Securing her fur-lined cloak tight at the throat, she took the footman’s hand and stepped down into the cobblestone area. The footman escorted her to the door with Gregorio following. They entered the building and Gregorio shook his head like a dog to get the rain off. Apparently he was too much of a man to use a rain parasol—she should have expected no less from him.

A tall, gaunt man with salt-and-pepper hair greeted them in the small office area that they’d entered. “Master Vikhin! It is a rare honor to have you visit us today,” said the man, clasping Gregorio’s hand.

“Master Roghman, thank you for having us,” Gregorio answered.

“Ytoyi Roghman?” asked Evangeline. “The primary author of the book The Theft of Invention?”

“I am.”

She reached out and clasped his hand in hers. “I enjoyed your book very much, Mr. Roghman! It’s an honor to meet you!”

“Thank you!” Master Roghman gave her a dazzling smile. “But it’s perhaps even more of an honor to have a former J’Edaeii with us! I have never had the pleasure of meeting anyone with the power of magick.”

“Well . . . thank you,” she responded, a little at a loss for words. She hadn’t expected a reception like that at all.

Master Roghman turned and, linking his thin arm with hers, led her toward another pair of double doors, away from the office area. “Master Vikhin tells me you have the power to influence people’s emotions. How incredible and rare! You know, you and I are not all that different.”

She smiled at him. “How so, Master Roghman?”

“The tinkers also have a sort of magick, magick created through the use of science and invention. Yours is natural and ours is not, but incredible and rare they both are.” Evangeline couldn’t help but pick up on the excitement and enthusiasm of the Master Tinker. He clearly lived for the guild and his work here.

“I read in your book that the royalty didn’t approve of these inventions.”

Roghman tutted. “No, no, not at all. The Edaeii only approved of the natural sort of magick and they wanted it all in their bloodline. They felt very threatened by any sort of scientific invention that might diminish their grandeur. I never understood the reasoning since, to my mind, science is no match for real magick.” He shook his head. “No. The things I’m about to show you today are indeed wondrous, but they’re no match for you, Miss Bansdaughter.”

He led her through the double doors and into a large, well lit warehouse. Gregorio followed behind. There were many different work areas set up as far as she could see. Some had objects covered with large tarps and others—mostly hunks of metal—had men hurrying around them while they tinkered with tools or scribbled notes on pads of paper.

Roghman stopped and threw an arm wide. “This is where the Tinkers’ Guild does its work. The last few months have been very exciting. We have dusted off the inventions we had been forced to put aside and have been making great strides with them.”

Gregorio walked up to stand near them. “I think Miss Bansdaughter might like to see the printing press.”

“Oh! Of course. It’s one of our most successful inventions so far. It has so much potential.” He guided her forward. “It might put the scribes out of business, though.” He winked at her.

Roghman chattered on about each of the twisted pieces of metal they passed. One was meant to help women with their washing, but was too huge and expensive to be practical and needed to be redesigned. Another was a contraption that was supposed to act like a mini steam transport, ferrying the occupant down the street on its own. It was ugly—all hard metal and sharp edges. She certainly couldn’t imagine climbing into one. Evangeline didn’t see the point when carriages and horses worked perfectly fine for such things.

There were half-designed machines that were meant to aid in preparing food, cutting grass, filtering the air, doing just about anything under the sun that a man or a woman needed to do. It was all quite mind-blowing. In all her years at Belai, Evangeline had never imagined such things, let alone known that someone had been trying to construct them all.

The printing press sat somewhere in the middle of the warehouse. “There it is,” declared Roghman. “With the exception of the helium floating balloon and the steam transport, it’s our finest invention yet. That one was our first prototype. We have constructed one other and given it over to the use of printing newspapers and books. More, of course, are in construction.”

She inched closer to the thing. It was huge and oddly shaped. Like nearly everything in the warehouse it was also made of metal. Small letters and numbers lined a top plate, each apparently was able to be configured to print a certain word or sentence. She couldn’t fathom how it worked. It was fantastical.

“It is! Oh, it is!” said Roghman, and Evangeline realized she must have spoken out loud.

Just then the contraption across the aisle caught her eyes. Half covered with a large tarp, multicolored swathes of fabric covered a large wooden frame. “What is that?”

