Chapter 14
ANNA
Anna Ainslan was an empath—a fact she’d learned as a girl when the emotional bombardment of strangers threatened to unravel her sanity. A man’s anger made her rage. A child’s scolding made her cry. A woman’s grief made her ache.
Her father had told her she was merely intuitive, but at the age of nineteen, almost five years ago now, she was ripped from that quiet existence in the north of Scotland. Unexplainable pain had dragged her through the mist into Luxoria.
Here, she’d finally learned what her empathy meant. It was the hallmark power of what Luxorians termed the children of Morgan.
Anna was a child of Morgan.
Morgan, the mother of this entire branch of magic, fed on blood and sanity. She was exiled for her desire for domination. She gifted her talents to Galadaine Manae to further his terrifying cause.
She didn’t just feel emotions. She could manipulate them. She could snatch snippets of the future. She could curl deep into the hungers of a person and coerce them to do her bidding. She could reduce an army to slaves.
Anna didn’t know if she possessed those darker abilities.
Out of fear of discovery, she’d never tried to coax obedience.
Centuries ago, this magic was purged from the population.
Anyone even suspected of possessing it was executed, all except for the Manaes—Sovereigns with irresistible voices, who saved themselves with the very magic that was to be their doom.
The magic was all but extinct now, so she had no idea why she possessed it. Anna was not of Manae blood. She was no one.
Her mere existence was a mystery.
Half pixie. Half mortal. A child of Morgan.
How had such a combination come to be?
No amount of research in this library had given her a clue, and the more she searched, the more isolated she felt. Not a single creature in this realm was like her. She was entirely alone. It wasn’t like she could ask. It would only raise suspicion.
Anna would not fare well if anyone found out. Only one person knew—her best friend, Maddy, who’d discovered it by sheer proximity—and she wanted to keep it that way.
But now…
Now she was face-to-face with Galadaine’s heir. Too much time in this man’s company and he’d certainly figure her out. It could ruin her life, and the worst part was that a strange, destructive piece of her wanted him to discover the secret.
She was so tired of being alone.
On the ground floor of the library, Anna perched herself on one of the many tables made of giant slices of tree trunks. “You have me here. Do you have a plan?”
David paused his perusal of the place to glance her way. The tall windows let in midday sunlight that struck his fair hair in bits of gold and white.
The library was just like the rest of the Tree—arched ceilings, open spaces, and every unused surface covered in greenery.
Books were crammed into shelves along the walls.
A large spiral staircase traveled up several floors but also delved into the roots of the Tree, leading to a dim maze of tome-filled bookshelves and crystal-lit alcoves for quiet study.
But here, on the ground floor, where sunlight fed the flowers and Luster sparkled in the air, the heir of Manae looked like a golden prince, slowly treading her way.
Too bad his voice could lure her to her doom.
Deceptive beauty. Dangerous beauty.
Coming with him to the library had hardly been a choice. The thread of silky magic in his tone lured her to his side. It could probably lure her to do much worse than that.
But it wasn’t fair to judge him by a magic she also possessed. Anna had once heard it said that truly knowing a person required learning both the worst and best things about them. If the worst thing about him was his dangerous magic, what was the best thing?
Beyond that question existed something far more intriguing. A burning curiosity.
What would this man, the progeny of Galadaine Manae, be like?
He approached with soundless footsteps and stood before her. She sensed shades of interest within him, but the larger portion of his emotions was hidden in something cold, like an iceberg of which she could see only the tip.
He studied her face as if it was a problem he could solve. “You don’t like me.”
“I—I don’t know you.” She winced at the catch in her voice, betraying her trepidation.
“Do I make you nervous, Anna Ainslan?”
She thought about lying, but what was the point? He could feel it inside her. “Yes.”
“Why? Haven’t you proven that you could kick my ass if you needed to?”
No. She hadn’t bested him at all. He’d let her win.
She shook her head, thoughtful. “I don’t think I did.”
No barrier stood between them, and the urge to find protection stirred.
She lifted off the table, narrowing the distance between them.
The green in his eyes glinted, and a bright warning sign flared to life in Anna’s mind.
It reminded her to be careful, to remember what his magic could do, what his ancestor had done.
“What makes you say that?” he asked.
