Curse of the Celts Clara O'Connor (new reading txt) 📖

thing that existed. Tonight of all nights. It made no sense. How could he be so singularly focused?

The bridal tea. The concoction they gave us before and during the handfast to stoke our passions… He had given it to Devyn. But why? It made no sense. Was there some motivation that I was missing or was it just that he couldn’t resist manipulating us one last time?

I swung away so that I was above Devyn. I sat up, allowing the fresh air wafting in from the open window to wash over me, cooling my heated skin. Devyn’s hand came up to pull me back down. I caught it in my own and held it to me. I adored his hands. I adored the strength in them, the slight calluses on his palm evidence of a physical past that gave away the truth of his childhood spent far from the city; I adored the sinews I could trace through his dark skin, the pulse of life at his wrist. I sucked in a breath. Think, I needed to think. Devyn’s other hand came up, and I took both and pinned them either side of his head. He looked up at me, perplexed, allowing it despite his heated blood and superior strength. I sent a pulse of the fear I felt for tomorrow through me and his eyes cooled.

“Snap out of it,” I urged him.

“What, Cass? Come here to me.” He lifted his head to try to kiss me once more. I so badly wanted to be kissed. I leaned in, my grip lessening, allowing Devyn to wrap his hands into my hair. I groaned, giving in to it. My mind and body were pure sensation.

There was a commotion outside in the hallway. I sat up as the door burst open. Devyn pushed himself up and manoeuvred me behind him, his instinct to protect me always greater than anything else. I stared at the door, willing my foggy brain to clear. I pulled in a deep breath.

Marcus stood in the doorway, his burning gaze fixed on me.

“Get dressed,” he snapped, his nostrils flared, his body all tension. “We need to go.”

I looked at him in confusion.

“My father is helping us escape. Hurry.”

Devyn was also slowly coming back to the real world. He shook his head as if to shake it off. The fire clearly still burnt within him, the embers hot ready to flare again.

“Devyn?” I called tentatively. He turned to look at me, his dark gaze still smouldering. My eyes flicked to Marcus in the doorway. Praetorian Alvar’s second in command, Kasen, strode in behind Marcus. The normally diffident praetorian surveyed the room, taking in the scene, instantly understanding what I was still only starting to understand myself.

“Get dressed,” he echoed Marcus, throwing a bundle at the bed. “Now.”

I jumped out on the far side of the canopied four-poster, the curtain affording me a little belated privacy. My breath was still dragging through my lungs and my hands trembled as I pulled on the dark clothing Kasen had had the foresight to bring. My blue satin gown was not exactly the outfit of choice for a Codebreaker on the run.

I took Devyn’s hand to pull him along with us as we followed Kasen, racing through the stone hallways, down winding stairs, and slowing to walk casually across the courtyard to the gate leading out to the river. Kasen and Marcus went to the side of the gate where a heavily caped Matthias waited, the trellis slowly lifting to reveal a boat beyond.

Devyn and Marcus leapt across the railing into the boat as I took Matthias’s hand to aid my undignified scramble across the railing into the bobbing hovercraft.

I looked on in horror as the gate was lowered back down with Kasen on the other side watching as we pulled out onto the river.

I looked at Matthias for an explanation.

“He’ll be fine.” Matthias waved dismissively.

“What? But they’ll know he helped us.”

“No, they won’t. While the praetor likes to keep an eye on the city, there are no cameras in his own home,” Matthias explained. “Calchas will only blame me when he wakes up.”

“When he wakes up?” I questioned.

“I slipped a little something into his after-dinner drink.” Matthias nodded to his son. “All we had to do was wait until we were alone after dinner and servants were no longer coming in or out. And goodnight, Praetor Calchas.”

“Why? How?” I asked Matthias, still slightly disbelieving that this was happening even as we swept through the night.

“Why?” Matthias repeated haughtily. “Marcus is my son. As for you two, he will need help once he crosses the border. As for how, once you were in the tower it was almost too easy.”

“But it was built to be a fortress.”

“True. A fortress whose main purpose has always been to keep safe the most important members of our society. Council members used to have automatic access to a number of public buildings via a biometric setting for use in the event of an attack that breached the walls. The practice has been abandoned in peacetime, and of course the tower is practically a private dwelling these days. I’m sure Calchas hasn’t ever given it a thought. The thing with old biometric technology is that it was built not just for a single lifetime, but for the duration of that genetic line. He brought the key to get through the river gate inside with you.”

“Marcus,” I identified, recalling the way Praetorian Kasen had grabbed Marcus’s hand to touch the lock when we arrived at the gate. His touch had released the catch.

“Indeed.” Matthias nodded. “All chips were bet on the fact that Calchas wouldn’t be able to resist bringing you to his home to have a little play with the dolls he hadn’t been able to make dance to his tune.”

“You knew he would bring us to the tower?”

“I was relying on it, did what I could to seed the idea after I left you all last night.