The gray overcast sky watched impassively as Callan led me down the white stone steps and towards the carriage. Water still clung to the grass from the soft rain that had fallen around midday. I swept my gaze around the area.
There looked to be more guards than usual positioned all across Callan’s lands. Though, considering that we were leaving Lance Carmichael in the mansion, I supposed that made sense. I flicked a glance to my other side. Henry was walking there, his eyebrows drawn down in a scowl. That was a surprise, though. Not the scowl, but the fact that Callan was bringing him at all. I had assumed that Henry would be staying in the mansion to guard Lance while also trying to break him. But apparently, Callan still considered me enough of a threat to want a bit of extra security. That thought made smug satisfaction bloom in my chest.
Warm winds blew across the grasslands, tugging at my hair and making my dress flutter around my legs. I breathed in the scent of damp soil and grass and then lifted the hem of my skirt as I stepped up into the polished wooden carriage. It dipped slightly as Callan and Henry followed.
I seated myself in the very middle of one of the benches, daring either of them to try to squeeze in next to me. They didn’t. Instead, both of them settled on the padded bench across from me. I flashed them a wicked smile. Henry only scowled back at me and leaned sideways to pull the door shut, but Callan answered with an equally sharp smile of his own.
My body jerked back a bit as the carriage started forward.
Turning my head, I had planned to watch the grasslands outside the window in order to try to figure out where we were going, but my gaze kept drifting back to Callan.
I hadn’t meant to kiss him this morning. To start that chain reaction of very pleasurable events that had led to him giving me another brain-shattering orgasm. But I had. Because… well, because realizing that he had actually stayed and slept next to me the whole night had thrown me off. As had hearing that I had apparently been snuggled up against him.
But I supposed that there was no harm in a little casual sex. It wasn’t as if it meant anything to either of us anyway. I was still going to kill him as soon as I figured out how to pick locks, so I might as well just enjoy myself as much as I could in the meantime.
I had very much appreciated his presence of mind, though. Using my poison magic to prevent pregnancies was something I did without even thinking about it, so it had completely slipped my mind that I couldn’t do that right now. But Callan had remembered. And he had pulled out before he could come inside me. Before he could come at all, in fact. Leaving me the only one who had been truly satisfied after our spontaneous trip down memory lane.
Strange feelings swirled through me. It was almost as if my respect for Callan had grown even more. I frowned out the window. That couldn’t possibly be the case.
Tearing my gaze from the grasslands that rolled past outside the window, I turned my full attention to the force mage sitting across from me. While leaning back in my seat, I raised my eyebrows at him.
“So, are you ever going to tell me where we’re going?” I asked. “Or are you trying to be mysterious on purpose? Because if you are, I hate to break it to you, but it doesn’t really suit you.”
A smirk played over his lips as he met my gaze. “It suited me just fine when I double-crossed you and made you my prisoner.”
“That wasn’t mysterious. That was just dumb luck.”
“Luck?”
“Yes. I seem to remember that we’ve already established that you’ve got more muscle than brain.”
“Hey,” Henry snapped as he flashed forward. Burying his fist in the collar of my dress, he yanked me closer until I could feel his breath on my skin. “Watch your mouth.”
Amusement flickered through me. Henry glared at me with gray eyes that crackled with threats, but I just tilted my head to the side so that I could meet Callan’s gaze again.
“Aw, is he always this protective?” I taunted, with a small nod towards the furious man still keeping his grip on my collar. “How sweet.”
Callan massaged his forehead and blew out a sigh before flicking his wrist. “Henry.”
The muscular guard released me instantaneously and leaned back in his seat again. His eyes still flashed with anger, though. I shot him a malicious grin while brushing a hand over my dress to smoothen it down again.
Then I turned to Callan once more and arched an eyebrow. “So? Where are we going?”
“To your mansion.”
My heart skipped a beat and hope fluttered its glittering wings in my chest. But I quickly hid those emotions behind a teasing smirk and instead said, “Ha! So you admit that it’s my mansion.”
“Well, it is your mansion. You’re the one who had it built.”
“Which means that the lands around it are also mine.”
“No. It means that you built a mansion on my lands.”
“Except a mansion includes the lands around it. So now you have just admitted that both the lands and the mansion are mine and not yours.”
A small smile lurked at the corner of his lips and he huffed out an amused breath before turning to look out the window instead. “I said nothing of the sort.”
