Chapter 32
ANNA
“You’re driving me insane,” Maddy said as Anna paced their common room.
“I know.” She wrapped her arms around her roiling stomach. “It’s just…I can’t stop thinking about them out there, barely trained. What if they get hurt?”
Maddy laughed from her usual place on the couch, knitting needles in hand. “Isobel is with them. How could they possibly get hurt?”
But what if David got injured and Isobel refused to heal him? For how much Bel’s emotions heaved when David drew near, she was definitely capable of such malice.
The thought of him hurt and alone was like she’d swallowed a dozen thorny rose stems. Her insides ached.
People died in Viterra. Why had they been sent so quickly?
The rule was five years of training before making Honor Guard.
Five years was nothing to an immortal. It would have been so easy to wait.
Maddy threw up her hands. “Anna, what is the matter with you?”
Anna perched on a nearby chair. What could she say that didn’t make her sound pathetic?
I’m worried about this guy who slept with me a few days ago and has barely spoken to me since. I’m sick thinking of him hurt even though I’m pretty sure he doesn’t care about me, and I care about him way too much.
“It—” Anna stole a breath that did nothing to relieve the anxiety. She met Madlyn’s concerned eyes. “David never defends himself.”
Giving her a capricious grin, Maddy said, “Ah. So you’re not worried about them—you’re worried about him.”
She squeezed her eyes shut.
“He’s going to be fine. He has that magic voice that will keep anyone from hurting him. You saw what he did to that crowd, right?”
Logically, Anna knew this. David had been through worse ordeals than purging Indies and survived, but she thought of the starburst scar, the faint puckerings and slashes across his torso that whispered of violence, and she cringed.
“Anna.” Maddy’s tone changed, and Anna wasn’t sure she liked the new curious edge in it. “Is anything going on between you two?”
She shook her head reflexively. Because nothing was going on. Something had gone on once—okay, a lot of times—five days ago, but nothing since. She needed to come to terms with the fact that he’d used her as a distraction, that she was nothing more to him than a friend.
“Of course not.” She forced an expression of disgust. “Can you imagine? He’s—ugh. Gross.”
Maddy shrugged. “Is he? Seems pretty yummy to me.”
Yummy?
“I would never,” Anna said, silently adding an again to that statement, though she wasn’t entirely sure it was true.
“If you say so.”
A knock had Anna darting to her feet. She wrenched the door open to find Cole on the other side, his mop of mahogany curls rumpled. Backing up, she let him enter their suite. “Did you hear anything?”
Cole waved at Maddy. “Yeah, they’re back.”
With a relieved cry, Anna launched herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck. He stumbled backward but caught her waist. “Whoa.”
“Are they hurt?” She jerked back to look him in the eye.
“What? No. They’re— They had Isobel with them.”
“Told you!” Maddy called from the sofa.
Cole’s face softened as he took in Anna’s expression. “They’re fine.”
The tight fist that had kept Anna’s heart from beating properly finally released.
He chuckled. “Were you really that worried?”
“Can I see them?” she asked.
Raising his hands, Cole said, “I’m not your keeper. Do what you want. Autumn showed up to Mom’s suite and told us they’d made it back fine. I haven’t seen them yet because you ordered me to tell you if I heard anything, so here I am.”
Now that the relief had numbed everything else, Anna found it in her to throw him a devious smile. “Autumn, huh? Did she have anything else to say?”
A curious tinge of red stained his cheeks. “Shut up. Do you want to see them or not?”
“Yes!” She moderated her voice. “Yes. Yeah, let’s go.”
“Have fun,” Maddy singsonged, resuming her…knitting? Crocheting? Something Anna couldn’t be bothered with.
Nerves reaccumulated in her stomach as she walked beside Cole to the Sovereign Suite. Rowilda’s bell was answered after a pause long enough that Anna thought they might not be inside.
Finally, Sean’s tired face smiled out at them. “Hey. Guess I don’t need to let Aunt Blaire know I’m still alive?”
Cole laughed softly. “How’d it go?”
He stood back to let them in. “I’m arrogant and I need to work on my aim, but we’re all alive.”
