The midday sun shone brightly from the pale blue heavens. I huffed in contempt as I stalked up the stone steps to Callan’s front door. Come to my mansion, if you dare. As if I would be afraid to face him in his own stronghold. I had broken in here and stabbed him only two days ago, hadn’t I? And telling me to come at sunset. Oh, I didn’t think so. I would come when I damn well pleased.
“Stand aside,” I ordered the two guards by the door.
They exchanged a glance. However, before they could reply, the door was opened and a mountain of a man became visible on the other side. His gray eyes seared into me.
“Audrey Sable,” he said at last.
Since I didn’t know his name, and didn’t care enough to ask either, I just stared back at him with my eyebrows raised expectantly.
He flashed some kind of hand signal to the guards outside the door and then jerked his chin at me. “Come with me.”
I narrowed my eyes at his presumptuous tone, but stalked across the threshold and followed him into Callan’s mansion. As we walked, I ran my scrutinizing gaze over the rooms and corridors we passed. The dark wooden floors were now clean and shiny again. No sign of the blood Callan had dripped all over them during my last visit. In fact, the whole building was neat and clean. With well-organized bookshelves and smooth tables, the entire mansion had a classy feel to it. And yet, it was also strangely homely. As if Callan truly valued this home he had built. It made me want to destroy it even more.
“Wait here,” my tall guide said as we reached a hallway upstairs.
Touching my palms together, I summoned a cloud of poison. The glittering green swirls twisted around my forearm as I cocked my head and locked eyes with the disrespectful guard. “Watch that tone.”
He rolled his eyes, actually rolled his eyes, at me before he strode over to a door a little farther down and pounded his fist against it. I considered killing him where he stood for his insolence, but decided against it. I didn’t have surprise on my side this time, and taking on Callan’s entire household all at the same time might prove troublesome.
“What?” Callan Blackwell barked from the other side of the closed door.
“It’s Henry,” the muscular guard answered. “Audrey Sable is here.”
A smirk stretched my lips. I wondered what important business I had managed to interrupt by showing up several hours too early. Brushing a hand down my flowing skirt, I huffed out a silent laugh. If Callan thought he would be the boss during our temporary partnership, he was sorely mistaken.
Callan’s dark laugh echoed from inside the room. “I see. Well, send her in then.”
Turning back around, Henry twitched his fingers at me. Poison magic still twisted around my arm so I sent it straight at him. His eyes widened as his air supply was suddenly blocked off. While forcing the glittering green tendril deeper into his throat, I stalked over and glared up into his angular face.
“Next time, remember your manners,” I said, my voice cold and vicious.
Then I pulled my magic back and yanked open the door. Henry sucked in a deep breath, but it was quickly cut off as I crossed the threshold and slammed the door shut behind me.
I jerked back. Blinking at the scene before me, I stopped dead on the floor while trying to get my brain to process what I was seeing.
The room I was in was mostly bare, except for a set of drawers and a large four-poster bed. It looked like a spare bedroom rather than Callan’s own room, or the office that I had assumed it would be. But that was not what made me stare in bafflement.
There was a naked woman on the bed. She was lying on her stomach, and her wrists were tied to the bedposts before her while her legs were attached to some kind of metal bar that kept them spread wide. Callan had raised her hips so that her knees were braced against the mattress. He was on his knees too. Behind her. Pounding into her.
I gave my head a few quick shakes as I tried to readjust my assumptions about how this meeting would transpire.
The muscles in Callan’s forearms shifted as he gripped the dark-haired woman’s hips and adjusted them while continuing to thrust into her with savage strength. A rolling moan of pleasure came from the woman’s throat. With her hands still bound, she curled her fingers, gripping the sheets hard. Resting one cheek against the mattress, she kept her eyes closed and let out another dark moan. There was pure bliss on her face.
My brows furrowed in a scowl. She had to be faking it. Probably because she was afraid to displease him. I studied the expression on her face for another couple of seconds.
Sex was so overrated. Sure, I’d fucked guys from time to time, but I’d never understood what the big deal was. First of all, the whole situation in itself puts people in a very vulnerable position. So I’d had to make sure I only fucked guys who presented no threat to me. And then the act of the guy just thrusting his cock into me? It didn’t exactly blow my mind. I could accomplish far more with my own fingers.
