Chapter 33 Liars Make the Best Lovers
Liars Make the Best Lovers
ANNA
Istayed in my room that night listening to the thunder and nibbling at the roasted meat and sautéed vegetables that I couldn’t identify.
Blake’s everi never faded, shielding me like armor, even when he wasn’t nearby.
I was surprised to find he’d set out fresh clothing on my bed.
Every part of my body was aware of the vastly different nature of this realm.
While exciting, it was as if I were in a constant state of anxiety, struggling to relax.
It made me conflicted about Blake’s absence, part of me needing to process, the other part not ready to be alone.
I drew a bath, watching in fascination as hot water rushed from a sluice-styled faucet protruding from the wall simply from my touch. I wondered where it was coming from, listening for pipes in the walls or the rumble of a water heater, but heard neither.
I laughed to myself. Of all the things to worry about, I was worrying about the plumbing.
There was going to be a lot to adjust to if I wanted to come here.
Even as the water eased my sore muscles, every thunderous boom sent a fresh wave of panic through me.
The heightened pressure of the air and the jolting tension had my nerves winding into knots.
I rose from the bath, wrapping a towel around my torso as thunder rattled my bones. It was so intense. My heart was racing. This must’ve been what taking cocaine felt like. I needed to calm down but I didn’t know how with this fucking storm.
I took a breath, wondering if Blake was still awake. I eyed the frock he’d left out for me and put on the simple undergarments that accompanied it before tugging it over my head. Taking a deep breath to steady my heart, I slipped out of my room and into the darkened corridor.
I squinted and glanced around, making out several doors. I had no idea which was his. Lightning flashed, making it daylight for a moment.
I braced myself for the thunder but it never came. The corridor, however, stayed lit from a flaming candle in a wall sconce. Blake was standing there outside of the room beside mine, the door still ajar behind him.
“Are you okay?” he asked, worry etched into his brow.
I was having difficulty fully catching my breath. His presence was flooding through me like a drug. I filled my lungs at last, noticing the fresh scent from his damp hair that hung in loose tendrils across his forehead. And that he was shirtless.
My lips parted, but I didn’t know what to say.
In retrospect, thank you would’ve been good, but seeing him standing there like that, I was speechless.
It wasn’t as if I hadn’t seen a shirtless man before, but a shirtless man that was Blake, this ripped, and dripping from a recent shower?
And while I was dressed in nothing more than a slip—nope, hadn’t experienced that.
“It was the storm, wasn’t it?” he asked.
I nodded, grateful for the reprieve. Yeah, the storm—that was totally it.
He smiled, a hint of amusement. “Everything here flows with everi, its movement and rhythm is a part of us. You will become accustomed to it eventually.”
Right. Feeling as if you were being struck by lightning for every streak of light in the sky would feel normal one day.
“I’ve blocked the storm from your senses to give you a minute,” he said. “I’m going to lift that veil. Are you ready?”
No wonder I was feeling better. I guess it wasn’t just shirtless Blake after all. I nodded.
The rumble of the thunder returned but my breathing remained calm.
Finally, some relief.
“Better?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said. “Thank you.”
“Come on,” he said. “I can make you a tea to help you sleep.”
I hesitated, but only for a moment.
There was a reason he’d put me in a separate room. He knew it, I knew it, the storm knew it. But he invited me in anyway. He disappeared through the entryway, and I followed, wondering if he was dropping his guard because he was tired or for some other reason.
His room was like mine; there was a four-poster bed with intricately patterned bedding.
Claw-foot furniture outfitted the room with a hearth in the corner where coals still simmered.
Black drapes were drawn from the windows, sweeping across the floor.
A red velvet settee sat before the hearth.
I could easily sleep there before a dying fire.
In this world, the cold set a chill within me deeper than I’d ever known. I wished the fire were lit. It was no doubt due to this miserable weather.
I eyed the diagonal streaks the rain left across the large windows, revealing nothing but the darkness beyond. I tucked my arms across my chest, hiding a shiver.
“I never could’ve imagined what this feels like. To feel the very power of nature around you like it’s a part of you,” I said, looking into the darkness. “Are you sure Sadrina is alright out there?”
