Page 29 of Lifeblood

I raised an eyebrow. “People who don’t pivot from questions.”

Lance’s grin grew and he laughed. “Maybe you’ll make an honest demon out of me, after all.” We walked down a few corridors before arriving at a set of doors flanked by wide windows. Beyond, I could see a beautiful courtyard and the cloudless, blue sky above. “I am a demon, but my demonic characteristics express as fae. Fae magic is some of the oldest, and my mother was a fae. I consider myself both. Those in my court and the fae courts consider me whichever is best for them at the time.”

I nodded. “I can see how that might benefit them the most.”

“It’s a fickle court,” Lance admitted as we approached the doors to the courtyard. “But we have fun and try not to let the way the other three rule their courts get in the way of ours.”

He pushed open the doors with a grand gesture more befitting of a theater play, revealing the courtyard in all of its splendor. Magic was absolutely at play, as despite it being midday, the courtyard past the doors suddenly appeared as though it were twilight, not noon. The dim light allowed for fireflies and flowers that lit up to fill the space. If I glanced up at the sky, the illusion shattered because I could see the edge of the dome of magic. So I focused instead on everything Lance had prepared—and it wasa lot.

Beneath the twilight was an elegant table set for two, with water and wineglasses, place settings for a few courses, and a bottle of wine chilling on the side. The courtyard itself was filled with beautiful flowers and foliage, some of which I recognized and some which I did not. The latter must have come from the fae realm directly, with their strange color combinations and shapes.

Lance waltzed over to a rose bush and plucked a flower. Then he returned to me and placed it behind my ear. “For you.”

I couldn’t help the innocent laugh that escaped my lips. “This is a bit over the top, don’t you think?” Not that I didn’t find it admirable, or that I didn’t appreciate the thought he put into it.

Lance shook his head. “Not at all. One should always treat their guests with the best they have.”

“And your mates better?”

“Precisely.” He led me down a rock path to the table in the center of the courtyard. “Please, let us enjoy a meal together.”

I followed him. The lengths to which Lance had gone to make this an actual date compared to Mordred’s more single-purpose encounter made my heart flutter in a way I hadn’t expected. From the start, Lance had gone out of his way to make me feel comfortable, whereas the others had only had one goal in mind: my blood. Maybe it was a false sense of security, but it made me appreciate—and trust—Lance a bit more.

Lance held out my chair for me. I took my seat and, once he had as well, he grabbed the bottle of wine and opened it. As he poured some for each of us, he asked, “Mordred was rather straight to the point, wasn’t he? You seem surprised at all of this.”

I nodded my thanks and picked up my glass. The white wine had fruity notes, and I was pleasantly surprised to find it more sweet than bitter to the taste. “Yes, Mordred was a bit blunt about it all. I don’t mind that, though.”

“I suppose not,” Lance commented before sipping his own wine.

“What do you mean by that?”

He relaxed into his chair, resting his arms on the sides and just taking up more space with the stance. “You did a brave thing coming forward to spare your friend. Then to go from thinking you’d, what, die immediately to our immortality-hungry hands to instead being our mate? I can understand why you’d want straightforward encounters after all of that.”

I shrugged and glanced past Lance for a moment and into the firefly-lit bushes and trees. “Things have certainly changed quickly.”

I was afraid still. That was the real crux of it. Part of me wanted to not fear the future or Morgan le Fay or the demon kings themselves. Because I really wanted to believe without a doubt that us being mates meant that they wouldn’t, in some moment of desperation, just bleed me dry for my lifeblood blood.

They’d proved their good intentions, though. They could have locked me away, mate bond be damned. They could have taken my blood without consent and stuck me somewhere until they’d been in a better position to use our mate bond to stop Morgan le Fay.

But they hadn’t. And deep down, I knew they wouldn’t.

So why, then, did the fear linger? The anxiety?

The answer was simple: The fear and anxiety was all I’d ever known. Hiding. Thieving. Never staying in one place for very long. Never forming attachments until Maria and her family.

Lance leaned forward, a motion that startled me out of my thoughts. “Where’d you go?”

I shook my head and took a greedy sip from my wine. Lance refilled the glass as soon as I set it down. “I was just thinking about it all. And how afraid I still am, honestly.”

“Don’t,” he suggested. “Don’t be afraid. You have nothing to fear with us at your side. And also don’t give too much thought to everything else. Not yet, anyway. We have so much to deal with, but I can’t imagine what it’s like for you, the last lifeblood.”

I chuckled dryly. “If I could remove all the silver blood and magic from my body and still live, I would. I’d give this to anyone else in a heartbeat.”

Lance reached out and closed his hand around mine. “Don’t. Don’t ever hide or exchange what makes youyou—for anything.” His tone was light, but there was a serious weight in his eyes.

“A hard-learned lesson?” I cautiously asked, knowing he’d probably dance away from the question. I wanted to know if he’d ever felt something of the same.

To my surprise, he paused. His lips parted, like he was going to answer, then he shut his mouth again. Then came the nonchalant shrug of someone about to pivot. “There aren’t any hard-learned lessons, just mistakes and moving on. Mate or no, I like you, Ava, and I just don’t want to see you regretting a piece of you that makes you quite literally one-of-a-kind.”

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