Scorched Treachery (Imdalind, #3)(54)

He moved away from me and strode toward the new house before I could move at all, which was probably a good thing. The desire to kill him right there was too strong, but Ilyan had warned me not to take him on. I don’t know what reason he had for doing so, but I was more likely to trust him than Edmund at this point.

After three hundred years of espionage, I had seen more than my fair share of bad and had even developed what some may call a conscious.

“Where is my brother?” I asked one of Edmund’s goons that was standing around, surprised my brother wasn’t here to follow him around like usual.

“Try the bar,” he said, before shouldering me out of the way. My jaw dropped as I watched him go, my fingers buzzing with energy and a need to teach him a lesson.

No one dared treat me that way, not unless they wished for death. I would have asked what I was missing, but I already knew.

I strolled away from the construction site, my skin prickling with energy as the dirt seeped through my shoes and heavy stockings.

I didn’t look back. I didn’t dare. I walked right to the small tavern in town, where I knew my brother would be, his back to me as I walked into the bar and he downed yet another tequila.

“Another!” he yelled into the empty space, it was far too early for the honest men of this town to be drinking.

“Make that two,” I spat as I sidled onto the stool next to him, the bartender eyeing me as if I had asked him to hand over the deed to the place.

“Now,” I added when it became obvious that he wasn’t going to pour the drink anytime soon.

“You seem to be in a bad mood,” Cail said, not taking his eyes off the small, dirty glass in front of him.

“Did you know about this?” I spat, not caring who heard me.

“Know about what?”

I slapped the paper down on the bar letting my magic spread the paper flat until Cail could read the words. His eyes grew wide, and I felt the shield go around us. He held out his hand, and I took it, placing an even more powerful shield around his heart. His face relaxed the moment he touched me and his mind and body became his own.

“Of course I knew” was all he said, the small statement boiling my anger closer to the surface.

“And you didn’t tell me?” I was furious. Cail had warned me of difficult assignments and helped to disguise the hearts of my victims for the past two hundred years by implanting some of Edmund’s own magic within them. But this time, he had dropped the ball.

I couldn’t disguise a head.

“It’s a trap, Wyn.”

“Of course it’s a trap!” I spat, grabbing and downing the tequila the bartender had just set down in front of me. “He wouldn’t send me after him otherwise.” I swirled the empty glass around out of habit, refusing to look away from it.

“To death!” Cail toasted, before downing his glass, his head dropping to the table the moment he had drained it.

My head whipped around to face him, my eyes narrowing dangerously.

“To death?” I asked, surely he hadn’t given up on me quite so easily.

“Ah, yes,” he said, sitting up to pull a paper out of the pocket in his vest near his pocket watch. “You see, you are not the only one who has been given an assignment.”

Dramin, Son of Sain

It was a trap, for both of us. I looked away, the buzzing in my ears growing briefly before I dispersed it, my jaw clenching as I shook my head and let out an irritated breath.

“Come with me.” I didn’t give him time to question me before I pulled Cail by the hand I still held, away from the bar and up to the long line of rooms above.

“Hey!” the bartender called out after seeing our ascent. “You can’t go up there!”

“I’ll pay you for the room after, old man, and it will be very worth your while.” I smiled seductively over the banister and the old man paled, a small twitch in his lips telling me all I needed to know.

I towed Cail after me before closing the door to the small room behind us, my magic expanding to place a stronger shield around us while still keeping the one around the ?tít in Cail’s heart.

I pulled the small stone that Ilyan had enclosed in his walking stick out of my undergarments and held it in my hands, the stone growing warm for just a moment as I said his name, calling him to me.

“Do I need to be here for this?” Cail asked, the irritation heavy in his voice. “I only help you, not him, after all.”

“By helping me, you are helping him,” I reminded him, but he only ignored me, sitting back on the bed and putting his muddy feet on the clean bedspread. Great, I didn’t want to see the bill for that.

“What is he doing here?” I spun at the thick voice, surprised to see not Ilyan, but Talon standing in front of the door.

“I might ask you the same question?” I said, my eyes narrowing at him.

“Ilyan is indisposed. So he sent me in his place.” He stood straight and tall, his eyes focused on the opposing wall, anywhere but on me.

“You can stutter?” I asked, the impressiveness of that feat heavy in my voice, even I could not stutter.

“No.”

“Then how did you get here?” Talon narrowed his eyes at me briefly before glancing at Cail. His message was clear. He may trust me, which I doubted, but he did not, under any circumstances trust Cail. There were not many who did.