With slow steps—ones she hoped hid her anxiety—Anna wandered toward a nearby settee, placing it squarely between herself and the heir of Galadaine Manae. “There’s a difference between can’t and won’t. You refused to fight me. That doesn’t mean that you couldn’t do it if you wanted.”
Blank expression in place, his eyes lowered toward the settee, then back to her. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Ah.” She wagged one finger at him. “But the potential exists, doesn’t it? Do you even realize I didn’t have a choice following you here?”
The tightening at the corner of his mouth was the only indication she’d struck a nerve.
The small portion of emotion she could access blossomed with glittering shards of melting ice.
Intrigue warred with hesitation, and beside that battle existed a host of other vibrant emotions.
Worry. Vulnerability. Deeper than that—insecurity and worthlessness.
And that was only the portion she could feel.
The man certainly had layers, and he was trying to hide every single one of them.
Expressionless face. Casual posture. Frost covering every feeling inside him.
Why was he so guarded?
“I’m not forcing you to stay,” he said.
She maintained eye contact, sensing any show of weakness might make him pounce. “Yet here I am.”
A sudden crooked smile hid the threat inherent in his voice. “Why?”
Shrugging, she let her gaze travel to the shelves nearest her. “I have knowledge you want.”
And I want to know how this magic feels to you.
Do you overflow with emotion?
Do you burn under the fire of others’ pain?
Do you agonize over snippets of a future not yet lived?
Do you feel like you don’t belong?
She should leave. Some intuition told her it was the smarter move, but she couldn’t make her feet walk away. The curiosity bordered on pain.
Anna was an anomaly. An oddity. An aberration. Her origins made no sense. Her magic was a mystery.
But this man…
He might understand. He might become a hiding place for her loneliness.
A heartbeat of silence passed before he let out a skeptical hum and turned to the closest shelf, studying the titles.
Anna allowed herself a moment to take him in.
Gold shimmered over every facet, and the gold chain around his neck enhanced the elusive glow.
Sylphs tended to keep to themselves. She’d seen only a few in the five years she’d lived here, and each of them possessed that same ethereal quality. An otherworldliness. Untouchable.
But he was different. Less fragile.
“They say your ancestor enjoyed cruelty, so you shouldn’t be trusted,” she said, just to see how he reacted.
David tilted his head without looking at her. “And you judge people based on what others say?”
“Is it true?” she asked.
His voice remained even, almost bored. “Which part? That I’m cruel? That I enjoy it? That I shouldn’t be trusted?”
“Any of it.”
One of his shoulders lifted. “Stay and you can find out.”
Anna laughed once. “Give me one reason why I should do that.”
He flaunted a quick, devastating smirk that made her insides twist. “You’re curious.”
She didn’t refute it.
One elegant finger trailed across the spines before him.
The tendons in his hand stood out, as did the bones in his wrist. At first she’d thought him simply lean, but on closer inspection, perhaps he was a bit underfed.
He had a thin, angular face, sharp at the jaw and nose but softened in places one wouldn’t expect.
Like his mouth.
As it sometimes did, her vision turned hazy, and in her mind, a shimmery image rippled forth, slow and sparkling. Against an ocean-blue backdrop, David stared down at her, expression far less guarded than it was now. He lifted her hand and pressed it to his chest.
If I have no heart…
His voice faded as the vision collapsed into a sea of glitter, and she was left blinking. Shaking herself, she took a hesitant step forward, leaning her weight against the settee. “What are you looking for?”
A long sigh left his lungs and he sagged back against the bookshelf, looking suddenly tired.
“Yesterday I found out that my entire life is a lie. I discovered that I fled one prison, only to wind up in another. This one is prettier—don’t get me wrong—but my jailor is the same.
This magic is ruling my life, and I want to know what I’m in for.
If I have to serve this life sentence, I need to understand what I’m serving it for. ”
Taken aback, Anna sucked in a stuttered breath. “I don’t think I can help you with that.”
His attention drifted to her, but this time, he wasn’t smiling.
“You look familiar. That’s weird, right?
Some of his memories are— I fucking hate that I’ve had these images in my head for the past twenty-one years without knowing what they were or why they made me feel like clawing my own veins out of my body.
Do you have any idea what it’s like to be six years old and see visions of your hands killing people?
To remember the warmth of their blood on your skin? ”
Anna’s breath stalled.