Threads of Desire (Spellcraft) - By Stone, Eleri Page 0,37

the child. Gently, he set Nira on her feet and pointed her in the direction of her nursemaid, who’d been waiting patiently beside the door. “Lunchtime for you. I’ll discuss your lesson plan with Master Ily and we’ll get you started as soon as possible.”

She hugged him tight, kissing him soundly on the cheek, and then ran unerringly to her nurse. Kal helped Ily to her feet. “You’ll do it then?”

“Yes.”

“You can stay at the villa. I’d like you to stay at the villa.”

Ily began walking toward the door, past the children eating their lunch. They ate far better than she had for the past several years. He didn’t have just one child. He was hiding dozens. Seli waved to her from across the room and she paused. Kal had been bringing them here, a safe place, giving them food and training. The rugs she’d mocked were theirs. She couldn’t sort through the tangle of emotions knotting in her chest.

His hand fell on her shoulder. “You’ll need to at least retrieve your things.”

She really looked at him for the first time since he revealed his secret. An echo of the anguish she felt was there in his eyes but none of the confusion, only stark determination.

“There’s nothing there that you haven’t given to me.” Her old clothes had mysteriously disappeared. She strongly suspected that his staff had burned them.

His mouth tightened. “The rug then. You can’t leave it half-finished.”

No, she couldn’t. She would finish what she started, claim the money she’d earned and negotiate a new contract for Nira’s training. This time she’d demand a fortune.

“Until the rug is finished.”

Chapter Twelve

Ily was like a sleepwalker. She hadn’t eaten—and she always ate. He liked to watch her, the way her lips flushed with the wine. The way her eyes hooded when she particularly enjoyed something. That soft hum in her throat. He’d ordered her favorites, slivers of raw whitefish and the sharpest cheese he could find, the crusty bread that Jani made each day. But in the morning the tray lay in the hallway untouched.

He should be pleased. She’d agreed to help Nira and that, after all, was the most important thing. For Nira, he’d risk everything. He had, twice over. And she was worth every sacrifice.

But he’d taken everything from Ily too.

Funny, he’d thought he would give her everything. Shelter. Food. Money. Himself. Pleasure upon pleasure. He’d wanted to bind her to him, to make it impossible for her to say no.

But he’d seen it in her eyes at the school. She would have said no, dropped everything to the ground and run away from him. In the end, she’d only agreed to help him for Nira’s sake. Not greed or comfort or lust. The simple desire to protect a child. He’d come to suspect that she might willingly help him but by then it was too late to change course.

After searching her rooms and seeing that they were empty, he found her in the workroom. The muscles in her shoulders tensed when he entered, and she stood. “It’s finished.”

He came and looked over her shoulder. The border...it was the same pattern as the windows in his bedroom. He wondered if she realized it. “It’s beautiful.”

“You think the emperor will be pleased?”

“I can’t imagine he could be otherwise. You’re very talented.”

He wanted badly to touch her but didn’t dare.

“Red,” she said in a distracted voice. “I should have ringed the medallion with a thin red line. It would have been magnificently dramatic.”

“It’s perfect the way it is. Maybe next time—”

Her laugh was short and hard, nothing that he’d ever heard from her. She’d been wary as a hare when he’d found her but eminently self-composed. She seemed fragile now, as if she’d splinter into a thousand shards if he touched her. He’d been so clever, luring her to feed from his hand. She’d been hard on the outside then, but so gloriously warm and soft on the inside. That laugh was very bitter, very cold.

“I told you I’d teach Nira. The rug is completed. Why are you here, Kal?”

“For you.”

“You’ve had me,” she said quietly. “And I begged you for that pleasure. You should be pleased. It was never free though, was it? Nira was always the price.”

“She’s my daughter, not a weapon...or a fee.”

“I thought I could win, but I didn’t even know the game we were playing.”

There were tears in her eyes when she turned around, and all of his practiced words of explanation died on