Throne of the Fallen полностью

Grinding her teeth, she climbed down from the bed, keeping her voice low. “My lord, you can simply walk out the door unscathed. Why are you helping me?”

“Trust me, I’m as far removed from a saint as one can get.” He flashed his teeth. “What I am is someone completely uninterested in society games or playing the role of a besotted fool, Miss Antonius. I do not desire the complication. If you’re ruined, it will negatively impact my plan. If you’re attached to that drunkard, it will also complicate matters for me. I’m helping myself first, which has a trickle-down effect of assisting you.”

“How very noble,” she murmured. Of all the men in Waverly Green, how had she ended up stuck with him?

Without another word, Synton nimbly hoisted himself out the window, finding purchase on the edge of the iron roof, then poked his head back inside. Shadows carved his face into dangerous lines, and for a moment, his eyes became ebony pools. Then he blinked and whatever hidden depths she thought she’d seen vanished.

Who is this man? She paused halfway to the window, indecision warring inside her. To be so close to her goal and to walk away was unfathomable. To climb out the window with this stranger seemed insanity. Yet if she stayed, she’d find herself in worse circumstances.

“Camilla.” Synton’s voice rang with authority. “Vexley will break through that door soon. Unless you wish to become his bride, I’d hurry.”

With one final look at the forgery, Camilla made her choice and prayed she would live to regret it.

NINE

ENVY HELPED CAMILLA onto the metal roof, more concerned by the way she squeezed her eyes shut and teetered across the steep incline than by the loud banging still coming from the door inside.

He’d have them down in the garden and off to his waiting carriage before Vexley could find them, but only if Camilla didn’t have a stroke first.

“Open your eyes,” he demanded quietly.

Having her break her neck would be inconvenient, to say the least. He had no idea what her death might mean for the game, but it certainly wouldn’t be good.

Camilla shook her head, her face pale in the moonlight.

For the first time since their tumble, Envy tuned in to her emotions, feeling the iciness of her fear travel down his own spine. If he’d been mortal, he’d have shuddered from the coldness of it.

Camilla wasn’t simply afraid, she was petrified.

“Is it the height or the fear of being caught?”

“Both,” she gritted out, keeping her eyes shut tight.

His magic detected a lie, but he couldn’t dwell on it.

Her teeth chattered loudly, and soon her whole body would start shaking. Her slippered foot slid across the roof.

Envy didn’t wish to reveal any hint that he was more than human, but Camilla needed to be on solid ground before she did something reckless, like faint.

He slipped one arm under her legs, then banded the other around her middle, tucking her small frame tight against him.

Surprisingly, she curled into his body without resistance, shivering like someone who’d been pulled from frigid waters. Her reaction was extreme, even for human fear, but he had no time to puzzle it out now.

“Relax,” he commanded. “This will be over in a second.”

“What do you—”

“Quiet.”

She squirmed and he stepped off the roof, landing effortlessly with a quiet thunk in the dewy grass before she could cry out.

Instead of being relieved, Camilla latched onto him harder, practically crawling up his body as she pressed her face into his chest, her breathing quick and uneven.

He swept a hand over her forehead. Sweat beaded across her brow and the back of her neck. He glanced up at the roof, brows tugged close.

“Camilla. Breathe. We’re on solid ground.”

“We… we could have died.”

“Death isn’t in my plan, pet.”

A beat of silence passed.

“Do not call me pet.”

“Noted, kitten.”

She uttered a filthy name under her breath, her trembling easing as she shifted from fear back to annoyance.

He smiled. Good. She was feeling feisty enough to work through whatever beginning stages of shock she’d been experiencing.

Perhaps he also smiled because he realized he liked annoying her. Despite the strict rules of this society that tried to tame women, she bit back. He enjoyed seeing her teeth.

Envy was so focused on Camilla that he didn’t notice they had company until a pointed object cut through the night, jabbing him sharply between his shoulder blades as a shadowy arm lashed out from the shrubbery.

A hiss escaped his lips—more from surprise than pain—as he spun around, keeping Camilla out of harm’s reach.

“What—”

“Unhand my friend at once, you scoundrel!”

Lady Katherine leapt from the nearest bush, lifting her weapon again—her heeled shoe—and waving it threateningly.

Envy closed his eyes, wondering whether the game was truly worth this cost. If his brothers could see him now. Being assaulted by women’s footwear.

“I swear, if you ruin her—”

“Does it look like I’m ravishing her?” he growled, keeping his voice low.