Cursed Mate (Shadow Guild: The Rebel Book 5) Read online

  I thought of the woman I’d seen in my vision. Her image had been blurry, but she might have looked like me. Did I remind him of her? “He might have noticed your glamour wearing off.”

  Grey nodded, his brow furrowed. “We just need to finish and get back to our time before he finds us.”

  We reached the clearing in front of Grey’s tower a moment later, but he stopped, inspecting the guards out front.

  “Do you remember them?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “Not well. Perhaps not at all. I may be confusing them with others. There have been many over the years.”

  It sounded terribly lonely.

  “We shouldn’t enter that way.” He pointed toward the side of the tower. “That will be safer. I have a secret entrance. It’d be a shame to run into my former self in front of witnesses, especially with the potion wearing off.”

  I looked up at him. He was right. He looked almost normal now, back to his usual self. “Pull your hat down further.”

  He did, dipping his face. “Come.”

  I followed him around the side of the square, keeping to the front of the restaurants and shops that surrounded his tower. There were trees planted along the city wall, and we were able to stay behind them as we walked, taking advantage of a bit of cover.

  The guards looked our way at one point, and Grey waved at them. They inclined their head in recognition, and we continued on.

  “They are used to me approaching from this direction,” he said. “As long as my former self doesn’t walk out those doors in the next two minutes, we’ll be fine.”

  My heartbeat thundered as we neared the tower. Worry streaked through me.

  There were two Greys in this timeline. Would we be able to manage this bit smoothly? So much rested on it.

  We reached the side of the tower, which was concealed behind a grove of trees and flowering rosebushes.

  “I had these planted,” Grey murmured, “to provide cover for this side entrance.”

  “Do you still use it?”

  “Not as much, no.” He stopped in front of the stone wall. There was no door, but he pressed his palm to the stones. Magic flared, and the wall disappeared. A wooden door revealed itself, and he pulled it open and looked inside. “Clear.” He stepped into the darkened hallway, and I followed.

  The air smelled faintly of candle wax and perfume. Sconces along the hall, lit by magic, glittered gold and green.

  Grey gestured to them. “We used that instead of electricity for the longest time.”

  “Why did you switch?” I quite liked the magical lamps.

  “They aren’t as convenient as modern lights. Nor as bright.”

  He was right. The shadows were thick. He started down the hall, gesturing for me to follow. “Come. I spent quite a bit of time in the club during this century. We should check there first.”

  “The club?”

  “Before it was a bar, my tower was a club for the wealthiest and most powerful in town. A bit like a bar, but staider.”

  I crossed my fingers, hoping we would find the old version of Grey in his flat. It would be easiest to take care of him there.

  The noise of the club grew louder as we approached, but we saw no one in the hall. We reached a narrow door, and Grey stopped beside it, whispering, “This hallway is mine alone, but beyond that door is the club.”

  He reached for a small painting on the wall and gripped the side of the frame. He pulled, and the painting swung open like a door.

  A square piece of murky glass was inset into the wall, and he pressed a hand to it. Suddenly, the smoke in the glass cleared, and an image of the bar on the other side appeared.

  “Amazing.” I stepped forward, peering into the club.

  The structure was the same as it had been in our time, but the stage was gone. The bar was smaller and located on a different wall. Tables of varying sizes were filled with men and women. A mixed gender club must be unusual for the time, but Guild City played by different rules than the real world. Armchairs were positioned in front of flickering fireplaces that no longer existed in the present.

  I searched the faces for Grey, hoping not to see him.

  When my gaze landed on the impossibly handsome man sitting at a raised table in the corner, my heart raced. Excitement. Fear. “You’re in there.”

  Grey cupped my shoulder, and I looked up at him.

  “You’re sure you want to try it this way?” Concern echoed in his voice. “I was a different man then. Dangerous.”

  “You were dangerous when I first met you.”

  A wry smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Perhaps more dangerous now, given our circumstances.”

