In total darkness with the smell of hay surrounding her, Sessily woke with a nagging headache. What had happened to her?
Her wrists were bound and she couldn"t see a thing, only felt the straw beneath her as she lay prone on the bed of hay. Her thoughts were so scattered, she couldn"t figure out where she was or what had happened.
Then her mind began to focus. She was tied up and somewhere…
She listened carefully, heard a horse moving about below her, smelled horse manure…a stable.
A loft. Had to be. At her castle? Why would she be…
No. Not her castle. She was tied up. How…? What…?
Lord Fairhaven!
If she could wriggle free of her bindings, she"d assassinate him for free. No charge to anyone. Although she could always send a note to Queen Quinnette and tell her that her loyal advisor had tried to hire her to kill the queen, and Sessily had eliminated him instead. Would his death be worth anything to the queen?
Though the problem with that was Sessily would be the messenger, and often those in power permanently dispatched the messenger.
She was still thinking along those lines, trying unsuccessfully to loosen the hemp around her wrists, when she heard a snore nearby.
She stopped moving. He couldn"t be sleeping beside her!
The rope binding her was sealed with fae magic, or she could have transported herself back home. She tried to roll away from whoever was snoring softly near her, but the rope was tied to a rafter, and she couldn"t even attempt to leave the loft, if she could have located a ladder to climb down. She moved closer to the sleeping body, trying to breathe in the person"s scent to see if she would recognize if it belonged to Fairhaven.
She miscalculated just how close he was to her and bumped into him. His snoring abruptly ceased. Her skin chilled with trepidation, and she froze, not even taking a breath. Maybe she didn"t wake him.
Except for the horses stirring below, one crunching on oats, everything was deathly quiet.
Had she awakened the man? She took a deep silent breath and smelled his male fragrance. It was the lord himself. In part, she was relieved to know it wasn"t some stranger sleeping beside her.
But in part, she was incensed at the way he"d treated her, a noblewoman of a noble house trussed up like a suckling pig ready for the bonfire.
Where were they? And what had happened to her people? To Master Travis?
“What has happened to Master Travis?” she snapped, unable to control her ire.
One important aspect of being a master assassin was the ability to temper emotions. Hers were brittle and at the breaking point. But she couldn"t help it. What if Master Travis was dying?
Or dead? And she could do nothing for him?
“He is alive,” Lord Fairhaven said, rolling over to face her, she thought, the way his words sounded close…too close. He sounded groggy and a little grumpy that she"d awakened him too early.
“What did you do to him?”
“I made him well, as well as can be expected. And told him not to do any heavy lifting or he would undo all that I had done. Then nothing would save his life.”
Sessily chewed on her bottom lip. She was not one to be ungracious, yet the way she was feeling now, bound and carried off without a word to her people, she couldn"t help but harbor a ton of ill-will against the nobleman.
“All right,” she said, grudgingly, then hit him in the chest with her fists as hard as she could, “then what"s this all about.”
He moved out of her reach, at least she thought the rustle of the straw indicated that. She was curious how angry she had made him with striking the great advisor of the queen. She imagined not too many had done such a thing and lived to tell the tale. But god"s wounds, he deserved far worse for taking her off this way without her permission.
“You have a job to do,” he said easily. “And you"re going to do it. Or at least try.”
The unspoken words flashed through her thoughts: Or die trying.
“You mentioned paying me for the job in addition to curing Travis of his heart condition.”
“I offered thus to your father. He no longer lives. To you, I offered Travis"s life.”
“If I do this for you—”
“You will do this for me.”
“If I do this for you,” she said again, not about to allow him to dictate terms to her if she was going to put her life in the ultimate danger, “you will pay me one million pounds…in gold.
You do have that much, don"t you? As the queen"s advisor and a nobleman, surely you would.”
“My finances are none of your concern.”
“Which means to say you have squandered your money, much as my father had done, and you cannot afford to pay me.”
He paused before he spoke, and she wished to high heaven she could see his expression.
“I will pay you nothing in gold because we agreed only that I would save Travis"s life.”
“You are not honorable, sir.”
“You serve as a master assassin, yet have no credentials to assume such a title. Do not tell me that I"m not honorable, my lady.”
She fumed. He was right in saying that she had been so willing to save Master Travis"s life, she hadn"t considered any monetary payment to go along with that. But for the job she must do, even a million pounds in gold would be little payment enough. She truly was an honorable person. But Lord Fairhaven brought out every bad part of her. Still, she thought if she could get that much in gold, she would be all set to retire and take on a less stressful occupation, unless the kingdom raised her taxes again.
But as for serving as a master assassin, it was not her fault that the guild would not confer the title to her. She had trained and served in that capacity, and had she been a male fae, would have received the title without question.
“One…million…pounds…in gold,” she stubbornly said. “That"s my offer. Take it or leave it.” Before he could respond, she quickly added, “And you will eliminate Master Travis"s heart condition so that he has many useful years of life left to him.” She could see leaving that part out and having to start all over with negotiations again.
