Insidious by Dawn Metcalf

Author:Dawn Metcalf
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2015-08-26T04:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

KURT SHUT THE door and locked it. Pressing a series of buttons behind a gilt frame, he hit Enter. A ward shimmered into place.

“We have to go after him,” Joy said.

Kurt marched down the hall, eyes forward, face grim.

“I have my instructions.”

Joy ran to keep up as Kurt summoned the elevator. “I know, but we can’t let him go to the Council. That won’t work—” She stumbled after him. “They won’t believe him because they can’t! They can’t remember anything!”

Kurt stepped into the small brass space, and Joy hurried in next to him. He clicked the lever to the second notch, and the doors slipped closed.

“What do you think will happen to him?” she said.

Kurt kept his expression impassive. “I don’t know.”

“Guess.”

Kurt sighed, his eyes inspecting the mirrors. “I imagine that they will either dismiss him, convict him or condemn him.”

Joy gaped. “We can’t let that happen!”

The elevator door slid open, and Kurt entered a long hallway with striped wallpaper. Joy followed close behind.

“The Bailiwick is honorable and wishes to seek justice in the company of his peers,” Kurt said. “There are few opportunities for the Folk to exercise their free will, far be it for me to deny him his as he denied me mine.”

Kurt walked into the next room, swiftly crossing the rose-colored carpet to a four-poster bed by the window. The bedroom was tall and airy with a tapestry loom, a painted screen and a large, marble hearth. Inq sat in a Queen Anne’s chaise with a book on her lap. Ink lay pillowed in the bed, eyes closed. Kurt plucked another chair from beside the fireplace and set it next to the nightstand. Joy sat down.

“Should they sentence Graus Claude to be stripped of his title or life, it will be his choice whether to abide by their decision or refute his Name, as Hasp did,” Kurt said as he checked the window’s ward. “In any case, my service to the Bailiwick will have ended.” He paused, hand loose on the curtain pull. “Then I will be free.”

Inq glared at him with hooded eyes.

Joy turned to Ink. His eyes were gently closed, his chest rising and falling in a slow, even rhythm. She brushed his long bangs away from his face, which looked even more boyish and innocent in sleep. She’d never seen Ink asleep—he claimed he never slept—and Graus Claude claimed that he’d never shut Ink off before. The Bailiwick’s betrayal left a hot lump of guilt and anger and confusion roiling in her gut, but it was hard to think about it while watching Ink’s eyelashes twitch.

How long would he be like this? Would he be okay? Was he dreaming? Did the Folk dream? Did Ink? Joy stroked his cheek and brushed the side of his neck, laying a hand against his chest—the spot on his left breast felt as solid as ever, hiding the Bailiwick’s secret fail-safe somewhere beneath her fingers. Joy could feel the dull beat of his heart through the comforter. Thump-thump.

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