The Blood Spell (Ravenspire, #4)(52)

More than wanted. His heart was a lit torch, and Blue was the match.

He was in way over his head.

Her hands released his shoulders and slid down to his chest again, but she didn’t push him away.

“Blue,” he whispered against her neck.

She turned her face toward his, leaving nothing but a thin sliver of air between her mouth and his. He closed his eyes and fought a war with himself.

“We can’t.” Her voice was soft. Breathless. And the fire within him felt like it would turn his bones to ash.

“I know,” he breathed.

She fell silent, and he ordered himself not to close the distance between them. He’d kissed more girls than he could remember over the years. Harmless little flirtations on a dance floor. Nothing serious. Nothing permanent. He’d always known he didn’t have that right until he chose a girl from one of the head families to be his queen.

But this was different. This was Blue, the girl who demanded honesty. Who wanted only what was real. He was standing on a precipice, and though everything in him wanted to dive off the cliff and take Blue with him, there were a hundred reasons why he shouldn’t. Why he couldn’t.

“I still don’t like you,” she whispered. The affection in her voice made him want to gather her in his arms and leave the castle behind, rogue witch, royal council, and betrothal season be cursed.

“I still don’t like you, either,” he said and waited another moment, memorizing the feel of her hands on his chest, of her mouth a breath away from his. And then he stepped back, opened the curtain of uniforms, and struggled to get his heartbeat under control.

She followed him out of the closet into the empty anteroom. In the kitchen, the cooks were busy calling out instructions to the maids as preparations for lunch got under way. Kellan turned and met Blue’s eyes. She wore a strange expression—half regret, half wonder—and he understood exactly how she felt.

“Blue—”

“I have to go,” she blurted, already backing away. “I came here to petition the queen for help searching for homeless children who’ve gone missing. Nessa told me I should. And maybe the queen needs my help identifying the ingredients of the spell that was used last night.”

“I’m heading up that investigation,” he said. “You can go to the Aubert quarter with me—”

“I’ll just . . . I’m going to go find Nessa and see the queen. If you still need my help, maybe Nessa and I can go together.”

She was right. It was better that he didn’t spend any more time alone with her today. Not while his heart was still blazing and his thoughts kept wandering to the feeling of her body against his. He opened his mouth to agree with her, but she was already gone, hurrying down the staff corridor toward the main hall without a single backward glance.





TWENTY-TWO


“LADY CHAUVEAU.” A man wearing the blue jacket and golden shield pin of the royal magistrate’s office stood beside Dinah’s carriage as she exited the castle. He sketched a quick bow as she approached, and then handed her an envelope sealed with blue wax and pressed with the magistrate’s emblem.

Dinah’s throat tightened as she entered her carriage and tore the envelope open with shaking fingers. She read the words, blinked back furious tears, and then read them again, her heart thudding painfully.

That snake of a creditor had turned the Chauveau estate debts over to the royal magistrate a day earlier than planned.

It didn’t matter that Dubois was dead. His next of kin would inherit Dinah’s holdings instead. The empire she’d built would soon be taken from her, her chance at the throne would be lost, and, with it, the guarantee of absolute power that would keep her from ever being at the mercy of others again.

She hadn’t fought this hard only to lose. Maybe the Chauveau name would soon be worth nothing, and her chance at winning the betrothal for one of her daughters would be out of reach. But there was still a way she could get what she’d desperately wanted for so many years. Still a way to become too powerful to hurt.

It was going to take all of her courage and cunning to make it happen.

Dinah had left Blue on her own in the shop after giving the girl a taste of the punishment she deserved for not figuring out the secret to creating gold fast enough to save Dinah from all this trouble. Now she left the farmhouse gate and turned west. The road wrapped around the gentle swell of vineyards and orchards, hugged the rugged coastline briefly, and then turned toward the mountains and the dark prison that lay before them. A summer rainstorm flattened tufts of grass beside the road as Dinah took the curve around the first vineyard.

Icy fear filled her stomach, pricking along her skin until she shuddered as she glanced around. The sky was a flat slate of dark gray, the landscape blurred into vague, indistinct shapes, and whether because of the storm or because it was nearing the noon dining hour, no wagons were on the road.

She was alone.

The vow she’d made sixteen years earlier to never walk this path again, never retrace these cursed steps, blazed across her thoughts, and she forced it away.

Everything she’d worked for was in jeopardy, and Dinah refused to fail. Not after all she’d sacrificed.

Turning on her heel, she faced the closest orchard. Her breath clogged in her throat as she reached past the fear and clung to the thorns of anger that sliced into her like splinters of fire.