“Thanks to me.” This came from their usual sitting room—a smooth, husky-from-fatigue voice that made Anna’s chest illuminate for reasons she didn’t care to explore.
Sean’s laugh was self-mocking. “Yep. Guess who saved the day?”
“Your soulmate?” Cole asked in a dry tone, following him toward David’s voice.
Both men plopped onto a long settee. Anna entered more slowly, annoyed by the butterflies that tickled her insides.
At the door, she paused to absorb the golden man sitting across from her, and a thrill shot through her. He was splayed out, his head resting on the cushion like he couldn’t be troubled to lift it. One hand rested over his stomach while the other was thrown over the back of the couch.
Bless the Light, he looked good.
Tired, but good.
His gaze skimmed to hers. “What’s got you so nervous this time, pixie girl?”
Her lips clamped shut. She hated he could feel that inside her. After forcing herself to scrutinize Sean the same way she had David, Anna said, “I see you’re both okay.”
David’s eyes fluttered closed. “If by okay you mean that I could sleep for three days, then yes, I am okay.”
“Why don’t you go to sleep?” she asked.
“And miss all this?” He gestured to the room in general without opening his eyes.
“It was a bit of a shit show, if I’m honest,” Sean said, yawning. “But at least I got some ideas for the Exorcism.”
Anna slinked closer, taking a cautious seat next to David, who didn’t stir. “Really? Like what?”
Sean shrugged. “Just—so many things.”
“Sean?” came a gentle voice. Isobel stood in the doorway, rubbing her eyes.
“Hey,” he said, tone soft. “I meant to check on you. How are you feeling?”
Bel glanced at everyone in the room, gaze sleepy. “I dozed off. Why don’t you come talk to me?”
Sean nodded.
“Hey, Isobel,” Cole said before they left. “Do you know where Autumn is?”
“Oh, um. Her room, I think?”
Cole nodded and slipped from the room with a silent wave. Sean and Bel followed.
“He caved,” Anna said, laughing.
“Nah,” David said. “If he had, we wouldn’t see them for a month. You’ve read the stories of lumás.”
She settled into the sofa. “How are you, really?”
His head fell toward her, and his eyes danced over her face. “Tell me something good.”
A smile swelled. “Um. Okay. Well, let’s see. Oh! Your mother heard back from one of her contacts.”
“Any news?”
“No, actually. It was a dead end.” Anna shrugged. “The contact said they’d never heard of Morgan’s magic popping up in any pixie line.”
“You are a paradox, pixie girl.” His voice slurred over the words.
“You should sleep, David. You’re wiped out.”
He shook his head, and his hazy green eyes focused on her. “Why didn’t you tell me there’s a prophecy?”
“I— What?” She was tempted to laugh again. “The Sending? You—you didn’t know?”
“Why would I know that?”
“I assumed they told you.”
He sighed, almost indulgently, like he thought her far too innocent. “Tell me exactly who you think they are.”
“I don’t know.” She threw her hands up. “Autumn?”
“Autumn is a locked safe who only doles out information when she thinks the time is right.”
Anna shrunk in her seat.
“No one talks to me but you,” he said.
Something warmed in the vicinity of her heart. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know, or I would have.”
His hand slid across the small distance between them to take hers. “Do you think I’m a plague?”
Every muscle softened as she leaned toward him. “Of course not.”
He patted her hand once and pulled away, his eyes drifting closed.
“David, can we—talk? About the other night?”
He drew in a deep, resigned breath. “Finally found the courage to tell me it was a mistake?”
Taken aback, she gaped at him. “You think it was a mistake?”
“I don’t make mistakes. I make…plot twists.”
A giggle burst from her, but she sobered quickly. “I—I’ve never been here before, David. This isn’t new for you, but—”
“How do you know that?” He turned to look at her, eyes opaque as the ice inside.
She hesitated.
“Women like you don’t exist in the gutter I grew up in, Anna.”
“Women like me?” she asked, hoping that was a compliment and not something else.
David brushed his thumb over her chin—a brief, thoughtless gesture that stoked blood to the surface of her skin. “No one has ever trusted me the way you do. This is all new for me, too.”
