“So what does this have to do with Balmorlan?”
“Balmorlan wants to make the cartel an offer, something he seems to think they would be salivating to acquire.”
I didn’t like where this was going. “What is it?”
“I don’t know; but I do know that for him to contact Symon and request a meeting in person, there’s a great deal of money involved. In fact, Symon would have been on the same ship as me.”
“Let me guess, something came up at the last moment and he couldn’t make it.”
“Just me intercepting the invitation. After reading it, I arranged for Symon to do an audit at our Jebas branch.” Mago lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “A vice president there owes me a favor, and I called it in.”
“Clever.” I gave him a tired smile. “Thank you, Mago. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate—”
Mago actually blushed a little then waved me off. “You would have done the same for me.”
“Except I don’t have bank vice president friends in tropical resorts.”
“I’m sure you could come up with something equally creative and effective if I needed it.” Mago reached forward and selected a chocolate from the dessert tray. “And after the audit, my friend will reward Symon with a week in the Jebas’s most notorious pleasure palace and casino.” Mago popped the chocolate in his mouth. “He’ll be calling in a few favors to make
that
happen.”
“So you’re going to owe him even more.”
Mago sat back with a satisfied sigh. “No, that’s the simple beauty of the plan. My friend will be arranging for Symon’s nocturnal activities to be captured on a scrying crystal for future viewing. My friend’s colleague is brokering a deal that Symon has to sign off on but is known to be opposed to. My friend thinks Symon will be more agreeable to signing the papers if he knows that his wife will discover that his business trip wasn’t all business. So when you think of it that way, by putting Symon Wiggs into my friend’s clutches I’m actually doing him a favor.” Mago gave me a pleased little smile. “He says
he
owes
me
.”
I think my mouth may have fallen open. “You’re better at this than a goblin.”
“Why, thank you, Raine. What a lovely compliment.”
“I’m not sure I meant it as one, but I’m glad you’re on my side. So I take it I’ll be glamouring myself as an obnoxious little banker?”
Mago arched a brow.
“Hey, you called him obnoxious; I didn’t.”
“True. Yes, you will.”
“Do you have a scrying crystal with you to show me what he looks and sounds like?”
“Naturally.” Mago went to a suitcase on a stand in the corner of the room, peeled back a small section to reveal a padded and hidden compartment. He extracted a small box that would easily fit in my palm.
“I’ve never seen a crystal that small.”
“The advances in spy magic are indeed wondrous.” Mago handed it to me. “Take it with you and study it. You’ll be having a late lunch with him tomorrow at the Swan Song. Balmorlan had initially wanted to meet in the elven embassy, but I knew you weren’t about to set foot in that place again.”
I closed the box on the scrying crystal. “I’d really rather not. I’d also really rather not have to perform in front of the hoity-toity crowd at the Swan Song.”
Every high-ranking mage and Conclave bureaucrat had a favorite table at the Swan Song. If you were even going to try to make a reservation, you’d better have made sure the chief waiter recognized you and your name, otherwise there would mysteriously be no tables available at any time you wanted to dine. The Swan Song was all windows along the street side on Mid’s major thoroughfare. The owners wanted anyone passing by to see only the crème de la crème of magical society at their tables.
“Not to mention, I can look and sound like Symon Wiggs, but that doesn’t give me any knowledge of a criminal cartel, their money, or any banking knowledge, period.”
“Don’t worry, cousin. You have the perfect coach right here.”
“Uh, I’m a quick learner, but I don’t think—”
Mago’s dark eyes sparkled. “You don’t honestly believe I would let you have all the fun?”
“You’re going with me?” I asked hopefully.
“Of course. Balmorlan has never met Symon Wiggs in person. Plus, it’s perfectly normal for men such as Symon to bring along a colleague as a witness—or protection—when dealing with less than savory characters. Besides, I wouldn’t miss seeing you out in public with . . .” He wiggled his fingers downward. “Now, what did Phaelan say you called them?”
“Dangly bits.”
