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“I’ve not gone mad. I just—” A thought occurred to me. “Bradach, you and Aeris, has that happened yet?”
His wings flashed out. I couldn’t be sure, but I guessed that was a sign of agitation. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, my lady.”
“So that’s a no,” I replied. “How about this? If you can sneak me out of the castle and stall Alisdair to give me an hour, maybe two hours in the village, I’ll name you my personal bodyguard. Aeris seems to be by my side always, which means if you’re always by my side, you’ll have many chances to sweet-talk her into fertilizing her eggs.” I smiled down at him. “What do you say?”
“Hmm. You’ll do this, and in return you ask that I help you go into the village?” He blew out a breath. “I don’t know, Lady Ana. You don’t know what you ask of me.”
“I know it’s a huge request. This castle is locked down tighter than the Crystal Palace, but I have to get out.” Pleading bled into my voice. “Help me. I’ll be forever in your debt.”
He tossed his head, his wings doing that nervous flutter even faster and harder. “All right, all right,” he burst out. “I will do this for you, but only because desperation is going to make you break your neck.” Bradach reached for me. “Come down. Carefully.”
“Thank you,” I cried, hope filling my chest to bursting. “Catch me.”
“What?”
I jumped off.
“Wait— No!”
Bradach shot back, leaving nothing between me and the stone.
“Ahhh—!” I hit the floor and bounced, flopping up and down like I was on a gray mattress.
I goggled at him as he closed his lapel, flashing a glance of the coudarian crystal inside. “What was that!”
“Forgive me,” he said, sounding genuinely sorry. “But I can’t touch you, my queen. It’s not worth my life.”
“What the fuck are you talking about!” Fear had a grip on my tongue, and my throat. My breaths tried and failed to leave a constricted airway.
“Surely you’ve noticed the smell.”
“Smell?” I got to my feet. “So it’s true, I do smell. Smell so badly you think you’ll die from getting near me. How is that possible?” I asked myself. “I don’t smell anything. Is it your faeriken senses? Do you smell things others can’t?”
“In this case, yes, if it’s true you can’t smell it too,” he admitted. “But it’s not about being faeriken. It’s because our lord marked you. Very heavily.”
“Excuse me? Marked?”
He pointed. I followed his finger down to my dress, and saw nothing.
“The small cuts on your chest.” Those sly lips found another smirk. “That’s how beings like him inject their pheromones into their mates’ bloodstream, marking them as theirs. Instead of walking around with the scent that is uniquely you, you now smell uniquelyhim. Even more him than he does.”
My jaw fell further with every word.
“A smell that transfers to anyone you touch, or who touches you,” Bradach went on. “Not an issue for the women, but if our lord discovers your touch on another man, he’ll kill them.” Bradach stated this with no inflection, irony, or grin. He was deadly serious. “Shall we?”
He set off, expecting me to follow. I chased after him, spitting mad.
“That cheating bastard. I can’t believe he’d do something like this without my permission.” I scoffed. “I bet it didn’t occur to him to ask permission. The man truly thinks he was paid for a pet and not a person.”
Bradach turned left, taking me down a hallway that was vaguely familiar.
“Being able to follow my scent everywhere and on everyone is a violation of his promise. I knew I couldn’t trust him,” I whispered. “But it doesn’t matter. If he can lie, deceive, and jump through every loophole, so can I.”
Bradach suddenly pulled up short. Tapping his lips with one finger, he pointed around the corner.
I looked to see and landed on four guards manning the main entrance. Quickly, I ducked back, shaking my head at him hard.We couldn’t do it. It wasn’t possible we’d get past all four of them without Alisdair finding out, and coming after me.
“Trust me,” he whispered. “Watch how I do this.”
