Page 6

6

Reyla

“ R eyla?” Merrick’s voice lilted through my sitting area.

My pulse jumped, and I scowled at the door from where I sat on the sofa with Farris snoozing by my side. A fire crackled in the hearth, and the room had felt cozy.

Until Merrick came tapping on the door.

As dawn had crested the sky, I’d gotten up, bathed, and dressed in a tunic and pants, then slunk out of the bedroom to sink down onto the sofa.

My eyes burned from another poor night of sleep. And my heart burned with feelings for both Lorant and Merrick I still couldn’t define. Two men sharing the same body. Two separate individuals who should actually be one. Why? A “curse” was not enough of an answer.

I was going to dig into this until I exposed it all.

“Reyla?” Merrick’s voice echoed again from the hallway.

At my call and only then, Surren would grant him entrance to my suite, and I liked that in this, my guard’s loyalty belonged to me. Not that I worried Merrick would harm me, but I needed a place where I could be alone, without anyone disturbing me if I didn’t want to give them access.

Farris bounded over to me, his fluffy gray tail spiraling, his lips stretched back in a nyxin grin around his ball. He dropped it at my feet. There wasn’t much room here for him to play. I or Faelith would need to take him outside, but with rain drizzling down, coating the windows and the world in tears, I wasn’t quite ready to brave it or make Faelith do it for me. He’d have to go outside for other reasons soon, but that wouldn’t take long.

“Pretty little bride?” Merrick growled.

That silly nickname should make me growl right back at him. Instead, it made my skin overheat and my body?—

I didn’t want to think about what both men did to my body.

“Come in,” I said, tossing the ball across the room. Farris bounded after it as the door to the hall opened and Merrick stepped inside, his gaze locking on me.

The reservation I found in his eyes actually reassured me.

“My queen?” Lord Briscalar called out from behind him. “If you have a moment?”

“Not now…please.”

He sighed. “Very well. I’ll discuss this with you later?”

“Alright.”

Merrick glanced over his shoulder, taking in my ladies hovering in the open doorway. “I’d like time alone with my queen.” He closed the door and advanced toward me like a stag stalking a doe in heat.

Fuck, now there was a thought I had to shove aside quickly. But he was still Merrick. Lorant was still Lorant. And I appeared to be as enthralled with them now as I had been before I discovered they were the same person, split but still sharing a body.

Farris scampered over with the ball in his mouth and dropped it on my lap. Picking it up, I grimaced at its wetness and held it overhead while Farris leaped about, trying to take it from me.

“You know that nickname is creepy.” I kept my voice light. If nothing else, I couldn’t bear to hurt Merrick. Neither of them, actually. This curse was torturing them both already.

Nudging Farris to the side, Merrick stepped in front of me, the warmth of his body coasting down across mine. My simple clothing was not enough barrier between me and this too-appealing man.

“I assume you’re referring to pretty little bride,” he said with that sweet nature that I used to adore. “Do you find Wildfire creepy as well?” Leaning close, he stroked his knuckles down my cheek.

I thrust the spitty ball between us. “Want to fetch?”

His laugh snorted out. “If it results in a reward from you, then yes.”

This guy was too appealing. I slid across the sofa, out of his reach. “Wildfire feels better now that I know.”

His eyes darkening, he nodded.

Rising, I tossed the ball into the bedroom, and Farris bolted after it. “I decided I’m not as eager to kill you or him or whoever you are?—”

“I’m me. Merrick. Your husband. And you are my wife.”

As I eased further away from him, he continued to stalk me.

Until I pulled a blade from the sheath at my side and slashed it through the air between us. “Stay back so I can…” Naming how easily he could make me fall apart would not suit my best interests at this time.

“So you can think?” he rasped. “Breathe? Keep from wrapping your arms and legs around me and begging me to claim your mouth with my own before I trail my lips down your body to other, equally intriguing areas?”

“I don’t know who you are anymore,” I growled, only lowering my voice to keep those in the hall from overhearing. Although, did it really matter? The curse would just steal what I said from their minds with one blink. “I told him I’m stepping back from you both until I figure this out.”

“Don’t take too long.”

“And don’t play on my sympathy because of the curse.”

“Do you feel sympathetic? I hope so.”

“I imagine you hope for more than sympathy from your willing , pretty little bride.”

He jerked out a nod.

“Sit.” I pointed to the sofa as Farris bounded back into the room with his ball. “We’re going to talk.”

