Dark Dealings (14 page)

Heyerdar wrapped thick fingers around her wrist and pulled her to him. “With me, little thief.”

The mages parted, their long robes brushing against the stone floors...but that wasn’t the only hiss. More than one drew in their breath, hard eyes fixed on her. They’d never liked her. Never trusted her. She understood it now. She was what they could have been but for an accident of fate.

A woman spat at Ava’s feet. Ava stared at her. Mage Cyprine, one of the more sane and stable mages, but hatred burned in her, the magic that sliced around her hot and sharp. It bristled in her flesh. Fuck, was Cyprine going to
attack
her?

Heyerdar growled and tucked Ava closer to his body. The slither of his sword from its sheath stilled the mages. The tang of his magic wrapped around the blade. “You want her? You go through this.”

“Captain.” Reist stood in the open doorway to the Moon Chamber. He wore the long black robe of his office, the gold chain and medallion of the Highest Mage looped over his heart. “Bring her.”

A stone dropped into Ava’s belly. What had she done? Was it more than the stupid library incident? Had he realized that she’d used Heyerdar to push magic into Fallon? That she’d tried to control him? That she knew what they were now? One step away from the horror of being thieves themselves.

“Control yourself.” Heyerdar muttered the order against her ear. “Now.”

Ava bit her lip, the sharp edge of pain, the tease of blood surging her inner darkness. Ice wrapped around her, pressed down on her and she pushed out a breath. Reist watched her, his expression fixed. Anger and disappointment tightened his body. This wasn’t how she planned to see him. He was supposed to be shocked by Fallon’s defection and wanting to see her, his friend...not whatever this was.

She wet her lips. “Reist...”

“Silence.”

The single word edged with fury cut her.

He stood to one side and allowed Heyerdar to move into the small room—little more than a corridor—that separated the Moon Chamber from the sea of mages. With a wave of his hand, magic moved through the air, grabbed the doors and slammed them shut. Sconces lit the tiny room, carving Reist’s bleak face.

Ava tried again, ignoring the panic in her gut. “Reist...”

“Where were you?”

“When?” She frowned. Suspicions ran through her mind. His wondering why she hadn’t slept in her bed wouldn’t have drawn a crowd of mages to spit at her. His eyes were cold, hard, unlike anything she’d ever seen from him. Heyerdar’s hand tightened around her wrist, hot and strong. She fought not to rip magic from him.

“Before sunup.”

Heyerdar sheathed his sword. “She was with me.”

Reist’s gaze flicked to him. “You?” His frown deepened. “What have you done, Captain?”

“What you wouldn’t. Or couldn’t.”

There was a dark-humored edge to his voice and Ava willed down her blush. He’d said he’d never deny his fucking her...but she never thought the first person to hear would be Reist.

The Highest Mage blinked. “What?”

“I didn’t tease her for ten years.” Heyerdar shrugged. “Who else was going to take her? Certainly not you.”

Reist’s mouth thinned and he took a single step closer. Magic flared white-hot around him, and Ava fought fear, shame and the thief within her that hungered for his power. She wanted to close her eyes, not be at the center of the animosity that had swirled around these men for months, maybe years. And Heyerdar had to shut the fuck up. “Captain—”

“Is this about revenge, Captain?” Reist narrowed his gaze. “Is this what you’ve been waiting for? Fallon is with me for good reason. You’re an animal. And if you think that using my servant harms me, then you’re wrong. You’re only hurting her.”

Servant.
Reist couldn’t have stabbed a hole harder in her with a metal pick. That was what he thought of her? And his first thought was of himself—and Fallon—not that he’d lost
her.
Bastard. The thief in her railed, wanting to rip away the power that shrouded him, let him feel as physically hurt, feel agony in his soul.

“She begged me. Begged this
animal
and I took her.”

Ava could hear the pride Heyerdar’s his voice. He was right. He’d played her, used her just as other men did. She wrenched herself free and found Reist’s gaze fixed on her. Cold and blank.

“And she was sweet.” Heyerdar looked around the smooth stone walls and a dark smile touched his mouth. “The stones hold her screaming my name.” He tilted his head. “Can’t you hear it?”

The man who had offered himself to her totally was gone. “Fuck you,” she muttered.

