My thoughts settled in him like a stone dropped into a pool. And as the wariness faded in his eyes, I knew my work was done.
I hauled myself back, back, back, slipping through that ocean-and-pearl wall, reeling inward until my body was a cage around me.
Tarquin smiled. “We’ll meet after breakfast. Unless Rhysand wants me for more meetings.” Neither Cresseida nor Varian so much as glanced at him. Had Rhys taken care of their own suspicions?
Lightning shot through my blood, even as my blood chilled to realize what I’d done—
Rhys waved a lazy hand. “By all means, Tarquin, spend the day with my lady.”
My lady. I ignored the two words. But I shut out my own marveling at what I’d accomplished, the slow-building horror at the invisible violation Tarquin would never know about.
I leaned forward, bracing my bare forearms on the cool wood table. “Tell me what there is to see on the mainland,” I asked Tarquin, and steered him away from the temple on the tidal causeway.
Rhys and Amren waited until the household lights dimmed before coming into my room.
I’d been sitting in bed, counting down the minutes, forming my plan. None of the guest rooms looked out on the causeway—as if they wanted no one to notice it.
Rhys arrived first, leaning against the closed door. “What a fast learner you are. It takes most daemati years to master that sort of infiltration.”
My nails bit into my palms. “You knew—that I did it?” Speaking the words aloud felt too much, too … real.
A shallow nod. “And what expert work you did, using the essence of him to trick his shields, to get past them … Clever lady.”
“He’ll never forgive me,” I breathed.
“He’ll never know.” Rhys angled his head, silky dark hair sliding over his brow. “You get used to it. The sense that you’re crossing a boundary, that you’re violating them. For what it’s worth, I didn’t particularly enjoy convincing Varian and Cresseida to find other matters more interesting.”
I dropped my gaze to the pale marble floor.
“If you hadn’t taken care of Tarquin,” he went on, “the odds are we’d be knee-deep in shit right now.”
“It was my fault, anyway—I was the one who asked about the temple. I was only cleaning up my own mess.” I shook my head. “It doesn’t feel right.”
“It never does. Or it shouldn’t. Far too many daemati lose that sense. But here—tonight … the benefits outweighed the costs.”
“Is that also what you told yourself when you went into my mind? What was the benefit then?”
Rhys pushed off the door, crossing to where I sat on the bed. “There are parts of your mind I left undisturbed, things that belong solely to you, and always will. And as for the rest … ” His jaw clenched. “You scared the shit out of me for a long while, Feyre. Checking in that way … I couldn’t very well stroll into the Spring Court and ask how you were doing, could I?” Light footsteps sounded in the hall—Amren. Rhys held my gaze though as he said, “I’ll explain the rest some other time.”
The door opened. “It seems like a stupid place to hide a book,” Amren said by way of greeting as she entered, plopping onto the bed.
“And the last place one would look,” Rhys said, prowling away from me to take a seat on the vanity stool before the window. “They could spell it easily enough against wet and decay. A place only visible for brief moments throughout the day—when the land around it is exposed for all to see? You could not ask for a better place. We have the eyes of thousands watching us.”
“So how do we get in?” I said.
“It’s likely warded against winnowing,” Rhys said, bracing his forearms on his thighs. “I won’t risk tripping any alarms by trying. So we go in at night, the old-fashioned way. I can carry you both, then keep watch,” he added when I lifted my brows.
“Such gallantry,” Amren said, “to do the easy part, then leave us helpless females to dig through mud and seaweed.”
“Someone needs to be circling high enough to see anyone approaching—or sounding the alarm. And masking you from sight.”
I frowned. “The locks respond to his touch; let’s hope they respond to mine.”
Amren said, “When do we move?”
“Tomorrow night,” I said. “We note the guard’s rotations tonight at low tide—figure out where the watchers are. Who we might need to take out before we make our move.”
“You think like an Illyrian,” Rhys murmured.
“I believe that’s supposed to be a compliment,” Amren confided.
Rhys snorted, and shadows gathered around him as he loosened his grip on his power. “Nuala and Cerridwen are already on the move inside the castle. I’ll take to the skies. The two of you should go for a midnight walk—considering how hot it is.” Then he was gone with a rustle of invisible wings and a warm, dark breeze.
Amren’s lips were bloodred in the moonlight. I knew who would have the task of taking out any spying eyes—and wind up with a meal. My mouth dried out a bit. “Care for a stroll?”
CHAPTER
36
The following day was torture. Slow, unending, hot-as-hell torture.
Feigning interest in the mainland as I walked with Tarquin, met his people, smiled at them, grew harder as the sun meandered across the sky, then finally began inching toward the sea. Liar, thief, deceiver—that’s what they’d call me soon.
I hoped they’d know—that Tarquin would know—that we’d done it for their sake.
Supreme arrogance, perhaps, to think that way, but … it was true. Given how quickly Tarquin and Cresseida had glanced at each other, guided me away from that temple … I’d bet that they wouldn’t have handed over that book. For whatever reasons of their own, they wanted it.
