He never looked at me like that. Not once.
And then Avery turned her head while she was dancing, just briefly, and her eyes found Gideon across the room, and I saw her smile stretch just a little further.
My stomach dropped.
So it wasn’t just Gideon. She was doing it too. Whatever was happening between them had escalated.
I’d had a suspicion ever since I found her in the woods last week, harvesting the same plant that I had cut just a few moments prior. But I’d chosen to give her the benefit of the doubt, because she had made it so clear that she wasn’t reciprocating Gideon’s affection for her.
I was wrong. It seemed to me now, as I watched their gazes lock across the room, that she had the same idea I did.
If that was true, then I had very little time. By the end of tonight, if Avery got to him first with that aphrodisiac and seduced him before I could, then it was over. Everything Katya had helped me plan would be meaningless.
The powder had taken me two days to make. I had followed Katya’s instructions exactly, double-checked everything, and the result was a fine, pale, nearly invisible powder that dissolved in liquid without leaving a trace. I had tested it in a glass of water in my room just to be sure.
I stood near the drinks table and waited. A server moved through the crowd with a tray of champagne, weaving toward Gideon. I flagged him down before he got there, pressed the folded paper into his palm along with a sizable wad of cash, and murmured the instructions once, quietly.
He glanced at me, glanced at the money, and moved on without a word.
I watched him cross the room with my heart in my throat.
Watched him stop beside Gideon, offer a glass of champagne. Watched as Gideon took it.
The thing I hadn’t let myself think about all week came up again now, briefly, uncomfortably… The image of Gideon’s face in the morning, confused and betrayed. I knew what Katya had said, that he would be enamored, that the bond would make him forget.
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