Chapter 8 #2
Most of all, though, they spent a lot of their time in her apartment together talking. Mainly because Ash did better when they were alone without an audience of humans gawking at him in the glamour he adopted to fit in, but also because he liked having all of her attention on him.
Especially after an incident that took place at the movie theatre.
Right before previews started, Callie went to run to the bathroom and then get some popcorn for Ash to try.
From experience, she knew he’d come looking for her if she took too long—no matter where she was or where she went, he had a knack for tracking her down—and she tried to brush off the guy flirting with her while she was waiting for her corn to finish popping.
When he didn’t get the hint, she tried to move away from him. The guy didn’t like that and he lashed out, grabbing Callie’s arm to keep her from walking away.
Before she could break his hold, Ash appeared like an avenging angel.
He grabbed the man’s hand and squeezed. There was a cracking sound, almost like bones breaking, but Ash met the guy’s suddenly dilated eyes and said, voice layered with both glamour and suggestion, “Scream and I’ll rip your testicles off. ”
Poor guy didn’t even whimper.
Ash squeezed his hand again. More cracking. More breaking.
He shoved the man away from Callie. “Now go.”
He did. Moving as if the hounds of hell were after him, the jerk tore out of the cineplex. No one stopped him, just like no one regarded Ash with anything other than shock and awe—which he took as his due, of course.
Ash held out his hand. Callie winced when she saw the shiny pink skin, burned raw but healing quickly. Blisters formed then faded as she watched.
Her fae smiled over at her. “Come. The movie’s getting ready to begin. I didn’t want you to miss it.”
Without even thinking about her popcorn, she slipped her hand in Ash’s waiting palm and headed toward the theatre.
After a few weeks, and many more lonely nights, she had to admit they were dating.
Ash still referred to it as studying the Iron, trying to understand her fascination with the human world, but Callie knew what it was even if her haughty Light Fae male didn’t: they were dating, and she wasn’t sure how much longer it was going to last.
He seemed so into her, but Callie had had guys that were super devoted until they got what they wanted and then, as if overnight, they weren’t.
Still, he was definitely jealous. Once she broke through his icy facade, Callie realized that he blazed as hot as the sun that gave him his power.
Even though she’d finally talked to Mitch and he assured her that he was home and he was happy—though he regretted the cowardly way he left—she still couldn’t help but think, “I wonder.”
I wonder if Ash had something to do with it.
I wonder if I’m falling too hard too fast.
I wonder if I’m fooling myself.
If she wasn’t, she was definitely fooling nearly everyone else around her.
Buster, who met her new “friend” after her fae spent hours guarding the bench outside of Buster’s Photo while she worked.
Her parents who could never get her on the phone, and when they did, quizzed her on who she was spending time with and what she was doing since Mitch wasn’t there anymore.
Hope, who offered to keep her company while she looked for a roommate, and who threw a snit when Callie refused to let her.
She was used to lying. It came from a lifetime of denying the things she saw if only to put her parents and her sisters’ minds at ease.
But when it came to Ash, she always told him the truth. She felt it was only fair. As one of the fae, he couldn’t lie to her. Oh, he could be tricky—and he often was—but he was always honest to a fault. The least she could do was be truthful in return.
Which was why when, about a month and a half after their fateful meeting, she nearly lost her mind when she realized that while Ash was forced by magic to always tell the truth, it didn’t mean that he was as honest as she thought he was.
His seduction was working. Between the small, intimate touches they shared—always with her permission—and the way he did everything to prove that he was a good match for her despite being fae, she’d had her cravings for him sated enough that they didn’t need to take the next step just yet.
They both recognized that the prospect of sex had gone from a possibility to an eventuality, but there was no reason to rush.
As an immortal fae with no real concept of time, he was content to wait until Callie was ready.
And now that she saw him much more frequently, she could tolerate the gaps when time ran differently and he was in Faerie for longer than they both wanted him to be.
It was those gaps that were bothering Ash. She thought his protective nature had something to do with his being a soldier, but though he insisted he couldn’t stay in the Iron for more than a few hours at a time, he was worried about Callie when he wasn’t with her.
While the fae were limited to the times they could cross into the Iron, most found it too bothersome.
They preferred to stay in Faerie, and though a few went hunting for a human companion willing to touch them, it was the lower races of Faerie who would often risk the Iron rather than live under Melisandre’s cruel reign.
Callie thought she understood. “Like that kobold, right?”
Ash couldn’t lie, but as she got to know him, she began to understand that he had tells. A way for her to know when he was saying one thing but meaning another, the faerie equivalent to fibbing.
Which was exactly what he did when he said, “The kobold was a threat, yes.”
A casual comment. Only… Callie felt her bullshit meter going off.
But why?
Unless—
The burlap sack. The one Ash had used to get rid of the kobold’s remains. Why did she only just now remember that, seconds before the kobold broke through the veil, she saw Ash holding that same sack?
Oh, no.
It couldn’t be—
Could it?
Swallowing roughly, trying to stay calm, Callie said, “I wonder how it managed to escape the veil in the first place. I mean, that’s what you were there for. Guarding the weak point in the veil. Keeping humans out.” She met his gaze. “Keeping dangerous faerie creatures in.”
Ash didn’t say anything.
No, but his silence did.
“Oh, Ash… you didn’t. Tell me that you didn’t.”
“Didn’t do what?”
No. He didn’t get to pretend. He didn’t get to conveniently misunderstand, or twist it around so that she was imagining things.
Concrete answer. She needed a concrete answer.
“Yes or no. I have to know right now. Did you have something to do with that? With the kobold getting out and coming after me.”
“Callie—”
“Don’t you ‘Callie’ me, Ash. Yes or no.”
He didn’t break the stare, even as he nodded. “Yes.”
She gritted her teeth. “Explain.”
And, for better or for worse, he did.