“This?” Roghman flipped the tarp back, revealing what appeared to be a set of wings. In the center was a sort of small metal box attached to a set of suspenders.

She glanced at Roghman in surprise. “A machine to allow a man to fly like a bird?”

Roghman laughed. “We only wish. It doesn’t work, I’m afraid. We’re still trying to perfect this one. It’s sent three men to the physician so far.” He barked out a laugh.

“Speaking of flying. Would you like to take a ride in the helium float with me, Evangeline?” Gregorio touched her arm, the heat of his hand bleeding through the material of her dress and warming her skin.

She glanced up at him, smiling. “I would love nothing more to take a ride in the balloon, but it’s raining, remember?”

“I think the rain has cleared up,” answered Roghman. “I’ll escort you to the back of the building. You are welcome to ride in the very first helium float the Tinkers’ Guild ever made.” He winked. “It’s made only for two.”

The city of Milzyr stretched below the small balloon, looking like it was something made for dolls. Belai and its lawns stretched over there, gray and green and beautiful even from the air. Over there were the grimy slums of Cook Square. Over there was the merchants’ circle, where Evangeline bought her gowns once upon a time. And there was the middle class area of town where Gregorio had his home. She wondered if Anatol was sitting outside on the porch watching the balloon in the sky right now. Around the edges of the city lay a patchwork quilt of greens and browns—farmers’ fields, she supposed.

Suddenly it hit her how very far up in the sky they were. She grabbed Gregorio’s sleeve. “Please tell me you know how to steer this thing.”

He laughed—a deep, rich sound. “Don’t worry. I helped finance this invention, helped to build it a little, myself. I’m a perfectly capable helium float pilot.”

She relaxed and went back to marveling at the view. It was chilly up here. Despite her warm state of dress, icy fingers tugged at her wrap and whipped pink into her cheeks. She smiled, letting herself enjoy the experience for once—without second-guessing every aspect of it.

“You’re so beautiful, Evangeline,” Gregorio said in a throaty voice. His desire hit her full force, warming her.

She glanced at him. “Is that why you want me so much? Because you think I’m beautiful?”

“Partly.” At least he was honest. “But there’s more to you. You’re very complex. You fascinate me. I find you intelligent and strong willed. Not many women are, you know.”

She gave him a sharp look. “Not many women are intelligent?”

“No, strong willed. This world breeds all the backbone out of them. But you, growing up the way you did, it’s made you strong. You challenge me and I find that most invigorating. I can have a conversation with you, an argument, even, and not necessarily know I’ll come out the winner. I can play a game of strategia with you and not know whether or not I’ll win.”

“You like me because I argue well?”

He laughed. “Yes, I guess I do. I always know where I stand with you. You will never dissemble with me, never lie to me in order to get what you want.”

She smiled a little, remembering her past, and looked at him. “I don’t do that anymore, Gregorio. Once, I did. Once it was a lifestyle.”

“And now you have a different lifestyle. I hope you will consider including me in it.”

Her stomach did a little flip, not at the words he spoke, but the emotion behind them. Gregorio fancied himself falling in love with her. The lust she’d constantly felt from him was beginning to deepen into something else, something far more serious. In fact, it grew close to something like what Anatol felt for her, and she for him.

That confusing tangle of maybe-love.

She looked away, down over the city. That strong emotion he had for her scared her, but there was something that frightened her even worse . . . the emotion she was developing for him. For both Gregorio and Anatol. They were foreign feelings and risky. These emotions were a little like stepping out onto a thin wire in high winds with only these two men to hold on to her. If their hold slipped and she fell, she would be dashed on the pavement below—shattered.

“Evangeline?”

“I’m fine. Just enjoying the view.” She glanced at him and found him staring at her.

“As am I.” His voice was a low, hungry growl that heated her blood.

He reached out, caught her by the waist, and pulled her against him. His body was hard and warm. She wanted to back away, but she just couldn’t make herself. His head dipped toward hers and his lips met her lips.

They clung together high over the city, mouths meshing and hearts almost touching.

Anatol’s heart did a little flip as soon as he saw her. Her gray eyes shone and her cheeks and lips were rosy. For a moment he had a flash of acute jealousy that Gregorio could give her such happiness.

