Page 22 of Flame and Starlight

“Hm, not sure.” He took a few steps towards me, and I backed up, still watching and waiting for him to strike. He took a giant leap towards me and laughed as I backed up quickly into the wall behind me. “Why don’t we ask him?” By his tone, I deduced it was Asher behind me, not a wall. I sighed deeply, still slightly pressed against him, refusing to give him a reaction. I turned around slowly and looked up at him. His stupidly beautiful mouth was cocked to the side, and his eyes were more blue today as humor danced in them.

“Welcome home, Your Highness,” I said and dipped into a low curtsey. The humor left his eyes, and that smirk dropped off his face. Defeated, he clasped his hands behind his back and turned his attention to Emric behind me.

“Lunch in my office, please, Emric. Thirty minutes.” I stood up out of my curtsey and stepped out of his way as he walked past me.

“Hey!” I shouted after him and ran to keep up. I caught his bicep—his very hard bicep. He stopped and looked down at where my hand, dwarfed next to his arm, held on tightly. He looked back up at me.

“Yes?”

“I haven’t seen you in two weeks,” I stated lamely. I cursed myself for letting his muscles distract me.

“Miss me?” A smile played on his lips, and his shadows swirled a little closer to me.

“I missed getting answers. I tried to ask Emric questions, but I may as well try to get water out of a rock.” I heard Emric snort at that.

“I will see you tonight at dinner, Alyssandra,” he said. I nodded, and my eyes drifted past him. I knew his lunch with Emric would be filled with updates about me, about my new gift. But I didn’t want our entire dinner to be about that. I needed to get answers to questions that had been floating around in my brain rent-free since he had left. I looked back to his face when I realized he was still standing there staring at me. My eyes moved to where his shadows had come closer now, rolling over my hand and up my forearm. They didn’t feel as cold as they used to. Now they felt more like fresh air, cool but not freezing.

And, oh my Gods, I was still latched onto his arm. I dropped my hand like he was fire. His shadows scattered like I had startled them. His grin widened to a full smile, showing off those alarmingly straight, white teeth, fangs poking gently into his bottom lip.

“Wear something pretty.” He winked and walked out of our training room. “I’ve missed the company of pretty women these past weeks.”

I rolled my eyes and turned back to Emric, who was trying very hard to pretend he hadn’t been watching me embarrass myself. He had busied himself with cleaning up the equipment around the room.

“You got this? I’m starving, and it sounds like you have places to be.”

“Sure thing,” he said. “Go get ready for your hot date tonight.” He laughed deeply at that, finding himself very funny. I flipped him off and ran out of the room, eager for the rest of the day to pass quickly. Not because I was eager to see Asher, I told myself. I needed more information, and he was the only way I was going to get any.

CHAPTER NINE

I snuck out of my room before Mavka could come in and make me change. I knew Asher had told me to wear something pretty to get a reaction out of me, and by strutting into dinner in leggings, a sweater, and my training boots, I was giving him just that. But I couldn’t really make myself care. I was never one to do things people told me to do.

The smirk Asher gave me as I walked into the dining room was exactly what I had expected, but it didn’t make me regret playing right into his hand. He had once said he didn’t want me following him around like a lost puppy, and I didn’t plan to.

“Good evening,” I said, sitting down in the chair to his right.

“Mm, indeed it is,” he said, smiling into his drink.

The silence that stretched between us as we ate was awkward. The only noise in the room was the

crackling of the fireplaces and my own chewing I could hear in my head. I realized as I sat there that I had expected him to dive right into conversation and ask me all sorts of questions about the updates he had received from Emric. Especially the newest about how I was able to feel other’s emotions. He didn’t, though. He sat there in silence, watching me take bite after bite as he ate his own dinner. I realized he must want me to tell him myself. But if I was honest, I wasn’t really sure where to start.

After we finished, I opened my mouth to speak, but he got there first.

“Let’s go for a walk.” I met his grey eyes and then looked outside. The snow was coming down softly, and I could only guess how cold it was out there. I loved the cold and the snow. I thought it was beautiful. But I didn’t like freezing my ass off in it. He stood up, and I looked back to him. “Come on,” he said through a smile. “I promise I won’t let you turn into a Popsicle.” I grunted and stood up to follow him down the same stairs I followed him down just a fortnight ago.

“Shouldn’t I layer up?” I asked, my words echoing slightly off the stone walls around us.

“Oh, ye of such little faith.” He looked at me over his shoulder, not missing a step, and winked. “My magick will keep you warm.”

“That better not be an innuendo,” I shot back. He threw his head back in a burst of loud, throaty laughter. Up until then, I had never heard him really give in to laughter. It was infectious. I found myself laughing quietly behind him, unable to help it. We reached the main floor and walked through the hallway of portraits before coming up on the curved door he had left through on Mayassar.

“I’m sure you’re getting a little stir-crazy.” He let the sentence hang in the air between us while the locks moved and shifted under his hand. I nodded when he looked back at me, my arms crossed against my chest bracing for the cold. It didn’t come, though. As the door swung open, the snow started to drift inside and onto the thick carpet, but the cold never reached me. I was encased in a bubble of magickal warmth.

I couldn’t help it—I smiled as I looked up at him and then slinked past him and into the snow. Every time Emric and I had been outside, I had to layer up until we had worked for long enough that my body heat could keep me warm without them. But now I was outside in only one layer, and not a very thick one at that, hearing the snow crunch beneath my boots, and yet the cold didn’t touch me.

I looked up into the night sky, inky black like Asher’s wings but lit up with a million stars. They were so bright they almost outshone the waxing moon sitting there half-full among them. The stars danced and swirled, and their light bled into the sky like a Van Gogh painting.

“Whoa,” I whispered in awe, I realized I had always been asleep in bed by the time the sky looked like this. The training wore me out, and I made sure I was asleep early after dinner to prepare myself for the next day. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to sleep knowing it looked like this outside at night. I opened my mouth as a reflex and caught a few snowflakes on my tongue.

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