She assumed that Fairhaven wouldn"t go along with it, because she hadn"t asked for money up front the first time around. Also, she might have been right in assuming he didn"t have that much money. But she had said no to the whole business in the first place when he wouldn"t agree to save Travis should she fail and get herself killed. So they hadn"t really had an agreement. And he"d further changed the game by taking her here, wherever here was, against her will.
“We go now,” he said, “before the occupants of yonder house discover us.”
They were sleeping in a loft without the owner"s permission? Jeez, what next? Not that she hadn"t done such a thing herself when she was on a mission and didn"t want anyone to know she was in the area, but she was retired. And if she was going to sleep anywhere from now on, it would have been in a room in a tavern.
“No money to even pay for a night in a tavern?” she asked, with a sarcastic bite to her words.
He grabbed her up, and she squealed.
“Shh,” he said sharply, “or I"ll have to gag you as well.” After tossing her over his shoulder, he somehow managed to climb down the ladder without both of them falling.
She should have been grateful. The way he acted, he would have preferred tossing her onto a bed of hay below. But he might have been afraid she would have screamed if he had done so and alerted whoever owned the stable. She didn"t figure he"d do anything in a magnanimous way.
She listened, but didn"t hear any sounds of people or traffic that would indicate they were in a town, so she figured they were in the country on a farm far out somewhere and were headed in the direction of the queen"s realm, which shared the boundary of the sphinx fae realm.
Fairhaven propped Sessily against a wood post and said in a hushed stern voice, “Stay.”
Then he moved quickly to one of the stalls.
So he"d let his horse eat of the
owner"s oats and sleep in the man"s own stable, too.
Did Lord Fairhaven truly not have any money, or was it just that he was too cheap to give any of it away? Or perhaps he thought it best if his queen didn"t know where he was staying and who he had with him.
As if the queen would think of Sessily as anything more than the lord"s lover. She nearly gagged on the thought. Not that the man wasn"t handsome—in a dark and calculating way. And not that his touch didn"t thrill her in some fascinating and equally dark way. But no way would she, a noble dark fae, be enticed to even be the pretend lover of a…a…well, whatever kind of fae he was.
“You can"t possibly think I"m going to kill the queen for you unless you agree to my terms,” Sessily said.
He finished saddling his horse, placed his hands on her waist and lifted her so she could straddle the horse. “Sit and be still.”
“Untie me.”
“I would have to clip your wings first,” Lord Fairhaven said wryly, climbing into the saddle behind her.
She turned to look over her shoulder at him. “You couldn"t do that.”
“Oh, couldn"t I?” He gave her a dark smile.
Could he? Freeze her ability to fae travel? Some fae had wings, but not the Denkar fae. It was an expression used, though, when a fae had the extraordinary ability to stop another fae"s travel through the use of magic.
She"d attempted to learn the ability in case a fae on her target list tried to escape her by using fae travel, but she had been woefully unsuccessful.
Not that her father could do so either. She"d even asked a fellow assassin to help her learn the ability, but apparently it just wasn"t in her power to do so.
But if Lord Fairhaven could, wouldn"t he have done so already? Instead of tying her up?
“You can"t do that.”
“You"re a challenge, my lady. Haven"t you realized by now that you will always lose if you challenge me?”
She glowered at the man. She couldn"t see his face all that well as they rode across a meadow where long-haired cattle grazed, stolen from the humans in the Scottish Highlands, the night still cloaking the region in darkness, the full moon providing a scant amount of light. The faint outline of a farm could be seen in the distance.
“Has anyone told you just how arrogant you are, Lord Fairhaven?”
“My queen. No one else would say so to my face and live.” He nudged his horse onto a dirt trail.
“If you can stop my fae travel using magic, why didn"t you do so before? Why tie me up?”
“I didn"t believe the ropes would bother you as much.”
True, the notion another person could destroy one of her abilities for even a short time could be a horrifying experience. But what she couldn"t believe was that Lord Fairhaven had considered her feelings. She didn"t believe it.
“What are you? One of those human-like jack-of-all-trades who has gained fae powers from other fae kind?” She"d heard of fae like that who had such keen learning abilities they could pick up all kinds of abilities and be a master at all. Unlike most fae kind who had to concentrate on one specialty to become a master in a field. “You can heal Master Travis, clip my wings, put me to sleep, what else can you do?”
“I thought my reputation had preceded me. You wound me, dear lady.”
“Ha! You are too conceited to worry anything about what anyone thinks of you.”
He offered her a small smile, and this time it seemed genuine.
“Does it bother you much that your task for me might get me killed?”
He didn"t say anything as they cantered down the trail.
“If you can do as much as I can, why don"t you kill her yourself? You"re her advisor.
Easy access. Private access.”
“She is married to my uncle.”
Sessily"s mouth hung agape, then she quickly snapped it shut. “I thought you possibly were a changeling.”
“Because…?”
“You hide your fae aura. Why would you do that? And not once have I seen your eyes glow gold even when you have to be mad.”
“I don"t get mad, I get even.”