At that point, I was pretty sure that he hadn’t noticed the hope and anticipation that had surged up inside me, so I finally moved on to what I really wanted to know. “And what exactly are we going to be doing at my mansion?”
“I’m going to allow you to pick up some more clothes.”
Genuine surprise clanged through me. “Really?”
“Yeah.” His eyes slid back to me. Power and command settled around him like a sharp suit as he stared me down. “And then, you are going to surrender your mansion and your stolen lands to me. Formally.”
A spike of alarm shot up my spine. “Formally?”
“Yes.”
Shit. Dark mages had a pretty short list of formal rituals. The blood oath was one of them. The formal surrender was another. While the formal surrender didn’t involve the swearing of a blood oath, which was fortunate because it meant that I could still break my promise and reclaim my lands at any point, it was still something that I would very much have preferred to avoid. And there was one simple reason for that. The formal surrender among dark mages was humiliating as fuck.
It had been designed like that on purpose. And for good reason. Among dark mages, surrendering to someone else was the ultimate show of weakness. And we valued power more than anything else.
I narrowed my eyes at Callan. He just flashed me a smile filled with mocking challenge.
He thought that he could make me formally surrender to him? Oh, we’d see about that. We were heading to my mansion now, which meant that I would no longer need to learn how to pick locks. Because I was going to reclaim my freedom right now.
My heart pattered in anticipation as the carriage at last came to a halt a short distance from my house.
Henry opened the door and climbed out first. Still seated on the bench opposite me, Callan motioned for me to exit as well. I shot him an indifferent look while stepping out of the carriage and onto the grass.
A pang of longing hit me as I gazed at my mansion.
It was made of pale marble, just like Callan’s house. The gray clouds above us were reflected in the tall windows, and a few raindrops still splattered the otherwise shining glass. I swept my gaze over the grasslands down to the stable and towards the little creek behind it. These were my lands. There was no way I was giving them up.
Four of my guards came hurrying towards us. Their hands hovered uncertainly next to their swords, while one of them had already summoned a small ball of flame while he glanced nervously at Callan.
“Boss?” he said as the four of them stopped before us.
Callan brushed a discreet hand down my back. A reminder of who was in control.
“It’s fine,” I answered my guards. “We’re still on a mission together. I’m just here to pick up some more clothes.”
I could feel Callan’s wolfish smile behind my shoulder, but he didn’t contradict my statement. My guards still shifted their gaze uncertainly between us. Straightening my spine, I started towards the front door.
“Tell the others to get my things ready,” I said as I walked past. “I’ll need the large trunk.”
“Yes, boss.”
“Oh,” I began, tossing the word casually over my shoulder. “And bring me that red dress too. I’ll be in my bedroom.”
“Right away, boss.”
And so it begins. It took great effort to suppress a grin. ‘Red dress’ was a code word. Callan and Henry had no idea what they were about to walk into.
Keeping my spine straight and my chin raised, I strode up the stone steps to my front door and pulled it open. My captors followed closely on my heels.
The familiar scent of home met me as I stepped onto the pale wooden floor inside. It was that scent that you never really know is there. Not until you’ve been away for a while and then come back again. I couldn’t specify exactly what it smelled like. Only that it was a nice scent.
People were moving deliberately, but discreetly, all around the house as well as on the grass outside, which meant that word had already spread. Excellent. Now, I just needed to buy some time for them all to get into position.
Callan glanced in through the open doorway as we passed the cozy library, complete with plush couches and armchairs, a great hearth, and of course rows upon rows of books. At this point, I wasn’t sure whether he was looking for threats or if he was studying all the ways in which our mansions had ended up looking quite similar. With the polished wooden floors, and the comfortable yet neat furniture, both of our homes had a classy and homely feel to them. It was strange because it was a complete coincidence.
Though, there was one thing which my house had that Callan’s didn’t. Plants. In almost every room, there were plants with vibrant green leaves that filled the place with both color and life. I ran scrutinizing eyes over them while we made our way to my bedroom upstairs. They looked healthy, which meant that my people had continued to take care of them even in my absence. Good. I would have hated to ruin my return and pending victory over Callan by killing some of my own people too.
“You can wait out here,” I informed Callan and Henry as we at last reached the corridor where my bedroom was located.
Callan snorted. “Yeah, right.”
Pausing with my hand on the handle, I twisted back around so that I could meet his eyes when I smirked at him. “If you wanted to see my bedroom that badly, you could have just said so.”
