Free Tangled Webs by Anne Bishop

wanted something to read at other times.”
    “Well, that’s convenient. I was asked to pick up some books.”
    Surreal hooked her long black hair behind one ear and narrowed her gold-green eyes. “You were going to suggest walking to the bookshop, weren’t you?”
    “Was I?”
    Bastard. Prick. Arrogant, insufferable Warlord Prince.
    When she moved forward, he dropped the shield and pivoted in a graceful dancer’s move to fall into step beside her. She took a couple of steps, then grabbed his arm to stop him as she swung around to put herself on his left, which was the subordinate position.
    “Surreal.”
    She was just a witch and he was a Warlord Prince, but her Jewels outranked his, so he wasn’t comfortable standing in the dominant position.
    Good. He deserved to squirm a little.
    “It rained last night,” she said. “Puddles. Carriages. Splashing. Whether you create a shield or decide to take your chances, you being on the street side means I won’t get splashed.”
    A male caught between Protocol and the desire to protect. He didn’t like it, but he didn’t argue about it and he didn’t try to switch positions.
    They walked in silence for a couple of blocks. Then Rainier said, “Have you heard from your cousins lately?”
    “No.” Thank the Darkness.
    “Then you haven’t heard about the spooky house?”
    “Spooky house? What’s a spooky house?”
    Rainier just smiled.

    It took several blocks and a few rash promises she shouldn’t have made before Rainier told her about Jaenelle’s little project.
    “You’re not serious,” Surreal said as Rainier opened the bookshop’s door for her. “You made this up.”
    He shook his head.
    She stepped into the shop, then waited for her eyes to adjust to the dimmer light. “Does Daemon know about this?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Lucivar? Uncle Saetan?”
    “I would think so.”
    “Hell’s fire, Mother Night, and may the Darkness be merciful.”
    “That seems to be the general reaction.”
    Surreal sniffed. She hadn’t wanted Daemon or Lucivar showing up to fuss over her, but one of them could have stopped by to tell her about the spooky house. After all, she was family.
    And that little thought made her scowl at Rainier. “When did you hear about this?”
    “I was at the Hall early this morning.”
    Why?
    Her expression must have conveyed the question, because he gave her a puzzled look. “I stop in a couple of times a week. I do work for Prince Sadi, remember?”
    She remembered. Even though she’d met Rainier before he’d signed a contract with Daemon, she had to consider what kind of task a male cousin might give an unattached Warlord Prince.
    “Am I a friend or an assignment, Prince Rainier?”
    She saw the insult in his eyes, saw the way his jaw tensed with the effort to keep his anger leashed.
    “You’re a friend,” he snapped. “At least, I thought we were friends. Picking up the books is an assignment.”
    “I’m sorry.” And she was. “I just…” Oh, that particular wound was still more raw than she wanted to admit.
    Rainier’s look was too sharp, too understanding. “You just wanted to spend time with someone who liked you for who you are and didn’t see you as a way to advance his standing in a court?”
    A light touch of his hand on her elbow, shifting them both away from the door as a dapper-looking man entered the shop.
    “I’ve had sex with a lot of men, but Falonar was my first lover. It felt different, being with a man when it wasn’t business of one kind or another. Maybe if we’d had a romp during the days after we arrived at the Hall and then had gone our separate ways—Falonar to Ebon Rih and me somewhere else—it might have been an easy good-bye. You know. ‘Thanks for the hot ride in bed’ sort of thing. But I ended up going to Ebon Rih too, and somewhere along the way, enjoying a hot ride turned into something else. At least, I thought it had. But toward the end, instead of having a lover, I felt like I was