Chapter 13
He blinked, giving no other reaction to the name. I smiled, watching the shimmering shadow and smoke twisting and curling around his body. That was his body.
Yes, it suited him perfectly.
“Shade,” I repeated. “I think it suits you.”
The man, Shade, still hadn’t said a word, but the corner of his mouth twitched. Just enough for me to know he liked it too—or at least didn’t dislike it. Which would have to do since he wouldn’t tell me otherwise.
Wista returned before I could push for a response, carrying a tray laden with two bowls of stew and some bread. She placed it on the table, not leaving again until I confirmed I didn’t need anything else, and darted wary glances Shade’s way until she left.
“Are you hungry?” I asked, sitting at the table. My stomach had finally settled enough I should be able to keep some food down, my body in dire need of energy.
“I do not eat,” Shade stated, surprising me.
“Ever?”
He shook his head, face shadowed in the fading light of night.
I scowled into my stew, frustrated beyond reason at how hard it was to drag information from him.
He answered my questions about the lamp and the magic, but anything personal was met with silence or nonanswers. I longed to learn more. To understand.
I had been thrown into this situation with little knowledge as to why, and the magic … Our histories explained little, other than confirming it had in fact existed but left our lands centuries ago.
“How do the wishes work? Can I ask for anything?” I asked before I gulped more of the stew a hundred times better than Ivan’s. If Fallon made it, I would have to compliment him.
“Your wish must be tangible. Something I can manipulate in my surroundings.” His voice rumbled through the tent, moving the frustrated heat on my cheeks to somewhere lower, making me gulp loudly.
With the wishes restricted and being under guard, it would be difficult to escape. I would have to find another way out for us.
I ate the rest of my meal in silence, peeking at Shade between mouthfuls. His intense unwavering stare never left me, and his harsh and dangerous features tugged at thoughts and feelings that were so deep they had never seen the light before.
Not with Ergo. Not with anyone.
How could my feelings about someone I just met be so intense?
So instant? My body was reacting like kindle to a flame, burning fast and hot.
He was a distraction from my responsibilities.
A dangerous one at that. His presence would be constant until I made the last wish.
How could I possibly deny this draw for that long?
I downed both bowls of stew and half the bread, eating far more than usual.
Once finished, I piled the bowls onto the tray and placed it outside the tent, ready for collection.
I hated leaving it there, but Wista’s constant reprimands at my trying to help told me she wouldn’t approve of me doing more.
I slowly turned to face Shade, squeezing my hands tightly at the knot of my robe. I didn’t know how to act, what to say without food to keep me occupied, embarrassed by the knowledge of my immediate attraction to the man before me.
Gods, I hoped he couldn’t tell.
I cleared my throat, blurting the first thing that came to mind. “How old are you?”
Cursing my own bluntness, I turned away, fussing with the already tidy books covering the table by the bed. He hadn’t answered any of my other personal questions, why would he answer this one?
I paused when his deep voice filled the tent. “I lived thirty-three years before entering the lamp.” I turned to face him and jolted; he was closer than before. So close I would only have to lift my hand to rest it against his chest. The hard, muscled chest directly in front of my face.
I trailed my gaze upward, soaking in his wonderfully intoxicating floral and woodsy scent.
Those strange markings covering his arms and hands also wound along his neck, stopping under his jaw.
An intricate pattern of strange curling shapes.
Not unlike the ones covering the lamp. They were inky black, as if someone had taken a quill to his neck and drawn them into his skin.
I moved without conscious thought, my fingertips skimming his neck, dusting over those markings. The inked areas of his warm skin were rougher than the rest. Raised. The same texture as the scar on my knee from when I fell into a rocky riverbank as a child.
Scars. They were dark scars. How he received those marks must have been excruciating.
“Does it hurt?” My question was a breathy whisper between us.
Shade’s hand covered mine, and static danced along my skin.
When my gaze met his, my breath caught in my throat.
Molten silver stared back at me, a swirling so intense the coiling heat I had been steadily ignoring flamed brightly.
It pushed to the forefront of my mind, and I was powerless to escape it.
How could he elicit such strong emotions, such desire when I had known him less than a day and hardly spoken to him at all?
Was it just our connection? A compulsion created by the magic binding us?
“Adelia?”
I jumped back at Wista’s voice, heat burning my cheeks, and my palm tingled when I pulled it from Shade’s neck. He didn’t move an inch, except to slowly lower the hand that had covered mine. Her eyes darted between us in clear assessment.
“Y-yes?” The hoarseness in my voice spoke to the intensity of the moment she just interrupted, and I cleared my throat before repeating the word more firmly. “Yes?”
“I’m turning in for the night. Do you need anything else?” She looked pointedly at Shade, her meaning clear. Did I need her to interfere, to remove him from the tent and my presence?
I took another step back, increasing the distance between us, and shook my head.
Even if I wanted it, there was nothing Wista could do to change my current circumstances.
Shade couldn’t leave my side, and I didn’t want him to.
If anything, I wanted him closer. I scolded myself for the thought. “I’m fine, thank you, Wista.”
She searched my face, and after finding the truth of my words reflected there, she nodded and left again.
The distance from Shade cleared my mind. Everything about him—his nearness, his intoxicating scent— scrambled my brain. Logic fled and left a wanting so deep and intense I could barely resist it.
