Page 5 of Swords and Curses

"Young Balthasar has quite the hand," he said with a raised eyebrow.

"You have no idea," Rosa said and quickly slammed her mouth shut.

Eldon chuckled, "To be young and in love again.Venus at the Mirror?"

"Personal joke," Rosa muttered, her face turning red.

"Very personal, I imagine," he teased. "I'm sorry for provoking him. It's not my intention to cause any problems between you two."

"It's nothing. I think we are all pretty tense right now. Eli and the boys have a lot of problems with the Gwaed Gam. The treaty was a disaster and a lot of people died."

"Things are about to get far worse between us and the fae than ever before," Eldon said. "I should have more answers in the next few days. Spying on the Aos Si is a perilous business at best, but I have to know if my visions were right. I need to get you trained, Rhosyn. You can't rely on your Balthasar to protect you all the time. We'll start in the morning."

"Get some sleep, Blaise," Rosa said with a playful punch to his shoulder. "I'm a shitty student."

It was late enoughthat Rosa managed to get the portrait inside and upstairs to the attic without anyone seeing her. Her muscles pulsed with strength, urging her to run as fast as she could. She hadn't had the chance to test any of her new abilities, and she didn't feel like explaining to Eli why she had trashed half the mansion by trying to run without knowing how to stop.

Balthasar was sitting at one of his many tables, writing notes and muttering under his breath. She didn't interrupt him, content to watch him with his suit jacket tossed over the back of a chair and the sleeves of his pale blue shirt pushed up to his elbows to show off his scarred forearms. She didn't think she would ever get tired of looking at him.

You should have put some nicer underwear on, Rosa thought. She was dressed in the jeans and button up shirt that she had carelessly thrown on that morning.

"Are you coming in, Rosa, or are you just going to lurk in the doorway all night," Balthasar asked as he looked up. "I take it Eldon didn't appreciate the picture?"

"It's not that. He said you had a good hand," she said propping the picture up on an empty easel. "But it's my painting, and I wanted it with me."

"Moving in, are you?"

"You don't want me to? That's fine. I'll crash in my old room back in the cottage. I'm sure my infamous wizard cousin won't mind." She turned to reach for the door, but Balthasar was already there, foot propped firmly against it.

"I don't feel inclined to let you go anywhere. I was merely asking if you were moving in, no sarcasm intended," he said, the lines of his mouth deepening into a grin.

"Oh." Rosa looked at her feet. "It's kind of hard to tell when you are wearing your serious face."

"My apologies. I've been thinking about what Eldon said about the magic," Balthasar said as he steered her gently back towards his worktable. "I didn't want to admit it to him, but I have felt different since our adventures into Faerie. I thought it might have been a side effect, but I wasn't too concerned about it because I was so worried about you."

"What is all of this?" Rosa asked, looking at the notebooks and pieces of paper he'd been studying when she came in.

"These are the notes I took when Eli was teaching me some of the basics of magic. I wasn't much of a student, preferring to learn about my strength and speed for battles."

"Such a boy," she teased, flicking the tip of his shirt collar.

"So kind of you to finally notice. After our chat tonight, I thought I would try out some of my old skills."

"And?"

Balthasar smiled and held out his hand, clenched in a fist. Very slowly, he uncurled his fingers as a perfect red rose bloomed in his palm. He offered it to her. "A rose for my rose."

"It's lovely." She beamed as she lifted it to smell. "Do you think I will be able to do magic?"

"Eldon seems to think so, and the rest of the family got some abilities when they turned." Balthasar rested his hand easily on her waist. "I can see where a lot of your Wylt-ness comes from."

"By Wylt-ness, do you mean sexy good looks, mysterious personality…"

"Huge ego? Smart mouth?" Balthasar offered.

"I was starting to think you had an appreciation for my mouth," Rosa pouted dramatically.

Balthasar pulled her between his legs, her chest pressing into his. "You're going to have to refresh my memory." The kiss was static, like tasting hot lightning that shot through her lips downto her toes. Her new senses went into overdrive as his warm hands slid up the back of her shirt to brush over her spine.

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