“Oh yeah, dangly bits. I wouldn’t miss that for the world. No worries, Raine. After my incomparable tutoring, that meeting will be the most fun you’ve ever had with your clothes on.”
That night, I had the most fun I could have with my clothes off.
When I’d told Mychael that I’d be meeting with Mago and Taltek Balmorlan the next day, he hadn’t reacted quite the way that I’d expected.
I nestled against his bare chest and smiled. Actually all of him was bare.
“What is it?” Mychael murmured.
He must have felt me smile. His words rumbled in his chest and against my ear. Nice.
I snuggled closer. “You took my meeting better than I thought you would. I should have more meetings.” I raised my head so I could see his eyes. “Is this the way you’re going to react every time I do something dangerous?”
Mychael smiled sleepily. “You didn’t like it?”
“Oh, I liked it; I just don’t understand it.”
“I don’t want to lose you.” He gently pushed the hair back from my face, his fingers lingering on my throat. “So anytime you do something where you might get hurt, I’m going to do this beforehand.”
“Send me off to my doom with a big grin on my face?”
Mychael’s hands did some delicious things under the covers. “Something like that.”
The sparkle in his eyes told me he wanted to do it all again. I started to say something, but Mychael closed his lips on mine and I suddenly had no idea what I’d been about to say.
“Sneaky tactics,” I said when he let me come up for air.
“I never claimed to play nice.”
I ran my fingers lightly down his taut stomach, and Mychael’s breath caught in response. “I noticed that,” I murmured, “and I want to say that your behavior has my complete approval.” My hand moved up to his chest and stopped. “So, what
do
you think of Mago and me meeting Balmorlan at the Swan Song?”
Mychael gave me a level look. “It doesn’t matter because what I think won’t change your mind.”
“No, it won’t. It can’t. Believe me I’m not chomping at the bit to sit across a table from Taltek Balmorlan unless I get to stick a piece of cutlery in him. Mago’s got a good plan; better still, it lets me play a big part in taking Balmorlan down—even though I have to glamour myself as a man.” I smiled up at him. “Will you still love me when I’m a short, scrawny, pompous jerk?”
Mychael made entirely too much of a show of thinking it over. I took a pillow and let him have it. He wrestled the pillow away from me and let me have it. Wrestling, tickling, and giggling followed. I was the giggler; Mychael was the tickler. Mostly. I grabbed the back of his neck and pulled his head down to mine, capturing his lips and taking my sweet time with a long, deep kiss. That put a stop to the tickling.
“I’ll know it’s you underneath that pompous banker exterior,” Mychael said when I let him up for air, his voice husky. “So I might not be able to control myself.” His lips curled in a slow, wicked grin. “I might just have to kiss you right in the Swan Song.”
“Oooo, I’ve never been kissed there before.”
“Then I’ll have to change that.”
I looked up into his eyes. “You’re going to be there, aren’t you?”
His lips were on my throat. “Closer than you ever imagined.”
“You’re as good with a glamour as I am. Nothing you’d show up as would surprise me.”
“Not nearly as good. I have to stay the same sex that I was born as.”
“And I can’t tell you how glad that makes me.”
Mychael laughed. “I think you just did.”
“You did say your walls are soundproof, right?”
“They’ve never been tested to your extent.”
My eyes widened. “Then the Guardians outside your door could be—”
“Envious as hell,” Mychael finished for me.
Crap.
“How many of your ‘envious as hell’ Guardians will be at the Swan Song tomorrow?”
“Enough.”
“Enough for . . .”
“Whatever trouble you manage to kick up.”
“And if everything goes perfectly to plan?”
“Then they’ll be envious
and
stunned.”
“Here’s hoping for stunned.”
I piled the pillows on my side of the bed against the headboard and sat up against it, pulling the sheet up with me. Talking about tomorrow had made me think about Mago, which led me to my family, which made me think about criminals, which led to Rache Kai. Thinking about Rache effectively pulled the plug on my playfulness.
