Chapter 17
ANNA
Anna woke surrounded by warmth, almost sweating. She blinked her eyes open, squinting at the light that filled the room.
The strange room.
Wait. What?
She was lying in a bed. Someone else’s bed. With far too many blankets.
But she was alone.
It took a few moments before the memories returned, along with a wicked headache.
Fire, dancing, music, wine. Sean introducing her to his cousin, Cole.
Proceeding to get fantastically drunk with said cousin.
Laughing at everything and everyone in the general vicinity.
Returning to his quarters when Maddy decided to use theirs as a bordello.
His mother ushering her into Cole’s bed, forcing him to sleep on the couch.
Anna sat up just as the man himself appeared in the open doorway, grinning down at her. His hair was mussed, and a shadow of bristles darkened his jaw.
“I have a crick in my neck thanks to you,” he said.
She laughed. “I have a pounding headache thanks to you. Why’d you let us drink so much?”
A charmed levity brightened his emotions. “How was I supposed to know that elderberry wine is so toxic?”
“Not toxic,” called a female voice down the hall. “Potent.”
Cole motioned Anna to follow. “Mom made willow bark tea. Helps with headaches.”
“Fantastic.” She scrambled out of bed.
In her cookery, Blaire Hart, treasure that she was, handed Anna a full mug. On the crystal cooker, a glass tea kettle steamed, and the air was perfumed with fruit and jam.
Anna spewed her thanks, then paused. A man was already settled at the dining table.
“Good morning,” Kywyn said with a smile.
In a flutter of butterflies, she bowed to the crowned Sovereign.
“Oh, there’s no need for all that,” he said with a wave of his hand. “I’m only here because my son prefers to dine in a more intimate setting for now.”
Despite their pixie heritage, Anna had never conversed with Kywyn. Stiff with awkwardness, she took a seat and a long draft of the headache-crushing tea.
“How do you find Cathaire?” Kywyn asked. “He trained me as well, you know. Centuries ago, now.”
“Oh.” She set down her cup. “He’s—”
Kywyn chuckled. “A bit of a taskmaster?”
Anna grinned. “I am well trained.”
“So diplomatic.” His blue eyes twinkled.
“I really should be getting down there soon.”
Blaire set a tray of food on the table. “Bah. Take a day off. You pixies never rest.”
Anna exchanged a glance with Kywyn, and he Signed, Rest?, to which she laughed.
A common complaint in the realm was that pixies worked too hard, never took breaks, expected too much. But that was how one improved, increased stamina, perfected technique. Without hard work, none of it was possible.
Tribe eternal, she Signed back, the chant of unity.
Cole sat beside Anna just as the bell rang. She stretched her neck to watch Sean poke his head in the crack at the front door.
“Isobel was still sleeping,” he said, “but look who I brought.”
Autumn bounded into the room behind Sean, smiley as ever, and a thrill of panic rose in Anna’s throat. Autumn Farraday, the mind reader, was the only person who might unearth her secret.
Anna took a deep drink of tea. All she had to do was…not think about it. Easy enough.
“Great,” Cole muttered under his breath. “The psycho girl.”
She leaned his way. “What’s that mean?”
He shook his head as Sean entered the cookery and did a double take at Anna. “Anna? What—?” He gripped her wrist, the familiar pixie spark shimmering up her arm.
“I crashed here,” she said. “My best friend was using our quarters last night. Loudly.”
“Ah.” Sean kissed his aunt on the cheek, then again on the temple with a chuckle. “Still can’t get used to that. Thank you for breakfast. Have you seen where they want me to eat?”
“The Great Terrace is designed for the noble families, Sean,” Blaire said. “It’s where you hold court.”
“I have no court,” he said.
She bopped him affectionately over the head. “It’s not so bad down there.”
“Yes, we have the finest brownie chefs,” Kywyn said, then cast a wide-eyed glance at her. “Not that this is bad—”
“Shut up,” Blaire said with a roll of her eyes.
Sean gave his father a shoulder squeeze, then poured himself and Autumn a cup of tea, returning his attention to Anna. “Any chance Cathaire will take it easy on us after a long night?”
Kywyn shot him a raised brow. “Unlikely. Blademasters are relentless.”
“Aren’t you a Blademaster?” Sean asked.
“Yes,” his father said, reaching for a scone. “But I am not your trainer.”
Sean sat beside Cole and cast Anna a wink. “Maybe we can bribe ours.”
His emotions still churned with their usual angst, bitter on Anna’s tongue, but a new thread of cheer formed a corkscrew around that anxiety, compressing it, sweetening it.
He seemed…happy?
Cole eyed him, suspicious. “You said Isobel is still asleep?”
Sean nodded.
“Up late, was she?”
Declining to answer, Sean smeared a liberal dollop of jam over a scone and shoved it into his mouth. Anna hid her amusement in a large sip of tea and locked knowing eyes with Blaire.