Something flickered briefly in his eyes. But whatever it was, he smothered it quickly and instead just leaned forward and placed his hand over mine. While scowling at me, he pushed down my hand and the handle underneath it.
As soon as it was open, he gave me a shove into the room while speaking over his shoulder. “Henry, watch the hallway.”
“Yes, boss.”
I stumbled across the threshold. Straightening again, I shot Callan a death glare while he moved into the room after me. He just jerked his chin.
“Get to it,” he said.
Since I had no plans to return to his mansion as a prisoner, I didn’t really need to pack any clothes, but I did it anyway because I had to keep up appearances. As I opened the pale wooden door to my spacious walk-in closet, I could feel Callan’s sharp gaze tracking my every move.
After selecting a few sets of clothes, I moved over to the bed by the windows and took my time folding up the garments before placing them on the cream-colored covers.
“Boss,” a voice said from the corridor. “I’ve brought the trunk.”
Looking up, I found a woman with long brown hair standing on the other side of the threshold. There was a large trunk in her arms, but Henry was standing so that half of his body was blocking the doorway.
“Great,” I said, ignoring Henry’s attempt to deny her entry. “Bring it in and put it on the bed.”
At last, Henry stepped aside and let her through. However, both Henry and Callan tracked every move she made. She just walked straight up to the bed and put the trunk down next to my piles of clothes.
“The rest will be ready soon,” she said casually before disappearing back out the door.
Soon. That meant I had to stall a little while longer.
Picking up some of the clothes, I put them into the trunk. When the footsteps had faded in the corridor, I walked over to the set of drawers that Callan was currently leaning against. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he watched me with sharp eyes as I moved closer.
I grabbed the small metal handles and got ready to pull the drawer open, but since Callan was leaning against it, he had to move before I could actually open it.
He didn’t.
While suppressing the urge to roll my eyes, I turned to him and gave him a smile dripping with sweet poison. “Would you mind moving so that I can open the drawer?”
For a few seconds, he just studied me in silence. I raised my eyebrows.
“Why did you lie?” he asked at last.
“I lie about a lot of things. You’re going to have to be more specific.”
“That we’re still working together. You’re only allowed to pick up some clothes because I’m getting bored with seeing you wear the same ones all the time.” He nodded towards the long sleeves of my dress that currently covered up the five black rings around my right forearm. “But you’re still my prisoner. And the real reason that we’re here is because you’re going to formally surrender to me in front of all of your people.”
“Yeah, you said that in the carriage too. But that still doesn’t mean that I’m actually going to do it.”
He pushed off from the drawer, straightening to his full height. After taking a step to the side, he turned and pressed closer. The move was designed to make me retreat a step. I did.
A soft thud sounded as my ass hit the wooden drawers behind me. Callan moved closer, forcing me to press myself against the pale piece of furniture. The edge of it dug into the small of my back as I leaned backwards in an awkward position. Callan braced his palms on the marble wall, trapping me like that.
“You’re not going to have a choice,” he said, his voice pulsing with power.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Do you seriously expect me to complete a ritual that forces me to, among other incredibly humiliating things, bow down and press my forehead to the ground before you and kiss your feet? In front of all of my people?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Not gonna happen.”
“I don’t think you heard me. You’re not going to have a choice.”
“And what are you going to do?” I raised my chin in a cocky gesture. “Kill me if I don’t do it? I think both you and I know that if you were going to change your mind about killing me, you would’ve already done that by now.”
“Oh there are so many more worse things that I could do to you.” He drew light fingers over my throat while a smile sharp enough to draw blood spread across his lips. “Remember that room behind the stairs in my dungeon?”
“Boss?” a voice interrupted before I could reply.
I just cocked my head, shooting Callan an expectant look. He remained motionless for another few seconds before retreating a step. After smoothening down my dress, I brushed past the glaring force mage and moved back towards my closet.
“Yes?” I answered over my shoulder while striding across the floor.
“We found the red dress. Would you like us to bring it to you now?”
“Yes, please do.”
Suspicion laced Callan’s voice as he said, “What’s so special about this red dress of yours?”
As I reached the walk-in closet, I stopped and turned towards the hangers closest to the door. “Apart from the fact that I look stunning in it?”
He didn’t reply. Instead, his gaze flicked up and down my body as if searching for something while he took a step away from the drawers and towards me.
A smile that was pure smugness curled my lips.
“It’s also great for a fast escape.”