He walked over and touched her cheek. “You’re freezing.”

“It’s a cold evening, but it’s cozy and warm in here.” While he helped her out of her wrap, she told him about all the inventions they’d seen and the ride in the helium float. “You should have come along, Anatol, you would have loved it.”

Anatol met Gregorio’s dark gaze. “Maybe next time.” He was also slightly jealous that Gregorio had been able to spend the day with her. Spending the afternoon dealing with all the arrangements he’d made for the shop was no match for her presence.

Gregorio stepped forward and cupped Evangeline’s cheek in his palm. “I enjoyed spending the day with you more than I can remember taking pleasure in anything for a long time.”

Evangeline smiled up at him, her hand resting on Gregorio’s sleeve. “It was an amazing day.”

The flash of truth that swept through Anatol in that moment rocked him back on his heels. In that moment he saw straight through the illusion of pretense and proper behavior, through Evangeline’s fear and Gregorio’s yearning. Magick leapt unsummoned inside him.

Gregorio Vikhin wasn’t just fodder for Evangeline’s burgeoning and uneven emotions. He was no fling that she would soon forget. Gregorio was a man who had qualities that she needed for her well-being. Gregorio’s presence in her life would be beneficial to her, as she would be beneficial to Gregorio.

An ember of love existed between them just as much as it existed between himself and Evangeline.

The wrap he’d taken from Evangeline’s shoulders dropped to the floor.

“Anatol? Are you all right?”

He looked up at the sound of Evangeline’s voice and forced his eyes to focus on her face. He couldn’t answer her. He always saw into the truth of things to some extent, but this had been amazingly clear. Disappointment sparked in his belly and he drew a ragged breath. He’d hoped Evangeline would one day be his alone, but he saw now that was not to be.

If he was to have any kind of relationship with Evangeline, Gregorio would need to be a part of it.

“Anatol?” she repeated, taking a step toward him.

He swept the wrap up from the floor and moved to the rack by the door to hang it. “I’m fine. Just hungry, that’s all.”

Gregorio walked from the foyer into the small study. “I’ll have the cook make something hot for us to drink. There’s a fire in here, Evangeline. You should warm up a bit.”

She followed him, gravitating toward the warmth, and sat down in the chair, still chattering on about all the inventions at the Tinkers’ Guild, her eyes shining. He’d never seen her this excited—not even after she’d returned from a shopping trip when they’d lived at Belai. Clearly, Gregorio was good for her.

He sat down in a chair opposite her and waved away tea when the cook offered it to him. Evangeline took a cup and wrapped her fingers around it, warming her cold hands. “So, what did you do all day?”

Missed you. He shrugged. “Read mostly. Sat outside. I need to get back to training. I’m recovered enough to take it back up now. If I don’t I’ll get soft as Czz’ar Ondriiko was.”

“I’ll go with you, if you like. I know a place where we can spar in the northern part of Milzyr.” Gregorio leaned up against the mantel of the fireplace. “There’s a club.”

Anatol gritted his teeth. He fought the desire to lash out at Gregorio from a place of jealousy, but doing that would only cause him to lose Evangeline. He needed to come to terms with this truth. “All right. That sounds great.”

“How are you going to find the time, Gregorio?” Evangeline asked. “You work so much.”

Anatol watched Gregorio glance at her lingeringly while her head was down as she sipped her tea. “I have reason to take some time off.”

Evangeline froze, blinked, and then took a quick sip of tea as if to cover her reaction to his words.

“Anyway,” Gregorio continued, “the Council is going to have to start pulling its weight as a uniform body of governance. That won’t start until I take a step back from it.”

“Well, good. I think it’s wonderful that you’ve decided to back away a little.” Evangeline stood and set her empty cup on the table. “I think I’ll go up and have a bath before dinner.” She walked over and gave Gregorio a kiss on the cheek. Closing her eyes and touching his sleeve, she lingered. “Thank you for a most incredible day.”

“It’s only the first of many wonders I would like to show you, Evangeline.”

She smiled in response. Then she turned from Gregorio, kissed Anatol on the cheek, and left the room.

Gregorio watched her leave the room. “She’s wonderful. Like no other woman I’ve ever met.”

