“I’m sure she will. So … you’re jealous?” His anger melted, mischief dancing in his eyes.
“No, I’m not fucking jealous, you moronic man. You screw whores all the time. Do you see me jealous then?”
Lev tipped his head as if considering this new fascinating perspective.
She groaned louder still. “Terencia is a man-eater.”
“She truly is,” Baz said. “You can’t go, Lev.”
“It’s me or you.”
“He can’t go,” I heard myself say before I could think it through. On the spot, I lifted the length of black silk between us. “He’s bound to me, remember?”
“That leaves me,” Lev said, sounding regretful and trying to hide it.
“I’ll go with,” Moncho said.
“No, Monch—” Baz said.
“I’ll look out for him, he’ll look out for me, and she’ll be extra happy, extra distracted. Buys us time to find Junot.”
I heard Baz swallow. “I can’t ask you guys to do that.”
“You ain’t asking, bro,” Lev said. “You’d do it for us in a heartbeat.”
“I would.”
I gave the rope binding us a yank that I couldn’t explain. When Baz eyed me curiously, I pretended it had been an accident, that I’d tangled with the rope. My beast was too close to the surface—and disturbingly possessive of my enemy. For dragon’s sake, this was getting absurd.
“Me and Monch’ll be just fine,” Lev said, sharing a quick look with the larger man.
“You’re sure?” Baz asked.
“Born sure.”
Baz snorted. “You’re so full of shit, Lev.”
Lev winked. “You know it.”
“Okay. If you and Moncho go, then the rest of us work on finding Junot before we have to fess up to Terencia.”
“And how do you figure we’re gonna do that?” Edwidge asked.
Baz lifted the hand that was linked to the rope until mine rose too.
“You want to use her as bait?” Ed said, a smile burgeoning across her broad face.
“So that’s why you didn’t want us to kill her,” Lev said with evident relief.
Baz ignored him. “Not bait. Advantage. Mauldrene likes her well enough not to snack on her, even when she’s pressed up against her shadows. Maybe we can figure out how to talk to her … or something. Convince her to release Junot.”
In this case, I didn’t see the distinction between bait and advantage. And bait very often got eaten…
Chapter 10
A Good Rule Maker Knows When and How to Be a Good Rule Breaker
Since jolting awake in my sunken sarcophagus, the world had disturbed or confounded me practically at every turn. I’d had no better choice than to battle choppy winds and hope my wings remained intact—and if not intact, then at least serviceable—when I emerged on the other side. Nearly a month later, my options hadn’t improved.