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She laughed in delight, and leaned forward. “Can you do that with anything?”

“In theory, yes. But people are hard, and large objects are even harder. I suppose a master might be able to even make a castle disappear, but someone like me can only do it for small things, like swords or food or clothes. ”

Serena had an incredibly inappropriate thought over the last item, and she had to count to ten in her head to avoid her face catching fire.

“Does the object disappear, or is it still there, just invisible?”

“Spirit magic makes the object disappear completely; think of it like putting something inside the pocket of an alternate dimension. It ceases to exist as part of this world unless you choose to take it out. It’s different from the invisibility spells of the faeries which only hide the object from sight but are otherwise tangible. ”

He leaned forward in excitement while explaining, and she hid a smile. She was used to Grim being taciturn, but apparently when talking about a topic he found interesting, he was almost chatty. It was incredibly endearing.

“What else can you do? With spirit magic.”

“Well, there’s the magic I used on Lore the first night—the one that acts like a repelling barrier.

I can also create shields for a short amount of time, but it takes a lot out of me because as I said, I’m just a novice.

” He flashed her an almost embarrassed smile.

“I was always much better at combat. Grendel said it was because I was too hot headed to master the more cerebral aspects of spirit magic.”

“Grendel?”

Grim’s face grew carefully blank, as if he seemed to realize he had said more than he meant to.

“Grendel was the spirit who took me in and raised me. He was both my teacher and foster father of sorts—taught me everything I know,” he said, his voice almost too controlled.

“He was a spirit of the earth, but not a very strong one. He took me in despite disapproval from the Five. Spirits and humans shouldn’t mix, they’d said.

Too much volatility. Not that he cared; he wasn’t a fighter, but he was as stubborn and bullheaded as they come. ”

A ghost of a smile appeared on his face, almost despite himself.

“Oh,” said Serena softly. “He was your Aunt Maeve.”

Grim looked at her for a minute.

“Yes,” he said at last, “I suppose he was.”

Grim had been swinging his sword around outside for a while now, and although she would rather die than admit it to him, she’d been spying on him a whole awful lot.

He’d managed to create a makeshift pell of sorts using a wooden post (she had no idea where he’d managed to scrounge that up from) and was now training with it.

His movements with the sword were fluid and practiced, and while it was fascinating to see his skill, she had to admit that was not why she was hanging around the kitchen window sneaking glances at him.

No, it had a lot more to do with the fact that he had discarded his usual jacket and was stripped down to a plain black linen shirt that was very conveniently open down to his navel exposing a tanned chest and a stomach that spoke of rigorous training.

Stars, how did I ever buy his story about being a scholar?

Abandoning all pretenses, Serena crept over to the open kitchen window and placed her chin on her hands.

She sighed dreamily. It had been a while since she had seen an incredibly attractive man doing incredibly attractive things.

Although she supposed some might call it barbaric to find a man swinging a sword attractive.

As she watched, he tilted his head up and shook his hair out of his face, beads of sweat glistening on his chest. Ugh, she hated that he probably didn’t even know how handsome he looked like this.

Sheathing his sword, he swung around, and she realized too late that he was about to look right at her.

She straightened but it was too late, their eyes had already met.

Drats, drats, drats.

He was coming over now, and she looked around wildly for an excuse for her staring. As he drew nearer, his face took on a frown.

“Are you okay?” he asked, concerned. “You look flushed.”

“Absolutely fine,” she said in a high-pitched voice.

“I noticed you watching my training,” he said, and she wished the ground would swallow her whole right there and then. She could hardly concentrate on what he was saying through the roaring in her ears.

“Is it because you’re interested in sword fighting?”

She blinked.

No, it couldn’t be.

There was no way this man was this dense about his own appeal.

“You can have a go with the sword if you’d like,” he offered.

Oh stars, he was this dense.

Not that she was complaining, this was truly the best-case scenario to getting caught ogling at a man’s bare chest.

“I would love that,” she exclaimed, and meant it.

Did she have any interest in learning how to fight with a sword? No. But did she want to swing it around and feel like she was a warrior queen in a high stakes fairytale? Absolutely yes.

She hurried outside, excited to get her hands on the blade. It was heavier than she thought, much heavier. Grim helped her adjust her grip and gave her instructions on what to do—instructions she roundly proceeded to ignore as she swung the blade, completely missing the post.

“Watch where you’re aiming it,” he yelped as she blindly brandished it again, narrowly avoiding his ear.

“I have great aim,” she protested, lying through her teeth .

“I’ve seen monkeys with better aim than you,” he grumbled.

“Hey!” She sliced the sword through the air in a wide arc.

Unfortunately, the ambitious movement was too much for her with the weight of the sword. She lost her balance and ended up with her backside on the ground, feeling very much humiliated.

“ Pfft.”

She looked up curiously at the sound and saw Grim trying to stifle a laugh.

“Are you… laughing at me?”

That seemed to break him, and he collapsed with mirth.

“I’m sorry,” he wheezed. “It’s just…the way you fell… and your face .”

He erupted into gales of laughter again.

His laugh was loud and unfiltered, and Serena realized that she had never seen him this unguarded before.

“This is the first time I’ve seen you laugh,” she told him when he finally stopped chuckling.

“Really?” he asked, tilting his head questioningly.

She inclined her head.

“How odd. I suppose there’s usually not much to laugh about.”

And Serena resolved right there and then, to give him many more reasons to laugh for as long as they spent time together.