Shadow's Curse by Alexa Egan Page B

be.”
    David struggled to sit up. His chills were being overtaken by a feverish heat that damped his already clammy skin. “Damn it, I don’t care about the Duke or the N’thuil or who’s fucking in charge of the Ossine. Because of you, Beskin believes I’m in league with your rebels and that I’m carrying some blasted book. He wants it back and he’s determined to add my head to his trophy wall to gain hold of it.”
    Mac didn’t flinch. Hell, he didn’t even bat an eye. “I’d think you’d be used to pursuit by those with murder in their hearts. How many outraged husbands and scorned mistresses have queued up to put a bullet through you? There must be scores by now.”
    “Flannery . . .” David said with an impatient growl.
    Mac shoved himself to his feet and walked around to lean against the desk, a sly smile creeping over his face. “Where does the woman come into it?”
    “Her name is Callista Hawthorne.”
    “No wonder Beskin believes you guilty of treason. She reeks of Other magic, or hadn’t you noticed?”
    “Of course I bloody well noticed,” David growled. “If I’d known what she was at the time, you can be sure I’d have run the other way as fast as four legs could carry me.”
    “At the time?” Mac’s face cleared to one of dawning comprehension. “You played your avenger act again in some slimy back alley, didn’t you? What happened? Did you save her from a tragic fate worse than death, only to find yourself stuck with her?”
    “You’ve got the stuck bit right.” David slumped farther into his seat. “But the humiliating truth is . . . she saved me. Twice.”
    *  *  *
    “Here’s a nightgown, Miss Hawthorne. It should be about the right size. I wore it pre-belly,” Bianca Flannery said with a grimace and a pat of her rotund mid-section, though she looked anything but unhappy at her growing bump.
    Callista had seen the famous actress once before, back when she was still Bianca Parrino and London theater’s darling. She could never in a million years have imagined one day she’d be standing in the woman’s guest bedchamber borrowing nightclothes. But why had David brought her here? It was obvious he knew Captain Flannery and his wife. But did that mean . . . could it be that the captain was one of theseImnada as well? Could both husband and wife be shapechangers? Or was it just the opposite and Mrs. Flannery had no inkling of her husband’s powers?
    “I’ll have Molly bring you some supper. You look completely done in.”
    A minor understatement. Callista would gladly have crawled between the covers of the bed behind her, turned her back on the plague of unanswered questions, and slept for a month.
    “I’ve some cold chicken and biscuits and there may even be a bit of cake left.”
    Callista’s stomach gave an embarrassing growl.
    “Yes, definitely supper,” Bianca Flannery affirmed. “And two slices of cake.”
    “It’s not what you think,” Callista blurted “That is, David . . . I mean, Mr. St. Leger and myself aren’t what you think . . .” Her words trailed off into an embarrassed silence and her face grew hot, almost unbearably so. Mrs. Flannery looked up from turning back the bedcovers to regard her with a mix of compassion and kindness; two emotions all but unknown in Branston’s household.
    “That is to say”—Callista scrambled to fill the silence—“we’re merely traveling in company. Not as a couple . . . or . . . anything scandalous.”
    Though it was scandalous, disastrously so. It didn’t matter if they never did more than spend time in a closed carriage together. Just the fact that she was an unmarried female in the company of an unmarried male was enough to ruin her. Would it be enough for Mr. Corey to break off the engagement? Perhaps if she was very lucky. But would it also be enough to keep Aunt Deirdre from taking her in?
    In Callista’s haste to escape, she’d not thought that part through. Or if she had,