Damn it. We needed to get out of here.
“Forget us.” Grey’s voice rumbled with power.
Rasla’s eyes fogged slightly, but he shook his head violently.
Grey gripped my arm, and we strode away. I looked behind, spotting Rasla staring after us, his face twisted in confusion. He didn’t follow us, however.
“That’s going to be a problem,” Grey murmured.
“He’ll look for us.”
“I believe so. My power did not work on him this time. Not well, at least. I am not sure why. He may have taken a potion to protect himself from that sort of influence. Or perhaps he’s wearing a charm.”
I shivered, hoping we could get in and out of there before Rasla caused us too many problems. “He couldn’t have recognized me because the last time he saw me, it was in the future. And he was a ghost.”
“But he said you looked familiar.”
I thought of the woman I’d seen in my vision. Her image had been blurry, but she might have looked like me. Did I remind him of her? “He might have noticed your glamour wearing off.”
Grey nodded, his brow furrowed. “We just need to finish and get back to our time before he finds us.”
We reached the clearing in front of Grey’s tower a moment later, but he stopped, inspecting the guards out front.
“Do you remember them?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Not well. Perhaps not at all. I may be confusing them with others. There have been many over the years.”
It sounded terribly lonely.
“We shouldn’t enter that way.” He pointed toward the side of the tower. “That will be safer. I have a secret entrance. It’d be a shame to run into my former self in front of witnesses, especially with the potion wearing off.”
I looked up at him. He was right. He looked almost normal now, back to his usual self. “Pull your hat down further.”
He did, dipping his face. “Come.”
I followed him around the side of the square, keeping to the front of the restaurants and shops that surrounded his tower. There were trees planted along the city wall, and we were able to stay behind them as we walked, taking advantage of a bit of cover.
The guards looked our way at one point, and Grey waved at them. They inclined their head in recognition, and we continued on.
“They are used to me approaching from this direction,” he said. “As long as my former self doesn’t walk out those doors in the next two minutes, we’ll be fine.”
My heartbeat thundered as we neared the tower. Worry streaked through me.
There were two Greys in this timeline. Would we be able to manage this bit smoothly? So much rested on it.
We reached the side of the tower, which was concealed behind a grove of trees and flowering rosebushes.
“I had these planted,” Grey murmured, “to provide cover for this side entrance.”
“Do you still use it?”
“Not as much, no.” He stopped in front of the stone wall. There was no door, but he pressed his palm to the stones. Magic flared, and the wall disappeared. A wooden door revealed itself, and he pulled it open and looked inside. “Clear.” He stepped into the darkened hallway, and I followed.
The air smelled faintly of candle wax and perfume. Sconces along the hall, lit by magic, glittered gold and green.
Grey gestured to them. “We used that instead of electricity for the longest time.”
“Why did you switch?” I quite liked the magical lamps.
“They aren’t as convenient as modern lights. Nor as bright.”
He was right. The shadows were thick. He started down the hall, gesturing for me to follow. “Come. I spent quite a bit of time in the club during this century. We should check there first.”
“The club?”
“Before it was a bar, my tower was a club for the wealthiest and most powerful in town. A bit like a bar, but staider.”
I crossed my fingers, hoping we would find the old version of Grey in his flat. It would be easiest to take care of him there.
The noise of the club grew louder as we approached, but we saw no one in the hall. We reached a narrow door, and Grey stopped beside it, whispering, “This hallway is mine alone, but beyond that door is the club.”
He reached for a small painting on the wall and gripped the side of the frame. He pulled, and the painting swung open like a door.
A square piece of murky glass was inset into the wall, and he pressed a hand to it. Suddenly, the smoke in the glass cleared, and an image of the bar on the other side appeared.
“Amazing.” I stepped forward, peering into the club.
The structure was the same as it had been in our time, but the stage was gone. The bar was smaller and located on a different wall. Tables of varying sizes were filled with men and women. A mixed gender club must be unusual for the time, but Guild City played by different rules than the real world. Armchairs were positioned in front of flickering fireplaces that no longer existed in the present.
I searched the faces for Grey, hoping not to see him.
