Gilded Lies by J.S. Martin

Author:J.S. Martin [Martin, J.S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2022-04-18T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“What the hell did you think you were doing?”

Leo paced like a lion in front of me, every muscle coiled and bunched, poised for attack. His hand tore at his throat to yank the bowtie away from his collar before he shoved a hair into his mass of ebony hair. A few inky wisps fell into his eyes. I ignored the thundering of my heart as I pressed my back into the wainscoting. We were alone in a narrow, darkened corridor.Leo’s wrath hung in the air, the faint flicker of the gas lanterns cast shadows over half his handsome face, like a crescent moon. One side illuminated, the other hidden in darkness. Two sides of the same coin.

He turned to me, dark bangs slicing through eyes of gray. “You do not know what kind of danger you are in. You’ve attracted a powerful man, Miss Winters.”

My chest heaved with the weight of his words. He was right. James’s words spoke to my very soul. The man’s clairvoyance was a power I’d witnessed only once before, in the parlor of Winterhill Manor. “What does he want?”

Leo pressed his lips together in a firm line. Hesitation flickered behind his wintery gaze as he battled with his decision to lose his secrets.

I shook my head. “You’re not keeping me safe by doing this. If I had known the truth from the beginning, then maybe I would have been more cautious tonight.”

Leo gave me a flat look. “I warned you, Miss Winters, but you seem to be enamored with all things threatening and deadly.”

I crossed my arms as indignation flared through me. “Just answer my question.”

Leo sighed, defeated, but the edge didn’t leave his voice. “You saw something you shouldn’t have when you were at my speakeasy the other night. At first, I thought distance and a remnant of my power would be enough to keep you out of James’s sight. I was wrong.” His full lips pulled into a frown, his worry evident. “You are tied to magic, and it is both a blessing and a curse, a gift given by the divine, and Blackwood will not ignore it.”

That sensation of foreboding was back, wrenching my heart and twisting knots in my stomach. It went against everything that I believed—or, rather, didn’t believe. My laughter was part mocking and part hysterical as it shook through the small hallway. Leo watched me, unmoved, as my body rocked with the fit. My sides ached as my laughter ceased, my eyes wide with horror as I met the sharpness in the gaze. Knowing gripped my heart with icy fingers.

“You’re serious.”

Leo’s voice was steel. “You have made a grave mistake seeking me out tonight of all nights. You would have been safer meeting the devil himself.”

His tone of finality shattered me. Leo O’Hara feared James.

“Explain the contracts. Do you have one?”

Shadows curled around us, seeming to whisper into the blackness as they surrounded us on all sides. The muscles in Leo’s shoulders tensed and his hands fisted at his sides as the growing tide of shadows rose around us.

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