Almost as though my furious thoughts held some magical power of summoning, a cold hand grabbed my bare upper arm as I stormed back into the palace and slammed my back into the stone wall of the hallway.

“Lady Callaluna,” Lord Taipanus sneered at me, his rancid breath filling my nostrils and making me choke. I pursed my lips and said nothing. “I found two of my guards somewhat out of place this morning—locked in a cell not one hundred feet from where I found you. I don't suppose you would know what happened to them, would you, lady?”

“What?” I exclaimed, trying not to inhale too deeply. “That's awful. Those poor men.”

“Save it, girl,” Taipanus snapped. “I know you had something to do with it. You must have others working with you because no scrawny girl could have bested two grown men alone.” This was insulting, to say the least, and I bit down hard on my tongue not to correct him. “I'll figure out your purpose here soon enough, and when I do”—He leered a cruel smile at me— “you'll wish you'd drunk poison at dinner.”

“Lord Taipanus,” a man called out, drawing the Snake's attention from me, “is everything all right here?”

The spymaster hesitated, glaring back at me a moment before releasing his grip on my arm and moving away a step. “All okay, Gardener Lee,” he replied with an oily smile. “I was just warning Lady Callaluna here about the dangers of being alone at night. Nowhere is safe, these days. Not even the palace.” This was delivered as a warning to me, there was no doubt about it.

“That's a wise warning, Lord Taipanus,” Lee replied, coming to stand in front of us with his hands stuffed in his pockets. “I'd be happy to escort you to your room if you'd like, Lady Callaluna?”

Jumping at the chance to get away from the spymaster, I nodded and slid out from the wall where Taipanus had previously held me pinned. “Thanks, Lee,” I murmured. “You never can be too careful. I appreciate the offer.”

“Pleasant dreams, lady,” Taipanus called after me as I hurried down the hall with Lee. “Don't forget our little chat.”

I shuddered but didn't bother replying. Bloodeye had warned me once about the stupidity of poking a snake with a stick, and I wasn't dumb enough to do that now. If I was to survive this nightmare, I'd need to stay well off the Snake's radar.

“Want to tell me what that was all about?” Lee asked me in a quiet, husky voice when we got a safer distance away. “Lord Taipanus is the last person you want to be on the bad side of.”

“I'm well aware,” I snapped, then frowned at him. “Why does your voice sound weird?”

“Oh, ah.” He coughed into his hand, “I was experimenting with potions.” He slipped a vial from his pocket and drank a small sip, then cleared his throat again. “So, Taipanus?”

Rolling my eyes, I kept walking and didn't bother answering. As badly as my body was coursing with tingles that he'd come to find me, I was still horrified at the events of dinner.

“Perhaps you have something to tell me?” I challenged him, reaching my room and placing a hand on the doorknob. “I knew something was up when you were all cagey about dinner. You knew what was going to happen, didn't you?”

Lee glanced around us, like he was checking if anyone might overhear. We were totally alone, though.

“We can't talk out here,” he implored. “You never know who is watching or listening.”

Arching a brow at him, I twisted my doorknob and swung the door open in invitation.

“Seriously?” he exclaimed, eyes widening as he stared through the open doorway. “That's probably pushing the bounds of propriety pretty far, Calla.”

I snorted a laugh at this and grinned. The concept of him trying to protect my reputation was a bit hilarious, given I'd grown up around whores, thieves, and murderers. “My, er, maid is out for the night, so no one will even see you. Besides, I'm sure you'll be the perfect gentleman.”

He hesitated only a second longer before stepping inside my room and allowing me to close the door behind us. “I wouldn't be so sure,” he muttered, almost too quietly for me to hear, and I stifled a grin. Was it bad that I was hoping he wouldn't be a gentleman?

“So, start talking,” I ordered, flopping down on the overstuffed chaise lounge. “You knew someone would die tonight?”

“You don't seem terribly shaken,” he observed, dodging my question. “I noticed you weren't all that affected watching the girls who drank poison during the test as well. Have you seen a lot of people die, Calla?”

“Don't evade my question, Lee; it's not as cute as you think.” Okay, it was probably cuter than he thought, and I’d just evaded his question, so I guessed we were even.

Giving me a small smile, he sighed and sat on the opposite end of the lounge from me. With several other armchairs available, maybe I wasn't the only one feeling this insane, magnetic attraction.

“Yes,” he confessed after a long silence, “I knew what was coming. There was no way to warn you, though. And I knew you wouldn't be at risk...”

I scowled at him. “So it was okay to let that poor girl, Lady... uh...” Crap, I had no idea what her name was.

“Lady Janaira,” Lee informed me. “And no, of course it wasn't okay to let her go to her death tonight. You seem unaware that you're not the only one being held by binding oaths. I had just as much choice in how tonight played out as you did, Calla.”

I huffed a sigh but knew in my heart he was right. He wasn't evil, not like Taipanus. If he could have stopped it, I'm sure he would have. “We're totally screwed, aren't we?” I asked him, sagging further into the couch, which somehow managed to move me closer to Lee.

It wasn't a huge lounge to begin with, so we were already within touching distance. Something Lee proved by running a fingertip over my bare upper arm.

“He bruised you,” he murmured softly, his rough thumb stroking the tender skin where Taipanus had grabbed me. “That man acts so untouchable, so indestructible. I look forward to the day he gets stripped of his position.”

I laughed, turning on the couch slightly to face him. “As if that would ever happen.”

“I'm a servant, Calla. I hear a great many things, one of which is that there's no love lost between Taipanus and the princes. King Titus's reign is ending, and I would put money on it that whoever ascends to the throne will take out the trash.” His fingers continued stroking down my bare arm, making my skin tingle as he reached my hand.

