Dark Dealings by Kim Knox Page A

I’m safe.”
    His finger touched her temple, running in a slow line to her jaw. Ava didn’t breathe, didn’t move. Reist didn’t do touching, not like that. “I know his passions.” His voice was little above a murmur. “Fallon...” He pressed his lips together. Yes, the less he said about her the better. “Remember what I said.” He stepped back and his hand balled into a fist. “He’s a conduit for old magic, more animal than man, remember that.”
    Ava stared at him. Did he know? Guilt ran hot through her veins. Did he already know what she’d done? Had Fallon worked it out? Fuck.
    She grabbed at her sense. He couldn’t. If he had he, as her master, would have to bring her up before the council for sex magic. He couldn’t ignore it. “I’m a thief. A soul-stealer, remember? I’m sure he’ll be able to resist me in the short time I’m in his office.”
    He nodded. “Tomorrow you tell me all about your secret man.”
    “Reist...” She tugged at the door and slipped through the narrow gap. “I’ll see you later.”
    Ava had to escape. What had happened in there? Reist had touched her. Her own fingers followed the path of his down her face and she felt the ghost of his touch. Maybe she wouldn’t have to take much more of Heyerdar’s power. Maybe a sliver of her and the reminder to Fallon of what she was missing would be all the shove they needed.
    And wouldn’t that be completely unlike her life?
    She slipped through shadows, following the stairs and paths and narrow corridors to the palace. And she needed her breakfast. Hunger spun around her, hot in the air, taunting her thief, pushing at the control Heyerdar’s power had brought her the night before. She doubted the man would willingly offer up his body and his magic to sate her morning cravings.
    For over a thousand years the Institute had butted up against the emperor’s first home, a dark menacing shadow of archaic stone compared to the marble and gilt of the palace. It was meant to be that way. Mages refused to allow interfering emperors to gild the Institute. They wanted the reminder of their ancient power to be...obvious.
    In all too short a time, Ava stood outside the door to Heyerdar’s office, her hand lifted, knuckles ready to knock. It had too much of an echo of the night before, though this entrance hall was clad in white marble and had the morning sun slanting across the stone floor. The brightness seemed wrong for Heyerdar somehow, even though he also drew power from the sun. His chambers in the lowest levels of the Institute fitted him, allowing him to connect to the earth, the stone, the seams of metal cutting through quartz.
    She closed her eyes, denying the tug of his world. None of his power or need had remained with her. Practically all of it had pushed back onto Fallon, onto the memory of his touch, his taste, the feel of him under her skin.
    Ava pressed her lips together. In that moment, she wasn’t certain whose skin he was under. Old magic was fearsome. It had been the first lesson she learned in the Institute, her second being to stay away from the man living in the lower levels. She was a thief. She’d never been that good with rules and law. It was too late to regret that now.
    Her knuckles rapped against the thick wood before she became lost in the memory of him again.
    A young guard pulled back the door, the wood sliding over a groove worn into the stone. He frowned at her. “Push your hood back.”
    Ava did as she was asked. He didn’t trust the shadows that shifted across her face. They were natural, something about her empty soul. She belonged to the darkness. “Highest Mage Reist sent me. I have an appointment with Captain Heyerdar.”
    His frown deepened, lining his smooth forehead. “Really?”
    “Corporal, let her in and make yourself scarce.” Heyerdar’s voice, deep and with that familiar hint of irritation, echoed out into the long corridor.
    The young guard waved her in and silently left,