Read Online Sevin: Lords of Satyr by Elizabeth Amber - Free Book Online

from his goblet. Whatever was inside it was not improving his humor. He didn’t want her here. If she tried to get past him, would he let her? She began sidling around the edge of the room, still hanging back under the cover of shadow.
    Meanwhile, Sevin commenced arranging things to his satisfaction. Opening several trunks he pulled out various fabrics, none of them as dusty as they should’ve been if they’d been in storage down here for some time. Tossing them down to the stone floor he unfolded them to cover the entirety of a vacant area along the wall. Then he knelt and quickly created what looked to be a makeshift pallet. A bed.
    Alexa began to panic in earnest. “What about the sycophants, the ones Eva told me of whose skin shimmers?” she asked desperately. “Can’t you bring them—”
    “Shimmerskins, you mean. We’re unable to call them forth down here.” Sevin gestured generally toward the walls. “Something about this rock or perhaps the depth we find ourselves in. I don’t know. So, you see, we will need you.”
    “I won’t,” Lucien grumbled.
    “You’ll do as I say,” Sevin growled, cutting him off. “Even if I have to force you. Both of you.”
    At that, Alexa made a wild break for the door. Unexpectedly, Lucien locked a linen-sleeved arm across the opening, blocking her exit. She pushed, but it was as unyielding as an iron bar. “Let me out,” she hissed urgently, her voice lowered so only he would hear. “Don’t you want to be rid of me?”
    Lucien twisted her around, catching her silk-covered arms painfully high behind her back. “I’d like nothing better than to let you get yourself lost in these catacombs,” he growled at her ear. “But my brother will need you soon.”
    “That’s enough, Luc,” Sevin warned.
    “It will be interesting to see how you like captivity, now that the shoe’s on the other foot,” Lucien taunted at her ear.
    And then she was free. Whirling around, she backed away from him, her eyes wide. Gazing into her face, something changed in his expression. Was that a hint of concern seeping into the vehement dislike she read there? Surely she must be mistaken.
    He took a step toward her, but she leaped away with a tiny squeak. “Have you f—been with a man?” Lucien asked her, suddenly seeming less bent on scaring her to death.
    Alexa knew what he was asking. But the fact that he felt at liberty to ask at all made all of this seem far, far too real. She slunk back into the shadows. Yes, she’d lain with a man, though the word Lucien had almost uttered more accurately described what had transpired in Venice. It had been only once. And it had been a cruel disappointment.
    “Answer him,” Sevin asked from somewhere behind her. “It will matter.” She saw that he’d found some glass bottles, the colorful ones made in the north from the look of them. And for some reason he’d set them within easy reach of the bed he’d made. She pressed back into the corner again, wedging herself between some sort of throne and a collection of urns.
    When she remained mute, he stood and went to an enormous golden fountain, washing his hands and face in its pool. Turning then, he planted one hand at his hip and sent her a level gaze. His white linen shirt gleamed in the dim light. Knowing he couldn’t see her in her hiding place, she nevertheless shook her head as if that alone would keep him at bay.
    “Come now, I know we are not an anathema to you. You were engaged to Dane at one point. Before he married Eva.”
    “That was my mother’s doing,” she said. “He and I hardly said three words to one another during our engagement, which lasted all of three minutes. He was handsome. I was far too young and stupidly infatuated with the idea of marriage. I’m older now and wiser.”
    “It was only four months ago!”
    She laughed bitterly. “I’ve done a lot of growing up in the interim, I assure you.”
    He frowned, beckoning to her. “Come out of that corner, damn