Page 24

Chapter

Twenty-Three

“ I s that how Fae usually sleep?”

Lessia woke with a jerk.

Flying to her feet from where she’d fallen asleep on the floor, watching the fire intently, she made sure it still burned bright. Relieved to find the orange-and-red flames blazing, she turned around.

Loche leaned against the wall beneath the staircase, legs crossed and arms leisurely kept behind his back.

Behind his shirtless back.

A smirk slipped across his face when her eyes froze on his tanned, muscled chest, then trailed down the whisper of hair that led into his dark breeches. Heat crept up her cheeks when she forced them back up to his eyes.

Loche tilted his head, shifting his tousled hair out of his face. “Like what you see?”

She squashed the growl threatening to leave her throat.

This man…

Forcing herself to smirk back, she rested a hand on the couch. “Just curious as to how you’re so tan in the deepest of winter.”

Loche started toward the door while keeping that searing gaze on hers. “I have many secrets, darling. And I’m not one to share.”

With a low sigh, Lessia bent down to check on the firewood she’d spread out across the floor. When she found it had mostly dried, she smiled to herself.

She’d have to get more.

But as long as she kept the fire going, the house would be lit the entire time.

A biting wind blew through the room when Loche opened the door to scoop up some snow in a broken bowl he’d snatched from the table, and Lessia shifted closer to the fire, keeping her hands hovering over the warmth until he closed it.

As he walked up to set down the bowl by the crackling flames, she glanced at him, careful to keep her eyes on his face.

“Did you find firewood and kindling in one of your convenient hiding places?”

Loche shot her sideways stare. “Don’t play coy and pretend you didn’t use magic to light it. Although it’s certainly not allowed, none of us will spill your secret. We’ll all benefit from it.”

When her brows snapped together, his eyes swept over her face. “Ah. It wasn’t you.”

He searched her eyes, one of the corners of his mouth lifting. “But you do have magic.”

Keeping her face void of emotion, she pushed at a branch with her boot. “Not all half-Fae have magic.”

“Evading,” he mumbled to himself.

Lessia swallowed, wincing when the sound seemed to echo in the small room .

A smug smile crept across Loche’s face. “You do, though. And I bet my breeches you won’t tell me what it is. Although from the way you’re trying so very hard to keep your eyes on mine, perhaps you’ll tell me just for me to lose them.”

Lessia dragged a hand through her hair, silently cursing herself when it trembled. “If this is your way of flirting, I’m not surprised you never have any women warm your bed.”

Loche raised a brow. “You’ve asked people about me. Not helping your case.”

Groaning, she made to step back, but the couch blocked her escape. “I was volunteered the information. I have not asked anyone anything about you. If you haven’t heard, I have no trouble getting men to fall at my feet.”

Her nose scrunched at the lie.

She loathed keeping these rumors stirring.

She had no interest in men.

Like Amalise, she’d given up the hope of finding love. Didn’t see the point in it when all she did was put those she loved in danger.

Apart from Ardow keeping her company on lonely nights, and only because he’d never do anything so stupid as falling in love with her, she hadn’t had a single man in Ellow in her bedroom.

Loche drew closer, towering over her with his inhumanly tall frame as he crowded her by the couch. She forced herself to arch her neck to keep meeting his eyes—not stare at those hard muscles glowing softly in the light.

His mouth twitched, and his gray eyes flitted between hers as he leaned in to whisper, “I think you forgot how to breathe.”

He let out a raspy laugh when she sucked in a breath, and she tore her eyes away, pushing him aside and ignoring the feeling of soft skin under her hands as she stepped around him.

Taking deep breaths was easier now that he was a few feet away, and her shoulders lowered slightly as she walked around the couch, keeping it between them.

Loche slumped down on the worn couch, legs splayed over the armrest, head leaning on the other side. “I’m starting to suspect there is more to you than the rumors around town. Those big amber eyes of yours do not tell the story you’re trying to spin.”