“Weren’t we all?” Autumn settled beside Anna. Her ruby hair was thrown haphazardly into a messy braid.
“Did you enjoy the bonfire, Sean?” Kywyn asked. He sipped his tea straight-backed and proper.
Sean’s good mood evaporated, popping like bubbles against Anna’s skin. “It was…overwhelming. I met Nish.”
“Ah. I’m sure he was thrilled to finally lay eyes on you.”
Sean swallowed a bite of food in a way that looked just short of agonizing. “Do I need to sit on this Council thing?”
Kywyn paused, his emotions flaring with surprise. “You don’t want to?”
“I’m—I’m not the person they think I am.”
Looks traded among the table’s patrons, and pity edged into Kywyn’s expression. “Sean—”
“Where’s your evil blond shadow this morning?” Cole asked Autumn, though his gaze was on Sean.
She shrugged. “He was gone when I went to check on him. Probably in the library again.”
Only then did Anna remember that she’d promised to meet David there after training. Another afternoon spent in the company of the most intimidating yet fascinating man she’d ever met.
A thrill shot down her spine. Or maybe a chill. She couldn’t tell.
Cole leaned his elbows on the table. “I don’t know why you’re trying to be friends with a guy like that.”
She raised her attention to the ceiling. “Because I know the good in him.”
“There is no good in him,” Cole said.
“You don’t see his mind the way I do,” she said, still studying the ceiling. “You don’t know the good parts he hides. Besides, isolating him will only turn him into his ancestor.”
Anna glanced at the ceiling, curious. What was the girl looking at?
“Hear, hear.” Kywyn lifted his glass toward Autumn, as did Blaire.
Sean eyed his father, then turned to Cole. “So you started in the infirmary yesterday? Planning to be a witch just like your mom?” This last he said with a wink cast in his aunt’s direction.
“I guess so.” Cole glanced at his mother. “Runs in the bloodlines, or so I’m told. This one spae, Estel, has agreed to take me on.”
Blaire ruffled his messy hair as she passed behind him, tidying up the kitchen. “Estel is a maven. He’ll be a master of the Light in no time.”
“That’s me,” Cole said under his breath. “Master of the Light.”
A laugh rose in Anna’s throat, choked by the sudden flames that engulfed Autumn’s tenacious happiness.
Honey eyes blackened when they landed on Cole.
Autumn’s smile faded as a weird carnal glaze smothered every emotion inside her.
Magical pressure swelled around Anna, then cracked and broke loose, flooding the emotional landscape around her.
Lust.
It attacked like an animal, so powerful that Anna nearly winced. Her face heated, heart sped, and low in her belly, a throb woke.
It took everything not to react, not to think about it. Instead, she focused on facts.
Autumn was a deva.
Devas charged their Light in the most salacious of ways—sex.
Devas were compulsive, easily addicted creatures, irresistibly drawn to ideal mates they called lumás.
Autumn jerked her gaze back to the ceiling, and the lust decayed. “I have to go,” she said. “See you later.”
In a flash of red and gold, she was gone.
“See?” Cole said, oblivious. “Psycho.”
Anna met Blaire’s and Kywyn’s eyes, knowing they’d understand better than Cole or Sean.
Worry clouded Blaire’s emotional tableau, and with good reason.
Lumás were coveted by devas, hidden away and worshipped in luxury, but to the outside world, they were judged as nothing more than concubines.
Devas became physically dependent on their lumás, so much that separating the deva from their lumá resulted in severe withdrawal.
If Cole was a lumá to Autumn…things could get dicey, especially if he didn’t want it.
Anna cleared her throat, uncertain what to say. “I don’t think—”
“We should probably get down there, Anna,” Sean interrupted, brushing the crumbs off his hands.
Relieved to be free of that particular brand of awkward, she Signed, Let’s go.
Cole remained at the table, but Kywyn and Blaire saw them off with hugs.
“Wow,” Anna said once she was alone in the hallway with Sean. “Affectionate.”
“Eh. They’re family.” He shrugged as if to say What can you do?
By the time they made it to the training grounds, daylight had broken. Anna wasn’t surprised by the fierce scowl on her Blademaster’s face. She was surprised to find David Berkeley in training gear, a thin glaze of sweat at his brow and leather bracers on his wrists.
Sean jerked to a stop at the edge of the clearing. “I forgot he’d be here today.”
“Is that a problem?” Anna glanced at his blue eyes, all opaque and dark with bewilderment.
“No.” He shook himself. “No, it’s—it’s fine.”
Cathaire spared them a mere moment of his attention. “Tardiness is unbecoming.”
Anna bowed her head. Apologies, Blademaster, she Signed.
“Ready yourselves,” he said. “You’ve missed warm-ups.”
She rushed to pull on her wrist guards, but Sean followed more slowly, his gaze on David as he half-heartedly attempted to block Cathaire’s attacks.