Getting Wilde Read Online Free Page B

to keep working together, then you do not play mind tricks on me again, you got it? I have my limits, and you’ve definitely crossed them.”  
    A faint gleam of amusement flared in the Magician’s golden eyes. “I merely needed to get you to safety.”    
    “Then you merely needed to insist . Or knock me out. But you don’t cheat .”  
    Armaeus’s brows lifted in two graceful arcs. “Your outrage is misplaced, Miss Wilde. I have no interest in harming you. Most would not have noticed the projection.” He nodded to me as if I should be proud of myself, like the horse that’s figured out the purpose of the bit a second after the bridle has been strapped on.  
    “Not helping.” I glared into his beautiful face, gratified to hold on to my fury, if only to distract myself from the way my fingertips kept twitching at the edges of my sleeves, as if taking off my clothes would be the most natural thing in the world for me to do next. My gaze slid to the Tyet swinging from Armaeus’s fingers.  
    How much was my lack of control around him the result of me no longer wearing the amulet? And how much of it was just a simple lack of control?  
    Toss-up.  
    Armaeus smirked, demonstrating that he was still skulking around in my brain.  
    Asshat, I thought very clearly.  
    Unlike whatever pyrotechnics he’d thrown at my prince of coins and his goons, however, what Armaeus had used on me was not a magic spell, though it’d felt like it. The greatest of the Connected had utilized heightened vocal projection throughout antiquity, a manner of speaking that required both intense training and extreme force of intention, so that the words delivered with the chosen vibration practically resonated within the listener’s bones. In the hands of a master, even stones and sea could be displaced.  
    But while I’d heard of abilities to compel at the level of M. Armaeus Bertrand, I’d never experienced it firsthand. From everything I had read, no one had in almost a thousand years.  
    Bully for him.  
    “You want to tell me what happened back at the church?” I asked,  to keep my focus off my glittering pendant. Then my mind caught up with my words. Oh no. The church. I looked around the limo, locating my jacket next to Armaeus. “What did you do with my phone? I need to call Father Jerome.”  
    Armaeus caught the Tyet in the palm of his hand, tucking it into his jacket pocket. Apparently, he was done teasing me with it for the moment. “Father Jerome is unharmed. I have people watching him and the church. Those who are searching for the seal know he doesn’t have it, however. They know you wouldn’t have fled with such a prize inside, not with no one but a priest to protect it.” His brows lifted in mock censure. “I could have warned you to stay out of the church altogether, and you would have never placed him in danger.”  
    “Uh-huh. And to what do I owe your sudden burst of solicitude? Last we spoke, you weren’t exactly part of my fan club.”  
    “You didn’t deliver the statue in the manner we discussed.” Armaeus’s face clouded over, and he straightened, his mood souring. Good. For the first time since I’d regained consciousness, the constriction in my chest eased and my pulse edged away from jackrabbit. “That caused me a great deal of trouble.”  
    “Take it up with the union.” Still, I had to be sure. “Is anyone hanging around the church I should worry about? Father Jerome made it home okay?”  
    “I have a guard assigned to him for the rest of the week. The priest won’t be harmed.” He grimaced. “It’s not smart for you to work so obviously with him, however. Without protection, he could easily be taken when he travels to Chartres.”  
    I narrowed my eyes. “Chartres is none of your business.”  
    “ You are my business, Miss Wilde, which makes your ill-advised attempts at playing crusader my business as well. If Father Jerome were to end up missing like one of the