(eng) Lindsay Buroker - Agents of The Crown 03 by Duty Bound

Author:Duty Bound [Bound, Duty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

11

Twilight shadowed the streets by the time Zenia stepped out of the property office on Abacus Street. She yawned ferociously, and her stomach growled like a dragon fresh out of hibernation. She vowed to eat something, then sleep for a very long time.

She looked at the bench outside the office, wondering if Rhi was waiting there—she’d grown bored and gone outside hours earlier. To her surprise, Jev sat slumped on it, staring toward an intersection where a pair of marble combatants poured water into the fountain at their feet.

“Jev?” Zenia asked uncertainly.

She headed toward him, wondering if she’d mistaken someone else for him. It was dark, and his usually tidy hair was tousled.

“Yes.” He turned, offering her a quick smile, but it didn’t last. “Good evening, my lady Captain.”

The shadows hid his eyes, so it was likely only her imagination that he seemed haunted. He was just tired, she decided. The same as she.

“How long have you been here?” Zenia stopped beside his bench. “Why didn’t you come in?”

He hesitated but soon flashed his smile again. “I was afraid you’d put me to work. I thought I’d wait out here and take a nap.”

“Does napping upright with your eyes open work well?”

“Not as well as in bed with a friendly woman snuggled in your arms.” He grimaced, seeming to find the words a mistake. “If memory serves. It’s been a long time since I experienced that.”

Zenia thought of Naysha’s memories, wishing again that she could un-see them. “Iridium wasn’t willing?”

“She doesn’t seem like a snuggler. More like someone you wouldn’t want to turn your back to.” His voice lowered almost to a mumble. “I’m tired of always having to watch my back.”

Maybe her first instinct had been right, and more than weariness plagued him.

She moved around to sit on the bench beside him. “Did something happen today?”

“Someone blew a hole in the Water Order Temple—nobody was killed, but your old archmage was injured. I don’t have proof, but I think it might have been Iridium. That dragons-cursed inquisitor Marlyna scraped through my thoughts and saw me thinking that. She accused me of colluding with the criminal guilds and promised she’d be watching me. She also believes I’m controlling Targyon. That’s a common belief, apparently, with lots of zyndar thinking it too. It seems that because we served together, people think I somehow made the Orders pick Targyon for the throne and then set myself up in an office in the castle so I could pull his strings. Oh, some women are apparently thinking of telling my father that you and I have been having a torrid relationship, too, no doubt so the old man will put an end to it by swiftly arranging my marriage to an appropriate zyndari woman. One of them, no doubt.”

Jev rubbed his face, let his head drop back, almost clunking it on the bench, and stared up at the darkening sky. The street was quiet, with the offices closed for the day, and there wasn’t anyone except Zenia around to hear his words.

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