I had to though. The strange pull and longing for closeness I’d never felt before, not with any other man.
To feel it with him and now, had the potential to destroy everything I had been working toward since my mother’s death.
With my newfound understanding of the king’s goals, I couldn’t afford to be distracted. Too much was at stake
Then there was the magic. The two wishes I would still need to make. The fact he emerged from a lamp. Actually … “Do you want to return to the lamp?”
Shade’s shoulders tensed, and he glanced at where the lamp perched atop books on the small table beside the bed. Then he closed his eyes, pain flashing across his features. When they opened again, the blankness had returned. “I have been inside for over a thousand years.”
My mouth dropped, eyes wide in what must have been a ridiculous expression.
A thousand years.
I snapped my mouth shut, swallowing thickly against the lump lodged in my throat. How terribly lonely it must have been. The longing and sadness that overcame me when I entered the cave and first held the lamp all made perfect sense.
“I won’t send you back.” The quiet words were a promise. I wouldn’t lock him away again, not if I could help it.
Even though his declaration raised even more questions, I filed them away for another time. He had been free of the lamp, walking the earth again for only a few hours. I would give him a reprieve from my curiosity.
I asked only one. “Do you sleep at least?”
No response, he had returned to comfortable silence. I didn’t resent him for it. Not now.
I grabbed a small blanket from the bed, placing it over the small armchair in the corner. If he did sleep, it would be uncomfortable, given his size. There was no other option; we couldn’t be parted and he certainly wasn’t sleeping in my bed. Not when I couldn’t trust myself not to touch him again.
Shade sat on the chair and watched me remove the robe and get into bed then tug the blankets to my chin.
His gaze was different to the stares of the tavern’s patrons, not leery or lascivious.
It was interest and confusion, and maybe just a little bit of desire, though that could be my own attraction playing with my head.
I found myself comfortable under his watchful eyes.
I doused the final lamp, throwing the tent into darkness. The only sounds were the muffled rumblings of the camp around us and the low humming vibration coming from Shade, the constant thrum lulling me to sleep.
When I awoke, the sun hadn’t yet passed the horizon. My bleary eyes found Shade, who stood in the dim light of the tent’s opening, letting the cool morning air filter in. I shivered, pulling the blankets tighter around myself.
What was he doing?
He was still, his back to me as the sun rose slowly, basking him in light. His silhouette stark against the yellow shine. He tilted his head back, soaking in the warmth of the sunlight, and I was utterly mesmerized.
Such a simple pleasure. To think we took something so mundane for granted—the sun rising each day and being able to feel its warmth on our skin. Something Shade hadn’t felt for over a thousand years.
I didn’t dare move, for fear of interrupting his moment of peace.
The sounds of the camp stirring around us grew. Shade remained where he was, perfectly still. Beams of light broke past him, casting his shadow into the tent. There was a lightness in my chest I hadn’t experienced since my parents’ deaths.
Wista interrupted the moment when she hurried past Shade, flashing a disapproving frown his way. “Good morning, Adelia. King Terym has asked you to join him promptly. I have breakfast on the way.”
She flitted around the tent, pulling out a blue day dress and fresh undergarments. Shade’s back remained to me as he fixed the tent closed for my privacy.
I ducked behind the privacy screen, acutely aware of his presence while I changed. Wista helped me fasten the laces. I would normally fight with them myself, but I got the sense we were in a hurry, so I didn’t object when she began to tighten them.
Meline was waiting when we emerged from behind the screen, a small tray laden with food in hand as she stared unabashedly at Shade. Wista grabbed it and shooed her away.
I couldn’t eat much while Wista fidgeted at my side. Her obvious anxiety brought my own panic to the surface. After a few mouthfuls of oatmeal, I pushed the bowl away and grabbed the cool lamp from the nightstand. Then we were striding through camp.
Like the night before, we drew attention from everyone we passed.
I did my best to ignore them, but I couldn’t help comparing it to when I walked through Toreshire, the villagers hurling insults every chance they got.
After the last few days, my armor had depleted, every judgment, suspicion, and caution against my character a harsh blow.
Shade’s hand brushed against mine, so lost in my own head I hadn’t noticed him moving closer.
A finger trailed the length of my hand in a reassuring touch.
When I looked at him, his focus wasn’t on me but our surroundings.
He studied every person who looked our way, assessing each as a threat.
The action I often found myself doing with Eleanor, an unstoppable need to protect.
His care tugged a string loose in my heart, banging against the stone wall I’d caged it in. So much so I had to shore up my defenses. I couldn’t let him in.
Terym’s tent bustled with soldiers and lords. Maps and scrolls covered the table, men conferring around them, and they all looked up when we walked in. The scrutiny prickled at my skin, and I shuffled on my feet. Shade stepped closer.
“Adelia, my dear. Come. Come. Bring the man with you.” Terym waved me over, his voice strangely jovial.
He sat at the head of the table, General Lenek at his side with a furrowed brow and lips pressed into a thin line.
The general regarded first me and then Shade, who hovered as I took the offered seat.
Wista had already disappeared, and not for the first time, I wished for her presence to get me through this.
“Why is he still out?” Lord Beatus demanded, cutting through the silence.
“He has a name,” I snapped, and immediately regretted the retort.