Page 12 of Flame and Starlight

My shoulders slumped at the thought of having to get in another dress instead of just sleeping until tomorrow. “Do I have to dine with him every single night?”

“I have a feeling, Alys, that the answer to that is yes.”

I groaned and followed him out of the training room and back up to my own.

“Mav,” I groaned hours later, “I swear to whatever gods you believe in that I will die if I have to get out of this bed.” I had already decided earlier after my bath and clean clothes that I would beg like my life depended on it to stay in bed until Emric dragged me out of them the next morning. Mavka tsk’d at me as she went in search of another dress. “You can tell him that his stupid training has literally killed me and that he doesn’t have to worry about keeping me alive any longer.”

“I think this dark green will go beautifully with your eyes,” she said, walking out of the bath chamber with a heavy-looking swathe of emerald velvet. I peeked over my mountain of covers at it. With its long slim sleeves and slits that would go up to either thigh, it was beautiful. “And I know you’re hungry. You haven’t eaten since breakfast because you were, what was it? ‘Literally too dead to eat’ when you came back with Emric?”

I was hungry. I sighed and got out of bed to let her dress me.

“I heard the first day of training went…well,” Asher said as I walked into the dining hall. I gave him a sarcastic smile before hanging my cloak up and making my way over to him. He pulled out the same seat for me, the food already on the table tonight. The shadows around his body moved more this evening, restless and whirling around him like storm clouds. I half expected to see lightning flashing through them.

“I learned some interesting things today.” I filled my own plate tonight.

“Did you?”

“Do you have wings like Emric?”

He gave a soft laugh. “I do have wings, yes. But they do not look like Emric’s. Mine are much bigger,” he said with a wink.

I groaned at his massive male ego and asked, “Can I see them?”

“Oh, Alyssandra.” He leaned into the table and locked his eyes on mine, a stormier shade of grey blue. Everything about him tonight seemed more tense than the night before. “Let’s save that for later. I wouldn’t want to get you all hot and bothered at the dinner table.”

I leaned back in my chair, rolled my eyes, and quickly changed the subject. “I also learned that you used your glamour to convince Ashley to throw my head into the mirror like a football.”

No hint of a smile on those lips then as he took a drink of his wine and leaned back. Even the wine was dark to match the night around him. “Mm, indeed I did. I didn’t think she’d resort to such harsh tactics, but then again, my magick was spread very thin that night, so I probably wasn’t very clear. I was glamouring an entire bar, I’ll have you know.”

“How does it work? And why not just use glamour on me to get me to come peacefully? I think it would’ve saved you some grief.” I was shoveling food in my mouth tonight, not really caring about any decorum I should probably have in front of a High Lord. I was starving from the training this morning. He watched each bite with rapt attention.

“In that instance, I had to do it from a distance so it wasn’t as strong as it would have been oneon-one. But time was of the essence. So I reached my magic out, just like I did with a bit of my dust with you. I reached out and told them all to think you were drunk, so drunk that someone had to carry you out. I glamoured away the blood. And all I asked Ashley to do was incapacitate you a little. I think Ashley has some underlying anger issues.”

He took a few bites as I processed.

“But I assure you, the excuse she gave to your friends will be a good one. I was able to glamour her directly in the bathroom. I also didn’t glamour you because I wasn’t sure how well it would work with your Fae blood. And I didn’t want you to be following me like a blind puppy. I figured it would be easier to experience it all happening instead of just closing your eyes in a bar and then opening them in a foreign place with no idea how you got there.”

I mulled that over and reluctantly agreed with him. I groaned inwardly. I did not like agreeing with him. “And what excuse did Ashley give? Are you sure they’re all going to blindly believe her? They’re like my family, and if one of them just disappeared, I would have questions.”

“I didn’t stick around to find out. I know you’re thinking that your precious Thomas will be worried and wondering where you are. That boy has a lot less going on”—he tapped his temple —“than you so wildly wanted to believe he did. He’s weak, and her excuse will suffice.”

My chest felt tight at the harshness in his words. I didn’t even realize until he said it that I was, in fact, thinking of Tom. My stupid crush in the grand scheme of things now I guess would seem trivial to someone like Asher.

“I was trying to get you out of there quickly, Alyssandra.” He paused and took another long drink. “Quickly enough that Aoife wouldn’t be a problem,” he said under his breath.

“Why would Aoife be a problem?” My fork clanged on the plate at the mention of her name.

“Because Aoife is Fae and was sent to watch you.” He drank the rest of his wine in one mouthful. “And she was there to eventually take you.”

CHAPTER SIX

“You’re lying.”

“I have not and will not lie to you, little duck. I need you to trust me.” He watched me closely. I

twirled my hair nervously in between my fingers, tying little knots and then loosening them. “I think I would’ve noticed her ears. And she doesn’t have any Faery dust. She doesn’t look any

different.” I thought back to all the times I had been with Aoife. We had so many classes together,

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