Page 107 of A Trial of Fate

I was touched that even though we were all awake only a few hours ago, they all returned to ensure we had one final farewell. Shit. This was not going to be easy.

“Thank you, Shaw,” Daxton said with his eyes still meticulously scanning me from head to toe. He stood up from his kneeling position on the ground, rising to his towering six-foot-four stature.

Shaw remained in the doorway and looked to Daxton. “Look after her for me?”

“On my life,” Daxton replied, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he meant it.

With that, Shaw took his leave and closed the door behind him.

“What do I need to bring with me?” I asked, trying to forget about the heart-wrenching task I still had waiting for me downstairs. “I realize that I never even thought to ask about what to bring…”

“I’ll make sure you are provided for, but I would suggest you bring a small bag, one spare change of clothes for travel until we reach the Inner Kingdom, and perhaps a trinket that reminds you of your home.”

“Good idea,” I said, looking around my room. “Small… right?”

Dax followed my eyeline to my bookshelf at the corner of myroom. “Small,” he repeated. “There are vast libraries in Aelius, where your first trial will take place, and I promise you will have unlimited access to this and my own personal library when we travel to Silver Meadows.” Daxton leaned against the door, casually crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“I-I’m going to travel to Silver Meadows?” I asked with surprise. He just said that the first task was in Aelius. Did this mean he believed I would actually win the first trial? I smiled as I waded through the stacks of books on my shelf.

“Something amusing?” Dax asked, and I could feel his gaze following me as I walked to the opposite corner of the room.

“You saidwhenwe travel to Silver Meadows. Does that mean my persistence is wearing off, and you believe there is hope? Do you think I might actually win the trials and unlock the Heart of Valdor?”

There was a silver flash as Dax teleported across the room to stand at my back. I whipped around to face him, looking up into stormy gray eyes that filled me with a rush of desire I could no longer ignore. He placed a hand on the wall behind my head and leaned his body over mine. The look he gave me left me breathless, erasing all sense of logic and reason from my mind. His scent enthralled me. The wildness of the mountain air mixed with pine set my heart racing, and my animal’s power thrummed in my chest.

Daxton was a terrifyingly powerful High Fae warrior, and any other being in this world would be cowering in the corner with him standing over them like this. But for me, it was the opposite. His dominating presence was a challenge, not a threat. When he cornered me like this, or when his magic lashed out and pounded into my flesh, I was always eager to answer his call.

“I never doubted your power, Skylar Cathal. And yes, I am saying your full name to make a point with you.” I huffed a laugh as he reached up with his other hand and lightly grasped my chin in his fingers. “You are stronger than you know, Spitfire. You have power burning inside of you that I have waited centuries to find. You have awakened a feeling inside of me that I thought was long gone—never to surface again.”

I swallowed a gulp of air as Daxton’s hips shifted, his body only breaths away from mine. “And… whatfeelingis that?” I bravely reached up and placed my right hand on his chest, where my arrow had almost killed him. I could see the bold, swirling design of his tattoo peeking out of his shirt near his collarbone, which centered around my mark and decorated the left side of his shoulder.

“Hope,” Daxton replied with a half-grin, tilting his head down so his cheek brushed against mine as he pushed away from the wall. My chest was heaving, and I knew by the smug look on his face that he could smell the change in my scent.

Fucking. High Fae.

I never did get the chance to find a release that evening when Gilen appeared at my window. If I was fortunate enough to have some privacy on this trip, I could release all the pent-up sexual tension that Daxton annoyingly triggered.

I glared at his smug yet devilishly handsome smile. “Oh, you know exactly what you aredoing, don’t you?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” He was a damn good liar, but his taunting, sultry grin gave him away. Bastard. He was enjoying the fact that he could make my body respond to him in this way. He clearly found it humorous to toy with me.

“How long will this voyage be?” I tried to change the subject as I picked out two books from my shelf and stuffed them into my bag.

“It will take us three, maybe four days to sail through the veil and into the Inner Kingdom. We will dock in Niamh Bay and travel on foot to Crimson City. It is there that you will get your first taste of court life amongst my people, but I must warn you that High Fae courts are different from how things are conducted here with your pack.”

“Wait, I thought Aelius was where the first task was located?”

“It is,” Daxton answered, returning to his carefree lounging posture against the wall. “We need to meet with High Prince Adohan in Crimson City first, and together, we will travel to the capital of Aelius to rendezvous with Queen Minaeve and Seamus, High Prince of Aelius, before your first trial officially begins.”

“Oh great…” I didn’t try to hide my discontentment at the mention of the fae queen.

“Careful,” Daxton warned. “It’s clear you will need lessons from Castor before you meet with Minaeve again. That look that you just expressed would earn you a quick trip to the dungeons, champion or not.”

“I don’t see why my opinion would even matter that much.”

Daxton pushed from the wall and stepped toward me, leaning over the edge of my bed and flexing the strong muscles in his arms. Tension began to build in my center as my mind got away from me, consumed by thoughts of those arms holding me like they had lastnight on the doorstep. Would I ever stop gawking at him? I cursed myself for not having a better grip on my wandering eyes. You would think a shifter who had grown up seeing and being around nude males and females, all my life would be better at this.

“Never underestimate your worth in my presence, Skylar Cathal.” He winked, making a point to use my full name. “The queen is powerful, yes, but the dynamics of the courts and realms of the Inner Kingdom are flawed.”

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