Chapter 19
ANNA
Later that afternoon, sitting cross-legged by the windows in the library, Anna’s body ached. She winced as she shifted, trying to find a comfortable position. For such a basic training session, Cathaire had certainly worked her raw.
Across from her, David pressed the tips of all ten fingers onto the tabletop between them, deep in thought. “So, you’re saying she preyed on human men?”
Anna slid the book his way, open to the correct passage. “She charged her Light by drinking mortal blood.”
She’d read Morgan’s entry in this book at least ten times. Nearly had it down by heart.
His eyes skimmed over the lines. “What happened when she drank it?”
“It apparently gave her complete control over the man for a time.”
“But only men?”
“Yes. They were called blood servants.” Anna pointed at the sketch of such a being in the book.
“She could coerce all people—just like you, I assume—but her blood servants were true slaves to her word. She was one of three huntresses who feed on mortal blood. There’s Morgan, the Fideal, and Leanan Sidhe.
But Morgan was the most dangerous one. Her blood magic is described as a sickness here. ”
His green eyes riveted to the picture. “I’ve never once felt the urge to drink someone’s blood.”
Neither had she, and she’d paid close attention when she’d learned this particular component of her magic. She used to stare at blood, waiting to see if the urge would come.
It never had.
“Never felt the call toward vampirism?” she teased.
His mouth quirked in that tempting half smile.
Once again, Anna wished she could sense the full onslaught of his emotions.
She could only scratch the surface of what she imagined was an entire tundra of sentiment.
She’d never had to try so hard—never had to try at all—but she exerted more than a little effort, pricking against his icy shield, searching for the entrance.
His gaze lifted, his bare expression cast with the subtlest shade of curiosity like he knew exactly what she was doing.
Heat bloomed in her cheeks, almost scalding.
His attention was a strange thing, somehow disarming and enthralling at the same time.
Anna couldn’t decide whether she liked it or not.
“Apparently,” she said with a quick throat-clearing, “the effect weakened over time. She had to drink every few days to hold power over someone.”
He hummed, returning his attention to the book.
Golden afternoon light slanted over his hair, striking sparks of Luster all around.
It hit his face at a sharp angle, throwing a starburst scar on his forehead into sharp relief.
That scar spoke of cruelty, eerie to see on a sylph. Where had he gotten it?
“See something interesting?” he asked without looking at her, and Anna jerked her gaze away.
A tide of warmth surged up her face. “Just curious.”
“About what?”
Your scar. Your past. You.
“Can I ask what happened between you and Sean?” she asked instead of embarrassing herself further.
David’s jaw tightened. “You can ask, but that doesn’t mean I’ll answer.”
She remained quiet, still, hopeful. Eventually, he sighed and looked at her.
“What do you want to know?”
“He said you two knew each other?” she asked, careful to keep her rabid curiosity out of her voice.
A cruel laugh rumbled in his throat. “We fought with each other. We threatened each other. We didn’t know each other, and he if he says he knows me, then quite frankly, he’s stupider than I gave him credit for.”
Well, this certainly struck a nerve. “Why the animosity between you?”
His head tilted, and a flare of challenge ignited in his bare expression. “Because there’s an instinct in my head telling me he’d be better off dead.”
Any response she might have come up with desiccated in her throat.
“Scared yet?” he asked.
Anna swallowed, though she wasn’t sure why she bothered when her entire larynx had dried to dust. “Is that Galadaine inside you, you think?”
A muscle near his eye twitched, but somehow his emotions hardened even further. They now existed in some impenetrable sub-zero space she’d never reach. She sensed nothing inside him. With eyes closed, she wasn’t certain she’d even sense a living creature sitting in his chair.
He sat back and crossed his arms. “You know, you’re braver than I expected, meeting me here again. Especially if you think Galadaine Manae lives inside me.”
“I don’t think that,” she said at once. “I was wondering if you did.”
“I’m not sure what to think,” David admitted, and she wondered whether he’d meant to.
At this hour, the library had mostly emptied. The two of them took up a small nook near the farthest window from the entrance, their table piled with books—mostly ones Anna had gathered, but a few he’d found himself.
“I have an incurable curiosity about you,” she murmured in a low voice, giving him an ounce of her own truth. And I’m dying to ask you about our magic, she didn’t say.
With a faint smile, he considered her. “Association with me won’t be good for your reputation.”
She’d actually considered that, but if this morning was anything to go by, Caden Sidera had an entire cohort of loved ones to help him through this ordeal.
David had no one.
David hid behind ice.
David, despite his coldness, seemed to want a friend.
She knew what that was like.
She forced out a casual shrug. “I’ve never cared what others say about me.”
“You ever think maybe that’s because the things they’re saying aren’t bad?”
Ugh. If they learned the truth, their words were the least of her worries. She narrowed her eyes at him. “Yet.”
He held her gaze until a flush crept up her cheeks, and she broke eye contact. He tsked. “Where’s that bravery now, pixie girl?”
Without looking at him, she pulled another book from the pile and ignored the heat in her skin. “They say that Morgan gifted her magic to Galadaine. I tried to find out how that’s done but couldn’t.”
A sour spike of disgust lodged into the tangible part of his emotions, then disappeared behind the ice. “Cruel little trick, isn’t it? Cursing someone with this kind of magic.”
