Page 166 of Sword & Sacrifice

Emmaline kept her eyes on those curtains, expecting Lady Carmine to emerge from them in an artful state of disarray.

Rafe never bothered to look at the bed as they closed the door. They flipped the lock shut again and walked around the room like they owned the place, heading straight for the wardrobe and rifling through its contents.

A few minutes passed. Emmaline looked between the locked door, Rafe, and the bed. Since they seemed preoccupied and not ready to talk, she approached the bed and peeked behind the curtain.

It was empty. Apparently, Lady Carmine wasn’t in residence.

Since they were alone, it should be safe to talk. “Who are you really?” As Emmaline asked the question, she turned to look at Rafe, only to find them stripping out of their clothes. Their back was to Emmaline so all she could see were their bare shoulders and narrow waist. They kicked off their trousers and stepped into a red dress puddled at their feet, then quickly pulled the bodice up to cover their chest. Though the dress looked expensive and complicated, the simple style of the buttons allowed Rafe to fasten them alone.

“I’ll explain once it’s safe,” they said, their voice changing once again to a musical lilt. When they turned around, a beautiful woman stood in their place with long red hair cascading down her shoulders. Large breasts that were certainly not there before spilled out of her bodice.

Emmaline’s eyes locked on the generously exposed cleavage. Do they feel real? Heat burned her cheeks at her inappropriate thoughts.

“Get on the bed,” Rafe demanded.

Emmaline gaped at him—them—her. “Excuse me?”

A distant bang made her whirl around to face the door. Shouting came from downstairs as a newcomer argued with the girls.

Rafe grabbed Emmaline’s shoulders and walked her backwards until her knees hit the edge of the bed and she fell onto it. It bounced with her weight before settling into a soft indent cocooning her body.

Then Rafe climbed on top of Emmaline, one knee straddling each side of her hips, and spread her skirts out around them.

“Rafe!”

“Lady Carmine,” she corrected. She leaned forward, covering most of Emmaline’s body with her own. Her breasts pressed against Emmaline, who discovered that they did, in fact, feel soft and plush and very, very real.

Footsteps banged up the stairs. A moment later, the door burst open. “Where are they—” Nico’s voice cut off.

Lady Carmine looked over her shoulder, her sultry lips pursed in a pout. “Excuse you, sir. I’m with a client and she did not pay for additional guests. You’ll have to wait your turn.”

Nico ignored her and stomped toward the bed, thrusting the curtains open the rest of the way. He scanned Emmaline’s face and her heart pounded as she waited for him to recognize her. But the glamour did its job, and his eyes slid right past her. He took in her sprawled position and her hands—which had somehow ended up cupping Lady Carmine’s breasts—and quickly dismissed her as a customer. He bent over to check under the bed, then searched behind the dressing screen and inside the wardrobe on the other side of the room.

Last, he tried to check the window, grunting, and straining against it as he failed to pry it open.

“It’s painted shut, I’m afraid,” Lady Carmine replied, standing up and fixing her dress. She stood in front of Emmaline to offer her ‘client’ more privacy. “May I ask who you’re looking for so frantically?”

Even the cadence of her voice and her vocabulary had changed. If Emmaline hadn’t watched Rafe transform into Lady Carmine, she would never believe they were the same person. That type of skilled glamour was exactly how Niall fooled everyone at Causley Estate. Dread raised gooseflesh over Emmaline’s skin, and she scooted further back on the bed.

“Raphael Hackett,” Nico snapped. “I know he came here after he ran off with the captain’s daughter.”

Lady Carmine arched a brow and pouted her luscious scarlet lips. “Are you saying he’s found someone else to shower his affection upon? Pity, I did enjoy his company. Unfortunately, he hasn’t seen fit to introduce us yet, which I fear may mean I’ve lost a valued customer.” She cupped her cheek with a graceful hand and sighed dramatically, breasts heaving.

Nico rolled his eyes but finally decided there was nowhere else for Rafe to hide. “If you see him, tell him he’d better return to the ship on his own before the captain finds him.” He cast one last glance at Emmaline before storming out of the room and down the stairs.

Emmaline sat up on the bed, waiting to speak until they knew he was gone for good.

Lady Carmine closed the door and leaned against it in a distinctly inelegant slump. “Never did like the prick.”

“Who are you?” Emmaline demanded again.

“Right, time for proper introductions.” Lady Carmine returned to the wardrobe for a new outfit. This time, she chose to change clothes behind the dressing screen. The person who stepped out from behind it was the same androgynous version they’d become after removing their eyepatch. “My friends call me Echo; my real captain calls me a pain in the ass.” They offered a cheeky grin and a hand to Emmaline.

She blinked and shook their hand in a daze. Several questions flitted through her mind at once but the first one she blurted out was: “So, you really are a mage?”

“Not classically trained,” Echo replied, dropping onto one of the nearby couches. They spread their arms over the back and rested one foot on the other knee. “I don’t have a mentor, and I didn’t spend decades studying from dusty books if that’s what you’re thinking. I know a few tricks, mostly glamours and the like. They come in handy for the job.”

“And your job is …”