Chapter 6 #2
She swallowed another bite of honey cake and wiped her mouth. “We were locked in the same area at the Camp. We talked and became friends.” She glanced over at Cahir. How old was he?
Meir looked at her with what almost looked like mock confusion and asked, “You can understand him, Seda?”
She nodded. He pulled out a notepad from his knitted sweater pocket and jotted something down. “What else can you do?”
“Just the purple electricity that you saw,” she responded.
“She also has the loyalty of the Corvids,” Cahir added.
Meir gasped as he glanced between Cahir and Seda. She noticed his eyes shift toward Neoma before he said, “The Corvids have no loyalty to anyone except themselves.” He jotted more words down in his notebook.
Seda thought about Roya, Ferona, and Feich. Why had they wanted to protect her? She hoped Roya and Ferona were heading to Umbrea alongside her brother so she could see them again. She really missed Benny.
Cahir reached under the table and gently placed his hand on her knee, softly squeezing it. He whispered to her, “I’m sure they’re on their way here now. Roya wouldn’t stop at anything to stay close to you.”
She tried to shift away from him, but he kept his hand where it was. She glared his way as she took another sip of her coffee. The warmth of his palm on her knee caused her cheeks to flush in frustration.
Luelle looked at her and asked, “What do you think, Seda?”
“What?” She wasn’t paying attention. Cahir lightly squeezed her knee again and smiled down at her.
Luelle cleared her throat and looked between Cahir and Seda with raised brows. “Would you like to explore with me after breakfast? King Ael was just about to kick us out. He wanted to have a private conversation with you. But I’ll wait outside if you’d like to.”
“Oh, yes, please. I’d love that,” she answered as she felt her cheeks heat again in embarrassment. It was obvious Luelle knew where his hand was. She took her fork and inconspicuously stabbed it into his hand, but he didn’t remove it from her.
The others got up and excused themselves, quickly bowing to Cahir before leaving the room. Cahir waited for the door to close and for them to be alone before he turned her direction.
“That hurt,” he said with a devious smile.
“It’s my knee. Not yours.” She tried jerking her knee away again.
His large hand clamped down with firm determination. “No, Seda. That’s where you’re wrong.”
“Excuse me?” She felt anger ripple through her chest, and her power flared in her eyes when he smiled in response.
Cahir wasn’t her fucking king. Who did he think he was?
She pressed her palm against his hand and emitted a small spark, causing him to quickly pull back his hand and hiss in pain.
“No, it’s mine,” she said with a defiant smile, but he grinned back at her like he held a secret she didn’t know. She flared her magic again in her palms, readying to electrocute his stupid, dimpled face.
She inhaled a deep breath to steady herself. He was purposely agitating her, just like when he would fall asleep at work and wake up with what he thought were funny jokes. Sadly, she didn’t have any mandarins to chuck at his face.
“How old are you, Cahir?” she asked, remembering what Praxis had said of his age and changing the subject.
He paused and averted his eyes briefly before turning his gaze back to her. “I’m three hundred and five.”
“Three—” Seda stammered, her mouth falling open. “How are you still alive? And why do you look no older than thirty?”
“Aging looks different for the Fae,” he replied with a shrug.
“You’re decrepit,” she snapped in annoyance at yet another falsehood he had given her, wanting it to sting a little bit, to hurt him in any way she could.
He laughed loudly, and she tried to hide the smile that his sound of laughter made her feel in return by pursing her lips and narrowing her eyes.
He rubbed his eyes and said, “In human terms, I guess I would be. But not in Fae. And you definitely aren’t human either. Humans don’t have magic like yours.”
Her nerves prickled at her neck. What if she were just a fluke of a human?
“So, all four stones. Where do we start?” he asked.
She let out a relieved breath, allowing her shoulders to sag slightly. He wasn’t going to make finding the stones difficult, at least. “Yes. Luelle mentioned you had a library. I want to visit—”
“Where’s your necklace?” he interrupted, his eyes drifting over her exposed collarbones.
Seda instinctively touched her neck, longing for the chain’s comfort. Cahir’s eyes tracked her fingers grazing along her throat.
“Kalon stole it from me and left the group in the middle of the night,” she said, and watched as Cahir’s eyes widened.
“He stole it from you?” Cahir asked in a slow, quiet voice, causing chills to run down her spine. “How did he get it from you? Did he hurt you?” His gaze met hers again, anger simmering behind his storm-filled, emerald eyes.
“No. I don’t know. I was asleep, and he was on the floor next to me.” She made sure to add that part in, even though she wasn’t sure why she felt the need to.
She reconsidered her stance. If Cahir was going to parade his women before her, she could do the same.
“It was after we kissed,” she said, trying to hide her smirk. “And suddenly, I wake up, he’s missing, and my necklace is gone. Someone saw him taking it in the middle of the night when he left.”
Cahir’s eyes darkened, and a low growl vibrated from his throat. “He put his lips on you?” The smallest bit of green magic expelled from his nostrils.
“…Yes.” The hair on the back of her neck stood as she watched the magic escape him.
He watched her nervously bite her lips, and his eyes flared.
A painfully long and awkward silence stretched on before he finally cleared his throat and spoke, his voice rough, “That must be one of the stones. I’ve never seen one like that before. That fucker has probably been working for Mordred the entire time.”
Nothing Kalon did made sense. He was kind and gentle with her.
She had a fleeting moment of doubt when she refused to kiss him further, but nothing else he did suggested he was working for Lord Mordred or the monsters.
Something about Kalon just felt… different, too.
She wasn’t sure what it was. But it was almost like she had known him much longer than she actually had.
She shrugged and said, “I don’t know. I think researching the stone might be a good first step, though. Maybe I can find something written about it in the library.”
Cahir continued watching her mouth before shifting his gaze up to meet hers. He cleared his throat. “I think that’s a great start. I’ll meet you there this afternoon. I have a few things I need to finish up first, but I’d love to help you look.”
Seda nodded, eager to learn more about the stones and to potentially discover more information about herself.
She still felt the lingering warmth of his hand on her knee and perhaps also liked how he responded to Kalon’s kiss.