mood. “Just stop by for a chat, or is there a reason for this unexpected pleasure?”
Maeve laughed. “Only you would call a visit of mine a pleasure.”
“How sad.” Sebastian pouted a little and she laughed again. “Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?” He dropped into the other club chair, more interested in her mission than he wanted her to know.
“No. But only you would have the audacity to lie to me.”
“A direct consequence of having nothing left to lose.”
Maeve shook her head, making those feathers sway again. “But that’s not the same as having nothing to gain, is it?”
“I don’t understand.”
Maeve crossed her legs. “It’s my understanding that there’s only one thing you truly desire.”
“Is there?” Sebastian deliberately kept his mind empty and neutral. He knew the Dark Queen’s reputation for hearing the thoughts of others, of even rummaging through the minds of others in search of whatever she wished to know. He wouldn’t even wonder whether she was referring to his lost library or to the enticing Sylvia.
Her smile broadened. “I’ve come to make the proverbial offer you can’t refuse.”
Sebastian was curious despite himself. “And what if I do refuse?”
“You won’t.” She rose smoothly to her feet and crossed the room to the glass-fronted bookshelves on the far side of the fireplace. That entire wall was shelved with books, as was the one adjacent to it, all of them safely behind glass. The opposite wall was all windows, but they were curtained against the light. The fireplace had bookshelves on either side and a rather splendid painting above it. With the thick oriental carpet underfoot, a glittering chandelier hanging from the ceiling, the club chairs and a leather couch, it was a cozy refuge. He liked the high ceiling and the ornate plaster molding, too. The room was timeless in his opinion, a refuge from modernity in all its hideous sloppiness and noise.
Maeve acted as if she was reading the titles of the books, but Sebastian guessed it was just a performance. “Nice collection,” she said, casting a coy glance over her shoulder. “But I hear you had a better one.”
“It doesn’t really matter,” Sebastian said, keeping all the heat out of his voice. “Not any more.”
“Because that library is locked against you, with a Fae charm on the lock so you can’t pick it, and Micah has the only key.” Maeve strolled across the floor, stopping right in front of Sebastian. He could smell her perfume and the scent of her skin. It was the dry musk of a forest floor, the scent she couldn’t disguise, the one that revealed her Fae nature. She widened her eyes slightly. “And you have to follow Micah’s plan, just to have any hope of retrieving that key.” She wrinkled her nose. “No matter how stupid the plan seems to be.”
“There’s no need to rub salt in the wound,” Sebastian said lightly.
“It must burn, though,” she murmured, feigning sympathy. Even though Sebastian knew it was an act, he couldn’t stop listening to her words. “To be beholden to anyone would be anathema to one who insists on choosing his own path, who needs to make his own decisions. It would sting more to that individual than to any other being alive.”
Sebastian frowned. “I assume you have a point.”
Her smile flashed. “I can shatter that charm.”
He met her gaze, snared by her assertion. She watched him knowingly, that smile playing over her lips. She had the perfect bait and she knew it.
Of course, Maeve could break a Fae spell. She controlled most if not all of the magick remaining in the world. Sebastian would have thought of it before, but he’d never imagined that Maeve would do anything for him.
Things had just become very intriguing.
“There must be a price,” he said with care, trying to hide his interest. He was pretty sure he failed. That library meant everything to him—well, not quite everything, but it was the one thing he desired that he had a chance of having. He couldn’t say the same for the alluring Sylvia—and Maeve knew it.
She held up a finger. “Just one little favor,” she said, waving that finger playfully. “That’s all I ask in exchange. One teensy favor in exchange for making it possible for you to claim your heart’s desire.”
Sebastian heard the distinctions and qualifiers. He wasn’t clear of a trick, not yet. He folded his arms across his chest and stared her down. “Why?” he asked. “Why would you even make such an offer?”
Maeve