“They really don’t seem to care.” Jallina shrugged.
“I’m not going to be bedded by anyone else but Elex. He was invited to the temple to stay with me, and that’s how that’s going to remain.”
I was mortified that people were betting on who was going to sleep with me. Was that something they really needed to bet on? If that were true, I needed to invent a new sport—and not one that involved bedroom antics.
Drez and Jallina chuckled the rest of the trip quietly. I wasn’t sure where they were taking me, but I was happy to seethe in amused silence for a little while.
I took a quick look to my left at Jallina. “How did you know I was going to be in the garden tonight?”
She smiled. “Luck. I’ve been hanging out there for three nights, hoping that you would come out at some point. I know you like the moonlight in the garden.”
“Good guess.” My friends really did know me well.
The carriage eventually pulled to a stop in front of a small, squat building that simply had the word “Ale” painted on the front. It wasn’t exactly seedy looking, but it was closer to that than a fair or nice establishment.
Jallina motioned me off the carriage and hopped down after me. She pulled me into the shadows next to the door.
Drez moved the cart to the holding area next to the building with several other carriages and saddle horses, then hurried back.
Walking in, I could tell it was important no one got a good look at me. I carefully adjusted the hood and hid my face in the shadows a little more.
Jallina spoke with the bartender, low and quiet, and he nodded sharply at one of the curtains toward the back. Jallina walked ahead of us, and Drez took my elbow to guide me back.
The dark was also permeated by a horrible stench behind the curtain. A set of stairs led down into a dimly lit cellar.
The stairs themselves were terrible. They were cracked and chipped, and parts of them were missing. There was no railing once we were below the wall, and I was honestly afraid they were going collapse beneath me.
The single lamp sat on a bench on the right side of the cellar, and Jallina turned us left. It was so dark I couldn’t see much of anything, and resisting the urge to call up a light was getting harder and harder.
Drez stepped ahead of us and pulled a bookcase away from the wall.
The light finally spilled into the cellar and revealed a room beyond the bookshelf. Drez led us into the room, and Jallina pulled it closed once she was in.
The room was below the horses’ rest area next to the bar. It was really quite clever. There were just a few people sitting on benches around the space, and they were all engaged in small conversations.
Drez cleared his throat. “Ladies, gentlemen.”
Their heads all swiveled to the door where we waited, and the conversations died off.
“Thank you all for trusting me about this. I know we’ve been talking about this for weeks now, but there was a complication.”
“Complication?” one of the women.
I pushed my hood back, taking advantage of the dramatic moment. “Someone has been stealing my mail.”
“Oh, you’re really here.” The woman swept off the bench and rushed toward me.
I stepped back and went to reach for the sword I didn’t have.
Crap.
Drez grabbed the woman by the shoulders. “Come on. How many times did I tell you not to do that, Mela? Kimber is a temple master. You have to be careful, or she’ll attack.”
I wanted to laugh. I was as fierce as a kitten. I didn’t let it out though. Let them think what they wanted.
Jallina stepped up next to me. “This is Mistress Kimber Raven of the temple of the Lost God, the youngest of the current temple masters. She is who I’ve been talking about. She is why I didn’t want a lot of people here except those we really trusted.”
A man walked out of the shadows at the back. “And you’re the one who wants us to spy for you.”
“I don’t know that the word spy is right,” I said. “I don’t wish to be as removed from the everyday life of S’Kir as some of the others are. I would like to know what’s going on out there. The walls can be very high, and after the death of Mistress Danai, I’m afraid they are going to build them even higher.”
He studied me a moment longer and nodded. “I can understand that. It’s a wise move to have people you can trust outside of your circle, Mistress.”
Jallina motioned me to sit on a bench. “So, Ki—I mean, Mistress Kimber asked me to help her set up a network that can funnel her information. I didn’t want to make the network too big. I felt it was important she meet all of you, so she knows who you are if you have to approach her.”
“Smart,” her sister, Jennila whispered.
Drez nodded. “To that end, let’s introduce ourselves to her.”
I counted the people in the room. There were only nine of them, for a total of twelve of us. I didn’t need more than that to keep abreast of what was going on.
I needed to thank Jallina for being so forward thinking about this.
Then, I had to find the person who was stealing my mail out from under me. That was scary. This meant there was someone in the temple who wasn’t loyal.
Each person who would be reporting to Drez and Jallina introduced themselves, and I made sure to remember their faces. I didn’t want to get caught not being able to identify them.
“Would you like to say anything to the group, Mistress?” Drez asked, motioning to the people sitting around me.
I started with a simple thank you to all of them—and then the tremor started. Jallina looked terrified, and her sister fled for the door.
I slapped my hand on the wall and tried pulling back the magic. It was unruly—and slippery. It kept sliding through my grip, and I couldn’t see the colors well in the dark.
I need to get out of the basement.
“Come on!” Jennila was shoving the door open and waving wildly at us.
“No!” Jallina snapped, grabbing her sister back. “We’ll be killed if we go up through the tavern!”
“We’ll die if we stay here!” Jennila answered.
I stood, giving up on trying to pull the magic back for the moment. “Go. All of you. Up the stairs. There’s a backdoor.”
“The building—” Jallina gasped.
I caught her elbow. “Trust me.”
At some point, I had to start trusting me as well.
They shoved out through the door, with Jallina, Drez, and me following behind. The stairs were deadly, and each of the meeting attendees ran up one at a time, trying not to tax them.
The tremors were getting worse. I had to get up and out to see what was going on. I couldn’t seem to see the colors in the dark of the basement.
“Go,” Drez said, pointing up.
I ran, as fast and as hard as I could up the wobbling stairs to the top.
At the top, I stopped and spun around to wait for Jallina. She had already launched herself halfway up the stairs, and I grabbed her hand, yanking her to the floor.
Drez was last.
Halfway up, the staircase and the left wall of the building decided to give up and collapse.
In almost slow motion, Drez pin-wheeled forward, about to crash into the bricks that were raining down on him.
I snapped my magic out and caught him, freezing him in place. Jallina leaned over the ledge and grabbed his hand, and between the two of us, we hauled him to safety.
Bands of gold snapped around their hands where they were joined.
They had mated. Jallina and Drez were mates.
I wished I had more time to process that, but the rest of the walls were threatening to fall as the tremors kept growing.
“Out!” I screamed, wrapping my hand around Jallina’s arm. I yanked them to the back door, and we all stumbled out and away from the crumbling building.
I turned to the mountains in the moonlight and tried dropping all my walls once more.
S’Kir lit up like a bonfire, and the magic pulsed everywhere again, creating a second skin for the reality around me.
Blue.
Everything was blue.