“You don’t know anything about me,” she hissed.

“Oh, but I do. You almost make it too easy, wearing all of your feelings like you always do that cloak. And what I don’t know, I’ll figure out. Trust me.”

A current ran over her skin as she tried to blank out her features.

She didn’t doubt him.

But she needed to do everything in her power to stop him.

Loche propped his head up with his elbow. “While I work on that, why don’t you tell me more about magic? You Fae are so secretive, and I’d like to find out more than what I’ve read in books.”

She shook her head as unease flitted down her spine. “Why should I tell you anything?”

Loche eyed her, and she couldn’t shake the feeling he was reading way too much in her face. “If you’re here to spy on us, I think it’s only fair I get some information on your people. And if you’re not… why would it be an issue?”

Groaning silently, Lessia traced the back of the couch with her finger.

She’d rather go out in the chill wind again than speak of this, but if it was what it took to get him on her side, perhaps even make him open up to her…

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything.” He grinned .

When she glared at him, he let out a low laugh.

“Let’s begin with what types of magic there are.

I know of the elemental Fae. Your king keeps showing up straight from the ocean, not a drop on him, so he must be a water wielder.

And those fire wielders nearly burned down all of Ellow during the war.

But there are others, aren’t there? Perhaps not as lethal at first glance, but surely worth knowing of. ”

She shuddered at the thought of King Rioner.

He wasn’t just a water wielder—he was the strongest water wielder the Fae had ever seen. Her father had told her stories of how he could make the sea swallow small islands if it pleased him.

Lessia cleared her throat, fixing her eyes on the fire.

“The Fae descended from two bloodlines: the elementals, who wield fire, water, wind, and earth, and then the mentals, who wield the mind. Which one a Fae has an affinity for manifests when they become adolescents. Although there aren’t many mentals left—they’re not too popular. ”

“Why?”

She felt his eyes on her as she walked around the couch again, crouching down to add more wood to the fire. “Some can read minds, some can speak within your mind, some can control it. King Rioner keeps a court of mostly elemental Fae, and they don’t take well to anyone who could challenge them.”

Her mouth dried as she thought of the mental Fae he did keep.

It wasn’t just Merrick that terrified her.

Loche shifted on the couch. “What did they do to the mental Fae?”

She hesitated for a moment, waiting to see if the tattoo on her arm would burn.

When it didn’t, she blew out a breath. “Hunted them down one by one. Only a few who swore their loyalty to the crown were allowed to live.”

Not that it was much of a life.

She’d seen firsthand with her…

Lessia clenched her fists when her father’s face flashed in her mind.

She would not go there.

It was in the past.

As it should remain.

She’d started toward the door when Loche stalked up to her.

Spinning around, she forced herself to meet his hard eyes, locking down the emotions churning inside.

“Is that why you’re here? You’re a mental Fae who fled?”

“No!”

Lessia backed up when he inched closer, but he didn’t stop, and soon her back was against the door, his face an inch from hers, that wintry scent of his enveloping her again.

“Back up,” she snarled.

Loche tilted his head, boring his eyes into hers. “Tell me why you’re here.”

She placed her hands on his chest to try to shove him back, but he didn’t move an inch. “I told you. This is my home. The Fae are not my people. I am equal parts Fae and human, and I like Ellow.”

He glanced down at her hands before their eyes collided again.

“Little liar,” he whispered.

Her breath caught in her throat when he leaned in until his lips brushed her ear. “I’ve told you I will find out what you’re hiding, and it’ll be sooner rather than later.”

Nostrils flaring, she glared at him when he finally stepped back. “I told you what you wanted to know. I’ll answer whatever questions you have. So, why do you keep doing this?”

The corners of his lips lifted. “Because when someone is uncomfortable, it’s easier to read them. And contrary to this town’s beliefs, closeness seems to make you more uncomfortable than threats.”

Shaking her head, she reached for the doorknob and savored the cool air washing over her as she spun around, leaving the stupid regent behind.