  “You would never hurt me.”

  Darkness flickered in his eyes, along with worry, and I knew he was thinking about the beast inside him.

  I pressed a hand to his chest. “Leave it to me. We planned this, and I know what to do.”

  We’d discussed it a dozen times, the various scenarios that might play out and how we would react. This had been one of them. I stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his mouth, then opened a vial of one of Eve’s potions. It was similar to the one he’d taken—a draught that would change my face and even my magical signature.

  Grey didn’t remember meeting me in the past, and it would be dangerous if his past self sensed that I was his mate. Better for my looks and magic to be different. It would provide me with cover.

  I showed Grey my new face. “How do I look?”

  “Beautiful. Not as beautiful as normal, but he’ll want you.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I know.”

  “All right, then.” I glanced down at my hair, noticing that it was now black. I wouldn’t have long with this new face, so I needed to get a move on. “I’ll see you soon.”

  He nodded. “Be careful.”

  “Will do.” I turned and looked through the glass window.

  The Grey in the club was looking away and wouldn’t see me enter, so I took my chance and pushed my way through the door, slipping into the crowd.

  Immediately, I was surrounded by the scents and sounds of the past, all of it so unfamiliar. The scents were intense—perfumes that had fallen out of favor and strong liquor and wine. The dialect was possible to understand, though difficult.

  I drew in a steady breath and approached Grey’s table.

  The Devil.

  I shouldn’t think of him as Grey, because he wasn’t.

  As I neared his table, his gaze landed on me. It was cold—icily so.

  Immediately, I was thrown back to when I’d met him for the first time in Guild City. He’d reminded me of a statue carved of the coldest granite. His eyes were an icy gray, his cheekbones sharp, and his jaw hard. As with before, the only soft thing about him was his lips, and even those looked like they would bruise.

  He sprawled elegantly in a chair behind the table, so perfectly still that it was eerie. I shouldn’t be processing him anew, like I was seeing him for the first time, but I was.

  The Grey that I knew today was an entirely different man.

  But this man…

  He was dangerous. Deadly.

  God, how he’d changed. At least around me. I was sure the rest of Guild City still knew him as this quiet, deadly predator. But I’d almost forgotten what he’d been like when we’d first met.

  His dark eyebrows arched up, curiosity in his eyes. He said nothing, but he didn’t need to. It was a summons. A command.

  I stepped forward, my heart thundering.

  He had no idea who I was. Who I was to him.

  It would be centuries yet before I would meet him.

  I drew in a steady breath and ascended the stairs to the raised platform upon which he sat.

  “Madam.” His voice was as cold as his eyes. “You dare much to approach my table without an introduction.”

  I smiled. “You’ve no idea what I would dare.”

  Interest flickered in his eyes. “Your accen
t. It is unusual. Foreign.”

  Foreign to this time, not this place. I was pure London, circa 2020. But I couldn’t tell him that. So I merely inclined my head. Without asking, I took the seat across from him.

  The slightest smile threatened to tug at his mouth, but he kept it suppressed. I wouldn’t have noticed it if I were meeting him for the first time, but I’d grown used to his quirks.

  “Well?” he asked.

  I gave a slight shrug, attempting to force my face into bored lines. “I have something I’d like to discuss with you. Privately.”

  His eyebrows rose again. “Really?”

  “Indeed.” I smiled. “It is in regard to Petra.”

  That time, he did nothing to disguise his naked curiosity. “How do you know of that?”

  Because you told me.

  Petra was a dangerous but valuable business venture from this century that Grey had remembered, an irresistible lure to the Devil that I knew next to nothing about.

  “I’ll discuss it in your chambers.” I stood, my heartbeat thundering beneath his gaze, and prayed he couldn’t hear it.

  “You are nervous.” His gaze dropped to my chest, but he wasn’t leering. He was look at the heart that beat so frantically. “Your heart is going wild.”

