Chapter 1 #2
“I admit,” he continued, “I’m not entirely certain as to your intentions.
Watching you attempt to read what I can only assume is a map of my home scribbled on your forearm was painful enough.
I cannot fathom why you have a map of my bedchamber or why you decided to stand in the middle of it talking to yourself. ”
“I…” She took a step back, eyes darting for an exit.
The door was still open. She could maybe get into the hall, but could she outrun him long enough?
Doubtful. She was a human in fae territory, so far from the Fells where things were familiar and it wasn’t freezing and…
even if she escaped the house he was a powerful leader in the fae Court. She wouldn’t make it ten feet.
He sighed. Like finding her was a minor, if irritating, inconvenience.
She considered telling him the truth, that she was forced there by Cole and maybe play to the gentleman in him—he did not choose to dress like that in the middle of the night and not consider himself a gentleman—but that was still gambling he wouldn’t turn her in, just nicely.
The problem was, North gave her nothing to work with. She couldn’t read him. There was no obvious play here and that made the situation all the more terrifying.
“You’re afraid,” he said.
Her eyes snapped to his face. Beautiful, but exasperatingly blank. Was he trying to gauge her reaction?
She tried to find some hint of intention in his eyes, but could discern nothing. What was he thinking? What angle would work best? Her fingers twitched at her sides, a conduit for her nerves, though she tried to keep still.
“You have nothing to fear from me,” he continued, inspecting his cuffs like they were conversing over tea. “I promise not to harm you, despite having valid enough reason.”
“What?” She scoffed, thrown by such a blatant lie. Not hurt her? Everyone hurt her. “I’m not afraid,” she said, raising her chin. “It’s just… too damn cold in here.”
“You are berating me for keeping my own room a suitable temperature?”
Sera needed to get her bearings. She was pure reaction, and she needed a plan…
“What was your aim in breaking into my home? We’ve never met. I don’t own much of value. You passed most of it coming up the stairs. A political opposition?”
“What? No. It’s… nothing political.” Her heart slammed in her chest. She was going to throw up.
This was the exact worst-case scenario and he was trying to chat.
She wasn’t about to admit that her ‘aim’—who talks like that?
—was to steal the whatever-the-fuck-Charm for Cole in return for her freedom.
She should never have agreed. Even if it hadn’t been a choice.
She should have run, left Unity entirely, except…
she couldn’t. Not yet. Not without Seth.
“Personal?”
“No,” she ground between her teeth.
“So, this is pure vandalism, then?”
“Oh my gods, will you shut up!” Sera’s lips snapped shut. She closed her eyes and held up a finger. “I mean. Just… I need a moment. Please.”
“Take all the time you wish,” he offered.
“Thank you.” She took a steadying breath. Then she smoothed out her coat and paused. “Wait, why? Why do you sound so casual like you—fuck. You already called the Watchmen.”
He blinked like this point was self-explanatory. “It was my first course when I awoke to a stranger in my bedchamber.”
She hung her head back, clawing at her face. “What… how? I was here the whole time.”
“You were preoccupied. And I can be very quiet.” His stare was direct, and Sera wasn’t sure if he had just made some sort of double-entendre or if that is just where her mind went.
She did not like the way his eyes pierced her to the spot, nor how her heart stuttered before returning to panic.
He continued, entirely at ease, “The staff I keep on hand can be reached efficiently and silently if needed.”
Gods, he called the Watchmen. The most embarrassing attempt at burglary topped by the pitying anger of 'Captain Sanctimonious.' She could hardly confide her true intentions to her brother, of all people. He’d only offer to help and that would be insufferable. But then, if she ended up in Watchmen custody, that might tip Cole’s anger into irrational so then her brother’s protection would become necessity.
Which would leave her with no way of ensuring Seth was okay.
Fuck. Fuck. “Fuck!”
North blinked at her outburst, but otherwise remained unmoved. She doubted anything would earn a reaction from him, North was as frozen as this room.
She spun, her gut spurring her to at least try for the door. North’s arm struck like a coiled snake. His long fingers locked around her wrist, squeezing over her coat sleeve.
“Let me go,” she pleaded. He had no reason to pity her, no reason to offer mercy, yet she still searched for it in the ice of his eyes.
