Page 39 of Onyx Cage: Volume II

“Of course, My Lord,” he said, dipping his chin once, his stoic expression belying none of the amusement that sparked in his dark eyes.

Korhonan merely shook his head, unamused, pushing past us to head to his own room. Just before I turned the handle to my door, his voice stopped me in my tracks.

“I should have known,” he said, and when I looked up, he was staring at me, blond brows knitted together.

I quirked an eyebrow in question, but I didn’t have to wait long for his response.

“This is why you did not accept,” he said flatly. “So you could claim her for yourself.”

Whatever he imagined he read in my expression had him nodding his head.

“No need to claim what you already own,” I replied smoothly, before turning the handle to my door and entering the silence of my room at long last.

Before getting comfortable, I made the usual inspection of my room, pausing at the panel where Rowan had emerged the night before.

I opened it, taking a look down a narrow, dusty hallway that looked as though it hadn’t been used in years, save for the lone set of small footsteps creating a not-remotely-straight path. Still, it would be safer if I barricaded it from the inside.

Which is what I should have done, surrounded by enemies. But I suspected only one person was using this passage right now, especially if the small, inebriated footsteps were anything to go by.

I closed the panel and sat at my desk, ignoring the itch between my shoulder blades as I prepared myself for another unannounced entry. There was no way she was going to let today stand as it was, not when she had the impulse control of a rabid mongoose and a temper to match.

Though the reasonable part of me wanted to bar the door, another part was unwilling to refuse her access to my room. These late-night visits were the only time she let her guard down these days. The only time she offered me even the barest fraction of honesty about what was going on in her head.

I tried to ignore the voice in the back of my head that claimed that wasn’t the only reason.

Tried. And failed.

There was no denying the pull between us. The way I craved her presence like a lush craved one more drink. Craved her like she was the very air I needed to breathe.

She wasn’t just chaos. Or a complication. She was anaddiction.

And just like an addict, my single-minded fixation on her had me doing things I wouldn’t usually do.

I ran a hand over my face as I considered the truth of that thought.

Hadn’t that been the reason why I blurted out a proposal when marriage should have been out of the question? Because she made me act nearly as unreasonable as she was?

Shaking my head, I pushed her and her mass of riotous hair as far from my mind as possible, then focused instead on the silver tray in front of me.

A small roll of parchment rested atop it with my name written in small, precise ink. Even without the Bear seal, I would have recognized my cousin’s handwriting. One of the servants must have delivered it while I was away. I cracked the black wax seal, suppressing a suspicion that it had been gently lifted and reapplied before it made its way to me.

Dear Lord Evander,

Things are well here. My wife is acquainting herself with the ladies at court, though there have been notable absences at tea.

So Ava was still making herself scarce, it would seem.

I’ve attached the figures you requested.

I glanced at the second page, which was indeed a list of food stores by village, in a tidy script with enough shorthand that I doubted anyone else would be able to decipher. The information would be helpful for knowing exactly what I needed to negotiate this week.

Of course, that had been when I thought trade was the primary thing on the table, but I didn’t plan on explaining otherwise to my cousin just yet.

The Duke sends his regards. He knows how important this visit is for Bear and wants to reassure you that he has things in hand until you return.

That was Taras covering in the event that the letter was read, but also letting me know my absence was not yet a problem.

I let out a slow breath, taking a few minutes to commit the report to memory before I drafted a response for Taras. I let him know I had arrived safely, and that negotiations were already underway.