“Yes,” Bitterlich said sick to his heart. “Not to belabor the point we made love, or at least had sex. For what it’s worth, I asked her, and she pulled my pants down. Unfortunately, we had done an inadequate job of securing our perimeter.”

“You were discovered.”

“By her father, yes. He raged at both of us. I looked to Eulalie for support … but she turned on me. She claimed I had forced myself on her. I don’t know if her father believed her or not, but that didn’t matter so long as he could plausibly shed his family’s dishonor. He shadowburned me to within a hair of my life. Only the fact that I was Grand Leon’s own ward stopped him from turning me into a bloodhollow. By the time I regained my senses, she was safely married off. I went out of my way to never trouble her sight again.”

“Tonight she acted like nothing ever happened,” Isabelle said, her voice tight with anger. “Disgusting.”

“It was a long time ago,” Bitterlich said.

“It was about ten minutes ago,” Isabelle said.

Bitterlich shrugged. That wasn’t the whole of what Eulalie had done to him in that awful hour. Her father had demanded proof of her loyalty and she’d given it to him. To prove her virtue, her loyalty to the Sanguinaire blood, she’d cut his nerves with her bloodshadow, left him useless and numb between the legs, forever impotent. It was just one more way he was less than a man.

He couldn’t give Isabelle the children she wanted. He couldn’t bear the shame of admitting he’d been gelded. Not a man. If anyone in the world would understand, it was Isabelle, but even the thought of speaking his pain tied a knot in his tongue.

To change the subject Bitterlich said, “I still need to give you my report. I followed Quill…” He recounted Quill’s movements through the course of the day. Speaking of business as normal helped calm his nerves; spies and intrigue were soothing, ordinary things.

“I want to know why he was talking to Pyros,” Isabelle said. “As much as this will make a long night for you, I’m afraid I must ask you to go back and keep an eye on him. See if he contacts anyone else.”

Bitterlich chuckled. “Better a night skulking through trash-littered alleys than going back into that party.”

CHAPTER

Five

Isabelle slugged down one of Gretl’s snot-flavored potions and lay back in bed, truly alone with her thoughts for the first time in days. Well, her thoughts plus the chorus, which often dulled but never entirely went silent.

You cannot deny family. Her ancestral chorus poured into her mind from the everdream.

“I decide my own destiny,” Isabelle growled at them. “I did not ask for you. I do not want you. You do not get a say.”