Nothing. His gaze remained unfazed. He looked bored to tears to have to bother with catching the pathetic thief that was clumsy enough to disturb his beauty rest. Not that he needed it.
As his arm drew her closer, she stared wild eyed into his unfairly beautiful face.
Strands of fine, white hair fell over his forehead, bringing out the warmer undertones in his otherwise pale skin.
And this close, she could see the iridescence in the gray of his eyes, a trait as distinctly faery as the longer points of his ears.
She spent the last three years of her life living among actual demons and their hellish offspring.
Colorful skin tints, horns, burning gold eyes were the standard.
And Cole, well, Cole was attractive for a fae, but Kieran North was godly.
Sera swallowed. Her wrist was tucked into the firm wall of North’s chest. His clothes were freezing against her skin, too many layers for any natural body heat to warm them. That, or his skin was as cold as his stare.
“Running is unwise. I know this house inside and out. You’ll never make it to the door.” Not a threat or taunt. Just fact. Delivered like a tutor with a particularly simple lesson to a particularly obtuse student. ‘Two plus two equals four. And you are never going to escape.’
She licked her lips and his eyes darted to the sweep of her tongue.
Aha! So, the Ice Lord was not so frozen after all.
Sera knew two things about herself. One, she was stupid. Her mother had made sure she never forgot that she was born an idiot. Two, because she was stupid, her only asset was beauty. She’d grown to rely on using her looks to solve problems.
The jumbled, erratic pace of her thoughts stilled now that she had something to work with.
Sera flipped the mental switch that had saved her more times than she could count.
Her wrist twisted in his firm hand, her fingers gently teasing at the seam of his waistcoat—fucking waistcoat—and her shoulders adopted a sultry saunter as she stepped fully into his personal space.
She craned her neck, but Divine above, he was so tall.
She had to balance on tip-toes so her nose rested at the strong line of his jaw.
The intention was to let out a sultry breath against his cheek, but as she sniffed in, the scent of fresh, clean laundry with a hint of evergreen cluttered her senses and the little sigh that escaped her was entirely real.
“What are you hoping to accomplish?”
“I’m hoping,” she purred, shaking off the fog his scent had released over her thoughts, “that we can come to an arrangement?” Sera pressed her knee against him, drawing it up the stiff fabric of his trousers, not quite hooking her leg through his.
She wanted to flirt, not jump him. She had to really hike up her leg to reach his thigh, but the suggestion was there. He was a man. He’d get the idea.
North’s head tilted and his free hand moved behind his back. “And you think I will cave to your unquestionable allure, as many others would, I imagine. You’re beautiful and, clearly, have the experience to tempt a lesser soul into falling for your empty promises. The knee is a nice touch.”
She stared into his soulless, monstrous eyes. Her caress turned to claws. “What, are your preferences more masculine?”
His lips moved, but it wasn’t enough to be considered an expression. Possibly, the closest he came to a smile, but even his humor was… sad. Like he had sadness etched so fundamentally into his being that not even the Ice Lord version of a smile could hide it. “No.”
She huffed. “The loner type? Sex not your thing?”
His head cocked again. She got the impression that he regarded her as a curiosity. A helpless little kitten that had gotten in over her head and now asked him amusing questions while she failed to charm him. “Not exactly.”
Now he was just being a dick. “’Not exactly,’ as in you don’t like sex? Or ‘not exactly,’ as in, you do?”
“You’re amusingly preoccupied with my sexual preferences when you should be more concerned with the officers making their way to this room as we speak.”
She groaned. “No, no, no. Please, I’m begging you. You never have to see me again, just let me slip out a window.” When she met his gaze this time, she was genuinely pleading for mercy.
He frowned. “Why? What are you afraid of?”
Cole’s retaliation if she was picked up by the Watchmen? Her brother’s stern lecturing? Shitty jail food? Name it. “I’m not afraid, I just…”
The door burst open.
“Ah shit.” Sera slumped. “Gideon’s going to kill me.”
“Who?”
The officers stormed in, three of them to subdue the harmless human. “We’ve got it from here, sir.” The first turned to her and recognition lit his features. “Sera?”
Sera couldn’t recall his name, but she offered a half-hearted wave as she was peeled off North. Sera assumed the position: arms behind back, spreading her legs, keeping her head turned and facing down. This was all standard procedure.
North’s eyes never left her as she was manhandled from the room, his expression unreadable.