"Blood never lies." Amanusa stood a little straighter, stared a little harder. "What was done happened without intention."
Bitter laughter found him. "You expect me to believe-"
"I expect you to believe me." Amanusa's voice seemed to thunder through the room, though she spoke quietly. Perhaps it only thundered through him. She softened. "You know me, Grey. Have I ever lied to you?"
"No. But she-"
"I have examined her. Do you understand what I am saying? I have seen her mind. I know her heart. There was no manipulation, no intent to deceive."
Grey shook his head, had been all the while she spoke. "She is false to her core. I will not have her-"
Amanusa interrupted him again. "I am magister of the sorcerer's guild. I have spoken the truth of what I have seen and what I know. Pearl Parkin has passed the necessary requirements to be named sorcerer and a member of the guild. She will work with the Briganti as sorceress." She paused and gave Grey an iron-hard look. "Or none of us will. Choose."
Betrayal shuddered through Grey all over again. He had thought Amanusa his friend. How could she turn against him like this?
"Have a care," Jax said quietly, appearing from nowhere at Grey's elbow. "You begin to sound like Cranshaw."
Was he? Shock blew away the sense of betrayal. But it wasn't sorcery he hated, or even all sorcerers. Just one.
But Amanusa was correct. As magister and the only master sorceress, she alone determined who would be admitted to the sorcery guild. He had no right to undermine her authority, even if he could.
But Pearl had made him her familiar. She had trapped him, bound him. Used him.
How could he ignore that? He could not.
And yet. If he interpreted correctly what Amanusa seemed to be saying . . . "You rode her blood?" he asked quietly. He did not want his underlings to know he had been so easily duped, so completely defeated. But he needed to understand exactly what Amanusa meant.
"Yes."
"You searched her thoughts, her secret heart?"
"Yes. She did not know the things you did together would result in-"
Grey held up a hand to ward off that word. Familiar. One use meaning comfort, another meaning enslavement. "Are you saying she did it by accident? We, what, fell into a barrel of magical tar and got stuck together?"
Amanusa sighed. "Essentially, yes."
Grey's lips pressed together, thinning, holding back the words and anger wanting out. He did trust Amanusa. They did need the sorcery. But-
"All right," he said. "But keep her away from me."
He turned and stalked away, his emotions churning violently. He sensed Mary peek in and shy away again. He wouldn't come near himself, either, if he had a choice, and it enraged him all over again. It was all because of Pearl Parkin.
She had to have left some of her spell intact. Almost, he turned around to go back and demand answers from Amanusa, but she had already forced his hand once today. He could not endure being made to back down again. Not for another day or two.
Amanusa and her students would be around and about I-Branch. He could discuss it with her later.
Grey had not realized how difficult it would be, to see Pearl so close at hand day after day. Every time he saw her, a shuddering lightning bolt of desire slammed into his body with an I want that, I need that, and an eternity passed before his reasoning mind could beat it back into submission. When he reminded himself of her betrayal, his lower self would retort I don't care. She is mine. It would not be persuaded that he did not want her. And that infuriated him.
His Briganti learned to evaporate faster.
Pearl obviously knew to avoid him. No doubt Amanusa had told her so, after his capitula-after their agreement. When he did see her, Pearl was always with two or three other students, which made it doubly hard once he decided on confrontation. She had to remove all of her spell.
The week wore away into the weekend without change. Though they had proved to their satisfaction that the same man had murdered Angus Galloway and Rose Bowers, they still did not know who that was. Nor had they discovered the location of his new workroom. And Grey had not managed to corner Pearl alone.
On Sunday, he resorted to watching through his front parlor window for her to pass by on the street. Not all the students attended church service, but Pearl always did.
Grey believed. He was a conjurer. How could he not believe? But he wasn't good at communal things like Sunday service. Especially in his current state. He didn't particularly want to hear what God had to say to him, which was probably a sign, but he ignored it. He sat in his parlor and watched.
She was not in the first cluster of females arrayed in flower-bright colors walking past his house back to Brown's. Nor was she one of the second pair. They weren't sorcery students at all, but neighbors. Finally, when he began to despair of her appearance, she came strolling slowly along with one of the younger students.
Grey was out his front door and down the steps in an instant. He caught Pearl's arm and held on tight enough so she couldn't break free. "I must speak with you."
He might have encouraged her toward the house a trifle forcefully, but Pearl didn't resist.
"Miss Parkin!" the other girl cried. "Shall I fetch the magister?"
"No, no." Pearl couldn't break free of him. He wasn't sure she tried. "Tell Mrs. Greyson I have stopped at Magister Carteret's house to speak with him. She is not to worry. I am perfectly fine."
Grey dragged her up the stairs, into the house, and shut the door before it occurred to him to wonder. If she came willingly into his house, did that mean something? Was this all part of her continuing plot to make him miss her so she could-?
"Well?" Pearl had less patience than he did, and he had almost none. "What did you want to talk about?"
"Is this your plan?" He stared at her with narrow-eyed suspicion. "Did you want to come in and talk?"
She threw up her hands, breaking his hold. "There is no plan. There never was. I have never had any plan, except to learn magic, and I don't see how you can fault me for that when you were exactly the same when you were my age. Exactly. I've heard the things you did then.
"If you don't believe me, then believe Amanusa. She rode my blood. She poked and pried into every dark corner I have. She didn't do it because of you. She rides the blood of every one of her apprentice candidates, to see what sort of person we are. And she named me sorceress." She planted her hands on her hips and got right up in his face.
"There wasn't, isn't, and never will be any plot to trap you into anything. All right?" Pearl was nearly shouting by the time she finished.
It made Grey's entire body quiver. Pearl in a passion had always done that to him, but shouldn't be doing it still. "Then why do I feel like this?" he almost shouted back.
"Like what?" She didn't give an inch. It was not admirable. It was annoying.
"Like-" How could he explain without sounding weak? But it was a weakness she created. "I still want you. I miss you. I shouldn't." He scowled. "You must not have broken the spell properly, the one that made me your-" He waved a hand, unable to say the word.
She shook her head at him. "The binding is broken, utterly. Amanusa swore it. It doesn't take magic for a man to want a woman. You've wanted other women."
Her more reasonable tone made it possible for Grey to calm himself. A little. He ran a hand back through his tangle of hair, marveling that it was still attached, given how much he'd done it lately. "Yes. I've had lovers. But when it ended, it ended. It didn't linger like this." He shook his head. "It has to be a spell."
Pearl's smile was gentle, sweet. Loving.
Lies. Weren't they?
"Maybe this time was different," she said, "not because of magic, but because maybe, just possibly, you felt something more than mere lust. Maybe what you felt was real." She licked her lips and cleared her throat before continuing. "I know Mary was the one, true love of your life, but couldn't-"
"Mary is my sister!" The words burst out, driven by shock.
"Oh." Pearl blinked a moment, before a beautiful smile spread across her face. "Oh."
"Don't." Grey shook a warning finger in her face.
"Don't assume. Don't you dare. If I felt anything at all for you-and I am admitting to nothing-but if I did, it was pure animal lust. Sex, and that alone."
Pearl took a step closer to him, her pink tongue slipping out to trace across that delicate lower lip. "Prove it."
By God, he would.
He closed the distance between them with a leap, snatching her into his arms for a frontal assault on that taunting tongue and the lips that enclosed it. His hands went on a flanking maneuver to cover as much territory as possible, so that he could conquer and possess all the sooner.
"Grey. Grey." Pearl's voice reached him. Did she protest? Why? This was her idea. "We're in the foyer."