Chapters (66)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Keep Reading
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sneak Peek
- Find Me
- Books by Mary Catherine Gebhard
- Acknowledgments
I looked up just in time to see her drop the box. In the distance, pop pop pop. The fireworks going off early. At the same moment, screams sounded. I followed them to smoke rising above the trimmed green hedges of Tansy Crowne’s beloved garden maze.
“What the fuck, Gray?” Aundi snapped. “Are you trying to kill her?”
Just like that, fire forgotten.
“She’s allergic to lemon. Just smelling it can put her into anaphylaxis.”
“He didn’t know,” Lottie said, sounding scared. “He couldn’t.”
“He’s Grayson fucking Crowne. He knows everything,” Aundi said.
Alaric started laughing.
“Not funny,” Pipa said. “Are you okay?”
“Right,” Alaric laughed. “It was fucking hilarious.”
“I think they used fake lemon,” Lottie said, voice still shaken. “Gray?” She looked at him, eyes wide. Hurt. “You didn’t know I’m allergic, right?”
“You’re allergic to lemon,” Gray repeated, but the venom icing his tongue was meant for me.
Fuck.
Nine
STORY
“I didn’t know,” I said for what must have been the umpteenth time. “I really didn’t know.”
Anger rolled off Gray and turned into terror inside me.
I’d followed his silent fury until we were just inside the gardens. He didn’t say a word after Lottie rushed off with her friends. The sprawling maze flanked us on both sides. The party had ended early due to the fire, and it was eerily silent, only the smell of wet smoke mingling in the dark.
“I promise,” I said. “I was told she loves lemon cakes.”
I’d paid nearly two weeks’ wages for that information. What the hell was that girl thinking? How could she not know her own employer’s allergy? Unless…was it on purpose?
Gray pounded down the cobblestone, and I jogged to keep up. Beside us a pond that stretched over a mile glittered black in the night. Tansy Crowne fancied herself Marie Antoinette—no, that wasn’t right. Tansy Crowne would be insulted at that comparison. Versailles was a parking lot compared to Tansy Crowne’s garden.
Gray took a harsh right into a path of thick, silky flowers. I stopped. You don’t walk into Tansy Crowne’s garden, not unless there is a clear footpath.
Grayson grabbed my wrist, yanking my body to his. His hair had fallen wild over his eyes, but they shined through. Burning.
“Where are you taking me?”
A salt breeze blew and petals floated down, around and between us.
“Lesson number two in training,” he growled. “Follow your fucking master.”
Gray was walking so fast I had to jog to keep up with him, but I also tried to soak in as much as I could. This floral tunnel wasn’t known to servants. We shared all the secrets we found.
And it was beautiful.