"You're quick," he said. His voice gained a deeper undertone. If she didn't know better, she'd say he was flirting. A man would have to be insane to flirt while she was jabbing sharp metal into his wounds.
"It's not my first time at the rodeo. Do they have rodeos in the Weird?" she asked, trying to distract herself from the fact that she was sticking a huge needle into his living flesh.
"Yes. They're a national sport in the Republic of Texas."
"Texas is a separate republic?" She finished the knot and started the next.
"The Weird and the Broken are mirror images of each other. Same continents, same oceans. In the Broken, the continent of North America is divided sideways."
"What do you mean, sideways?"
There was a tiny pause as the needle slid into his back, but his voice was calm and strain-free. "The countries are horizontal: Canada, United States, Mexico. In the Weird, the division is vertical. That's how the continent was settled. In the east is Adrianglia. In the center is the Dukedom of Louisiana, which is part of the United Kingdom of Gaul."
"Gaul?"
"It's a kingdom of the Old World. Gaulish tribes used to be fragmented into several kingdoms: Celtica, Belgica, Gallica."
France and Belgium, Rose guessed. "Almost done," she murmured. "So what is to the west of Louisiana?"
"Republic of Texas. Then the Democracy of California."
"What about Mexico?"
"It still belongs to Castillia. Spain."
They'd run out of continent, and she still had a few stitches to go.
"How did Adrianglia come to be called that?" She knew already, but she wanted to keep him talking.
"Because it was discovered by Adrian Robert Drake, who claimed it in the name of the Anglian Kingdom. Unlike Columbus of the Broken, he realized he had found a new continent rather than a roundabout way to India."
"For a blueblood, you know a lot about the Broken," she told him, finishing the last stitch.
"I serve the Duke of the Southern Provinces. The Edge touches his lands. I was taught about the Broken, because it's my duty to keep people from escaping into it. I can use a phone, fire a gun, and I know the theory of driving a vehicle, although I would rather not attempt it."
"All done," she said. "You can go into your room and cry now."
"Only if you come with me." He caught her hand into his. The feel of his skin almost made her shiver. "You have a very light touch. I barely felt it."
"Don't try to lie to a professional liar. I need my hand to bandage you."
He held on to her for another long second and opened his fingers. She pulled her hand from his, bandaged the wound, and came around to put away her needles. Declan didn't seem any worse for wear. Still as arresting as ever.
"Thank you," he said.
"No, thank you. For saving Georgie and my grandmother."
All of the pressure and stress came crashing down on her at once. Her resolve broke like a thin glass tube snapping. She fought to keep from crying. "How did you know they were in trouble?"
"The boy called me," he said. "He probably realized that would open him to the hounds' magic. I think he was afraid for your grandmother, so he sacrificed himself."
"Georgie's heart is too big for his own good," she said. She'd nearly lost him. No more. No more strange expeditions. She needed to stay home with the boys and weather this mess. "How many of the hounds were there?"
Declan shrugged his massive shoulders. "A few."
"How many?" she insisted.
"Fourteen. Unfortunately, the house is narrow, and I was unable to rely on my flash. I surmised Georgie and Madame ElEonore might be in the attic. Bringing the house down with magic would have been bad form. It's generally advisable to keep the people you attempt to rescue alive."
He said it matter-of-factly, as if that were the most ordinary thing in the world. He ran into a house full of monsters to save people to whom he didn't owe anything. "I wish there were some way I could repay you," she said, wiping her hands.
"There is."
She looked up. "What can I do for you?"
"You could kiss me, Rose."
She froze, the kitchen towel in her hands, sure she had misheard.
"Surely, I deserve one kiss for saving your brother."
"Why would you want me to kiss you?"
"I want to know what you taste like." A slow smile stretched his lips. "Don't tell me you haven't thought of it."
She had thought of it, but she would die before admitting it. "Can't say I have."
"One kiss," he said. "Or are you scared?"
That same delicious terror that she felt whenever she thought about touching Declan made it completely impossible for her to move. "Not at all," she lied.
"Then kiss me."
Here was her chance. She could kiss him free of guilt without admitting anything. She wouldn't get another opportunity like that. If she lived to be a hundred and stayed the entire time in the Edge, at least she would be able to say that in her young and wild days, she'd kissed a crazy blueblood from the Weird. She was daring, right? Wasn't that what daring women did?
Rose closed the distance between them and rested her own palms on the table between his hands and his sides. If he brought his arms in, he could trap her. It should've made her more cautious, but it didn't. She was running along the edge of one of Declan's blades. One misstep, and she would fatally cut herself. And she liked it.
It's just a kiss. Stop making a huge deal out of it.
She leaned close to Declan. Their lips were a mere inch apart.
Declan's eyes were terribly green. Like a grass blade with the sun shining through it.
"I'm going to kiss you because you saved my brother," she murmured. "For no other reason."
"Duly noted," he said.
She leaned another quarter inch forward. Their lips almost touched.
"This is so very wrong," she murmured. Her whole body strummed with anticipation.
He leaned his head to her, his voice low. "It's only a kiss. It's not as if I'm asking you to do something . . . indecent."
He certainly looked as if he would like to do something indecent. She licked her lips and kissed him.
He opened his mouth and let her in. Her tongue found his. She stroked it gently and realized Declan held back, keeping himself under tight control. Suddenly she wanted to make him lose his mind, for no other reason than to prove to him that she could. She attacked his mouth. Her tongue darted in and out, her touch light and quick, teasing, never giving him a taste. Declan growled low in his throat, a purely animal sound that made her want to press against him.