Since he complied, I walked over to stand in front of the fireplace, warming my back against the flames and piercing my “husband” with my eyes. “You’re you but you’re also him.”

I still couldn’t quite believe it.

His eyebrows lifted.

“As with Lorant, will you blink if I ask a question and the answer is yes?”

His eyelids dipped down before they widened again, revealing his eyes that watched me like a predator deciding how much of its tasty prey to consume with one bite. “Some locations may be better than others. Let’s…” He peered around. “Go dress in your leathers, and we’ll talk in the training room. It’s much easier to ward.”

“You’re suggesting this room is less secure? I sleep here.”

“It hasn’t always been your room.”

Only recently. Before that, it had been occupied by the queen mother. Erisandra seemed to feel she could stroll in whenever she pleased. And who knows what spell she might’ve left behind.

“If I go with you, there’ll be no tricky stuff,” I said with a scowl.

The damn man smiled.

Farris plopped his furry little ass in front of me and dropped the ball onto my feet. I gave him pats before striding over to the door and opening it.

Calista nearly fell inside, verifying Merrick’s assumption.

“Standing a bit close, weren’t you?” I asked, though politely. “Surely you weren’t snooping?”

Her cheeks blazed bright pink. “I’d never .”

I wasn’t sure about that. My gaze sought Faelith, who stood nearby. “Could you take Farris out to play? I know it’s raining, but he needs to run.”

“I don’t mind one bit, my queen.” Faelith shot a bright smile at her fiancé, Surren’s way.

“Take Surren with you to make sure Farris and Faelith remain safe.” They’d be safe no matter what, but this would give her and Surren some time alone.

“Of course, my queen.”

She hurried across the room to collect the nyxin’s collar and leash.

“I’m going to the training room with Merrick,” I announced to those in the hall.

“I’ll help you change.” Calista eased past me into the sitting room with her daughter, Moira, right behind.

“I can change my clothing myself,” I pointed out.

“I’m happy to help her,” Merrick added, the ass.

No, the ass was supposed to be Lorant. Who was also Merrick.

My mind was spinning from this already.

While Faelith left with Farris and Surren, I let Calista and Moira help me change. That kept Merrick from following me into the bedroom.

After, we strode down the hall, guards clustering around us in a protective formation. Rain lashed against the high windows, the sound distant and throbbing. The air felt charged, not unlike the moment before a lightning strike—tingling, close, and heavy with unspoken tension. My boots thudded against the floor in rhythm with Merrick’s steps.

He glanced down at me, his expression an unreadable mask. At any other time, I might have admired his restraint, his ability to hold steady even in uncertainty, but now it grated on my nerves.

The thought was cut short as a blast of heat swept through the hall, so hot it made it hard to suck in a breath. I paused mid-step, hairs prickling on the back of my neck.

Merrick’s gaze darted around. “Reyla?—”

Another burst of air rippled through the hallway, a pulse of overpowering wrongness that stole what was left of my calm. Magic crackled at the edges of my senses, coiling like a serpent ready to strike. My stomach lurched as if the floor was tilting, though my feet remained steady on the stone.

“What’s going on?” I whispered, my voice barely audible over the whip of thunder outside. A crack and boom was followed by a blaze of lightning.

I sensed Merrick's power rippling around us, warding us—but from what?

Ahead of us, a blade ripped free from one of the guard’s scabbards, slicing through the leather. As scraps tumbled down his leg, the guard yelped.

Freed, the dagger jerked up and whipped around in the air, the pointy end aiming my way.

Fuck, not again .

With a hiss, the blade shot toward me in a streak of silver, aimed directly for my heart.

“Reyla!” Merrick’s bellow jerked through the hall. He latched onto me and swept me behind him. A rush of energy roared out from him and a wall of shimmering air rose between us, deflecting the dagger. It clanged as it ricocheted off the wall and clattered to the floor.

“By the fates,” the guard stuttered, his voice tight with fear and shame. He rushed over and collected the fallen blade, staring down at it. “I—I didn’t. It?—”

“It wasn’t you,” Merrick snapped. His emerald eyes scanned the hall, rage smoldering in their depths. When his face smoothed, he nodded curtly at the guard. “We’ll continue.”

“But—”

“We’re continuing to the training room,” he bit out.

“Very well, Sire.” The guard cast a wary glance at the others, then spun.

We kept going. I knew better than to ask questions where anyone—or any thing —could hear. But this was all adding up in both a bad and a good way.

Good because I was still alive, and I must be making progress.

Bad because a wizard was determined to make sure I didn’t break the curse.