When my gaze landed on the impossibly handsome man sitting at a raised table in the corner, my heart raced. Excitement. Fear. “You’re in there.”
Grey cupped my shoulder, and I looked up at him.
“You’re sure you want to try it this way?” Concern echoed in his voice. “I was a different man then. Dangerous.”
“You were dangerous when I first met you.”
A wry smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Perhaps more dangerous now, given our circumstances.”
“You would never hurt me.”
Darkness flickered in his eyes, along with worry, and I knew he was thinking about the beast inside him.
I pressed a hand to his chest. “Leave it to me. We planned this, and I know what to do.”
We’d discussed it a dozen times, the various scenarios that might play out and how we would react. This had been one of them. I stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his mouth, then opened a vial of one of Eve’s potions. It was similar to the one he’d taken—a draught that would change my face and even my magical signature.
Grey didn’t remember meeting me in the past, and it would be dangerous if his past self sensed that I was his mate. Better for my looks and magic to be different. It would provide me with cover.
I showed Grey my new face. “How do I look?”
“Beautiful. Not as beautiful as normal, but he’ll want you.”
“How do you know?”
“I know.”
“All right, then.” I glanced down at my hair, noticing that it was now black. I wouldn’t have long with this new face, so I needed to get a move on. “I’ll see you soon.”
He nodded. “Be careful.”
“Will do.” I turned and looked through the glass window.
The Grey in the club was looking away and wouldn’t see me enter, so I took my chance and pushed my way through the door, slipping into the crowd.
Immediately, I was surrounded by the scents and sounds of the past, all of it so unfamiliar. The scents were intense—perfumes that had fallen out of favor and strong liquor and wine. The dialect was possible to understand, though difficult.
I drew in a steady breath and approached Grey’s table.
The Devil.
I shouldn’t think of him as Grey, because he wasn’t.
As I neared his table, his gaze landed on me. It was cold—icily so.
Immediately, I was thrown back to when I’d met him for the first time in Guild City. He’d reminded me of a statue carved of the coldest granite. His eyes were an icy gray, his cheekbones sharp, and his jaw hard. As with before, the only soft thing about him was his lips, and even those looked like they would bruise.
He sprawled elegantly in a chair behind the table, so perfectly still that it was eerie. I shouldn’t be processing him anew, like I was seeing him for the first time, but I was.
The Grey that I knew today was an entirely different man.
But this man…
He was dangerous. Deadly.
God, how he’d changed. At least around me. I was sure the rest of Guild City still knew him as this quiet, deadly predator. But I’d almost forgotten what he’d been like when we’d first met.
His dark eyebrows arched up, curiosity in his eyes. He said nothing, but he didn’t need to. It was a summons. A command.
I stepped forward, my heart thundering.
He had no idea who I was. Who I was to him.
It would be centuries yet before I would meet him.
I drew in a steady breath and ascended the stairs to the raised platform upon which he sat.
“Madam.” His voice was as cold as his eyes. “You dare much to approach my table without an introduction.”
I smiled. “You’ve no idea what I would dare.”
Interest flickered in his eyes. “Your accent. It is unusual. Foreign.”
Foreign to this time, not this place. I was pure London, circa 2020. But I couldn’t tell him that. So I merely inclined my head. Without asking, I took the seat across from him.
The slightest smile threatened to tug at his mouth, but he kept it suppressed. I wouldn’t have noticed it if I were meeting him for the first time, but I’d grown used to his quirks.
“Well?” he asked.
I gave a slight shrug, attempting to force my face into bored lines. “I have something I’d like to discuss with you. Privately.”
His eyebrows rose again. “Really?”
“Indeed.” I smiled. “It is in regard to Petra.”
That time, he did nothing to disguise his naked curiosity. “How do you know of that?”
Because you told me.
Petra was a dangerous but valuable business venture from this century that Grey had remembered, an irresistible lure to the Devil that I knew next to nothing about.
“I’ll discuss it in your chambers.” I stood, my heartbeat thundering beneath his gaze, and prayed he couldn’t hear it.
“You are nervous.” His gaze dropped to my chest, but he wasn’t leering. He was look at the heart that beat so frantically. “Your heart is going wild.”