“I thought I told you to come at sundown,” Callan tossed over his shoulder while he continued pounding into the moaning beauty.
“And I thought I made it clear that I don’t take orders from you,” I replied.
He let out a dark chuckle. “Oh, you will.”
A smirk still played over his lips as he changed up the rhythm of his thrusts. The dark-haired woman pulled at her restraints and clenched her hands while her chest heaved. I wanted to stalk out of the room and slam the door behind me, but if I did that, Callan would know that he had won. He was trying to throw me off my game with this, I knew that. I’d tried to get the upper hand by arriving earlier than I should have, and this was his response. This was how he tried to show me that it hadn’t fazed him in the slightest. So in the end, I just painted a bored expression on my face and arched an unimpressed eyebrow while Callan made the beautiful woman come apart underneath him.
Her body shook and she let out a shuddering cry as she climaxed. Or at least pretended to do so, I assumed. Callan followed shortly after, a rough groan ripping from his throat as he thrust into her one last time. A bead of sweat ran down his muscled chest as he tipped his head back and closed his eyes.
I kept the bored and unimpressed look on my face as he pulled out of her and rose from the bed. The woman slumped down on the mattress, her chest heaving.
My eyes drifted over Callan’s lethal body and dipped below his waistline while he straightened. Damn. He was well equipped.
He drew a hand through his messy black hair as he advanced on me, still completely naked. There was a smug smile playing over his lips. “Did you enjoy the show?”
Standing my ground, I just flicked a lazy glance at the woman still tied to the bed. “Is she an actress from the theater? Because I’ve never seen anyone fake it that well before.”
He smirked. “I bet you’d know all about faking it.”
My fingers curled around the hilt of my hidden dagger. Callan kept coming. Since I refused to let him back me across the room, I remained firmly in place as his powerful body almost mowed me down. I yanked out the blade.
Callan stopped abruptly as I flicked my wrist, placing the cold edge of the knife against his cock. Challenge danced in his dark brown eyes.
“I came here for a business meeting.” Keeping the blade steady, I held his gaze. “So stop playing with your little toy before I decide to cut it off.”
A smile dripping with threats curled his lips. “Oh you and I have unfinished business, indeed. And I can’t wait to get started with it. Now, go wait in the dining room like a good girl.”
I pressed the blade harder against his sensitive skin.
He cocked his head. “Unless you want to join me in the shower?”
With a mocking smile on my lips, I cast a pointed look at his cock. “Why would I do that? I have already been grossly underwhelmed once today.”
Before he could answer, I turned around while sheathing my dagger and then strolled out the door.
Henry was still standing in the corridor outside. His sharp eyes tracked me as I stalked right past him and made my way downstairs. The heavy footsteps behind me informed me that he was following.
Once I reached the dining room, I unceremoniously took the seat at the head of the table. Henry narrowed his eyes at me but said nothing.
Leaning back in the dark wooden chair, I drummed my fingers on the smooth tabletop and waited for the arrogant force mage to show up.
When he at last did, he was once more fully dressed. But not in the dark leather armor he usually wore when he was out. Instead, he wore a pair of dark pants and a loose white shirt that he had rolled up the sleeves on, exposing his forearms. His black hair was still wet from the shower, and he dragged a hand through it as he sauntered into the dining room.
A sharp glint crept into his eyes when he found me sitting at the head of the table. But instead of commenting on it, he strolled over to the couch on the other side of the room and dropped down right in the middle of it. Leaning back, he spread his arms and draped them along the backrest. He smirked at me as if saying, your move.
Ignoring the implied challenge, I instead brought the topic back to our mission. “So, we need to abduct Lance Carmichael.”
“Yes.” Callan kept his eyes on me, but the smugness on his face was replaced by serious consideration. “But going after him at the academy is out of the question.”
“I agree. It’s the most well-guarded place in all of Eldar. Frankly, I’m surprised that Sienna even managed to escape during the actual graduation ceremony. Most of us run while we’re back in the city, visiting our family.”
“Indeed. Which means that we will need to grab him when he’s outside the academy too.”
“Did you read the notes Sam sent over?”
“Of course.”
“Anything stand out?”
“Yeah. The grand ball to celebrate the start of their campaign.”
