The entire floor of my bedroom was a single arcane circle. I had drawn it with soap on the floorboards to trap a possible intruder. If I activated it, all his jokes would dry up real fast.
If I activated the circle, I would lose all my work, and it would turn our conversation into combat. Using my wings would get us there even faster. There would be no coming back from that, and I needed Alessandro. I needed the information locked in his head.
Oh, how I would love to wipe that smug grin off his face.
I forced myself to relax. It was like trying to stretch a really wide rubber band. My body resisted. Every cell I had wanted to keep focusing on him. On his hands. On his face. On his amber eyes . . .
“What do you want? Make it quick, Alessandro, I’m busy.”
He sat up. “That’s not typically a request I get.”
So funny, so clever. Jackass.
I folded my arms across my chest. “Today.”
He reached over and patted Shadow on her fuzzy head. “After our fun trip to the mall, I asked myself if you would ever see reason and walk away from this mess. Would you like to know my conclusion?”
“No.”
“I believe you won’t, and I’ll tell you why. You are the kind of woman who stops in the middle of fighting hired killers to rescue a small, foul-smelling, doglike creature.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
He swung himself into a sitting position. “Please hold all questions until the end of the speech. Runa Etterson did your family a favor during your sister’s wedding by removing poison from the wedding cake. She’s your friend, probably your only friend.”
“I have tons of friends.”
“And I have access to a computer and your social media profiles. Your younger sister has tons of friends. Your Instagram has five followers, all of whom are related to you, and your most popular post is a book review of The Geometry of Arcane Circles, where you called the author an ‘epic idiot.’”
I gave him my Tremaine sneer. If I had been an ice mage, the air between us would’ve frozen. “Prime Sagredo, my House is none of your business. My sisters, my cousins, my grandmother, and their social media are none of your business. You have now repeatedly violated the sovereign domain of my family. Get to the point and get out.”
“That’s new,” Alessandro observed. “I like.”
What wouldn’t I give to brain him with something heavy . . . “I’m so pleased.”
“May I finish, Dread Mistress?”
“I wish you would.”
“The point is, you can’t abandon Runa. You’re going to turn yourself inside out to help her. It is literally who you are.”
Alessandro set the pink frame back on the nightstand. All humor drained from his face. Only cold menace remained, sharpened by intelligence and resolve.
“Unfortunately, you are in over your head. That leaves me with two choices. I can watch you die in a nasty way or I can throw you a rope.”
Was he trying to con me? Did he need information from me? Trusting him was a mistake, I was sure of it. I’d cyberstalked him, I had researched his family, and I could name his favorite car, wine, and band, but I knew exactly zip about who he actually was. If he told me the sun was shining, I’d run outside to double-check.
But Halle was still missing. If he knew anything about it, I had to get it out of him. He kept thinking of me as a dilettante. He wouldn’t tell me anything until he saw me as an equal.
“Keep your rope. I want to know what you did with the two million dollars Sigourney paid you.”
He came off the bed in a single spring-loaded movement, covering the distance between us in a fraction of a second. Suddenly he was too close.
My heart sped up, and I didn’t know if it was from fear or excitement.
Alessandro’s eyes measured me. He moved to the side, light on his feet, a deadly human predator, like a gladiator looking for an opportunity to close in for a kill. I was being hunted.
“Be careful,” I warned him, turning to keep him in my view.
He tilted his head, his tawny eyes sharp. “Planning to fight me?”
“If you force me to.” Big talker, that’s me.
The air between us vibrated with tension. Magic nipped at my fingertips, ready to punch the arcane circle under my feet.