He raked his hands through his hair, clasping his palms behind his head. “I wasn’t ready to be mated, and I was resentful. I was too young and too stupid to see it for the chance it could have been. I just wanted to escape. And although you tempted me—”
“Tempted you?”
“Yes.” Was she truly so blind? “You were ice and fury, and I wanted you in my bed the second I saw you. And I even thought about it—about choosing you. About mating with you and living within your father’s court.” He shook his head. “But you made it very clear that you thought the concept beneath you. You despised me from the start, and so, when I saw my chance, I slipped away from your father’s court. I vanished into the wind, because it was the only way I could see to escape my mother’s noose. I didn’t think of the damage my words might have caused you. And I’m sorry. I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m sorry I was so careless and stupid. I embarrassed you. And I wish I could take it all back. I wish I could return to that night and shut my fucking mouth before I sang that song.”
Solveig leaned back in her chair, her expression frozen.
Say something. Marduk’s tongue felt thick in his mouth. “You have nothing to say to that?”
But she tilted her head, and then she was looking down.
At the floor.
“Something just tripped my wards.”
It occurred to him that he was dealing with a powerful, cunning, devious female dreki who had never shied away from a battle in her life.
“If this is some sort of means to escape—”
“It’s not.” She strained against her ropes. “Untie me! Some sort of warning is itching across my skin.”
Of all the rotten timing….
He growled under his breath as he crossed to the door. “I thought your wards weren’t working?”
“I don’t know why they didn’t recognize your presence. They should have—but they’re—” She gasped. “—screaming at me right now. Untie me!”
“Do you think I’m a fool? The second I untie you, you’ll put that knife through my throat.”
“If you think I’ll aim for anywhere as benign as your throat, then you should think again.”
He winced. “One day my balls are going to take exception to the way you’ve so poorly treated them.”
But a commotion caught his attention. Marduk pressed his ear to the door, the hackles down his spine rising. He looked down at the hairs on his arms.
What was this?
Every inch of his skin wanted to crawl off his body.
Magic. Someone was using magic nearby, and it wasn’t dreki magic.
“Can you feel that?”
Solveig rolled her eyes. “I’ve been trying to tell you about it for nearly a minute—"
He sprinted across the room and clapped a hand over her mouth. Solveig dug her teeth into his palm, and he hissed under his breath, cupping the back of her skull.
“Not now,” he whispered. “You’re right. I feel like someone just dipped me in slime, and my magic’s never reacted like this before.”
Those dark eyes considered him.
And then she nodded and stopped biting him.
“If I let you go, will you promise not to attack me?”
The arch of her brow held shades of condescension.
“Until morning,” he amended. “Or until we’ve discovered what just entered this building.”
“I promise I won’t kill you until morning breaks,” Solveig purred.
And a dreki couldn’t lie.
Marduk took his knife from his hip sheath and sliced through her ropes. They fell to the floor in a slithery rasp, and Solveig stood, rubbing at her wrists. He tossed her the pair of leather leggings that she must have kicked off before she slipped beneath her blankets.
Her fist balled, but he caught it, leaning close enough to whisper in her ear. “Don’t think I didn’t notice the precise implications of your statement. Later. You can hit me later. Right now, I’m the only ally you have.”
3
Marduk slipped down the stairs ahead of Solveig, his broad shoulders blocking the light. For such a large male, he moved with a silent grace that surprised her.
Must have been all the bedrooms he’d stolen out of over the years.
Solveig followed him like a wraith on the prowl. She couldn’t sense whatever was making his skin crawl, but the way the intruder had tripped her alarms made her wary enough to work with him.
For tonight.
Tomorrow…. She was going to work her way through the implications of his apology tomorrow.
“Where is the dreki?” someone crooned, and the sound of that voice lilting up the stairwell made her skin tingle. “We know he came in here. We saw him enter. We just want to know where he is.”
“D-dreki?” The innkeeper stammered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We are good, honest Christian folk in here and—”
A scream echoed.
Solveig caught Marduk’s wrist, and he flashed her a heated look over his shoulder.
“Someone you know?” she mouthed.
He shook his head.
“How many?”
Marduk flashed a white smile. His shrug said it didn’t matter, and then he was tearing his wrist free of her grip and jogging down the stairs as if he had not a care in the world.
Cursed male dreki didn’t know the benefits of subterfuge. There was some sort of innate battle within them that dictated that slipping out the back window until they could discover just what they were facing was impossible. They were all rage and full-frontal assault, alpha males who waded into uneven odds as if the concept they might be the prey here was simply unthinkable.
“I swear…,” she whispered under her breath as she drew the knife he’d returned to her.
And then she followed him, because someone had to save his neck.
Nobody was going to steal her kill.
“Now, what were you saying?” the stranger laughed. “Something about… he went upstairs and he’s—”
“He’s standing right here,” Marduk called, as he sauntered with all the arrogance he could muster into the common room of the inn. “Who are you? And what do you want?”
Solveig slipped into the room behind him, lingering in the shadows.
Half a dozen men all turned to look at Marduk, clad in an unusual sort of golden armor. They were all pale-eyed and sulky-mouthed, with long, shining silken hair, like a group of troubadours who just needed lutes to start strumming, even as they expected ladies to toss handkerchiefs at their feet.
But there was something wrong about them.
Something that made her inner dreki flex its claws quietly within her.
Solveig froze, her weight shifting forward into the toe of her boot. Her dreki never shied away from battle. And while it might have urged caution until she’d taken in the room, it had never felt uneasy like this before.
“What do I want?” The crowd of gorgeous, blond-haired men parted and a newcomer—clearly the leader—stepped forward. “I want you to kiss my boots, you dreki filth. Kneel.”
Marduk’s knees folded, and he hit the floor, his eyes bulging in his shocked face.
“What are you doing?” Solveig’s weight shifted forward, but everything inside her was telling her to run. “Get up.”