Lupi 04 - Night Season

color of the Hershey’s Kisses Gan liked so much—shook Cullen. It made him doubt. She’s playing the bastard , he told himself. She’d let him dress her to please himself because she was pretending to be trapped, enraptured by the glamour he cast.
    She was a knockout in it. A thin crimson scarf crossed between her breasts and wrapped her waist, showing off her Amazon’s figure. A slit up one side gave a long glimpse of leg. He wanted to lick his way up that leg.
    Aduello stroked Cynna’s arm casually, as one might pet a cat. She didn’t move. She didn’t even look at Cullen. Her expression was blank, dull. “Theil,” Aduello said with a polite nod, “it is good to see you, of course, but you come in strange company. Or perhaps I should say, in strangely numerous company. And you, sir”—another nod, this one for Hunter—“I am unsure what to call you.”
    Hunter stepped forward. “My most recent name is Hunter. That will do. Thank you for allowing us entry, Liege Aduello.”
    â€œI’m told”—another lingering caress of Cynna’s arm—“that you are not here hunting breakers of the queens’ law.”
    â€œI am not on a hunt, sir. But I am here at my queen’s behest. My purpose is to escort one she has sent questing. I present to you Kai Tallman.”
    The tall, broad-shouldered woman stepped forward and bowed her head briefly. “Liege Aduello, I understand the woman beside you is not the only one you rescued from the Ahk.”
    â€œThat is true.”
    â€œI would like you to have the others brought here.”
    â€œWould you?” He’d possessed himself of Cynna’s hand and toyed with her fingers. This touch seemed to call her back to herself. She cocked her head, giving Aduello a heavy-lidded smile. “And yet I feel no need to do so.”
    Cynna spoke suddenly. “They’re all right.” She was still smiling like a fool, but at least she looked at them now instead of the man playing with her. “They’re fine. Aduello gave them the rose quartz suite—that’s what I call it, anyway. You should see it. It’s gorgeous. But…” She looked at the sidhe beside her. “Aduello, they’d like to see Cullen. Can’t they come see him? In fact…” She frowned slightly, as if puzzled. “They may want to return with Cullen and these people. They aren’t as happy here as I am.”
    â€œAh, well.” He patted her hand, all indulgence. “Why not, if you wish it? Ertho, you’ll see to it?” He gave the edge of his smile to one of the men on the dais with him. The man left, using an artfully concealed crevice in the stone wall behind them.
    â€œLiege Aduello,” Kai Tallman said clearly, “I must ask you not to mindspeak to your people. Give them their instructions out loud, please.”
    He froze for a second. There was no trace of a smile on his face when he looked at her—looked much more closely than he had before. “I have never met a human who could use mindspeech, much less overhear it when another did so. I suspect you are imagining things.”
    â€œI do not use mindspeech. I know when it is used, however. I also know when lies are spoken.”
    Aduello’s eyebrows went up. “That would not make you comfortable company at most gatherings,” he said with polite disbelief. “But what am I thinking? I have offered you no refreshment.” He looked around as if he might have misplaced a servant among the cushions.
    â€œAduello.” Theil smiled at him. “You know why we are here, and it is not for refreshment.”
    His eyebrows rose. “To collect the humans I collected? And that other one…something like a gnome, yet not.”
    â€œWe are here about the medallion.”
    There was blunt speaking. For a sidhe, shockingly blunt.
    Aduello’s lazy smile didn’t falter. “Of course you are. You tried for my lovely Cynna yourself, didn’t you? Tried to kill her, that is. And with obab.” He shook his head. “Such a messy way to operate, my dear. You must have felt quite desperate. It’s not like you to abandon subtlety so thoroughly.”
    â€œThat,” Kai said coolly, “was a lie.”
    Aduello’s eyebrows lifted slightly. “You grow tedious.”
    â€œWhich leads me to suspect you were the one who tried to kill