“You did. It was good.”

She lifted her chin, ignoring him. “What am I here for, Reist?” She jabbed a thumb behind her to the closed doors. “Why are they here?”

“She was with you all night?”

That wasn’t anger, or jealousy, or indifference in his question. Something else had happened. Beyond her sleeping with Heyerdar, or his actions in the library or any new knowledge. And Reist could talk to
her.
Sex hadn’t removed her brain. “I was with him—in his bed—from yesterday afternoon.”

A muscle ticked in Reist’s temple, the only outward sign he’d given. “A mage found your door open this morning. She discovered a body.”

“A body?” Heyerdar almost growled. “This is my investigation. Why—”

“We only know the remains are of a mage.” Reist pulled in a breath and his fingers flexed. He wanted to run them over his jaw, she knew it, knew his every tic, but he wouldn’t show weakness in front of Heyerdar. “Mages have gathered so that we can discount them.”

Ava pressed her hand to her mouth, wanting to deny what her gut was telling her. “The mage was devoured and rendered by a thief.”

Reist gave a slow nod. “We have her in the Chamber. Physician Fane said that you would be of help in determining who she was and who attacked her. She believes it’s the act of a single thief.”

“You thought it was me. That I husked her.”

He paused a heartbeat too long, before his quiet, “No.”

A servant and a murderer. Reist had torn up her world in a matter of moments. “You think I changed the wards on the South Gate to let these thieves in. Led them to kill those people. Those
children.
Why d’you think I’d do that,
master?
”

He knew. Reist knew how she felt about him. He thought that she’d turned against him and the Institute.

“Ava...” He shook his head and, for a brief moment, something flickered through his gaze before he straightened and the Highest Mage was back. “I have confidence that it wasn’t you.”

“Now,” Heyerdar added.

Reist ignored him. “We need to know who this mage is to perform the rites over her body and disrupt the power he took.” He opened the doors to the Moon Chamber. Morning sunlight stretched across the round room, spilling over the large table and the emaciated body placed there. “Ava.”

She moved forward, her legs wooden. Sahar Fane stood back from the body and gave a short nod. Ava gave her a bleak smile. She rubbed her hands together, feeling the lack of blood in her fingers.

The body of the mage was withered, her skin flaking and paper thin. Her hair, bleached white, flowed around her shoulders and across the dark wood of the table, and she still wore a long, pale grey nightshirt. Its silk gleamed softly in the morning light. Her face was simply a skull, all features lost.

Heyerdar stood behind her. He’d witnessed her doing this twice now and he was her only option for when her reaction took over. She couldn’t rush out into a crowded room of mages with the wildness of a thief in her veins. They’d tear her to shreds.

Ava pulled in a breath, the heavy scent of leather teasing her tongue. The hint of flesh traced through it, a sinuous hint of fresh meat. Her mouth watered.
Fuck.
Her hand hovered over the dead woman’s skull, and she opened her soul, letting the thief in her rise and taste the energy the killer had left.

Her room. The familiar scents and smells, the warm darkness and—her—pushing open the door. Ava’s breath caught.
Shit. No.
“Mage Lene Narve.” She’d liked her. A woman who’d only just broken free of the lower halls a few months before.

Her heart thudded. The thief...more controlled, not the one in the Searlaim house. He’d been waiting in her room. Waiting for her. He knew about her, what she was in the Institute... Wanting her for something. Narve had stared, shocked, her magic flared white hot around her. So beautiful, so sweet, but he wasn’t there for
her.

Ava’s heart drummed. The thief hadn’t wanted the mage. Had expected
her
to walk into her room, not some other woman. Fire swept through Ava, hot and blistering. Fuck, he fed fast and hard, his ferocious mouth melting her skin and muscle from her skull, pulling her meat and energy into his empty soul in chunks.

She’d never tasted a mage. Lene was pure meat. Sweet, succulent and there were so many mages outside, young and fresh, hers for the taking, and her thief craved—

“Control, little thief.” Heyerdar pulled her against him, turning her into the solid wall of his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, and his heat, his strength and the powerful surge of his magic emptied into her soul. He groaned and pressed his face into her hair. “That
shouldn’t
feel so fucking good.”

