Bastard.
The barrettes in my hair push uncomfortably into the back of my head, and I’m forced to make a few awkward moves to remove them. I can feel Xerxes’ red eyes on me as I lie back down, and it makes me blush to the tips of my ears.
“Put your hands by your sides, you’re not lying in a coffin.” There’s amusement in his voice, but I’m not laughing. It’s true that I clenched my hands on my chest like I’m in a coffin, but relaxing proves so hard it’s almost impossible. I feel even more stupid with my hands to my sides.
“Now I look like the Virgin Mary on her first day at the beach.”
He makes a low growling sound deep in his throat, and I wince.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “It’s been a while since I’ve laughed.”
“Oh, that was you laughing?”
He makes that sound again, only that this time I even find it in myself to smile. It encourages him to move closer, the heat of his body enwrapping me.
“I’m going to put my arm around you now,” he announces in a soft voice that’s meant to help me feel comfortable, but I feel all sorts of other things, and he notices. “Is everything all right? Do you prefer that I don’t touch you?”
“No, you may do it, please.” Damn it, now I’ve sounded too eager.
His arm slips around me, and my ears start buzzing. I close my eyes, just to make sure he doesn’t see them roll back, and I tell myself the pleasure comes only from being surrounded by heat after I’ve been so cold that it seeped into my bones.
“As an energy worker who deals with elements, I didn’t expect the cold would affect you.”
“I can work with elements, but that doesn’t mean I can withstand them under any circumstances,” I manage. “I’m only parahuman, not a high supernatural like fae, things can quickly get too intense for me.”
Like right now, for example.
But the warmer I get, the more I realize how cold I’d actually been. It’s like layers of my skin defrost in his arms. Keeping my eyes closed helps, I can control my breathing better, and not give away all the things that this situation makes me feel. His scent of ember and wood seeps into my nostrils. The the latex is like a second skin, and my cheeks light up with shame when I think about that fact that it molds perfectly to the shape of my body, basically revealing me naked, only black and shiny. I can feel Xerxes’ eyes slide down my frame, checking me out in what I think is that way.
Realms, I have to get both his mind and mine off of sex, right now, before I’m so turned on that he can smell it.
“What do we do if the Grand Mage walks in, or one of his delegates, to fetch something, or—”
“You forget, Cerys,” he says in his low, manly voice. “I’m a fae king with restored powers. I can pick up sounds on a very wide range, and on many frequencies. If anyone comes anywhere near this room, I’ll know.”
“Still,” I press. “If the Grand Mage appears with guards, what do we do? Because I insist that you do not hurt them. Consider it a favor, just like this one.” I motion to the both of us, him warming me up, but I don’t open my eyes as I do.
“Just to ease your mind, I don’t expect the Grand Mage to walk into his private chamber with guards. In the worst case, he will leave them outside the door. Besides. He wouldn’t see us, not at first.” Even through my closed eyelids I can see darkness falling over the room, like a cloud covering the sun, casting shadow over a beach that was hot and shiny only a moment ago. I open my eyes slowly to shadows rising from Xerxes’ body, enveloping us like a cloak.
“It will look like a dark mist on his bed. He will approach slowly, carefully, to inspect the apparition, which is when I’ll grab him by his throat, before he can even make a sound.”
“You forget he is the Grand Mage. He can use a revealing spell, and discover us without coming one step away from the door. Besides, the broken window and the cold are telltale.”
“No simple revealing spell will work on me, because I’m not using conventional magic to conceal us, I’m using the shadow and smoke that my body produces. So basically, the Grand Mage would be seeing the real thing. As for the window—”
He casts a shadow over it as well.
“High realms,” I whisper as I watch the shadow transform into a special kind of mist that not only patches the glass, but also blocks the draught. By the time the Grand Mage enters the chamber, the room temperature will be restored.
“But if he notices the darkness as soon as he walks in, he’ll call the guards,” I insist, worried that it will come to bloodshed after all. “What will you do then?”
“Even if he does get his men to assist him, I’ll leap and get him before he can even blink, and I’ll demand that he calls his guards off. That way they won’t be harmed, but they’ll have to stay in the room for the rest of the show. But I promise you—” He leans in, and breathes in my scent. What in the cursed realms? I thought he was as much against our connection as I am. “I won’t hurt them physically, no matter what.”
“You have an answer ready for everything, don’t you?” I mumble. My breathing is so shallow by now, it’s hard to speak.
“I suppose.”
I turn my face to him briskly. The mattress springs lightly under me as he tenses. I stare daringly into his face.
“Why do you insist on speaking to him personally, why not do this my way?”
“First of all, I’m sure you see the sheer absurdity of searching for info and proof in this humongous place. I mean, you have a good plan, but we’re still not very likely to find something in due time, not by a long shot. Your plan is brilliant, but still applicable only in theory. Someone is bound to discover us. People are bound to die, because I wouldn’t be able to leave any one of them alive. Our final purpose must stay secret until we’ve achieved it. If your liege Lysander were to hear about it—”
“Lysander is not my liege.”
“You fought on his side a year ago.”
“I didn’t fight. I followed my brother, who took me away from my shop, my life, the city I grew up in, in order to protect me from you, and for that he needed Lysander.”
“I wasn’t looking for you. He didn’t have to—”
“Your enemies would have searched for me sooner or later. It was already transpiring that I would become your fated mate. They would have tried to kill you by killing me—I’m sure you’ve heard the rumor.”
“Please refresh my memory.”
Hot blood pools in my cheeks, remembering what he did with the warlock who spoke about this at Castle Rock. He took the man’s voice away. “Why do you have to make things hard on me all the time? It’s not like you don’t know Zillard’s theory—that once the connection is created between us, I could become your heart. And that killing me would be equivalent to striking you dead, as absurd as it sounds.”
“It’s absurd indeed.” He measures me like the idea alone was offensive to him. He rolls to the other side of the bed, putting distance between us. “I trust you’re warm enough now?”
“I am,” I reply between my teeth, folding my arms across my chest. I’d sit up, but I’m not sure if that would rip through the dark curtain he created around us to hide us from sight when the Grand Mage walks in. I wonder how much longer we will have to wait.