Page 21 of Silver & Gold

When Raider’s food was gone, Seth set the last piece of his own fried plantains in Raider’s empty leaf.

Raider stared at it. “What is this?”

“A peace offering. Even though I don’t quite understand why you’re mad at me.”

“Because …” Raider glanced at Julian, but the young arcanist wasn’t paying attention. He was watching a snake charmer summon a hooded cobra from a basket with the reedy notes of a pungi pipe.

Raider admitted quietly, “Because, for some stupid reason, I was excited to show you the city, and now I feel like an idiot.”

“Oh.” Seth looked taken aback. “I’m sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does. I’m sorry. But I haven’t seen much of the city. I was maybe sixteen and Marcus kept me on a very short leash.”

Raider sighed. “Okay. Maybe I can show you some of it then.”

“We will have to be careful while we’re here.”

“I’m always careful.”

Seth snorted. “No, you’re not.” Before Raider could object (not that he had any evidence to back him up), Seth refocused. “We do need to figure out where we’re sleeping tonight.”

Raider popped the plantain into his mouth. “I know just the place.”

CHAPTER 7

SETH KNEW HE SHOULDN’T be happy and relaxed right now. They weren’t out of danger, not by a long shot. But he couldn’t help feeling a deep sense of rightness sitting in the upper levels of the circular amphitheater with Raider and watching a raunchy comedy play out on the stage below. Seth was the only one watching (and only sort of) because Raider was sound asleep against his shoulder.

Seth had one arm around Raider’s waist and his cheek pressed against the top of Raider’s head, and he fucking loved it.

The fact that Raider had fallen asleep in this crowded, noisy public space told Seth how damn tired he was. Raider needed a good night’s sleep. Seth needed it too. They were both going on two days with very little rest, and those two days had included the sand serpent fight, being drugged, being pursued for over a hundred miles, and a whole lot of stress. Plus, though Raider’s body healed at miraculous speed, Seth didn’t know what kind of toll the quicksilver use really took on him.

Seth turned his face to breathe in Raider’s scent. He closed his eyes in pleasure and let himself enjoy the soft waves of Raider’s hair. In unconscious response, Raider sighed. His hand twitched on Seth’s thigh. The contact was making Seth hard. But then, Raider could make him hard even without contact. With his voice, with his grin, with the way he moved.

One row down from them, Julian laughed as the monkey on stage, who was clearly the star of the show, threw a plum at one of the actors. Adavasti, in cat form, was sitting on the bench beside Julian.

Seth didn’t know what to think about the young arcanist. His instincts said that Julian was honest and trying to do the right thing. But what if he thought the right thing was turning Raider in to Empress Zarina?

Seth didn’t know what Kahzir’s book actually said, but it said enough that Malik and Rahim had identified Raider as the assassin. Julian would have realized the same.

As the third act came to an end, Julian twisted on the stone bench to look back at him and Raider. His mouth was open to say something, but he appeared dumbstruck. Seth wasn’t sure how obvious his erection was, but even if Julian somehow missed that, his and Raider’s intimacy was undeniable. Not that they hadn’t already been obvious about the nature of their relationship. It seemed to embarrass Julian, but Seth wasn’t entirely sure why.

Then again, Julian had always seemed uncomfortable around Seth, even at the Arcanum. Julian had always seemed to avoid him, and the one time that Seth had greeted him in a hallway, the young arcanist had frozen as though in terror. And that had been before Seth had chased him across hundreds of miles. (And before Seth had maybe, sort of, theoretically considered the advantages of Julian’s demise.)

Seth knew that was wrong, and he knew he would’ve hated himself for doing such a thing. But he would do whatever he had to do to protect Raider.

Julian nodded to Raider. “He’s really tired. You two should go to bed.”

“What about you?”

“I want to see the rest of the play. No one’s noticed us. Do you think it’s okay? For me to stay?”

Seth couldn’t help but see how that would give Julian a perfect opportunity to disappear. But then, unless Seth was going to stay awake all night and watch him, Julian could vanish at any time.

Seth needed sleep. And he needed time with Raider. Just Raider. There was no way to know what tomorrow would bring, but they had this moment, and Seth didn’t want to waste it.

Besides, Seth had the book. Julian wasn’t going to leave without it.