Ava breathed. His magic wrapped a hot calm around her mind, her body. She strained against his hold until he let her go. The twisted bastard liked her stripping his strength. She stared at the stone floor, using the balance and power to push at the memories she’d gleaned from the body.

“Sahar was right. There was a single thief. Waiting for me. Narve surprised him.”

“He expected to recruit you?”

Reist’s question dug at her again. Something had broken between them now. He thought she could kill Narve and all the others out of jealousy of Fallon. It hurt and she wanted to hate him. She looked up. Sunlight caught his stern beauty. He’d never doubted her before. “Yes. No. I don’t know.”

“What’s his name? Description. Was he wearing a skin?”

Ava let out a long breath and focused, ignoring Heyerdar’s blast of questions.

The thief wasn’t like the one who’d attacked and eaten the children. There was more control. He was more defined. She could feel the shape of him as if she wore him over herself. His...shadow itched across her skin and she shivered. “He was the fourth one, the more restrained man who fed on Searlaim.” She winced. “He doesn’t feel...right.” Whatever it was, something tugged at him, ran deep into his bones, a sensation that the others had masked. “His name is Ehren.” She lifted her hand, feeling the edge of his height and the phantom memory of short, white-blond hair. “He’s taller than me by a good few inches. Slim. Strong.”

Pain tightened in her chest and she blew out bad air. The last of Heyerdar’s magic was gone. “He felt strange. As if something hooked him.”

“Why did he want you?”

Lack of trust she expected from Heyerdar and it made her mouth curl up at the corners. “I’m the only thief in the city.” She held his gaze. “Maybe he wanted to play.”

“What could hook a thief?”

Ava had forgotten Sahar was in the Chamber. The physician moved behind her to lay a sheet over Narve’s remains, and in that moment of distraction, she almost missed it. Heyerdar looked to Reist and frowned.

They knew more about this than they wanted
her
to know. Without the thieves breaking through the wards into the city, would she have remained totally ignorant of what she was? What she could do?

“You know what hooked him.”

Reist sighed. “Ava...”

“The Words.” Heyerdar said, and Reist frowned. “As certain Words make a thief they can also bind them. Mages formulated them centuries ago. The first Word is the tattoo the apprentices wear. To hold back their naturally empty souls and prepare their bodies for hoarding.”

“Captain!”

But Heyerdar ignored him. “And there are Words that hook a thief. Mage protection. To say them and use high magic can twist a thief to your bidding.”

“A mage didn’t do this.” Reist flushed red, anger tightening his face. His hands flexed again and magic flared across his knuckles.

Heyerdar’s gaze slid to Ava. “Used them before? On her?”

Ava blinked. Reist hadn’t used them on her...had he? She would know, would feel it deep in her bones the way the thief, Ehren could.
Fuck,
Heyerdar could twist her thoughts until she didn’t know what she was thinking. “Who would know these Words? Learn them, have access to them?”

“They’re taught to every senior mage.”

“Captain!” Reist barked the title. “Enough.”

“You can let the thieves run free. Or your pet can know what she is and how you control her.”

“I am
not
his pet.”

“And Ava is not under my control.” Reist pulled in a steadying breath. “Physician Fane, thank you. You can go.”

The woman nodded. “Sir, Captain.” Her mouth moved into a smile. “Ava.”

The door closed behind her with a soft whoomph of air.

“Dismissing the staff?” Heyerdar gave Reist a sharp smile and stared up at the curve of crystal forming the roof. He moved around the table, his boots thudding against the stone floor. “I’ve let you play your games here, Reist, but when the safety of the palace, of the
emperor,
is compromised, then it stops. Now.”

“And what games are
you
playing?”

“Can you have this pissing contest elsewhere?” Ava caught her hand in her hair, hating her shitty,
shitty
life. She needed to focus on the job at hand. “Senior mages would have these Words. Who else?”

“No one else.” Reist’s reply was clipped. He didn’t want to share any of this with her. Her friend was gone. Only the mage was left. She would treat him as such. “They were bound to a book in the emperor’s possession.”

“His personal collection moved to the Institute six months ago.” Her head tilted and she fixed Reist with a steady gaze. “Under your order.”

Heyerdar laughed. “Your pet’s finally turning on you.”