My eyes drifted towards Audrey. It bothered me more than I wanted to admit how easily she managed to get under my skin.
There were always a bunch of people who dreamed of hooking up with dark mages, so at any time, I could have women begging at my feet for a single night with me. I fucked them. Not the other way around. I decided if and when and how. So why was Audrey bloody Sable getting to me like this?
The thought sent a flash of anger, mixed with panic, through me. I’d already spent far too many years following other people’s lead and trying to please them, and I had long ago sworn that I would never let anyone push me around ever again.
I knew exactly what Audrey was doing. I knew that she was doing it just to mess with me. But it didn’t change the fact that every time she did something like that, it made me want to fuck her until the only thought left inside her head was my name. And I hated it. We had to finish this mission quickly so that I could finally end her infuriating existence and get some damn peace.
“This is the one,” Audrey said as she nodded towards a massive house across the street.
Drawing myself up against the wall next to her, I studied the house from where we were standing hidden in a small alley. The sun was dipping lower towards the horizon, making the buildings cast long shadows. But it still wasn’t dark enough for people to start lighting candles and oil lamps, so the windows of the house up ahead only reflected the golden light of the sunset.
“The man in there lives for juicy gossip.” Her green eyes slid to me. “If anyone knows which families currently belong to the social elite, it’s him.”
Suspicion crept into my mind as I met her gaze. “How do you know?”
For a moment, she only stared up at me in silence. Then she broke eye contact and went back to watching the house. “I grew up two streets away.”
My eyebrows rose. She had grown up here? This was a really rich neighborhood.
“Won’t he recognize you?” I asked.
“No. I spent most of my time at the academy.”
“What about the weekends?”
Instead of answering, she turned back to me and declared, “We knock on his door and go with the same ruse as before. We’re a couple from Castlebourne who traveled here to rent a house so that we can figure out if we want to move here permanently. And we want to get a feel for the social life here, which is why we’re asking him for help.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to just threaten or bribe him into telling us?”
“Didn’t you hear me? He’s a huge gossip. If we do that, he’ll tell other people about us.”
“We could just make him disappear.”
“Which wouldn’t draw attention at all.” She rolled her eyes at me. “People in this social class are far too well-connected for that kind of heavy-handed bullshit.” A vicious glint crept into her eyes as she flicked a glance up and down my body. “But then again, you’ve got more muscles than brain, so I shouldn’t be surprised that you’d make a suggestion like that.”
Locking hard eyes on her, I cocked my head while a dangerous smile curled my lips. “Careful now.”
She let out a dismissive laugh and brushed past me. “Let’s go.”
After smothering the impulse to run a force blade through her ribs, I pushed off from the wall and stalked after her. Golden sunlight played in her long dark hair, and her rich green dress shifted around her legs. It wasn’t one of those half-armor things she usually wore but instead an elegantly cut dress that fit right in here among these expensive houses. I watched the way she swayed her hips when she walked.
Irritation shot through me when she cast a sudden glance over her shoulder and caught me staring at her ass. A sly smile blew across her lips. I glared back at her. Of course she had been doing it on purpose.
Sunflowers had been planted along the whole path from the fence to the front door, and Audrey gently drew a hand over a few of them as she closed the final distance to the door. Lifting her hand, she gave the polished wood a few brisk knocks. I came to a halt next to her right as the door was opened.
“Yes?” said a thin man as he peered out at us. He had a pair of round glasses perched on his hooked nose.
“Oh, hi!” Audrey said in a light and cheerful voice that I had never heard from her before. “I’m so sorry to disturb you, but my husband and I were just walking past and I couldn’t help but notice your extraordinary sunflowers. And I said to him, darling, I just have to ask what the secret behind them is. Didn’t I?”
Confusion rippled through me as she looked up at me with those sparkling green eyes. Weren’t we supposed to ask about influential people? Why was she talking about sunflowers? It had to be her way of buttering him up before she asked what we really wanted to know, so I pushed the surprise aside and smiled down at her. “You sure did, sweetheart.”
“They’re simply magnificent.” She motioned towards the tall yellow flowers while shifting her gaze back to the man in the doorway. “Could you please share what it is that you do to make them like this? Mine always start to droop when they get this big.”
The man’s whole face lit up. “Oh, of course. It’s so wonderful to find someone else who appreciates sunflowers as much as I do.”
Pushing the door open wider, he moved out to stand next to one of the flowerbeds while he enthusiastically started describing what he did with them. I kept a mildly interested look on my face while he and Audrey chatted about the proper way to care for sunflowers. She must have known about his obsession with them before she even walked up to the door. No one could pull this many random questions about flowers out of thin air.
“Oh, thank you so much,” Audrey said once his lengthy presentation finally ended. A bright smile shone on her face as she continued looking at him while waving a hand towards me. “You know, my husband and I have just moved here. Well, we’re renting a house for two weeks to see if we want to move here. And now I’m starting to feel really good about it.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” he answered. “Have you met any other people yet?”
“No, in truth, we only moved in this morning.” She let out an embarrassed laugh. “Where would we even go to meet new people? It can be so awkward trying to make new friends as an adult.”
“Oh, I know what you mean. But what kind of friends would you like to meet?”
Audrey pressed a hand to her chest before fanning her face as if to cool her heated cheeks. “I’m embarrassed to even admit this, but I do like high society.”
His eyes lit up and a satisfied smile blew across his face. “Then I know exactly who you should meet. Elise Dawson is the gem of high society right now, and she has a large circle of friends too.”
“That’s amazing. Where would I go if I wanted to meet her?”
“They usually stroll through the market around midday, so you should find her there.”
I studied Audrey while the chatty man described what this Elise person and her friends looked like. It would have been a lot more fun to threaten him into telling us, but I had to admit that this approach was not only incredibly smooth, it also established our ruse even more firmly since this guy would most likely go blabbing to others about the nice newly-arrived couple he had met. Maybe her poison magic wasn’t the only reason that Audrey had survived this long.
“Thank you so much,” she said and flashed him another brilliant smile. “You’ve been such a tremendous help.”
I nodded a goodbye too as we turned and made our way back out onto the street. The sounds of people chatting and laughing came from around the corner. When we rounded it, we found a group of well-dressed men and women gathering outside someone’s door as if they were on their way out. Their colorful clothes shone in the light of the setting sun. Audrey and I gave them a friendly nod as we passed. Keeping our pace to a casual evening stroll, we continued back towards our house.
“What a liar you are,” I commented when we were finally out of earshot.
Audrey let out a smug chuckle and swept her hair over her shoulder. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Who knew that you could be so pleasant and bubbly when you put in some effort. Maybe you should work a little harder on that.”
A dark shadow passed across her face. Cutting me a scathing glare, she picked up the pace and stalked ahead. I frowned. What had that been about?
Shaking my head, I shoved out the thought and strode after her. Who cared? We had a name and a location. Now, we just had to go and find this Elise Dawson.
If Audrey was this good at pretending to be civilized, she’d have no problem ensnaring our mark on her own.
Because I was certainly not interested in making any friends.
Real or otherwise.
