Which meant I was going to have to sneak out again. Preferably in a manner that wouldn’t include Ahyana having to set another fire.

  And if I did sneak out, would I see Jason again?

  That in and of itself might be reason enough to attempt it.

  “There are other ways to make money,” I told him. Not that things could change between us but it might be more palatable to me to be attracted to him if I at least knew he was earning an honest living.

  “Such as?”

  “I’ve seen you fight. You could hire yourself out as a mercenary.”

  “Lia! That almost sounded like a compliment. I am quite overwhelmed.” His teasing was just like the rest of him—annoying in a way I couldn’t explain while also being endearing.

  I did not want him to be playful with me. It made him harder to resist. “There are houses here.” Expensive ones. Nobles must have lived in this neighborhood.

  Thankfully he didn’t mention what an inane comment it was, how much I had veered us away from the direction our conversation had been headed.

  “There are houses all over Troas,” he countered.

  “Yes, but these are costly. Is this where the life mages live?” It was a shot in the dark, but perhaps it might prove fruitful.

  “All of the life mages live in the palace. There’s not many of them left and they are highly regulated and kept track of,” he said.

  I frowned. That was going to put a definite wrinkle in my plans. How would I sneak into the palace to find a life mage?

  It wasn’t somewhere I should go. The prince was there and I didn’t want to put myself in a position where he could capture and imprison me and try to force me to honor our betrothal. Not that he would have any reason to, as he didn’t know who I was, but if the witness had seen me with my parents at the selection and realized who they were, then there was at least one person in Ilion who knew my true identity.

  The witness couldn’t share his knowledge with anyone else because he couldn’t speak, but it still felt dangerous that the possibility existed. And that I had thought I’d seen him earlier tonight at the Golden Lamb. Like it was some kind of omen or warning.

  “Here it is,” Jason said. This building was not nearly as grand as the library and looked much older. We also had a records building back in Locris. It was the place where all the boring bureaucratic documents were kept. Taxes paid and collected, lawsuits and their verdicts, census lists documenting every citizen, businesses opened and operating, architectural plans for buildings and roads, past public announcements, minutes of government and royal meetings, official sets of weights and measurements for the marketplaces.

  I didn’t know why I thought any of that would be helpful but I hoped there would be something that might lead me in the right direction.

  “This way.” Jason whispered the words and I followed him as we entered the administrative building. We crept through hallways past multiple sets of doors. I wanted to ask him where he was going but stayed quiet. He seemed to have somewhere specific in mind.

  He stopped in front of a door that was unmarked. “This is the chief recordkeeper’s office,” he said.

  There was no lock and he opened it for me. After I went inside he checked both directions of the hallway and then also came in, gently closing the door.

  Fortunately for me, everything was labeled. I only had to search for a few seconds before I found a drawer marked “Temple.”

  Perfect. I slid the drawer open and started sorting through the papers. I wanted to grab everything and bring it back with me but that might arouse suspicion. It was better to do what I’d planned on in the library—find the oldest set of documents and hope that they contained useful information.

  I took a bound book that looked very weathered and aged, located underneath tax documents and financial records for the temple—which included significant donations made by noble families and the royals. I saw a salary listed for the high priestess and my eyebrows lifted in surprise.

  Theano was doing well for herself.

  There was another flat papyrus marked as “Inventory of the Temple Treasury” dated from this year. That could prove useful. I took that, as well.

  I slipped the book and the papyrus into my knapsack and closed the drawer quietly.

  “Did you find what you were looking for?” Jason asked, again whispering.

  I nodded.

  “Are you finished or do you need to keep searching?”

  “I’m done,” I said softly. I didn’t want to tempt fate by staying here longer than was necessary.

  Jason pressed his ear against the door. “I think the way is clear. Let’s go.”

  We had only gone about ten feet when there was a sound somewhere off to our left that was clearly footsteps. Jason grabbed me by the arm and opened the closest door.

  It turned out to be an incredibly small storage closet. There wasn’t really enough room for both of us, but he squeezed in next to me and closed the door.

  We were pressed completely against each other and my mind forgot how to function. I probably should have been listening for the guard but instead all I could think about was the way Jason’s body was hard against mine, the way both of our chests were rapidly expanding and contracting, coming into contact with one another over and over again.

  I glanced up at him from under my eyelashes but he wasn’t looking at me. His gaze was trained on the door, listening.

  Did he not feel this? This sparking energy between us, like lightning was flashing and filling the entire room with heat and light? Overwhelming and terrifying all at the same time?

  My mouth had gone completely dry and I knew that I was trembling against him. My blood was thundering inside me, blocking out sound, as heat swirled in my gut.

  We fit together so well. As if we’d been made for one another.

  The guard must have left because Jason smiled down at me. “I think he’s gone. Good thing he wasn’t a goose.”

  I could only nod, unable to speak. He slowly pushed the door open and stuck his head out to survey the hallway.

