“Does he seem like he belongs in the Cage?”
Course she would pick up on that. Nalah was as connected to the fights as he was, even if she hadn’t ever stepped into the ring. “No, but damned if he’s not a fighter. He’s one of the few who’d made me take notice.”
“I got that, but that doesn’t translate to participating in the Tour. The timing is suspicious.”
He didn’t get that from the orc. Yeah, she was right, there was something more that had him here, but Esh wasn’t worried about other fighter. But what she was saying did bring up a question. “How many know about Beylor having this item?”
“I don’t know. It’s a recent development, but it wasn’t exactly a secret transaction.”
Esh swallowed hard against the spew of curses rising up. Why did the Guild send her in here without information? This was supposed to be some all-important magic, but the person trying to find it was flying blind. “The Guild ain’t impressing me much.”
“I met my contact.” Nalah’s voice was so low it was barely above lip-reading, but he caught it.
With a quick look around to verify where everyone was, he pulled her to the side of a building and pushed her against the wall, bending low so her face was inches from his. “Tell me.”
“A guard. I don’t know what he looks like, and we only had a moment.”
“When do you meet again?”
“We didn’t have enough time to decide on one.”
“So not impressed with the Guild.” Even he heard the pissed-off growl in his voice.
But Nalah laughed, her eyes clear and easy in a way they hadn’t been since before. “Contrary to rumor, they don’t know everything. Well, maybe Tec does, but he’s too busy with online gaming in his off time to tell them.”
“Who’s Tec?” Pissed off and jealous. Great combination.
“Not my boyfriend,” she said, which was the most important information to him after all, and her smile said she knew it.
Hmmm. Wasn’t this a cozy spot to explore that smile, somewhere she couldn’t get away easily unless she wanted to make a scene.
Her eyes widened and her body shifted for flight, but he bracketed her head with his forearms. “Not fair, Esh.”
“So?” he said as his mouth lowered. “Think of it as keeping up appearances.”
He brushed his mouth over hers, playful and light, and she began to relax, pushed herself up on tiptoe to meet him.
It became a game, one of them pushing into the kiss, trying to deepen it while the other held off, then a sudden switch, the roles reversed. No matter which, Nalah’s smile held, her lips satiny smooth against his.
And then she froze, her mouth hardening, and her head whipped to the side so fast a few braids flicked against his chin.
Following her gaze, he saw the albino fighter. He hadn’t met the man earlier. While the other fighters played at introductions and good wishes, the albino had been there only long enough to see the competition, then had gone to the forest.
Rorth was one of the fighters Esh was keeping his eye on. This guy was another. “Did he speak to you today during your travels, like Rorth?”
His gaze never left the albino, but he saw the quick shake of her head from the corner of his eye. “Worse.”
The pale fighter’s stare never wavered from them, and under his hands Nalah began to tremble. Inside him, something kicked, fought free to take on this thing, this being who didn’t feel right, even without anything in him like Nalah had.
She pulled on his arm, and he looked down to find Nalah staring up at him. She blinked, her eyes going from fearful and confused to determined. “We need to get back to the apartment. Please. You can’t fight him here. They’ll kick us out of the Tour.”
Yeah, he had to get away. Her hand tugged on his, and without further comment Nalah led them back, quicker on the return trip than they’d been going out.
The door had only shut behind them when he said, “What did you feel? There’s something magic with him.”
Nalah was pulling herself back together. “I don’t know if it’s from him, but there’s dark magic connected to him, strong enough that even here I feel it full blast.”
“But magic doesn’t work here.”
“Most magic,” she corrected, pressing the heel of her left hand against her forehead.
With that gesture, he went to a cabinet, grabbed medicine, and gave it to her with some water. Her startled expression morphed into thankfulness, and she downed the offering. “It’s strong enough that it’s giving you a headache?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”