Chapter Four
If they had mentioned the spa package when she’d first gotten here, Audrey might not have made such a big deal. After eating a decadent meal and downing two goblets of wine and a few vial-shots the healers had given her, she’d sat on a stool as they scrubbed her under endless steam and hot water. She’d napped while the healers, with their warm, silken hands and their steaming balms and compresses, had somehow pieced her back into a whole person. The swelling in her face and knee was practically gone. She could breathe without pain. Her bruises looked days old.
Now she soaked in a neck-deep honey and rose oil bath with hot rocks at the bottom. A fountain trickled in the corner as sweet, clingy incense lulled her into a level of serenity that shouldn’t have been achievable when being held against your will. A sigh floated out of her chest, and she sloshed her feet about, burying them under the warm rocks. She wasn’t above enjoying the perks of this predicament. Sooner or later she was going to have to face reality, but for now…
I could get used to this.
The outer door of the bath chamber creaked open, and a tall figure stalked through the low lamplight on the other side of the sheer curtains. Apparently, reality chose sooner.
Corvin flung the curtains aside testily, staring at her for a long moment of stillness before curbing his gaze away. His fists pumped at his sides. “It has been over three hours since I left you with the healers. How long do you intend to make me wait to go home?”
Audrey stiffened under the water but made no move to cover herself. No use trying to hide what he’d already seen in all their bobbing glory. She leaned her head back against the tub. “I didn’t know you were waiting for me.”
His jaw ticked and he sighed as faint scarlet crept up his neck. “Well, I am.”
“Fine,” she answered, echoing his annoyed tone. She rose from the water and balanced one hand on the hip-high ledge of the copper tub as she tossed a leg over one side and climbed out. Water sluiced off her onto the flagstone floor and steamed away in billowing clouds. Shivering, she held out a hand to Corvin, who was either transfixed by the sight of her naked body or shocked by her boldness. Hopefully both. It was best to keep him off guard. She cocked one eyebrow. “Pass me a towel?”
His stare lingered over her breasts as she tied the proffered cotton around her chest, but lost none of its potency as it traveled from her pendant, along the silver chain, up her throat. He paused at her lips, compelling her to wet them with her tongue. He watched that movement too, and something in his posture tensed.
Her skin prickled with an uncanny awareness of his presence, and she let out an unsteady breath, her bravado fading. “I hope it’s okay if I go like this. I don’t have any clothes. I told them to burn my old ones.”
Corvin finally met her eyes. Buried in the recesses of his dark gaze was a spark that ignited every nerve in her body for a flicker of a second. He turned away, clearing his throat, then walked back to the other side of the curtains. “There are clothes laid out for you here. I will be in the hall.”
Now that her most immediate needs—namely food and rest—had been met, Audrey could recognize that the connection she’d felt to him earlier had simply been a symptom of severe duress. When you’re dangling from the bottom rung, you’ll take any hand that’s offered, any warm body to cushion the fall. She’d been dangling for quite a while at the ragged edge of nowhere. It was only natural.
And I’m totally over it.
She yanked on a pair of black yoga pants and a thin white T-shirt. They’d even left a pair of tennis shoes in her size. Audrey held her breath, turning them over in her hands. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a pair of shoes new out of the box. Not secondhand, or stolen, or dug out of a Dumpster. Brand. Spanking. New.
She worried at her lower lip, despising herself for being bought so cheaply, but she still wiggled her toes in glee as she pulled them on. She stood up with a new spring in her step, a new lease on life. Now all she needed was to get her powers back and bust this joint. That suddenly didn’t sound so tough—such is the power of new shoes. She slipped into a grey velour hoodie and bundled the toothbrush, hairbrush, and extra clothes into a towel tucked under her arm.
Corvin was leaning against the opposite wall when she exited the bathroom. A giant black crow was perched on his shoulder. They both blinked at her. She only spared them a brief glance before she turned to her right. She went about three steps before Corvin’s voice stopped her. “My tower is this way.”
He started off in the other direction without checking to see if she followed.
This would be the perfect opportunity to make a break for it.
Except for that damn binding. She needed her powers. They were the only thing that made life remotely fair. The thought of being kicked to the curb without her powers or her memory sent a shudder through her entire body. The world would chew her up and spit her out, use her until there was nothing left. Until Parkview looked like a vacation resort. Jack would say take the money and run. She still had her memories. If she left now, she could get by with her smarts until she figured something else out.
But as she stared at Corvin’s rapidly retreating silhouette, she figured he would only be so unconcerned about her escaping if he knew something she didn’t. There had to be alarms, and guards, and whatever else. She’d have to figure out a plan to bust out before she attempted it, hopefully with her powers and memories intact.
Recon it is.
She started walking after Corvin, not looking like she was necessarily trying to catch up. He slowed as she got closer, and waited for her before turning down a set of spiraling stone stairs. They passed through a heavy wooden door and emerged into a narrow clearing flanked on the other side by the forest. A river of mist poured through on a chill breeze, like a ghostly moat around the fortress.
Two guards closed in on them silently from either side of the door, appearing from thin air, as if they’d been a part of the stonework. Audrey shuffled closer to Corvin, pressing their backs together. He took her hand and turned a few degrees to face off with the towering shadows. She almost pulled away from him, but then she remembered she had no powers to defend herself with, and Corvin had already protected her from one of these shadowy life-suckers. This time, they backed off with only a mild threat in their hesitation. Corvin guided her behind him toward the forest as the creeps slunk back into the shadows.
When they entered the woods, the skin on Audrey’s back wanted to crawl away into the bushes. Her heartbeat sped up, and her mind fuzzed as she tried to think of something else, to overpower the unwanted caress of the cold, soulless eyes biting at her from what felt like every direction.
Her gaze fastened on Corvin’s back. She contemplated their intertwined fingers and came up completely blank. What did it mean? Was he aware of how easily and openly he touched her? Looked at her? Her cheeks burned as she remembered the flash of desire on his face when he'd seen her in the bath. She shook her head to clear it. Jack would be rolling in her grave. Maybe Audrey had gotten her lights knocked out one too many times today. Or the spa treatment was making her loopy. Was she drunk from those potions? Audrey did not go gooey over men. Especially overbearing assholes who would throw her out on the street without even her wits.
Certainly not for a man who gawked at her nude and didn’t even pretend to be sorry. As if it were the most natural thing. With a primal, unspoken promise. It was there in the strong, steady heartbeat pressed into her palm, in the tension of his body, his bowstring awareness. In the way he kept her from falling when she tripped over roots as they forged through what seemed like miles of toilsome, foggy underbrush. As if she were already his for the taking. Or maybe he just thought she was easy.
A foregone conclusion.
Audrey tore her hand away, but his steps didn’t falter. He continued on, and she did her best to keep up, but the events of the day were wearing on her fast. The soreness returned to her leg and shoulder. Her head started to pound. Her stomach bunched into a knot. She stumbled to her hands and knees. Her next breath drew fire across her rib cage. She gritted through the pain and looked up.
Corvin stood in front of her, flashing his leather armor again as he crossed his arms over his chest. The bird chattered impatiently. “It is a part of your binding, a drain on your energy when you head away from the main fortress, unless I shield you. You can take my hand, or continue to be stubborn, and I’ll just pick you up when you pass out again. Personally, I’d much rather you walk.”
She took his hand.