“Why am I not surprised?” I asked, turning around. That was a lie. I was surprised. I had expected it to be Enrique. Of course, the lion-shifter was on my list of suspects for Mr. X, so it wasn’t out of the question.
Mr. X, himself, looked dashing tonight. As per his usual getup, he wore dark clothes that covered his arms and legs, the top of his shirt slightly falling open, and his signature mask on his face. All I gleaned last time from our close encounter was that he had a wonderfully strong jaw. Spoiler alert: all of the shifters in the Council manor had strong jaws.
My suspects’ list remained untouched.
With the lamplight out, I realized the only illumination coming into the room was from a small candle on top of the stair bannister closest to us. He brought his own lighting again. How quaint. Did he get a discount on candles or something?
“Mr. X,” I said. “What brings you here to this completely unsuspicious clock in the entryway?”
He smirked. I had a view of his lips well enough. Before, I tried to see if his lips reminded me of anyone. Now, I had seen them so much that they already felt familiar. I had kissed those lips and enjoyed it.
A tantalizing pause settled over us. He enjoyed making me sweat. I had been disappointed when I was too drunk for us to continue our alluring interaction last time. A wave of disappointment came over me, remembering it. What would have happened if I hadn’t been sick?
Little fool.
He had told me that he wanted to eat me alive. It was the sexiest, strangest thing anyone had ever told me. I was unable to resist the exciting tremor that rocked through my body. His eyes danced. He’d seen the motion, of course. He knew his power well.
“You know, it’s bad for innocent girls to be roaming around the manor at night.” I imagined that his eyes were dancing with mischief given his teasing tone of voice.
“It’s only bad if you think I’ve found something. Besides, do you really think I’m that innocent?”
“Have you found something?” he asked, gesturing towards the clock behind me. I narrowed my eyes. He had conveniently not answered my second question.
“I was about to find that out myself.”
I turned on my heel, expecting him to stop me. Half of me was hoping that he might push me up against a wall and kiss me. My hands flew to the clock. He didn’t make a move to halt me. My fingers brushed the dragon metal, a strangely cold sensation. I copied the movement that I had seen Enrique do on the portrait.
Nothing.
The owl outside the house gave a weary hoot.
I pressed again. And again. And again.
Nothing!
I had been so sure that the clock was going to slide away to reveal a hidden tunnel or passage or something!
A chuckle sounded behind me. While he hadn’t moved to stop me, he had moved to close the distance between us. He was practically standing right behind me, watching me over my shoulder. I swore.
“I know there’s something with this clock,” I insisted. He shrugged his shoulders when I turned to glare at him. We nearly brushed against one another. I willed my pulse to slow down. No getting excited for Mr. X right now.
“Who can say? Funny things are hidden in this house,” he droned back. “But…there are darker things.”
My hands froze, hovering above the cool surface of the clock.
“Darker?” I echoed.
He didn’t take a step towards me, but somehow his voice was stronger in my ear: “Things that could be dangerous for you to come across. Haven’t you thought about what security measures that the manor has in place?”
I swallowed the painful lump in my throat. “No, I didn’t.”
“The manor is as protected as the castle. There are things that can slice through a human body quite easily,” he said cheerfully. I grimaced and took a gentle step away from the clock, crossing my arms.
“Fine. Then what are you doing here?” I asked.
In the light, he looked like a mysterious caper who had come to rob the manor of riches. He was handsome. Even with the mask on, you could tell that. The shadows shifted around us. His eyes glittered in the candlelight. If you took a picture of him from this scene, he might have looked more like a romantic painting of a phantom thief.
“I’m making sure you stay alive,” he said. The corner of his mouth turned up. It was tinged with sin. I shuddered and took a step back from him.
“Are you really?”
“Of course,” he said easily. He moved in his dark clothes, not taking a step towards me but the clock. I watched his body: lean, powerful, unpredictable. My three suspects still stood in my mind. He leaned against the clock casually.
“Do you think it’s dangerous?” he asked with a punch of amusement. I raised an eyebrow.
“Didn’t you just tell me it was?”