“You have a lot of faith in those arrogant pricks,” I commented, biting my lip as he turned my hand over and began tracing patterns on my palm. “You didn't see them at dinner, Lee. They just sat there, totally uncaring as a girl died at the table. And for what? For accepting their invitation to compete in the Trials? She didn't deserve to die. None of us do.”

Lee's fingers on my palm paused, and there was a tense silence before he spoke again, leaving me wondering if I'd overstepped. Who knew how long he'd worked in the palace; maybe he had a different opinion of the asswads who called themselves princes.

“I think,” he finally said in a careful voice, “not everything is what it seems around here, and you should consider giving them the benefit of the doubt. After all, you don't really know any of them, do you?” There was a faint note of hope in his voice as he finished with that question, and I smiled at him.

“No, and I don't really intend to,” I replied, feeling sure of my feelings. The princes held no romantic interest for me. None whatsoever. That crazy sexual tension I'd felt with Thibault was just... hormones or something. Carryover feelings from my day with Lee. “Believe me, I wasn't lying about not wanting to jump headfirst into bed with those Neanderthals. Can you even believe their idea of a prize is the opportunity to spend the night with one of them?” I made a gagging noise, and Lee burst out into laughter.

“I'm serious.” I frowned at him as he shook with amusement. “It's not actually funny, you oddball. Anyway, the king made an announcement—or rather more of a threat—that he's not granting anyone permission to leave the trials.”

Sobering up and shifting somewhat closer to me on the couch, Lee peered at me with his intense blue eyes. “So what will you do?”

Meeting his gaze unflinchingly, I ignored the charged shocks of attraction racing through me and answered honestly. “Win.”

His brows shot up in surprise, and his long lashes blinked a couple of times. “Win? You mean...”

“Become the next queen and marry one of those conceited pricks? Not a chance in hell. But there's no way anyone will make me poison myself for their own amusement. I'll win this stupid game, and then they'll live to regret all this bloodshed.” There was an edge of steel to my tone that surprised even me. Before just now, I'd still been considering tucking tail and running in the hopes that the binding oath wouldn't kill me. But hearing my own conviction as I spoke that declaration aloud... that changed things.

Lee held my gaze for a long moment, his face an unreadable mix of emotions. Just when I was about to tell him it was okay to leave, he wouldn't hurt my feelings, he reached forward. Slipping his long fingers into my hair, he cradled the back of my head and pulled me closer until our lips were a scant breath apart.

“I shouldn't be doing this,” he whispered, sounding conflicted. “This could really fuck things up for them...”

By them I assumed he meant the princes. Not that it was any contest in my mind—Lee was ten times the man any of those royal toads were.

“Do you really care?” I challenged him, my lips brushing against his ever so lightly as I spoke. He gave a pained groan and answered me in the only way I needed him to—closing the short gap between us and claiming my mouth with his own.

The butterflies that had set up a nest inside me the moment Lee and I had met all took flight at once, filling me with the most giddy, intense, girlish feeling I'd ever experienced. It was a sensation that I never wanted to end, and it only increased as his lips moved confidently against mine.

Stunned, ecstatic, and a little out of my depth, I had no idea what I should be doing with my hands. Should they be on his shoulders? His face? Why was I so damn ill-prepared for a situation like this?

In the past, kissing had been a rushed affair. A box to tick on the way to sex. Certainly nothing like the languid, erotic way Lee's mouth met mine. Gently, he coaxed my lips apart, and our tongues met in an explosion of sparks.

Overcome with desire and arousal, I was no longer worrying about where my hands should be. They practically had a life of their own as I explored the hard planes of Lee’s chest. I wasn't the only one getting carried away, either, as Lee’s grip shifted from my hair and down my back to rest on my waist.

The warmth of his palms through the thin satin of my dress had me moaning and arching my spine, desperate for more. Thank Aana and all her fortunes, Lee was on the same page as me, pressing me backward onto the couch even as his hands reached up to cup my breasts through my dress.

Murmuring an incoherent sound of approval, I snaked a leg around his waist, pulling him closer until I could feel his hardened length pressing against my core.

“Calla,” he groaned, grinding against me and sliding one palm down the exposed length of my thigh. “This isn’t right, we shouldn’t be doing this. Not like this.”

Parting my lips to argue, I barely had gotten a sound out when the unmistakable click of a door closing shocked me from my lust-induced stupor.

“Well this was unexpected,” my best friend exclaimed, meeting my eyes over Lee’s broad shoulder as she glared down at me. “When you said to take the night off, it didn’t occur to me you would be entertaining.”

“Jules,” I panted, wide-eyed as Lee hurried to sit up and then gallantly offer me a hand up. “This is, ah, Lee. He—”

“Was just leaving,” Lee finished for me, standing and trying to subtly adjust his pants before striding to the door. “I’ll be seeing you, Calla.”

The brief flash of panic that had struck me when he’d started his hasty exit was soothed by the heated, desperate look of desire on his face as he looked back at me.

“Uh-huh,” I agreed, still numb and buzzing from our sexy make-out.

No more words were necessary, though, as he was gone before I could even blink twice.

“Ahem,” Jules fake coughed, dragging my attention from the door where I’d just been staring after Lee like a lovesick girl.

“What?” I asked her, cocking a brow and feigning innocence. “Don’t give me that look; it’s nothing you wouldn’t do.”

She pursed her lips and scowled. “Exactly. But it’s not what Rybet Waise would do. What’s gotten into you, girl? Did they brainwash you or something?”

Shaking my head, I dodged her accusing eyes. “It doesn’t change anything. Now, sit down and shut up; I need to tell you what happened at dinner.”