"It's not as though I would've let him near her, Mags!" Auguste snapped, but he huffed and settled as I tugged on his hand to restrain him.
"Only that…there was no reason to feel like I'd seen him before, because I haven't. It was more like I could tell that he recognized me," I answered.
"How did you get away?" Siobhan asked, and Auguste bared his teeth at her. I didn't understand why Auguste was so aggressive with the strangers, but I would wait until we were alone to ask.
"I had a discreet safeguard in place," Magdalena said before I could answer, and my lips shut on my answer about Ezra. No wonder he hadn't come into the office with us. Magdalena was keeping him a secret, and I wondered if it was because she didn't want them to know he'd been able to sneak in, or if she was having him spy on them too.
Siobhan sniffed and rolled her eyes, and Julian continued to study me with narrowed eyes.
"Very well, Esther. We'll catch up tomorrow after you've had some rest. Auguste, you'll be—"
"Staying for the foreseeable future," Auguste said, lifting his chin in a slight challenge.
Magdalena only nodded, and I got the sense she was relieved to hear it. "I'll make sure your accommodations are ready. Booker, can you let one of the others know? Thank you. I'll see you all tomorrow."
We left more subdued than we arrived, Booker parting ways with us after a brush of his hand over the top of my head. Auguste's jaw was tight as we walked down the hall to a set of stairs that would lead up.
"How much time do we have?" I whispered to him, his eyes flicking to me and softening.
"An hour, a little more maybe. You have questions?"
"Many," I said, my lips wobbling in a weak smile as Auguste huffed a laugh and nodded.
"Then I'll answer them. During a bath, you think?"
I sighed and nodded. A bath with Auguste would be nice, and it would be close and intimate, which I wanted after the tension of the brief meeting.
There was no sign of Ezra when we reached my suite, although my sheets were mussed and lived in, giving my heart a happy twist. They would smell like my thief when I finally got into bed, which would be a comfort. I'd gotten to sleep next to someone for the past two nights, and it was comforting to have another body to roll into, the warmth of someone against my back and their breath to draw me to sleep.
Auguste started the bath and then turned to undress me, gentle and affectionate but not sexual in his touches. I realized I felt uncommonly sated. If he'd introduced the idea of sex, I was fairly sure I would've taken the opportunity, but for once, I wasn't the one demanding it.
"Go on, start your questions," Auguste teased, tugging my slip up over my head and then offering out a hand to steady me as I stepped into the steaming water.
"Well…okay, why are you a member of Rooksgrave and not Fleur Noir?" I asked, sinking into the wonderful heat of the water, tinkering with small bottles of oil and adding in something sweet and heady, swishing it in with my hands.
Auguste's fingers paused at the tie on his throat, eyes blinking. "I wasn't expecting you to start there. I…considered Fleur Noir. It's an improvement on Birsha's houses to be sure, and I partook a few times, oh…over a century ago at least," he said, brow furrowing adorably as he tried to remember.
"Forgetting things in your old age?" I teased, and he growled at me, grinning back.
"Le Fleur Noir has always been run by incubi," Auguste said.
"One of the girls here has an incubus gentleman. He's her only one because he's—"
"Insatiable, yes, that's their reputation. But they can…they can make arousal rise within their partner too. It becomes addictive to a human if used too often. And at Le Fleur Noir, they make sure their young men and ladies are always willing. They hire those interested in the work, of course, and they are aware, but…"
"But it's the incubi magic," I said, thinking through it all.
"I couldn't shake the feeling it wasn't genuine," Auguste said with a shrug before pulling his shirt off over the back of his head. "But there are those who appreciate the…reliability of interest from that house's employees. I don't know how Siobhan runs her house, she's some kind of fae."
"Fae? Like a fairy?" I asked, laughing. "I thought those were meant to be little and charming and wearing like, petal dresses and the like. Huh, I guess she was rather frilly."
Auguste laughed, kicking off his pants and nearly stepping into the tub at the opposite end. There was a knock on the bathroom door, and I grinned as Auguste turned to open it, ushering Booker inside with us before joining me in the water, as if it never would've occurred to him to deny the golem entrance.
Auguste raised his eyebrows to Booker as he sunk to his knees behind me. "What do you think? Does Magdalena like her guests?"
Booker reached into the water, his hands settling on my shoulders and ever so gently beginning to dig and knead at my muscles. "She wants allies."
"Mmm, thank you, Booker," I said, sighing, and glancing up at a smiling Auguste. "Will they be allies to her?"
"I expect so. Magdalena is a unique asset to Rooksgrave with her ability to match her clients and ladies, but she doesn't have a network like Julian or Siobhan likely do. Incubi and fae won't want other creatures hearing that one of their own is being bullied by an old king. And if Magdalena can bargain her skills to other houses, she might secure more physical protections as well as her magic."
"It sounds like politics," I said with a wrinkle of my nose.
Auguste laughed. "Oh, if you only knew, ma petite. Such hierarchies among our kind."
"Really? What is the hierarchy within…well within my men?" I asked, head tilting.
Auguste's expression was playfully sour. "I regret saying anything."
I gaped at him and flicked water in his direction. "Why?"