murdered a few people first,” I said evenly. “What’s your point?”
“I wish it was that simple. With you. Stick a hole in you and the secrets fall out.” Acubens made a sound that was half frustration and half sexual frustration. “But it doesn’t work like that, does it? You just won’t take me seriously.”
I stared up at him. “If you wanted, I can tell you everything right now. I mean it.”
He didn’t even hear. His eyes were fixed too hungrily on mine, his body taut like a predator aching to pounce. “Do you know what edging is? You’re edging me. You offer just enough to keep me wanting more. I don’t even know what that more is. But I want it. Give it to me, Cly.”
Acubens drunkenly slid one knee forward, against the outside of my thigh—then lost his balance. His weight spilled onto my lap; his face was close enough to mine that I felt the pant of his breath. His cheeks were flushed, his lips parted. He was awful and vicious and gorgeous, and every thought evaporated from my mind at the heat of his body.
“Give it to me,” he hissed, and collapsed on top of me.
It took me a moment to get my brain vaguely functioning again. He’d passed out, from all the drinking he’d been doing. Up close, the smell of alcohol was overwhelming.
I wasn’t going to get any use out of him this evening, but it could’ve been worse. God, I’d been about to do something incredibly stupid. He was pretty, but he wielded sex like violence, and not for sex’s sake, I reminded myself. I should count myself lucky.
Now I needed to set his dead weight down somewhere else. Gingerly, I put an arm around Acuben’s waist, preparing to lift him off me.
Arcturus found us in that compromising position.
“Acubens,” he called out as he walked through the arch, trailed by chatting party-goers from the other Great Houses. “I expect you to meet—”
He stilled when he saw us. It was the stillness of the calm before the storm.
The guests fell silent, watching Arcturus approach me, each step measured, deliberate.
Chilled, I wrestled Acubens’ limp weight off me. “Arcturus—”
He stripped off his glove and slapped me full in the face with it, hard enough that I tasted blood.
“Clytemnestra Redbriar,” he said, his voice cold with fury. “I see you taking sexual advantage of my incapacitated brother. I challenge you to a duel.”
What. The hell.
I opened my mouth to explain, to tell him that he’d gotten it all wrong, but on second thought snapped my mouth shut.
Not because I was cowed.
No, it was the opposite. I was completely fucking over them.
What had I ever done to the Nightfelds? At most, I’d made fun of them, screwed with their expectations, all for the chance of making my case to them and winning them over as allies. I’d hid my true identity only because I had to.
Meanwhile, Acubens had beaten me up on a regular basis, while Arcturus jumped to defend that psycho against me in a situation he knew nothing about. Did I want either of them as my allies? Was it even worthwhile to run at their heels begging for a scrap of opportunity?
I was done playing nice for the sake of a futile hope. I stood, leaving Acubens flopping limp on the bench, and spat blood at Arcturus’s feet. “I accept.”
Arcturus nodded briskly. “As the challenged party, you may choose the date, time, location, and format of the duel. Inform me of your decision by tomorrow.” And abruptly, the fury was back in his voice. “I assure you that I will make you pay.”
Chapter 13
About halfway into the walk home, the enormity of what I’d done hit me.
“Oh, fuck,” I said, crouching on the cobblestones with my head between my knees. “I agreed to a duel with Arcturus Nightfeld.”
In the cool night air, the rush of alcohol had faded from my veins, replaced by dread. Incredibly, the party had gone even worse than I’d thought possible. Arcturus. The most powerful mage alive. Riding high on his righteous rage at everything Redbriar.
I rubbed my face; illusion-based makeup had advantages in situations like this. “I’m fucked, aren’t I?”
“He’s very strong,” admitted Aegis, who’d found me too late to salvage the situation.
I looked up at him. “Would you be able to beat him in a fight?”
Aegis shifted uncomfortably. “The duel is between you and him. I couldn’t fight for you as your champion unless he were willing to fight through