Page 2 of A Touch of Poison
“No need to grimace about it.” That fierce glower furrowed his brow. “Thought you liked Rose’s cooking?”
I raised my hands to ward him off. “I wouldn’t dare criticisethat. She’s a sorceress of the stove. It was more… Not sure I’ll have time. Especially not if these arseholes have infiltrated the city.” Perfect excuse.
He huffed out through his nose like a wolf clearing an unwanted scent. “There’s more to life than work, Bastian. No rush. You can let her acclimatise first. But”—his beard parted and his teeth gleamed—“youwillbring her to dinner.”
Kat. Me. Rose and Faolán. Sat together around their cosy table, eating and laughing. Resting my arm on the back of Kat’s chair, fingertips trailing the lengths of her hair.
It was a seductive image… and an impossible one.
I had betrayed her, and when she woke up she was going to wring my neck. I might even let her.
I cleared my throat and attempted to clear my head of Kat, even though it was a doomed mission. Still, I nodded at the graffiti as much to keep myself focused as to return Faolán’s attention to it rather than me. “Who’s seen it?”
“Just a couple of locals. One who reported it. Dusk, so they came straight to us.”
“Good.” Though nothing about this was good.
All those other reports of Hydra Ascendant had been distant—none in the city of Tenebris-Luminis. And yet here I stood, not long after dawn, this red paint shoving them in my face.
Whoever the hellstheywere.
As best we could tell, they were some sort of rebel group with a taste for mythological creatures, small-scale raids, and a dislike for the twin thrones. Who they were and what they wanted was anyone’s guess, but it prickled me with the same sense of dread I’d had the night of Princess Sura’s ill-conceived coup. If this was heading in the same direction…
Not this time. It wouldn’t come to bloodshed.
I was in the Queensguard back then—little more than a cocky boy with more arrogance than power. Now I had my network of whispering shadows and the Queen’s ear. I had Faolán and all sorts of useful people to dig up all sorts of useful secrets.
Whatever the Ascendants thought they had planned, it wasn’t happening. Not while I still stood.
“Get it cleaned up.” I glanced along the road, which the guards had done a good job of keeping clear, despite the folk heading to and from work. “Make sure those witnesses understand they didn’t see what they think they saw. Then see what you can sniff out about all this.”
He crossed his huge arms and inclined his head. “Hmm.”
Faolán had a number ofHmms in his vocabulary. I’d never known a man to say so much with so little.
“What else?”
His hazel eyes slid from the marred wall to me. “Rose is back from visiting her parents.” He scratched his bearded chin, a study in nonchalance.
“And I owe her an apology, don’t I?” I pressed my lips together, like that could keep out the sour taste at how I’d treated her on my return from Albion. My fingers twitched at the memory of Kat’s still form in my arms, the desperation surging through me, the raw and awful need.
“You do.” His nostrils flared as he exhaled through them. “I don’t care how you talk to me. But—”
“I know.” I clapped him on the shoulder. “I was an arse. I owe her an apology and I’ll see she gets it.”
“Hmm.” This was an approving version of his signature sound, accompanied by a dip of his chin.
Maybe it was the talk of apologies or the memory of our return, but my traitorous gaze skipped up the hill to the Hall of Healing sitting atop it, gleaming and golden in the morning light.
She might’ve woken.
Of course, I wanted her to wake. To be safe and healthy and whole.
And yet…
I winced.
Because once she did, I would have to tell her the news.