I nodded. “I was thinking the same thing.”
“But according to Sam’s contacts, they’re using those fancy invites that send up a little sparkle of fireworks when they’re opened on the day of the ball.”
“Which means that we can’t just forge a couple of invitations,” I finished.
“So we need to find a way to get invited to the ball instead. And once we’re inside, we use your poison magic to knock him out and then we get him out of the city.”
“Yeah. But to get invited, we need to establish ourselves in their social circles.”
“Agreed.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “Sam said that no one who sees your face will know that you’re a dark mage. That true?”
Uncomfortable feelings swirled up inside my chest. The only people who knew that I was a dark mage were my parents and my older sister, but they had been too embarrassed to admit that so they had apparently made up some story that I had moved to Castlebourne instead. And that had been years ago. I had long since become an insignificant footnote in our great family tree. Well, there was one more person who knew. But she would never sell me out.
With a mask of indifference on my face, I replied, “Yes. And you?”
“Same,” he said, his features smoothened into a similar passive expression.
“Okay then. So we insert ourselves in their social circles and secure an invitation.”
Callan nodded. “We’ll need papers to prove that we’re legitimate citizens. Preferably from another city. Like Castlebourne. Without that, we won’t be able to rent a house or do anything.”
“I can take care of that. I know a forger who lives in Eldar. She can make the documents for us.” I raised my eyebrows at him. “But first, we’d need to get into the city.”
“I can get us in.”
“Really? How?”
A smirk spread across his lips. “You’ll see when we get there.”
I flashed him a smile dripping with poison in return.
Surprise flickered through me. This planning session had gone really well. It was as if Callan could actually keep up with my own scheming mind. Irritation burned through the surprise. Strategizing with my enemy should not be this effortless.
Flicking my hair back over my shoulder, I raised my eyebrows in a taunting challenge. “Well then, we have a plan. Let’s get this done as fast as possible so that we can go back to trying to kill each other.”
Furniture creaked as Callan pushed up from the couch and closed the distance between us. Dark amusement blew across his face. I considered standing up, but that would make it look like I was getting ready to defend myself, so I remained in my seat.
Discreetly shifting my arms, I moved my palms closer to one another so that I was ready to call up my magic in a matter of moments.
Callan stopped next to me. His muscled form towered over me where I sat at the head of his table. Reaching out, he grabbed the armrest of the chair. I arched a nonchalant eyebrow.
My chair scraped against the wooden floorboards as Callan drew it out from the table until it faced him instead. While keeping his grip on the left armrest, he planted his other hand on the right one, caging me into the chair. His brown eyes glittered as he leaned down over me.
“Well, if you hadn’t settled on my territory,” he began in a deceptively smooth voice, “we would never have had to start this war between us.”
Tilting my head back, I met his gaze. “I didn’t settle on your territory. And I’m not the one who started this war. If you hadn’t attacked me unprovoked and tried to get me to bow down before you, I wouldn’t have had to respond with force.”
“Unprovoked? I leave for a few months to take care of some business and come back to find that you’ve built a mansion on my lands. Close to my home. And you dare to call my reaction unprovoked?”
“It’s not your land. What you have in this world is what you can take, and what you can keep. And you could clearly neither take nor keep the lands I settled on, which means that they’re mine.”
He leaned down until I could feel his hot breath on my skin. A vicious smile curled his lips. “Once our temporary truce is over, once we have taken and broken Lance and used him to make the heroes back off, I will take back my lands. And I will make you kneel before my feet as you surrender them to me.”
Raising my chin, I laughed in his face. “Come try it, pretty boy.”
Death gleamed in his eyes while he brushed his fingers over my throat, as if considering whether or not to crush my windpipe. But in the end, he just straightened and jerked his chin towards the doorway.
“Leave, sweetheart. While I still let you.” He gave me a wicked smile as he strolled away. “We ride out tomorrow.”
Pushing up from the chair, I ran my hands down the armored bodice of my dress before turning and striding towards the other doorway.
Tomorrow, Callan Blackwell and I would leave on a mission together to stop those self-righteous heroes from wiping out all the remaining dark mages. This would never work.
How was I supposed to stop myself from killing him every time he opened his mouth?
I didn’t possess nearly enough self-restraint for that.
Not even close.