  Damn it.

  “You’d be nervous, too, if you knew what I knew.” I waved my hand, gesturing for him to follow. “Come. We will discuss it.”

  He stood, his chair scraping backward quietly. “How do you know that I will follow?”

  I looked back at him and smiled, hoping it was mysterious. Confident. “But of course you will.”

  I descended the stairs, praying.

  When I reached the ground below, I felt his presence at my side. I hurried forward, trying to keep him from touching me.

  I wanted him. I couldn’t help it. He was Grey, in a sense.

  And yet he wasn't, and it felt disloyal.

  Fortunately, he was polite, though that didn’t stop him from leaning down and whispering against my ear, “How do you know where my chambers are?”

  I shivered at the feeling of his warm breath, heat flushing through me. “I have my ways.”

  I strode through the club, and the patrons parted like water to let me pass. It was so unlike when I’d had to push my way through the crowd, and I knew that I had the Devil at my back to thank for that.

  We reached the exit of the club and slipped out into the quiet hall. I started down the hall, the Devil at my side.

  Tension tightened the air between us.

  “How do I know I can I trust you?” His voice murmured low.

  “Does it matter?” I looked up at him, smiling. “You are stronger.”

  “Perhaps.” He shrugged lightly, his gaze moving over me. It flared with heat. “But I’ve learned not to underestimate others. Particularly women.”

  We reached the door to his flat. It was time. I was going to touch him. To seduce him—at least a little. It was part of the plan.

  My heart raced.

  I pushed him against the door, my gaze on his lips. Heat flared, an atom bomb of attraction exploding in the space between us.

  “It’s wise not to underestimate me.” I looked at his lips, leaning up slowly.

  His hands came to my waist, gripping firmly. I shivered at the familiar touch.

  Before my lips could reach his, the door behind him opened. I caught sight of my Grey standing behind him. He reached up with a cloth and pressed it over the other’s mouth, pulling him back into the room.

  Briefly, he struggled, but the potion soaking the cloth was enough to knock him out for days. He collapsed against Grey, who dragged him inside. I followed, shutting the door behind me.

  The interior of the flat was quite different than I remembered. The same massive window revealed a view of a windswept desert, and the bookshelves were still there, but the furniture was older and more staid, fussier than the Grey I knew. But then, everything during this time period had been fussier.

  “Where will you put him?” I asked. The potion was supposed to last for at least two days, and he’d wake with little memory of the preceding hours.

  “In the second bedroom.” He heaved the body into his arms and strode in that direction.

  I followed him.

  Grey delivered the body to the smaller bed, then stared at the younger man for a moment too long.

  “Weird to see yourself like this, isn’t it?” I asked.

  “It is. But…that’s not what’s so strange.” He looked down at me. “I remember this now. Waking up in this bed chamber, confused about why I was here. And realizing that two days had passed.”

  “What?” My heart raced. “Really?”

  He nodded. “I’d forgotten it along the years, chalking it up to an excess of drink, though that was never my inclination. But now that I stand here and witness myself lying in this bed, I remember it.”

  “That’s wild.” We had proof that we were integrated into the past. “Does that mean we succeeded when we were here?”

  “I do not know, unfortunately.”

  I nodded. We’d just have to continue forth and pray this worked. With one last look at the prone body of the former Grey, I left the room, passing Grey’s usual bedroom and spotting an enormous bed draped in heavy fabric. The large window still provided a magical view of the snow-covered mountains of Carpathia, but like the rest of the flat, the decor was massively different.

  I strolled over to the window, drawn by the cold, bleak landscape. It reminded me of Grey when I’d first met him.

  “Do you like it?” he asked.

  I looked back at him. “Parts of it, yes. It’s beautiful.”

  “Of all the things in this flat, it most reminds me of home.” He joined me, staring at the view and seeming to draw energy from it.

  “It speaks to you, doesn’t it?”