Mychael didn’t know the landing place for all my mental gymnastics; he just saw that I’d covered up all of my toys. He got the hint that playtime was over, or at least suspended for the time being, and sat up in bed next to me. The seconds ticked by and neither one of us said a word. Mychael probably knew what was wrong. I definitely knew what was wrong. I also wasn’t about to be the one to bring it up. I didn’t want to talk about it, argue, or analyze it—all I wanted was for it, namely Rache, to go away. Preferably without killing anyone.
The knowledge that Rache was on Mid and Mychael knew that he’d once been engaged to me was kind of like a dragon hulking in the middle of the room. You could try to ignore it, but that didn’t change the fact that it was there, it was big, and it wasn’t going anywhere.
I’d never been good with tension, so it didn’t take much longer for the dam of words building inside of me to break. “Yes, falling in love with Rache was stupid.
I
was stupid. I should have known better, known he was lying to me, making a fool—”
“Raine.”
“—out of me. I was blind as a bat, and—”
“Raine.”
“—he didn’t even—”
Mychael reached over and hauled me, sheets and all, across the bed to him. His lips closed on mine in a long, deep kiss that made me stop thinking about Rache or criminals. Eventually the contact from his lips lightened into small, teasing nibbles.
“What was that for?” Air was suddenly in short supply. “Not that I’m complaining.”
“It’s the only way I can get a word in, and because I wanted to.” He gazed down at me, his sea blue eyes searching my face, reading me. “Raine, being involved with a criminal doesn’t make you one.”
“It’s not that.”
“And I don’t love you any less because of it. How could I?”
It was kind of that. Okay, it was mostly that.
“He’s an assassin,” I said, “and you’re . . . most definitely not.”
“Raine, you were young and in love with the man you thought he was. That’s nothing to be ashamed of. So you fell for a guy because he was good-looking, a smooth talker, and treated you like a princess.”
“But he was a—”
“And
you didn’t know
. You also don’t have any reason to worry about us now. I love you, and your ex-fiancé trying to puncture a goblin prince isn’t going to change that.”
“And you.”
His brow creased in puzzlement. “And me, what?”
“He’s trying to puncture you, too.”
“My plan is to arrest him before he gets another chance.” Mychael lightly ran a finger down my cheek. “His lies hurt you then and he may want to physically hurt you now. I’m going to keep both from happening.”
“How?”
“Not all of my Guardians are based in the citadel and in uniform. In fact, a few of them get arrested on a regular basis by the city watch to keep up appearances. They’ll find Rache. In the meantime, I want you to start wearing a mail shirt under your clothes.”
I laughed. “You mean you’re not going to try to lock me up in your bedroom?”
His eyes glittered. “Tempting, but unfortunately impossible right now.”
“We have elves to con and an assassin to catch,” I said. “Which brings up another question. You said Rache has never seen your real face. Is there any other way he could have found out who and what you used to be?”
Mychael didn’t respond immediately.
Damn.
“If you have to think about it then it’s possible,” I said.
“It’s highly unlikely.”
“Pardon me if I ignore the ‘highly’ part of your ‘unlikely.’ If Rache even suspects that you’re the same man who kept gold out of his pockets by snatching hits out from underneath his nose, he’ll perch on every building in this city to take you out. That’s probably why he’s trying to kill you.”
“I’ve always had a target on me, and a few of those times have been from Rache Kai. Incoming bolts and blades come with the job.”
“That was before the Saghred was part of your job—and me.”
Mychael made a sound that was something between a sigh and wry chuckle. “We’ve been over this before. Anything that happens to me is not your fault.”
He pulled the sheet down far enough to plant a light kiss between my breasts. I let out a little gasp.
“It’s your job,” I managed.
“Absolutely.” Mychael kissed my stomach.
“And you enjoy your work.”
“Most satisfying.” He kissed my belly button.
“And getting to kick Rache Kai’s ass is—”
“A welcome bonus.” The tip of his tongue swirled a hot trail around my belly button.
“But if it hadn’t been for the rock—”
Mychael looked up at me. “If it hadn’t been for
you
tricking Sarad Nukpana into touching the Saghred that night in Mermeia, he would have the rock and I’d probably be dead.”