Chapter Nine The Forge #3
"Why is it woman swoon around you? Is it your demon blood? Are you a powerful succubus?"
Stupidly good-looking can't be the only power he holds.
Adan didn't know why she asked Lennox that...
She did, however, tell herself that it was strategic.
She had yet to see the scope of his power, and it was starting to drive her crazy.
Asking about his countless admirers was simply a segue.
Lennox's eyes glinted with something feral, and his grin was almost boyish in a sly way. His eyes dipped to Adan's mouth. "I can't control your emotions, love." He grabbed one of the beers that Molly had dropped off.
"What can yoouuu dooo?" This time she could do nothing to stop the slur. She was hoping it would sound more like a challenge, but the words held no bite.
"You're not the only house that can control fire."
He laughed, "Funny that it's one of the few skills that transcends three of the four houses. Did you know that mental gifts are prevalent in all four? And two out of those paid the consequences for those powers."
Dragons and phoenixes. Fire and Shadow. "Demons came out on top in the war after the fall of the dragons, but Fire House was decimated altogether."
Adan took another shot. "So you have fire like me." it wasn't a question.
"I'm classified as demon. Very few have the gift of hellfyre."
He shrugged like it was no big deal. His flippant mention of hellfyre made her pause.
Demons are known for their intelligence, cunning, and strength.
But If this demon has hellfyre, there was a good chance that he held some mental powers as well.
"You mentioned mental abilities?" She sipped on her beer. The asking outright was stupid, and Adan would blame it all on the alcohol.
"All houses have them, like I said." The high king being the prime example.
"But dooo yoouuu have any?". She clutched her beer as she felt him staring at her. "I hope you know I'm putting all my drinks on your tab." She quickly added.
"Are you hiding any other powers from me that I should know about?" He volleyed and she checked her mental walls. Which surprisingly held up under the weight of her alcohol consumption.
"You have your secrets, and I have mine." Adan was impressed she managed to speak without slurring.
"I could command you." As her technical owner, he could pull rank, and she would have no choice but to answer his every last one of his question.
"You could." She ground her teeth. But that would only further justify my hatred for you.
She would never forgive him if he did something like that, something the king would do and has done.
It was why it was so important to know whom to trust.
Telling a secret could be a death sentence.
It was one of the hardest and most strategic lessons in this world, knowing whom to trust with your secrets.
If the king knew what questions to ask, Adan would already be dead.
"Relax, love. I won't. Besides, it would take all the fun out of it. I rather prefer it when you obey of your own free will." He winked and she gave him a flat glare. She couldn't find the strength to slash back.
"Hardly." She chuckled softly into her beer glass. He might not command her, but he was still controlling her. "You have something I want—more than anything. You're no fool, you know I will do whatever it takes to get it. Leverage and blackmail are not the same as taking away free will."
He hissed with quiet venom as he leaned in closer, caging her again.
His eyes again dropped to her full mouth and his head dipped to her ear.
"Keep thinking about what you want--your goal. Don't let this circus sidetrack you."
His head nodded back to revelry behind him without taking his piercing vibrant eyes off her.
"Said like someone with the privilege of choice." She tilted her head back as he lifted his, her soft cheek grazed his stubble and he growled at her.
"What I showed you at Sanctum was to remind you of the harsh world that you wilfully ignore, but have easy access to as the king's assassin. I told you that I was not always a Lord. I want to help free you, but you still wish to see me as the bad guy."
"You're the one who told me to never trust anyone in this city. Why should I start now, and with you, of all people?"
She stood, pushing his chest hard to give herself room to stand.
He only yielded a step. "You may be older than myself by two hundred years, but I think it has been a long fucking while since you've had to make choices from the position of not having any."
She poked his chest and he gave her another step.
"I think you've been siting on your high horse for so long that you forgot what it is like to be in the dirt and mud."
She pointed towards the center of the pit, where a new fight had started.
"You may claim to be one of us—maybe you once were."
She looked pointedly at his expensive loafers, to his tailored suit.
"You're not one of us anymore." She spat on the ground, and elbowed him aside as she stumbled for the exit.
"You're not one of them either!" He called out to her.
It was possibly the most truthful thing shared between them.