  He nodded. “It feeds my soul, I think.”

  “I can see how that might be. Just like some people are rejuvenated by the seashore, this is what works for you.”

  “Yes. Precisely.”

  I smiled at him, then returned to the main living room and sat on the couch.

  “Ugh.” I shifted, looking up at Grey, who had followed me. “Very uncomfortable.”

  “That is one thing I appreciate about the present. The conveniences are far nicer.” He strode to the bookshelf and inspected it. “We need a plan.”

  He was right. We’d come to the end of what we’d been able to map out before arrival. Now that we were here, we needed to seek the clues the book promised. So far, none of the things I’d seen had been surrounded by a faint glow of magic like Seraphia had said.

  I pulled the book from my pocket and opened it, studying the page. The text was still strange and unreadable, but the memory of the woman flashed into my mind.

  I looked up at Grey. “When I touched Rasla, I used my power. Tried to find a way to get the information we needed. And I saw a woman. Older, holding a mop.”

  “A cleaning woman?”

  “I think so.” I searched my memory of her. She looked nothing like Rasla, so I doubted she was family. “But a cleaning woman would know quite a lot about her boss, wouldn’t she?”

  “Indeed. If it was his housekeeper, she might know what we are looking for.”

  I closed my eyes and searched the image of her. It felt burned into my mind, and I prayed that I might recall a helpful detail. Her eyes…they were the loveliest shade of blue.

  “How do we reach her?” I asked.

  “I will call my second in command to come here. We can inquire. If he does not know, he can find the information.”

  “Do you remember who your second is?” I couldn’t imagine remembering so many people over so many years.

  “Honestly, I do not.” Concern flickered in his eyes. “If I don’t recognize him, I will just have to fake it.”

  12

  Grey

  I rose and walked to the door. A series of bells hung along
side the wall, and I pulled the one that corresponded to my second’s station—I hoped.

  A few moments later, a faint knock sounded at the door. I opened it, and a slim, middle-aged man stood there. His fair hair was swept neatly off his forehead, and his suit was immaculately pressed, the buckles on his shoes shining brilliantly.

  Recognition flared.

  “My lord.” He bowed.

  “Clarence.” I stepped back, gesturing for him to enter. I waved toward Carrow. “Please meet Madam Clifton. She is visiting for a short while.”

  Clarence’s eyes shot toward her and widened for the briefest moment.

  He was surprised that a woman was here, of course. I rarely allowed women into my chambers, now or in the present.

  Clarence turned toward me. “What can I do for you, my lord? Was the club not satisfactory tonight?”

  “I am looking for information about a woman. The housekeeper of Councilor Rasla, I believe. An older woman with…” I looked toward Carrow.

  She filled in the details. “With brilliant blue eyes.”

  Clarence nodded, his own eyes brightening. “Ah, yes. Mrs. Birch-Cleve. She recently left her post, I believe.”

  Of course. I remembered now. Clarence had been an insatiable gossip, which had proved extremely useful for me in the past. He’d kept tabs on the goings-on in the houses of all the Council members and important people in town.

  “Would you know where to find this Mrs. Birch-Cleve?” I asked.

  Clarence nodded. “I’m sure I could find her quite quickly, my lord.”

  “Thank you.” We’d need a bit more time to plan. “Could you please bring us a late meal?”

  He bowed. “Of course. It will be here momentarily.”

  He disappeared quickly and quietly. I turned to Carrow. “That’s our woman. We can visit her tomorrow morning.”

  Carrow nodded, frowning. “Would the Devil of Darkvale normally visit a housekeeper?”

  “No, excellent point.” I tapped a finger to my lips. “Perhaps it’s better if she comes here. But how? She’d likely be too afraid to visit me.”

  “I have just the thing.” Carrow reached into her pocket and withdrew a small object, holding it out to me. “This is Councilor Rasla’s seal. We can send her a letter using it. She’ll think she’s returning to her employer.”