  “All clear,” he said. He easily disengaged from me and I had to put a hand out on the cold stone wall in an attempt to center myself back in reality. My heart was beating so hard it felt like I might expire.

  He raised his eyebrows, questioning. I shook my head at him and came out into the hallway. I had fought through worse battles than this. I could control my rebelling body.

  We made our way out of the building with no other close calls, and after we’d put a few streets between ourselves and the offices, Jason said, “I suppose you’re not going to tell me what you took.”

  “I wasn’t planning on it,” I said.

  “Is there anywhere else you’d like to trespass? The palace, perhaps? There might be a royal vault where you can steal the queen’s jewels,” he said.

  Although he was teasing, his suggestion gave me pause. What if the eye of the goddess had been mistaken for a simple gem? What if it really was among the jewels the queen kept for herself?

  It was something worth considering.

  But the hour was growing late and the morning was approaching. “I should return to the temple.”

  As we started our trek west, something flew up in front of me and lit up. “What’s that?” I asked.

  “A firefly.”

  “It’s on fire?”

  “No,” he said with an indulgent smile. “It only lights up, like a tiny fire.”

  “How?”

  “No one knows. It is a bit late in the year for fireflies, though. This one is a straggler. Out past her curfew,” he said with a knowing look.

  The light reappeared before blinking away. “It’s like magic,” I said, completely awed.

  “I like how ordinary things seem special through your eyes.”

  While he had spent the night saying things intended to inflame my physical passions, this was entirely different. It was sweet and warm and made me feel like he had wrapped me up in a thick blanket.

  Jason seemed intent on inflaming my emotional passions, too.

  Somehow that seemed even more dangerous. I kept reminding myself why this was a very bad idea. Oblivious to my internal struggle, Jason shared the details of his latest voyage to a city called Sestos, within the Thracian borders, and how he’d won enough money to clear his debts in Troas.

  I was only half listening and instead was internally listing all the reasons why I needed to keep my distance.

  It was an argument I was losing with myself.

  We were close to the temple, only a street away, when he suddenly slammed me up against a wall, his body covering mine, pressing into me.

  Out of instinct I drew my sword and held it against him. “Unless you want to become a eunuch, I suggest you move back.”

  “That would be your loss,” he said as he glanced down at my xiphos. “And I’m not trying to take advantage of you. I’m hiding us.”

  “From what?”

  “Shh,” he responded. “Patrol.”

  It was like earlier in the closet at the records building. He was close, touching every part of my body with his, so that every breath I took was also his.

  I should not have been as excited as I was.

  The patrol passed by, but I wasn’t paying any attention to them. All I could think about was the incredible sensations Jason was causing inside me. How he could create a spark with only a glance and with this much contact. I was a raging inferno, desperate to be set loose.

  It was as if dreaming of this with him so often had prepared me for it, making it more likely to happen. It would be so easy to give in.

  “They’re gone.” He breathed the words against my ear and I shuddered at the hot, surging feeling.

  The still-working part of my mind thought he might step back, but he stayed where he was.

  My xiphos slipped from my hand and I heard it land with a clank against the sidewalk.

  “Thank you for allowing me to keep all of my appendages,” he said in a teasing tone as his nose grazed mine. My breathing hitched as my nerves quivered from his nearness.

  “You’re welcome,” I breathed.

  He reached up and began running his fingers through my hair. The sensation was utterly divine and I was going to turn completely liquid and wind up as a pool at his feet. “Have I told you how much I like the red? It suits you.”

  “What red?” I asked, confused.

  “Your hair.”

  “My hair is not red,” I told him. “It’s light brown.” He knew that. He had seen me in Locris when it was still long.

  He looked at me like I was seriously confused. “No, it isn’t. You’ve been dyeing it red.”

  It was such a ridiculous and odd thing to say. Was he lying? Making it up to torment me?

  But then his fingers were stroking the back of my neck and I couldn’t recall anything he’d just said. My entire body was vibrating with desire and awareness. Even my earlobes were throbbing with want.

  “What is it?” he asked, even though I was fairly certain he knew exactly what was happening to me.

  That he had caused it deliberately.

  I was past caring about any of that. I forgot everything and everyone else. I shifted my gaze up to his lips.

  “I always pay my debts,” I told him.

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

  His eyes lit up with understanding. “Oh? Does that include outstanding tolls, unpaid bets, and debts of gratitude as well?”

  How could he joke at a time like this? “Yes.”

  “Interesting.” Now he was ghosting his lips along my forehead, down over my eyelids, across my cheekbones. His warm breath fanned over my skin, causing prickles of heat. “Although I don’t know if out here on the street is the proper place for you to thank me.”

  He was teasing me, tormenting me. Nearly offering me what I wanted but staying just out of reach.

  Why was he behaving this way?

  Stupid girl, because he likes you!

  I quickly pushed Demaratus out of my head. I did not want him here while this was happening.

