I pulled back my hood and Ryan did the same. I saw eyes go wide around us and the whispers started. They knew who we were. Some might not have known why we were here, but that didn’t matter. Moishe’s eyes flickered over to Ryan with faint disinterest before turning back to me. They were the brightest green I’d ever seen on a person. Almost shockingly so.
“Moishe,” I said in greeting. “You’re looking lovely as always.”
He cocked his head at me, lips in a thin line, bloodless and almost clear. “Flattery gets you everywhere with me, Sam of Wilds. You know that. I have a room set aside. Should I have it opened up? I suppose I could entertain the idea of a third if you insist.” He glanced back at Ryan again, then back to me. “But I’d really rather it be you alone. Did you know that magic has a taste? Like lightning. Like burning. I’m sure I could find that tang on your skin.”
Ryan’s grip on my arm tightened exponentially. I tried to tug it loose, but his fingers bit into my skin. Moishe, of course, missed none of it. “Does the Knight Commander need a boy?” he asked. “I understand how… frustrating it must be, being betrothed to a prince. Personal experience, you could say.” His eyes went back to me. “Never able to just… take what it is you want.”
“Nobody is taking anything,” Ryan growled, and if that didn’t make my heart stutter, I don’t know what did. Too bad it was misplaced. I was no more in danger here than I would be back home in the castle. Moishe would never hurt me. And even if he wanted to, Mama wouldn’t allow it. Ryan just didn’t know how these things worked.
I said, “You know how it is for me, Moishe.”
His lip curled. “Yes. Love. What a petty emotion.”
“But lust isn’t?”
He showed his teeth. “Lust is in us all. You don’t need love to have it.”
Old games, this. I had a fleeting thought of introducing him to Dimitri. That was a scary thought. “I need to see Mama.”
He was looking back at Ryan, annoyance splayed clearly on his face. “She’s busy.”
“Moishe.”
“Your little Prince was taken by a dragon,” he said to Ryan. “Pity. He was quite exquisite. There was a certain taciturnity about him that I couldn’t but help admire.” Then his voice changed, just the slightest bit, from cold to frost. “You should let go of Sam now. Before there’s a problem.”
“Moishe.”
They both ignored me.
“You already have a problem,” Ryan said hotly. “You’re not gonna touch him.”
Moishe smiled. “Maybe not today. But soon. I wasn’t kidding when I said magic had a taste. I want his storm on my tongue.”
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” I said.
“Sam, we’re leaving,” Ryan said, trying to pull me back toward the door.
“Knock it off,” I snapped at him, jerking my arm away. “This isn’t anything I’m not used to. If something is pissing you off, then go wait outside.” He flinched as I turned back to Moishe. “And you. Take us up to Mama or I’ll go myself. I don’t have time for your shit today, Moishe. Either move or get the fuck out of my way.”
He watched me with those cool eyes. His lips twitched once, like he thought I was precious, and he nodded. “But of course, Sam. I’m sure Mama is no longer busy now. You’re different than you were before. Harder.” His gaze crawled down my body, then back up. “In so many, many different ways.”
And then he turned toward the staircase and walked away.
“Fucking Moishe,” I muttered, knowing he could hear me. I looked back at Ryan. “You coming?”
He scowled at me. “I’m not leaving you alone in here.”
“For the love of—Look. Just remember what I said about Mama. You can’t lash out, Ryan. It’s not how things are done here. She will just as soon kill you as look at you.”
“I wonder sometimes about the company you keep,” he said.
I looked at him and wondered that too. Maybe I was a masochist. That certainly would explain a lot. “I have my reasons. Do we have an understanding?”
He grumbled something under his breath that I couldn’t quite understand. I chose to believe it was enthusiastic consent for everything I’d told him. It would have to be good enough. I was in Mama’s good graces, but that would only get me so far.
I felt the eyes of the boys and men track us as we walked across the room toward the staircase. The air smelled of flowers and sweat and sex. It was a heady scent, pungent enough to get slightly drunk off of if you breathed it in too much. Mama said it was all the pheromones that the flowers and humans released. I thought it was more than that, that she’d had the drug lord Letnia engineer a concoction that circulated the room via the ceiling fans that spun lazily above, lowering inhibitions, raising the heat. She’d smiled her enigmatic Mama smile when I’d told her as much, calling me a silly boy, planting a sticky kiss on my cheek.
Ryan crowded me closely from behind, and for all my annoyance at his intimations that I couldn’t handle myself, that I was a young, foolish boy with no experience to how the world worked, I found his insistence at protecting me from perceived threats oddly endearing. Part of me wanted to snap my teeth at him, to remind him that I’d survived twenty years without him. That I could handle myself. And I thought he knew that. I thought he knew I was more than capable of dealing with any threats against my person, but for some reason, he still felt the need to attempt to defend me from the big, wide world.