She blinked, searching desperately for some sign of his feelings buried in the ice. “What are you saying?”
He chuckled bitterly. “It’s like you grabbed onto something inside and you won’t let go. I’m way too tired right now to try to pretend I don’t want you all the fucking time.”
Her entire chest lit from the inside. “Then—why haven’t you said anything?”
“Wasn’t keen for you to realize the mistake you made.”
The blood drained from her head so quickly that she grew woozy. She reached for his arm compulsively, dragging them closer together. “It wasn’t a mistake.”
His eyes snapped up from their path down her throat. “You wouldn’t tell anyone, would you? That’s what you said.”
Understanding clicked into place. She’d said that, yes, but not because she was ashamed. She scooted close enough that her knees touched his leg and rested her head on the couch, facing him. “You know how people watch Isobel and Sean?”
He said nothing, but she knew she held his rapt attention.
“I thought that if anything happened between us and everyone knew, they’d watch us like that, too.
Only…Sean and Bel are loved. We wouldn’t be.
I’m a pixie. You’re a keila and Galadaine’s heir.
They would rip us apart before we could even try,” she said.
“I just…wanted a real shot.” She looked down, drawing a finger down his arm.
Something deep inside told her this man was significant, that he could become crucial, could be somewhere she belonged.
She might never discover her own roots or know her own past, but she could choose a good future.
With him.
David blinked once. Twice. “Why didn’t you just say that?”
She laughed. “I thought I did.”
“Bloody hell, woman. Can you turn off cryptic mode?”
“No,” she deadpanned.
He touched her knee, drawing circles in a maddening way. “At least your emotions are easy to read. Storming in here with anxiety like a hive of bees. You were worried about me, weren’t you?”
She fidgeted in place. “I mean, you and Sean barely have any training, and—you—”
“And I what?” he asked with a mocking quirk to his mouth.
“You rarely fight back—”
He let loose a fond laugh. “I fight back when the situation calls for it.”
Anna dropped her gaze to his hand on her knee and grew bold enough to slide her leg over his lap.
His hands glided over her skin, his pinky playing with the hem of her dress.
She ached for his touch, far more than she would readily admit.
Beyond curious what hid inside, she prodded at the ice around his emotions.
“It feels strange when you do that,” he murmured, eyes falling shut again. “Like you’re nuzzling my soul.”
“You’re always hiding. Tell me what you’re feeling right now.”
“I feel…” Frosty emotions flickered before resettling. “Tired.”
Oh. She straightened. “Do you want me to leave?”
His grip tightened on her leg, and his gaze went sharp. “Try it and see what happens.”
Flares of sparks erupted and burned the oxygen from her chest. Her blood turned to crackling lights.
His attention dripped down her face, throat, chest, landing squarely between her breasts. “Your happiness feels like sunshine. Do you have any idea how good you feel when you’re happy?”
Anna chuckled. “No one’s taught me to cage my emotions yet.”
His brows rose. “Mother dearest hasn’t delivered?”
“She said we’ll work on it soon.”
He twisted toward her and dragged a finger to that same place between her breasts, where her heartbeat slammed against her ribs. “You’ll need a big cage for all that.” Her breathing sped as he hooked a finger around the neck of her violet dress. “Please tell me you wore this pretty thing for me.”
She nodded and threw out all her courage to say, “I also wore what’s under the dress for you.”
Heat flared in his eyes, and he pulled on her neckline.
When David’s lips touched hers, soft and sure, fuel poured onto the crackling lights in her veins.
He tugged, and it was so easy to slide on top of him, to spread her legs and press against him, to let his hands trail beneath her skirt until he gripped her hips, holding her firmly against his growing length.
He deepened the kiss, luring her with hints of that minty lemon drink he liked so much.
“I thought you were tired,” she murmured against his mouth.
“Not for you.” His fatigued voice slurred again as he smeared kisses down her neck. She threaded her fingers through his hair, and he kissed a line across her chest. “Even half-dead, I’d still want you. I think you’ve ruined me.”
“Good,” she said. “I like you ruined.”
“One day, I’ll return the favor.”
His gaze matched hers, challenging, and she grinned. “You can try.”