“Human cliché. Except your eyes do sparkle when you"re intrigued,” she admitted.
“Do they?”
“Yes, they do. Can"t you control that aspect of your faeness?”
He laughed.
“Well?”
“Faeness?”
She motioned with her tied wrists. “Untie me! The ropes are tearing into my skin.”
He stopped the horse. “All right.” With a touch of fae magic, the hemp dissolved into powder and floated away on the breeze.
Immediately, she waved her hand to take her far away from Lord Fairhaven, but not to her estate as she knew he"d return there for her. But she didn"t go anywhere. She was still sitting on the blasted horse. In front of the intolerable Lord Fairhaven.
“You"ve…you"ve clipped my wings!” She was so furious, her skin was burning up with anger despite the cool breeze. Her eyes were blazing gold like the sun on the hottest of days now reflected in his cool blue eyes as his gaze met her angry one.
“I assume you could kill me, but you won"t. While we ride, Travis is well. Maybe while we travel, you will have a change of heart.”
“A million gold pieces and Travis"s life,” she said, so angry, she wanted nothing more than to knock the conceited…conceited…oh my goddess, Lord Fairhaven was the crown prince of the cobra fae if the queen was his aunt!
Not just an evil advisor to the evil changeling queen, but the royal crown prince who would someday take over the throne if the queen never had any children. It was suspected that would be the case since she hadn"t had any success as of yet.
Sessily shut up and traveled in silence, thinking about that some more. He was the nephew of the king of the cobra fae, the kingdom of Salamain. Why would he want his uncle"s wife dead? Well, besides the fact she was the most hateful queen who ruled any of the fae kingdoms. But beyond that, she was family of sorts.
But then Sessily wondered, had the woman conceived a child? If so, the lord"s…no, the prince"s life could be forfeit, if the queen feared someday he might try to wrest the throne away from her.
“You obviously don"t get along with your aunt,” Sessily said, hoping to learn more of the situation. She would have to know everything about the family if she was to be successful at her job.
The prince said nothing.
“You know I must learn everything there is to know about you and your court if I"m to pull this off.”
“You are my lover—”
“You are out of your mind! No way am I going to pretend I"m your lover.”
“You don"t have to pretend,” he said darkly.
She turned to frown at him. “In your dreams.”
He smiled just as darkly. “Yes, but we can make it a reality. You"re old enough. You"re interested.”
“No.”
“We"ve already slept together, and you made no objection.”
She gaped at him. “When?” she asked indignantly. Then remembering the hayloft, she shook her head and turned around to face the road again. “That doesn’t count.”
“Some fae would say it would. Your father would have, I venture to guess.”
“Not if I was on a mission.”
“Really? I think I might have liked him when he was alive.”
She didn"t say anything, so flustered that Prince Creshion would even consider pretending she was his lover, she was having a devil of a time coming up with some other plausible scenario.
“You let me kiss you.”
She swung her head around and stared at him. “I did not.”
“You nearly swooned when I did.”
Her hand. When he had kissed her hand. Her cheeks flamed with heat. He smiled.
She turned back around, frowning. “I could be your cousin.”
“Kissing cousin? Wouldn"t work. Do you think my uncle would not know you even if you were a distant cousin? No, you will be my lover.”
>
“Pretend,” she snapped. Though why she said it, she hadn"t a clue. “Until I can come up with something more reasonable.”
“We have until tomorrow night for you to come up with something else. There is a tavern in route where we will rest the horse and get something to eat. But be warned, it is a rough sort of place where spies from the various kingdoms gather.”
“Won"t they know you?”
“You know how I can hide my fae aura. They will think me nothing but a changeling and pay me no heed.”
“And me?”
“You"re a woman. My lover. No one will pay you any mind, except to think how lovely you look.”
Her lips parted in surprise. No one had ever said those words to her. Not her maids, her father, she didn"t even remember her mother since she"d died when she was two. No one had said that to her.
She didn"t know what to say. She wanted to argue with him, force him to say that he thought she was lovely, not that others would think that. He was a crown prince after all, which would make it count for more. He was used to seeing beautiful women of the court. The other men who stayed at the tavern would be spies and rabble. And so what did it matter what they thought? She figured any woman dressed in skirts would gather their attention.
She sighed. She"d never thought such a thing would matter to her.
“You will stay close to me at all times,” he said.
“You have clipped my wings. I cannot leave you,” she ground out, unable to control the animosity in her tone of voice.
Creshion slipped his arm around her waist. “Lean back, get comfortable. We have hours to ride before we stop, and you are not used to riding horseback, are you?”
She shook her head, but remained stiff.
“You will stay close to me at all times because some of the ruffians at the tavern would like nothing better to take you above stairs themselves.”
“We will have separate rooms,” she said sharply.
“We are on a mission, and since you have said so yourself that your father would not have objected…”
“In a hayloft! Not in a tavern! With witnesses who would see us leave the main floor and go to a room together as man and wife. We will have separate rooms.”
“I could not protect you if you were to have a room of your own.”