest?”

Elara halted. “Separatists still trade, Hugh. They still need supplies.”

“Try to get it through your thick skull: they abandoned society, built a palisade in the middle of a dangerous forest, and got killed. It happens all the damn time and nobody ever makes any effort to investigate.”

“According to your own people, this time is different. You don’t even know what killed them.”

Hugh felt irritation rise. “I would know if I had access to a forensic mage. How is it that in all of your settlement there is not a single mage?”

Elara crossed her arms on her chest. “We have no need for mages. We have plenty of magic users who can do everything a mage can do but better.”

“So why don’t you take some of those fabled magic users and analyze the scene?”

“So when the forensic team does arrive from the sheriff’s office, they’ll find an empty settlement and our magic signature all over it? Brilliant. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Leave this alone. If you stir that pot, your pal Skolnik will run back here with torches and pitchforks. Is that what you want?”

Elara narrowed her eyes. “You know what, never mind. I’ll take care of this.”

Hugh’s irritation boiled over into full-blown fury. His voice turned to ice. “You won’t.”

“Yes, I will.”

“I forbid it.”

“Good that I don’t need your permission.”

“Yes, you do.”

“Says who?”

“Says the contract we both signed. Or did you forget the part where I asked for autonomy on the safety-related decisions and you put in the provision that all of them have to be jointly approved by you and me? It cuts both ways, sweetheart.”

Her magic boiled just under her skin. Her eyes blazed. Didn’t like that, did you?

“Do it,” he dared. “Breach the contract. Give me an excuse for free rein.”

Elara’s hands curled into fists. Her cheeks flushed. She was so mad.

God, sex right now would be amazing. He would throw her on the bed and she would scream and kick and lash him with her magic. It would be fucking hot.

“I hate you,” she ground out.

“Right back at you, darling.” Hugh kissed the air.

Her face jerked. An ethereal growl rolled through the room, an echo of a distant snarl. Elara spun and within her he almost saw something else, hidden within silvery translucent veils of magic. She swept out of the room. The door slammed behind her, shaking the heavy wooden doorway.