“Galadaine seemed to like it, given he used it to mindfuck Meléan into loving him.”
A moment passed.
Then another.
She braved the unthinkable and met his eyes.
“That’s what people think,” David said. “But that’s not actually what happened.”
Anna was startled to sense a sun-bright strand of hope twisting behind his thick ice, making it glow from within. He leaned his elbows onto the table, spearing her with a candid gaze. “I can compel people’s actions, but I can’t change the way they feel about them.”
“You can’t?”
He shook his head.
“Have you wanted to?” she asked, voice soft.
David stared, weaving a spell of eye contact, drawing her in. “So many times. More than I can even remember. And if my magic is like his, then he couldn’t either. Galadaine was a monster, but Meléan loved him of her own free will.”
Caught in the web of his intensity, Anna could do nothing but breathe, and even that seemed a difficult endeavor. “Did he love her, too?”
He blinked, and the spell broke, allowing her a chance to catch her breath. David dragged another book his way, lazily flipping it open. “I don’t know. Maybe he wasn’t capable of love. ”
Are you?
Have you ever loved anyone in your life?
Your mother? Your father?
Yourself?
She wanted to ask, wanted to pry into the secrets that brewed under his mysterious half smiles and arctic emotions.
She wanted to know what Sean had meant when he’d told her David was hiding his skills at hurting people.
She wanted this man to show her the flash of vulnerability she’d seen yesterday when he’d spoken of prisons and magic that ruled his life because this magic was ruling her, too.
The emotional bombardment was consummate pain at times, overwhelming in its intensity.
Did he feel it like she did? Was the glacier his way of numbing the cacophony she’d spent her whole life wishing she could suppress?
Anna had never met someone so contained.
He’d bottled up everything, and she wondered what would happen if it all burst apart. The fallout might be lethal.
“But he wasn’t always like that,” David said, pushing the book away. “Most of the memories are good ones. So I wonder…was it Morgan’s magic that drove him to detach from his humanity?”
Dear Mother, she hoped not.
“Or maybe it was just him.” Desolation echoed through the ice, like a cry for help she could barely hear.
“It’s okay to feel hurt by all this,” she said. “You know that, right?”
Suspicious green eyes lifted toward her again. “I’m not hurt.”
But he was. He just didn’t want her to know it. And she didn’t want him to discover she could feel that pain.
Or did she?
Only then becoming aware that she’d gravitated toward him, she straightened in her seat, wincing at the protest of her sore muscles. “Maybe we should take a break from Morgan.”
“Maybe you should take a break, period,” said a voice outside their bubble.
She jolted.
Maddy stood just beyond the alcove, hands on her hips. “Did you forget we were meeting in the Great Terrace for supper?”
Anna glanced out the window, stunned to find the afternoon light had dimmed to evening. “Sorry. I lost track of time.”
“Mm-hmm.” Maddy shifted her attention to David. “You.”
He bestowed the devastating half smile on her. “Me.”
“David, this is Madlyn. She’s my roommate. Best friend. Dedicated guardian. Et cetera.”
“And you need no introduction,” Maddy said to him.
“Pity,” he said, still hiding behind his crooked smile. “I was dying to hear what titles she’d give me.”
She let out a bubbly laugh. “And now you’ll never know.”
Anna stood, stretching her stiff muscles before organizing the books into two piles. “Same time tomorrow?”
A brief flash of surprise lit the green of David’s eyes before he nodded. “Sure. If you can tolerate it.”
Maddy shot a warning look at him as Anna passed behind her. “You’re lucky she’s so nice. Be polite—and none of your woo-woo magic, or there will be consequences. No second chances.”
“Maddy!” Anna hissed.
“What?” Her tone was entirely unapologetic. “I’m your guardian.”
“Yeah, from attacks. Not from…blond reprobates.”
Maddy pointed at David, who watched the exchange with a muted air of amusement. “There’s your title. You’re welcome.”
With that, she flounced away.
“I’m so sorry,” Anna whispered.
David extracted a volume from the pile she’d just straightened. “Tell her I’ll keep my woo-woo magic to a minimum.” He opened the book and dropped his gaze. “As long as you do, too.”
Heat flushed through her body. Was that—that couldn’t mean—did he know?
Too scared to find out, Anna fled in Maddy’s direction, catching up with her right outside the library.
“You’re a hazard to my health,” Anna said.
“Whatever.” Maddy headed in the direction of the Great Terrace. “If you’re going to be hanging around the heir of Manae, he needs to know you’ve got people in your corner. He can’t push you around.”
“He isn’t pushing me around. He’s…intense, yeah, but he’s been pretty docile.” On the outside, at least. His insides were high-key volatile.
Maddy side-eyed her. “That man is not docile. But damn, he’s something to look at, isn’t he?”
Anna flashed back to the gold that seemed to halo his entire body. The guy was a mess of contradictions. Ethereal yet dangerous. Frozen but reactive. Corrupt yet…pure?
“He’s…something,” she said noncommittally.
Maddy shot her a curious look, leaving Anna to stew over David’s last remark.
As long as you do, too.
Did he know? How did he know? She’d been so careful. Hadn’t she?
Dread was a cold bedfellow, but Anna suspected it would haunt her day and night until she ferreted out exactly what he’d meant.