“Or will meet. Evangeline is unique. I always knew she was, even at Belai, even when she was in the grip of her gift’s backlash, with all those walls built up around her.”

Gregorio turned. “But she needed those walls. I see fear in her now; she feels too much, too strongly. She doesn’t know how to deal with it all. Those walls, no matter that they made her into a cold person who had no empathy for others, protected her. Now it’s like—”

“Like she’s walking around with her heart on the outside, just waiting for someone to stab it.”

Gregorio turned back to the mantel and let out a breath. “Yes.”

“Those walls were never any good for her. I hope they never come back. She needs to find a better way to deal with her gift.” Anatol drew a breath. “I think I know how we can do that.”

“We?”

“You have feelings for Evangeline.” It wasn’t a question since he already knew the answer.

Gregorio said nothing for a long moment, keeping his back turned to Anatol. “I’ve never felt this way about another person in my life.” He sounded defeated. “You love her, too. I know I need to back away.”

“No, you don’t.”

Gregorio turned to face him.

Anatol smiled. “I told you I see into the truth of people. You don’t just want to fuck her. There’s love there, too. You appreciate her, care about her, want to protect her. She needs all of that. She’s like a dry sponge. Fill her up. And I will, too. We’ll work together to make Evangeline bloom.”

Gregorio shook his head. “If you love her, how can you want to share her?”

“It’s because I love her that I’m willing to share her. She’s too damaged for one man alone. She needs both of us to balance her. If she doesn’t get that balance and stability, she’ll run away from me. Be my partner, Gregorio.”

Gregorio turned his back on him. “You’re insane.”

“Maybe.” Anatol paused. “Think about it.”

Gregorio turned to him, one hand resting on the mantel. “I don’t need to think about it. I want her. I don’t care about your reasons for wanting to share her.” He rubbed his hand over his mouth, considering him. “But I don’t understand your motivations. You could tell me to fuck off right now and I would. You’d have her to yourself.”

Anatol paused, considering best how to explain things. “I will lose Evangeline eventually if I can’t make her completely open up to love. I need your help to do that. If I want to keep her in my life, I need to add you to my life as well. I love Evangeline and I want what’s best for her. What’s best for her is you and me, together. The gift of my magick has shown me this is true.”

“So you want us to enter into a three-way relationship—you, me, and Evangeline.”

“Yes.”

Gregorio’s gaze flicked to him. “I’m not into men.”

“I’m not either. I’m not proposing anything directly sexual between the two of us. I propose that she is the woman we both want and need, and we are the men she needs. I propose that our relationship holds her in the middle, that she is its focus.”

“And you think she wants that, too?”

“I think she needs that. She needs us both. She just doesn’t understand it yet. I’m not saying that it will be easy, not with a woman as hurt as Evangeline.”

“You know her better than I do.”

Anatol took a moment to answer. “Growing with up her, I always knew there was a jewel beneath the ice. That ice has thawed and we’re lucky enough to be in the presence of the sapphire.”

“Sapphire? Is that what you see her as?”

“Deep blue, emotional, vibrant, beautiful. I think they chose well when they selected the sapphire to represent her jewel.”

“She’s a strong woman and kind.”

“She wasn’t always. Ah, well, she was always strong. The kindness is only a recent thing. She’s becoming more the woman she would have been if she hadn’t grown up at Belai.”

Gregorio sighed, glancing into the fire. “Do you think she would like to meet her family? She seems unsure.”

“I don’t know. I think she wants to find them, but she’s frightened she’ll be rejected by them. I don’t see a rational basis for that fear, but I understand it.”

“I have access to the records at Belai. I think I could track down their location.” Gregorio rubbed his chin. “Do you think I should?”

Anatol gritted his teeth for a moment. If Gregorio found her family, she might favor Gregorio over him. He gave his head a sharp shake. Damn it. Jealousy. If this was going to work he needed to defeat that emotion. He’d known it would be difficult. “Do it. She should at least be given the choice.”

Gregorio said nothing for several moments. The clock in the room ticked off the seconds as the large man leaned on the mantel. “And in this new relationship, what about jealousy?”

Joshui, it was like Gregorio had magickal empathy of his own. “It will be present. We’ll have to deal with it.”

He nodded. “I have nothing to lose in trying, but everything to gain in succeeding.”