  Maybe Jason withheld his kisses in some misguided attempt to wear me down. He didn’t know that I was already worn down. My resistance was so thin it was like a spider’s web, easily pushed aside with the tiniest amount of pressure.

  He kissed my cheek. “Perhaps I’ll sneak into your room in the temple one night and surprise you. That would be a better place for you to thank me.”

  His words sent an illicit thrill through me. “You wouldn’t dare cross onto the temple grounds.”

  Lips brushing against my forehead, he said, “It would depend on who was waiting for me on the other side. And how willing she might be.”

  If he were anyone else, I probably would have punched him for his implication that I was willing and waiting.

  But when Jason said it?

  There was no one more willing than me.

  And I was tired of waiting.

  His arms were on either side of me, enclosing me against the wall. It was a terrible defensive position. He could have easily overpowered me.

  I didn’t care. I liked how it felt.

  Now his fingertips had replaced his lips and he was tracing the outline of my face, creating little pools of fire everywhere he touched.

  “You are so soft.” It sounded as if he hadn’t meant to say the words aloud. “What do you bathe in that makes your skin so soft?”

  “Water,” I responded without thinking and was rewarded with his grin.

  “Soft, and so, so sweet.”

  “I am not sweet.”

  “You are. The sweetest thing I have ever tasted.”

  He kissed along the column of my throat and I felt the tip of his tongue flicker out to taste my skin. I arched against him in response and he made a sound at the back of his throat at my movement.

  I realized then that he wasn’t going to kiss me. I was the one who had lost the bet. He had asked for a kiss as his reward—he hadn’t offered one.

  He pulled his head back so that he could look down at me, our gazes locked. He was waiting.

  “You want me to kiss you.” It was a statement, not a question.

  A smile hovered just above his lips. “That’s very bold of you. You didn’t even ask my permission.”

  “I didn’t think I needed to.”

  “You don’t.”

  Satisfied, I wrapped my arms around his neck. We had done this before but it still felt like the very first time, like it was all fresh and new. I was equal parts anxious and eager.

  Not to mention that during our last kiss he had been the one kissing me. I let my fingers drift up into his hair, and the dark, silken strands caressed my hand. I wasn’t the only one who was soft.

  But his hair was the only part of him that I was touching that felt soft. His broad body was pure muscle. Firm. Hard. I brought my hand around so that I could explore the stubble along his jaw, the texture rough against my fingertips. He expelled a sharp breath and let his eyes drift shut.

  I trailed my fingers down over his jaw and then farther south. I touched where my xiphos had pressed into his neck hours ago. He swallowed.

  “I’m sorry I cut you,” I said. And I was. I had committed a crime by marring such beauty.

  “It was worth it.” His words were rough, full of longing.

  Perhaps it was my turn to kiss him better. I pushed forward so that my lips pressed against his throat. I was rewarded with the sound of his breath catching.

  Not as indifferent as he’d pretended earlier.

  Although that act might have been nothing more than a ploy to trick me.

  He’d said I would know when he was luring me. And it seemed that was exactly what he’d been doing.

  Luring me in.

  I didn’t mind being trapped, though.

  “Lia.” My name on his lips was both a whisper and a warning that I didn’t quite understand. Perhaps he was telling me that if I wanted to change my mind, now was the time to do so.

  My stomach tightened in anticipation. I didn’t want to stop.

  My pulse beat slow and thick as I brought my mouth up to his and carefully, oh so carefully, fitted our lips together. I let out a moan of pleasure. It was everything that I’d remembered, everything that I’d wanted, everything that I’d been dreaming of for the past month.

  Glorious.

  He quickly took control of the kiss, leaving me gasping. One of his large hands cupped the base of my skull, cradling me while he parted my lips and deepened the kiss. His other hand stole around my waist, somehow pulling me even closer.

  I’d never craved anything the way I did his mouth. My lips were frantic. I needed more. I demanded it. He made me feel like a ravenous beast.

  And he was every bit as hungry and desperate as I was.

  His lips meeting mine, his tongue against my own, it felt like a kind of battle. Like swords clanging against one another, caressing as they pulled apart and reengaged.

  “Why does kissing you always feel like swordplay?” I asked against his mouth, sighing the words.

  “And we haven’t even involved my sword yet.” He grinned back.

  Then I was the one plunging us back into battle. It really was like combat—he would thrust, I parried. He advanced and I was there, ready to engage him in return. He retreated and I coaxed him back into the fight.

  He had somehow completely disarmed me and I had permitted it.

  Everything happening between us was so visceral and intimate. He was devouring me, kissing me into oblivion. The crushing heat of his lips against mine burned through my entire body, consuming me.

  It felt like there were massive, flapping geese in my stomach, their wings beating so hard and so quickly that I was going to take flight.

  How could everything feel new and surprising but also like something that had happened a million times before? As if we already knew each other’s bodies perfectly?

  The way that Jason could tilt his head, or slightly change the pressure of his kiss, or dig his fingers into my back and have me panting against him, practically begging him for more, was beyond my comprehension.