“I didn’t say that. I said that there were darker things in the manor. Not that the clock was one.” He traced a deliciously slow movement down the side of the clock with his finger, which was gloved. “Do you think anyone would be stupid enough to leave something like this as a gateway to something? The guests can access it quite easily. It’s heavy, cumbersome. It draws the eye.”
I scoffed. “Well, now I’m rethinking my theory. But my friend—”
“Friend?” he repeated. Was he playing dumb to cover his identity or was he being cruel towards Lucius? I couldn’t tell.
“Yes, friend,” I managed through gritted teeth.
“Am I your friend?” he asked. His head leaned against the clock.
“Someone is feeling playful tonight,” I muttered. “You’re my something. Friend, no. But you seem to keep seeking me out, Mr. X.”
“I won’t deny it.”
His stare made me feel naked, vulnerable. I repressed a shiver. Whenever I was around Mr. X, he seemed to take control of my body without even touching it. It was enough to hear his shadowy voice, feigned to be far deeper than his natural voice, I assumed. A choice likely made to protect his identity.
“What would you like to be, Fiona?” he asked. In a sudden movement, he took a step towards me. I froze. Our past encounter, I had been drunk and ready to seduce him. Without the liquid courage of booze fueling my antics, I realized that a small part of me was scared of Mr. X.
I was terrifyingly intrigued by him.
And his smirk said he knew it.
He closed the space between us with confident steps. I sucked in a ragged breath as his hand went up towards my face. His fingers brushed against my skin.
A sound rang out upstairs on the landing.
I tore my gaze from the masked man to see what had happened. A hulking figure turned the corner on a second-floor hallway. The air around me moved away, and when I looked back, Mr. X had gone.
“Fiona, what are you doing?” Theo asked as he rubbed his sleepy eyes. His soft voice carried well in the silence of the house. “We have training in the morning.” His brow furrowed when he saw the candle on the stairs.
“Um, I was just coming up to bed. I couldn’t sleep,” I said and bound up the stairs to join him. He stared at the candle.
“Did someone stick a candle on the stairs?”
“It was there when I came in,” I lied. Please forgive me, Theo. I didn’t want to tell him that I was talking to the mysterious Mr. X. Mainly because if he was a stranger, then the Council boys were going to think I was insane. As I climbed up the stairs, I realized that Theo was in his pajamas: a shirt from one of his family’s bear-shifter summer camps and a pair of briefs. I’d never seen his legs before. He was built with more muscles than I thought possible on a body.
Luckily, he didn’t catch me admiring his strong legs. He yawned and stretched.
“Let’s go back to bed. You scared the hell out of me.”
“Right,” I said. He glanced at the bag affixed around my body but said nothing. Good. I hoped he was too sleepy for his brain to make any connections.
“I’ll walk you back to your room,” he offered. “I swear I could’ve heard some dude talking.”
“No idea. Maybe somebody is playing music?” I suggested ambiguously. As we turned to go down my hall, somebody came onto the landing from the other side. Three pairs of eyes met awkwardly.
“Evening,” Enrique said smoothly. I stared at him, taking in his V-neck and jogger pants. I raised an eyebrow.
“Where have you been?” I asked in a rising tone. He shot me a funny look and smirked, crossing his arms.
“Returning from a date, if you must know, princess. Jealous?”
Theo rubbed his eyes and checked his watch. I wasn’t done. I took a step towards him and tried to study his clothes, trying to see if there might be a secret connection to Mr. X.
“Where?”
The blond raised an eyebrow. “You know I have certain places in the castle.”
“You were there all night?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I was talking to Dracus,” he said. His voice was smooth, but there was a hint of irritation in it. I drew myself back. He asked, “Do you want to know what she and I did together?”
Naughty thoughts entered my mind. I shook my head. “No. Sorry.” I tried to cover. “Theo thought he heard something weird.” Whoever started that rumor about Enrique being in love with me was obviously wrong.
“Yes,” Theo said with a grunt. “And I’d like to sleep now.”
Right, right. “Goodnight, Enrique.”
The lion-shifter waved, but I felt his stare on my back for a few moments.
“Thanks, Theo. I hope you can go back to bed,” I said at my door. He yawned and nodded.
“I’ll see you at training.”
Little did he know…
I wouldn’t be in training today.