Anatol nodded. “Good.”

“Don’t you think it’s a little high-handed, deciding what’s best for Evangeline without even asking her?”

Anatol shrugged. “It may be high-handed, but it’s for the best. I can see truths that she can’t. The danger is in making Evangeline realize this is for the best before she flees.”

Gregorio raised his eyebrows. “Flees?”

“If we manage to draw Evangeline into a relationship with us, she will discover that she’s deeply in love with both of us. It’s going to frighten her.”

“And you think she’ll leave us then?”

“I hope not.”

Gregorio let out a careful breath. “You just gave my fantasy to me on a platter and now you’re taking it away.”

“I see truth. I can’t predict the future.”

Gregorio looked at him, his gaze hard. “I want her.”

“Then take her.”

And she wanted both of them.

“What are you talking about?” she asked, forcing a smile.

“What else would we be talking about?” asked Anatol. “Or who else, I should say.”

Her cheeks heated. She hesitated in the doorway and almost left the room. She had a good book resting on her bedside table. But that would be too much like running away and she wasn’t doing that anymore.

She stepped into the room. “It’s not polite to talk about people when they’re not present,” she tried to say lightly. Wrapping her silk bathrobe closer around her, she walked over to sit at the fire, comb in her hand.

“All right, then we can talk about you while you’re here.” Anatol’s voice held a note of mischievousness. “Do you think she’s beautiful, Gregorio?” He asked from his place at the couch, amber liquid in his glass swirling as he examined it.

The emotion in the room surged—lust, love. Mostly lust, coming from Gregorio. It made her knees go weak. She clutched the comb until it hurt her hand. It was a good thing she was sitting down.

“Of course I do.” Gregorio’s voice came out clipped and a little harsh. “She knows I do.”

She gave Anatol a cold smile. “It’s also not polite to talk about someone who is in the room as if they’re not in the room.”

“Play the game, my love. You know you want to.” Anatol smiled down into his glass, but didn’t look up at her. “Evangeline finds both of us attractive, don’t you, Evangeline?”

She opened her mouth, then closed it. “I do. I fail to see the merit to this line of conversation.”

“She has the most exquisite breasts; don’t you think so, Gregorio? They’re the perfect size and shape. A man could worship them for hours.”

Gregorio glanced at her and she colored. “Given a chance, I might try,” he answered with a twist to his lips.

“Anatol.” She’d meant his name to come out as a warning, but her voice sounded shaky and a little excited instead.

“And her sex. It’s the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen.”

“I wouldn’t know,” answered Gregorio.

Anatol lifted his head. “You haven’t seen it?”

Evangeline’s mouth went dry. She knew what Anatol was doing and she wasn’t sure she was ready for it. She wasn’t sure she’d ever be ready for it. At Belai she’d slept with two men at once, two women—once two men and another woman. But this was different. Oh, so much different.

This time she wanted it. This time she would enjoy it. This time there was emotion in it. These men were special.

This time it would mean something.

Gregorio looked at her with such a massive amount of sexual hunger on his face that it made her stomach do a backflip. “I took her up against a wall, skirts raised. I fucked her cunt, but I never had an opportunity to see it.”

Evangeline cleared her throat, half of her wanting to end the game and the other half wanting to see where it might go. Being with Anatol alone was mind-numbingly wonderful. Being with Gregorio had provided erotic delights she’d never before known. Both of them together would be an experience worthy of heaven. “I am, as you can both see, still very much in the room. Have you any awareness of your immediate surroundings?”

Anatol finally looked at her with lazy, heavy-lidded eyes. “Oh, I think we’re both very aware of our immediate surroundings. We’re both very aware of you right now, Evangeline. You are, by far, the most important person in this room to us both.”

“What are you doing, Anatol?”

“I’m simply asking Gregorio if he would like to see your sex. Would you like to show it to him, Evangeline? It’s a beautiful thing.”

She glanced at Gregorio, who was watching her like a hawk, his dark eyes bright under his hooded gaze. She licked her lips and felt herself flush harder.

“What emotions do you feel from us right now?”

Her answer came quick, since she was being bombarded with them. “Lust. Hunger. Yearning.” She paused, her breathing quickening. “Love.”

The first three things she knew what to do with, but not the fourth.