Chapter Six #3
“I’ll fetch a musician from the city,” Tristan promised.
He didn’t avert his eyes, and even when he blinked, it felt like he was asserting himself.
Calmly, slowly. Dark lashes fluttering down as if to say, I’m perfectly safe to lose sight of you, I’m strong enough for that.
The candles along the walls were getting low. Austin saw nothing but Tristan.
“What else?” Tristan asked.
“A mirror.”
“I’ll fetch that too.”
“From the city?”
Tristan nodded.
“You don’t have one mirror on this huge estate?”
A conflicted expression flitted across Tristan’s face. For a second, he looked pleased but then quickly didn’t. “I don’t often host.” He seemed reluctant to admit this, the same as he’d seemed pained to admit he didn’t have attendants.
“That,” Austin said, “is obvious.”
Tristan’s eyes shone, and Austin had the impression he wanted to flash his teeth. Austin smiled, sweet and benevolent. “You serve nice wine, though. And I like the attendant you fetched me.” Austin broke eye contact first, but he’d already won, so it was no defeat. “I’m tired.”
“Char has prepared a room for you.”
“I like the one I’m in.”
Tristan’s gaze sharpened, his demeanour shifting. He looked poised to tell Austin no. Austin met his eyes. A second passed, and Tristan inclined his head in assent. “Very well.”
Austin rose from his chair, the pinch in his neck flaring as he moved. He raised his hand without thinking but caught himself before touching the cuts with unwashed fingers.
Tristan’s eyes moved to Austin’s neck as he approached. “Do you need to return to the ocean?” He stopped at arm’s length, his hands shifting through several aborted intentions before finally folding across his chest.
“Why would I need that?” Austin’s top lip curled back. The very next second, he remembered he was talking to a merman. The question very likely hadn’t been an insult in disguise. Pretending he hadn’t just sneered at him, Austin asked, “Do you need to go into the ocean often?”
Austin cast his gaze over him, but it wasn’t until he reached Tristan’s eyes that evidence of his nature was apparent. Blue eyes, ringed in darker blue. It was like catching a predator’s eye out of the corner of his own.
“Once a day,” Tristan answered. “Though my brother can comfortably go weeks without entering the ocean.”
Austin’s head canted to the side. As far as he knew, Adonis, Goldilocks, Bee and Dew predominantly lived in the ocean, only occasionally taking on legs to go on land. And aside from Goldilocks, who acted like the world’s biggest asshole, they acted like wild animals.
Tristan’s gaze returned to Austin’s neck. “I can accompany you to the shore if you’d like?”
With needle precision, Tristan struck the same nerve Liam always hit when he walked on eggshells around Austin. His blood warmed, and he knew his voice would have Liam covering both ears if he’d been within spitting distance when he spoke.
“I am not weak.”
Tristan didn’t flinch. The only indication that he felt anything from Austin’s voice was the way his head tilted and his lids lowered a fraction.
“I can feel that,” he agreed. “And I saw your power plainly on the beach, too. One who can order a ghoul to kill itself with their voice alone, while”—Tristan hesitated, clearly choosing his next word with care—“spent, is far from weak.”
There was an admiring note in Tristan’s voice. And it felt to Austin like he was telling the truth, not humouring him.
“Hm.” Austin let his animosity settle.
Outside the main hall, dark pathways led off the courtyard. Night had fallen, and though a bright moon hung high in the sky, the earth was largely dark. Austin hesitated, not quite sure which shadow led back to his room.
Tristan stepped down into the courtyard and paused on the bottom.
He glanced up at Austin and waited. Out of the hall, it was too dark to read his expression.
There were only four steps down, but enough light shone behind him to turn them all into one dark shadow. He’d have to step carefully. Or trip.
Austin held out his hand. Tristan reached out and took it.
“Carry me,” Austin said. “Unless you’re too spent and weak?”
Tristan’s fingers tightened around Austin’s hand. Without a word, he moved, bending down and very carefully lifting Austin from the ground. Austin flinched anyway.
Tristan picked the dark tunnel Austin had been eyeing speculatively and came to a stop at Austin’s room. “I can set you down on the bed,” Tristan offered in a very formal, polite voice.
“Here.”
Austin hissed as his feet touched the ground.
“One moment.” Tristan strode off, leaving Austin standing in pitch black. Austin waited until the slap of foot on stone receded, and then he felt for the door handle. He leaned in the doorway, waiting.
Tristan returned before Austin could get annoyed about waiting. Austin looked in the general direction of his head.
“Here,” Tristan said.
A moment passed.
“ ‘Here’ what?”
“It will help your muscles.”
Oh. He was trying to hand Austin something.
Austin put his hand out, palm up. Tristan placed something glass and jar-shaped into his grip. Austin carefully closed his fingers so he didn’t drop it. “Goodnight,” he said, and waited to hear it returned before shutting the door.