The Shadows (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #13)(130)

She had never been visited by the female who, immediately after birthing her, had given her into the care of specially trained staff in that suite of rooms that was a prison.

Such was the life of the Princess of the s’Hisbe.

She had found a way out, however.

And had been drifting around the palace under the guise of a maid, a low priest, even an astrologer, ever since.

maichen slipped out and briskly walked away.

Nothing like discovering s’Ex, her mother’s favorite lover, having a tryst with two human females, whom he had evidently smuggled in—likely through the rear entrance. maichen hadn’t meant to find out his secret, but she had discovered that there was a grate up high on the wall, and learned that, if she dematerialized into it, she could travel along the system of heating and air-conditioning ducts.

For quite some time, it had been nothing but a game with which to pass the time, and she had learned nothing of note from her spying. That had changed one night, however, as she had, in her Shadow form, looked down through one of the slats, and gotten her first and only sight of the mating act.

Although … well, there had been a lot of body parts.

So she wasn’t sure what she had seen exactly.

She must have made a sound or something, because s’Ex had frozen and looked up, meeting her eyes even while the humans kept moving and grinding against him …

s’Ex had come to her cell immediately thereafter, and they had struck their little deal. In exchange for keeping what she had seen private and no longer using the venting system, she was allowed to leave her quarters provided she stayed within the palace and kept herself duly camouflaged.

s’Ex’s indiscretion could well have been the death of him: Shadows believed that mating was a sacred act. And the Queen would have been infuriated to know that certain body parts of hers had essentially been … exposed … to the body parts of humans by virtue of s’Ex’s exploits.

That male was supposed to be hers and hers alone. Everyone knew this.

And those human women? He might as well have had sheep in that bed of his.

As maichen padded along, moving through the corridors, her stomach began doing flip-flops. As she had gained age, she had been granted some privacy, such that she could send all attendants away from her quarters—and she had exercised that privilege once again this evening: Before going to check that her mother was, in fact, in full mourning, she had told her servants to depart from her quarters, as she was exhausted from stress and desirous of some privacy as she exercised the rituals required of her.

None had questioned her. And no one would be back until after dawn.

It would be easy to use the grate system and escape out into the world.

Meet up with her betrothed’s brother.

And …

Well, she didn’t know what.

Stars above, was she really going to do this? She wasn’t even exactly sure where the cabin he had spoken of was.

No, this was foolhardy. Stupid. Reckless—

An image of iAm standing naked before her cut off all thought.

As her body began to warm from the inside out, she realized that, in spite of all her mind might be telling her, her flesh was going to drive her to him.

She would go. Heaven help her … she was going to go.

And deal with the consequences, whatever they may be, later.





FIFTY


Trez just needed to cop to shit: When it came to Storytown, he was only good at the kiddie rides. Stuff like the Teacups, and the Dragon Tail—which was a swoosh that didn’t leave the ground and barely gave you a breeze in the face—and the f-in’ carousel with its elevator Muzak and those hard-seated, impaled horses and unicorns going up and down.

Speaking of poles and up and down …

“You ready to go home?” he asked.

Selena looked up at him. “I am. This has been so much fun.”

“I know, right? Best night of my life.”

She leaned into his body, giving him a squeeze. “That’s not totally true, though. I thought you were going to lose it on the roller-coaster.”

He stopped. Pivoted her around. Swept her hair back from her face. “I was with you. So it was perfect.”

The kiss was supposed to be one of those I’m-making-a-point ones, a quick affirmation that he meant what he’d said. But he’d been wanting to get it on with her all night, and before he knew it, he had her flush against him, her breasts pushing into his chest, her hips locked in his palms, his tongue stroking hers.

“You wanna get out of here,” he growled again.

“Yes,” she said against his mouth.

It was probably time anyway, he thought with a quick glance at his watch—yup, eleven fifteen.

Even though his cock was in a hurry to get gone, he didn’t want to miss the stroll back to where the car was parked. With his arm around her shoulders, and their left-rights in step, they walked the paths that took them by all the rides they’d gone on, past the blue picnic table where they’d done the dog and burger, around the cotton-candy concession where they’d gotten a big cone of Marge Simpson hair and torn off pieces to feed each other.

“I didn’t get you a stuffed animal,” he said.

“Buy me one? Oh, I don’t need—”

“No, win you one. At like a six-gun shooting range.”