Getting Wilde Read Online Free Page A

hole of crime, prostitution, drugs, and death?  
    Or maybe I’d soon be enjoying Devil’s Food cake.  
    I voted for Option B.  
    Armaeus turned again, and he finally let me go, our racing footsteps slowing to a fast stride. I blew out a sharp breath, and forced myself to focus. No streetlamps cut the gloom of this dark street, but Armaeus had definitely relaxed.  
    Squinting into the darkness, I saw why.    
    A low, sleek limousine purred ahead of us in the shadows, double-parked on the street. Without speaking, Armaeus guided me to the car, but given that the danger was past, all the familiar panic alarms were going off inside me. Dealing with the Magician was hard enough when I could maintain my own personal space. Being stuck in the tight confines of a limousine with the guy was something else again. I honestly didn’t know how far I could push my Tyet, and I wasn’t in the mood to figure that out tonight.  
    “You know, I can pretty much disappear on my own,” I said, taking a step back. “Just wire me the money for the seal as usual, and we’re solid.”  
    Armaeus scowled at me. “I have presented distractions to the men who follow you, not barriers, Miss Wilde. Get in the car.”  
    “No, really, I’m good,” I hedged.  “Besides, they’re not after me anymore. You’ve got what they want. So I head left, you head right, and all’s well with the world. Easy peasy.”  
    But Armaeus wasn’t looking at me. He turned toward the darkened Parisian street behind us as if he could pierce the stone buildings, measuring the footfalls of our pursuers, gauging their beating hearts. Then he flicked his gaze back to me, and his golden eyes sent a chill right through my bones. “Oh no,” I said, backing up. “No, no, no. Do not even think about it.”  
    “ Nma, ” the Magician whispered.  
    Blackness flowed around me and swallowed me whole.  

Chapter Three
     
    “Miss Wilde.”    
    Armaeus’s words seemed to emanate from somewhere inside me, followed immediately by my brain’s residual protest of DANGER! But it was all so far away, so insignificant, especially when all I wanted to do was curl up under the heavy blanket and sleep under the warm, softly muted amber lights.  
    I frowned. Wait. Amber?  
    My world swerved precariously in a way that normal sleeping worlds do not move, and I shot upright, thrusting the sumptuously thick flannel blanket off me as I tried to lurch to my feet—only to practically bisect myself on a safety belt. I sucked in a deep breath and wrenched the thing off as I got my bearings, confirming what my sense of vertigo had already suggested. “Where the hell are we? Where are we going?”  
    Armaeus scowled at me. “To a friend’s.” .  
    I scowled right back. “I didn’t think you had friends.”  
    “You would do well to know me better.”  
    “I’ll take my chances on that.” I squinted out the tinted windows, watching the lights flicker by. We definitely weren’t in downtown Paris anymore. The homes in this area were larger and spaced significantly far apart, and there were no block-like housing communities. Probably right at the edge of Île-de-France, where the suburbs began to give way to charming cottages and overblown estates.  “How long was I out?”  
    Armaeus didn’t answer me at first. A flicker of movement caught my eye, and I glanced back at him. He sat across from me on a thickly padded leather seat, his legs crossed, his manner contemplative. A glint of silver hung from a chain in his hand. I froze.  
    “A Tyet,” he mused. “It has been some time since I’ve seen one crafted so finely. Where did Nikki Dawes acquire it, do you know?”  
    I ignored the question. I also wasn’t going to beg for my amulet. If anything, Armaeus’s interest in it certainly confirmed its value to me. Now if I could just get the damn thing surgically implanted into my skin, I’d be fine. I sat back in my seat and scowled at him. “You want