Blake moved past me, barefoot as he padded across the plush rug. He retrieved a teacup, filling it with water from a pitcher before adding a tea bag.
“I placed a protection barrier around her stable.”
I watched the muscles in his back move. “You can do that?”
He returned, handing me the steaming cup. “It’s similar to what I’ve been doing to you.”
I almost choked on my first sip, barely getting control of my throat.
He certainly had been doing things to me.
Just not enough things. I swallowed hard and glanced at him.
He was giving me a curious look. A bead of water was trailing past his eyebrow.
I reached out, swiping it away, but stopped when I saw his eyes flicker in surprise.
I withdrew my hand and took a sip of the tea, this time, with both hands.
The fire crackled amidst the sound of the thunder reverberating throughout my body.
“These winds feel like they could destroy a tower like this,” I muttered.
“Everything in this world is fortified in ways that do not exist in yours,” he said. “But you may stay here tonight if you would prefer.”
I took another sip of tea and set it on the dresser. Stay with him? I glanced at the only bed in the room, the rich red and gold woven into the bedding, and its polished, dark wooden bedposts.
I glanced at Blake and he was watching me, no doubt assessing every move I made.
“Thanks,” I said. “I think I’ll be okay, though. I need to acclimate.”
Blake nodded and the chill in the air made me shiver. Blake noticed and raised his hand, the pressure around us shifting as he did so. Waves of energy radiated as he drew everi into his palm and opened his hand as if releasing a firefly.
A fire roared to life in the hearth and the sweet scent of the Haneitari Eru logs permeated the room.
“Thanks,” I muttered. “So, this place; the alliance maintains it?”
Blake nodded. “The tower has had many uses over the years, but right now it is where the alliance convenes. It is considered a neutral territory—many treaties have been written here following bloody wars for its control.”
Bloody wars over rifts through time and space.
Explosive storms. Crushing gravity and foreign energy fields too dense for my body.
All perfectly normal things to worry about.
I went to the fire, seeking heat from the glowing embers.
But it wasn’t just that. Something about its chaos brought me comfort.
Like Blake did.
Feeling Blake’s everi like a rush of wind, the flames burst to life in crackling blazes of flame.
“If I get selected, I want to go to Raven Falls with you,” I said.
Blake neared me, the light of the flames shifting the shadows across his face.
“What is it?” I asked.
Flames flickered in his eyes like they were a mirror. “You cannot continue your training in the Falls.”
I tensed. Blake was a contradiction. One second, he’d look at me like he might throw me against a wall and ruin me, the next, he was so distant he acted as if he barely knew me.
“Why not?” I snapped.
He met my defiance with immediate anger.
“You do not belong there,” he said.
I hesitated, not expecting such a reaction. He was the prince—not my prince. He was going to return. If I didn’t go there with him, what were we doing? Why the stolen kisses? Why the denial of gratification as if we were meant to be more?
“I don’t belong there. Or with you?” I said quietly.
Blake’s expression hardened but he didn’t answer.
Irritated, I turned to leave. “It’s getting late.”
I grasped the door handle and pulled but the sudden smack of his hand against the wood kept me from opening it.
I gasped in disbelief, letting my fingers slip from the handle.
When I turned, Blake was there, a mere breath away, his arm over my shoulder, hand pressed firmly against the door, pinning me with his body.
“It isn’t safe for you there,” he said, his voice defensive but strained like he was conflicted.
Every rise of his chest and every breath he took enraptured me. Did he not feel it too? “That sounds like an excuse to keep me from you—how can you deny…”
I paused, unsure what to call the intensity I felt in his presence—the way our everi responded to one another, the way everything suddenly was easier because of him. The way I wanted to melt into his arms, but this notion that our future posed such a problem was pissing me off.
He had to feel it too. Right?
He didn’t budge, keeping me trapped there in his space until he made up his mind. When his eyes found mine, they were dark as night.
“There is a connection between us. I do not deny it,” he murmured, his words like a forbidden caress across my soul. “But it is not an excuse to be foolish.”
His everi flowed through me, stimulating nerve endings in rapid succession.
“How is wanting to be near you foolish?” I whispered. “I’m not safer without you, Blake. I’m weaker.”
Blake closed his eyes, his expression torn.
“Why me?” he whispered.