“What are you doing?” Callan snapped at me as I strolled along the bookshelves in his study, absentmindedly trailing a finger across the spines.
“Me?” I lifted one shoulder in a shrug while twisting to look at him. “I’m just trying to muster enough fucks to give.”
“Our continued survival depends on this.”
“Your continued survival, maybe. If Sienna decides to burn this house down, I’m not really any worse off than I was on my knees back at my mansion.”
“Trust me, you could be much worse off.”
“Debatable. And I still can’t muster any fucks to give.”
Callan straightened from the desk he had been leaning against. I turned to face him fully as he prowled up to me. Gray light from the still overcast sky fell in through the window and painted his face with harsh lines.
“If you behave and play along with our ruse, I’ll forgive that stunt you pulled at your mansion.”
I raised my eyebrows at him. “Which one?”
“All of them. The trapdoor, the attack, and the knife.”
Something moved at the corner of my eye. I glanced out the window to see a gorgeous young woman with long red hair riding up to the house. Sienna Hall.
Shifting my attention back to Callan, I raised my chin in a cocky gesture. “And you won’t try to make me formally surrender again.”
His eyes darted towards the window. Sienna dropped down from the large black horse she had been riding and presumptuously handed the reins to one of Callan’s guards. Then she started towards the door.
Callan buried his fist in my collar, drawing my face closer to his. “You will play along.”
“Yes.” I flashed him a sharp smile. “If you don’t try to make me do a formal surrender.”
Sienna disappeared from view as she got closer to the door. I just looked up at Callan expectantly. This was a real gamble on my part because I actually wanted to keep up our ruse. Sienna was too much of a wildcard to risk letting her find out that I was actually Callan’s powerless prisoner and not his accomplice. But I also desperately wanted to get Callan to drop his attempts at getting me to do that humiliating ritual surrender.
“Fine,” he ground out between gritted teeth. “I’ll let your attack slide and I won’t make you do a formal surrender. But in return, you’d better put on one hell of a show.”
I smirked up at him. “Deal.”
Footsteps sounded in the hallway outside the study. Callan quickly released my collar and returned to the desk. Crossing his arms, he leaned back against it in a casual pose. I smoothened down my dress while trying to suppress the victorious grin on my lips. Once I had my facial features back under control, I moved over to one of the armchairs and dropped down into it before stretching out my legs and crossing my ankles in an equally carefree pose.
I had to admit, Callan’s decision to meet Sienna in the study was a smart move. Since it was full of books, which were highly flammable, it would signal that we weren’t at all concerned about her ability to summon fire. Another small measure of respect for Callan sprouted inside me. I stamped it out.
A firm knock came from the door. “Sienna Hall is here to see you, boss.”
“Send her in.”
Henry opened the door and motioned for the dark mage to enter.
She strode in as if she owned the place, her chin raised and her long red hair rippling behind her. But there was a hint of wariness in her citrine eyes as she shifted her gaze between me and Callan. Behind her, the door remained open.
“Sienna,” Callan said as she came to a halt in the middle of the room.
“Callan.” She watched him intently before sliding her gaze to me. “Audrey.”
“Come to bargain?” I taunted.
She let out a cold laugh. “Pleasant as ever, I see.”
I gave her a lethal smile. “When you have enough power, you don’t need to worry about being pleasant.”
Some kind of emotion flickered in Callan’s eyes, but I didn’t think it was anger. After all, this was exactly how I would have greeted any of the other dark mages if I’d still had my powers, so I was playing my part to perfection. Before I could ponder it further, Sienna spoke up again.
“I’ll get straight to the point,” she said, keeping her chin raised and that blazing fire in her eyes. “If you try to come at me with Lance Carmichael, I will burn down your mansion with you in it.”
Callan let out a dark laugh. “That sounded an awful lot like a threat, Sienna.”
“When you have enough power, you don’t need to worry about being pleasant,” she threw back, echoing my words, as she flicked her gaze to me.
While her attention was fixed on me, Callan flashed a hand signal to Henry, who was still lurking outside the door.
“And do you?” I said, since we needed to keep her attention away from the door for another few seconds.
“Do I what?”
My lips curled in a predatory smile. “Have enough power?”
She snapped her gaze back to the rest of the room, but it was already too late. A host of people had silently moved into the study. They didn’t carry any weapons, but all of them were blond and blue-eyed, and they had fanned out in a half circle behind her.
Sienna’s hands drifted closer to one another, but she didn’t touch her palms together and summon any fire. Doing that would certainly have been an admission of fear.
The people behind her took a step closer. They were all just a few of Callan’s regular guards, but Sienna didn’t know that. Since Callan and I were the only dark mages who actually knew what Lance looked like, Sienna had no way of knowing that the feared Binder wasn’t among them.
Callan straightened from the desk. I remained in my armchair, cocking my head, and watched as he advanced on the fire mage.
“Bold move,” Callan said as he came to a halt a single stride away from her. “Coming into my home and threatening me.”
A hint of fear blew across Sienna’s beautiful face as her gaze once more darted to the people around her. But she shoved it out almost before it could appear, and instead raised her chin to look up at Callan. Her hands drifted closer again as she got ready to fight if she needed to.
But she said nothing. Only looked up at him with those citrine eyes that burned like yellow flames. They both knew that right now, Callan held all the power in this confrontation. Or at least, he would have if one of the people behind Sienna had actually been a broken and obedient Lance. Regardless, Sienna believed it to be so, which meant that she had just overplayed her hand against someone who could now crush her.
Callan stared her down in silence, waiting for her to start squirming. Dark desire flared up inside me. Damn. Why did I find it so fucking hot when he wielded his power over people like that?
“A bold move indeed,” Callan said at last. Then a smug smile tugged at his lips. “But I respect strength. So as long as you make no moves against me, I’ll let you keep your powers.”
If she was relieved, she hid it well. Instead, she just dragged her gaze back to me. “And you?”
“I have bigger fish to fry than you, Sienna.” I gave her a patronizing smile. “So I agree. As long as you stay out of my way, I won’t move against you either.”
“Good.” She shifted her attention back to Callan and gave him a businesslike nod. “Then we have an agreement.”
“We do indeed,” he replied.
Without another word, she spun on her heel and took a step towards the door. The row of people blocking her way didn’t move. To her credit, she didn’t look back at Callan or me for permission. But she didn’t move either. If one of those people were in fact Lance, she might get her magic sealed if she walked past the wrong person.
Callan let her stand there like that for another few seconds, as if to really rub his power in her face. Infuriatingly enough, it made another wave of desire roll over me.
Then he gave them a nod, and they stepped aside to create a narrow passage between them. Sienna kept her spine straight as she strode through them and then back out the door.
I slid my gaze to Callan.
Not only had we gotten Sienna to back off, but I had also gotten Callan to promise that he wouldn’t try to make me surrender again. Granted, promises between dark mages were easily broken. But still. It was better than nothing.
And the attack at my mansion might have ended in failure, but I was far from done. I still had those makeshift lockpicks.
All I needed was to figure out how to make them work, and then I would plunge that dagger into Callan’s heart.
Well, alright, I had to steal one of those too first.
But then… then I would get my revenge.
