Fear of Fire and Shadow (The Fade #1) - Samantha Young Page 0,25

gates for Grof Krill Rada. His eyes found me. “Rogan,” he called up to me familiarly, and I noted both Wolfe and the lieutenant share a disapproving look. “It’s been awhile.”

The last I had seen Grof Krill was three years ago. I had taken him for a quiet man, watchful and intelligent. We had barely spoken, at least not enough for him to address me so informally. Remembering why I was there, however, I offered a polite smile. “My lord.” I bobbed my head. “It is good to see you. I trust you are well.”

He smiled, his eyes traveling down the length of me. “I am now.”

I narrowed my eyes at his open flirtation.

“Well, Captain, help the Lady Rogan down from her horse,” Grof Krill snapped, and Wolfe dismounted quickly. I noted a muscle ticking in his jaw.

A flash of anger rippled through me at Krill’s attitude. Wolfe was not Krill’s captain to command. I reached for Wolfe without complaint as he lowered me from my horse. His eyes widened marginally, as if shocked I’d allowed him to touch me without resistance. Our gazes, still heavy with suspicion, locked, and the captain held me a moment too long. His hands seemed to burn through my dress where they gripped tight to my waist. My skin prickled with awareness.

I drew in a sharp breath at the sudden heat that coated my skin, and Wolfe relinquished his hold with such speed, one might think he’d pricked his fingers upon thorns.

“Rogan.” Grof Krill breezed past Wolfe to loop my arm through his. His stare was low-lidded and smoldered, much to my alarm. “I have such grand plans for us this evening. How does dinner and the opera sound?”

Exhausting, I thought.

“Wonderful,” I mumbled.

“I’ll accompany you,” Wolfe announced.

Grof Krill arched an eyebrow at him. “Oh, you will, will you?”

Wolfe strode to us, his face implacably hard. He matched Grof Krill in height and outweighed him in strength. “Lady Rogan goes nowhere without a royal escort, my lord.”

The grof sniffed haughtily. “We’ll be accompanied by my guard.”

“I said royal escort, my lord,” Wolfe reiterated arrogantly and then dismissed the grof by turning to the lieutenant. “Take the men to the vikomtesa’s, Lieutenant Chaeron. Ready them to leave by sunrise tomorrow.”

Dinner was a strange affair.

I was bemused by Grof Krill’s outrageous advances as he had never treated me with such overt flattery before. Surely the women at court would have mentioned Grof Krill if he was such a lothario. I definitely remembered him to be a somber, refined, and reserved man. I hadn’t known him very well, but I had thought him one of the more intelligent members of the Rada. What on haven had happened to him?

I patted the head of Krill’s wolfhound, Strider, as he lolled it in my lap, his eyes staring up at me adoringly. I really shouldn’t have slipped him that bite of chicken at the dinner table. We shared a frustrated look with one another as Grof Krill told me how beautiful the ladies of the opera were this season, although nowhere near as beautiful as me, he added. I nearly snorted. Just what did this character want from me?

Somehow, I managed to get through dinner, despite the grof’s appallingly bad flirting and Wolfe’s monosyllabic responses to questions posed by the Krill. I was so tense I was sure one pull of the laces on my dress and I would snap like a piano wire.

Things only grew worse. I had no dress to wear to the opera, so Grof Krill provided me with one. I flushed as his maids helped me into the red dress. Red. I had never worn red—it was a deep scarlet in plush velvet—not to mention I had never worn a gown with such a low-cut neckline. Oh, it was very fashionable, and all of Haydyn’s dresses were cut just so, but I had never really been comfortable displaying my somewhat voluptuous bosom. I blanched as they pulled my hair up off my neck, fastening pins here and there with expertise.

I looked like a fashionable lady of Peza. If you were clever like Haydyn, fashionable was elegance and refinement.

Fashionable on me was a little too bold and dangerous.

“I can’t wear this. Isn’t there another dress I could wear? Something a little less daring.”

The maids gasped. “No, my lady, you must wear this, you look wonderful.”

My reflection offended me. I didn’t look like myself. Exhaustion prodded my eyelids and pinched at my muscles. I just had to get