Page 58 of Dark Elves of Ardani

Nero grabbed her arm and pulled her with him behind the corner of a shelf. It was barely big enough to hide them, even as he faded them both. She ended up with her back pressed against his front and his arm found its way around her waist to hold her tightly against him. Both of them went completely still as a man came in through the open door.

Zara had expected Tahir. Instead, she saw Theron’s face in the light of the mage torch. She felt Nero’s fingers twitch on her.

It may have been the first time she’d seen Theron out of uniform. She had thought the majority of his bulk was an illusion caused by the armor, but he was surprisingly big even in plain clothes. He looked around the room as he entered, and Zara’s heart raced as she watched him take in the mage torch and the ingredients Zara had just used. But he barely took note of the items on the table. He seemed distracted.

His expression was oddly dark as he searched through the shelves. He looked angry. He went to the shelf where they would have kept panacea, if they’d had any, and scowled when he found none.

She realized he was wounded. There was a small, dark bloodstain on the side of his shirt beneath his jacket, and there were scratches on his neck.

A strange feeling crept through Zara. The longer she watched him prowl around the workshop, the more she felt a deep unease that went beyond her normal dislike for Theron. It was the uncomfortable, sinking feeling she got from having an itch she couldn’t scratch, or from finding mold on her food after already having eaten some. It was the feeling that something bad was coming.

She moved her hand over Nero’s, lacing her fingers with his. His chest expanded and contracted behind her, and his breath puffed against her neck. She imagined that the way he was touching her was possessive and protective rather than accidental.

It was probably only fear of being caught that was making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and not the sensation of his body enclosing hers.

Theron glanced up at the shelf beside them as he passed. Zara held her breath, and Nero’s chest stopped moving. Theron picked up a bottle of wound sealer, and then, as suddenly as he’d come, he turned and left, shutting the door behind him.

Zara let out a breath. Her heart was racing. She felt a shift of magic over her skin as Nero released his spell on them and they both became visible again.

“What in the hells was he doing?” he said.

Zara shook her head. “I have never seen him do anything like that before.”

“Is he supposed to be here? Does the innkeeper’s husband know?”

“No, of course not.”

Neither of them moved for a long moment. At first, it seemed to be because they were both recovering from their surprise at seeing Theron, and from their relief that they hadn’t been caught. But the seconds ticked by, and they remained standing there against each other, and it became uncomfortably clear that they could have moved if they’d wanted to, but neither of them did.

Nero’s hand opened, spreading over her ribs just beneath her breast, and the touch could almost have been excused as unintentional. It was a questioning sort of touch, asking permission for something more. Zara’s heart began to pound again.

She opened her mouth to say something, because it felt strange not saying anything. But a part of her worried that speaking would shatter the moment into pieces that might never come together again.

Nero’s head tilted a little, as if to get a glimpse of her face. She’d stopped breathing again. His lips touched the corner of her jaw. Zara felt a flame light in her heart, something almost like fear, but brighter and warmer. She closed her eyes.

His fingers threaded through her hair, and she thought he was going to grip it to tilt her head like he had in the Varai camp, but he merely touched it, as if enjoying the sensation of the strands on his skin. She tilted her head anyway, baring her throat as he kissed her neck. His lips on her were warm and light, hesitant and urgent. Tingles of excitement burst across her skin in every place he made contact with her. It was almost bliss.

And yet, there was something small and panicky growing in the back of her mind. There was something telling her to stop this before it went too far, to escape before it was too late, before he hurt her.

When he moved in front of her and pressed his mouth over hers, there was an explosion of muddled sensation and emotion. He’d framed her in against the wall, and she was trapped there in a conflagration of feeling. It was overwhelming. It was too much.

She averted her face, abruptly breaking the seal of their lips.

Nero paused, surprised, then pulled back. Zara looked at the floor. She put a hand in front of her face to adjust locks of hair that didn’t really need to be adjusted.

Before she could decide what to say, he had faded again. She watched his shadow move across the room and go out the door, picking up the bottle of fever reducer on the way.

Chapter 19

“Were you in the workshop this morning, Zara?”

At the sound of Tahir’s deep voice, Zara looked up from her breakfast. He’d just come in from outside, and his brow was furrowed as he cleaned his hands with a dish towel. Their little family of three plus Zara were the only ones in the inn’s common room.

She couldn’t admit that she had been there. She couldn’t excuse the stolen items. She’d had no good reason to take them.

Lying didn’t come naturally to her. She made an effort not to avoid his eyes, but not to avoid avoiding them, either. “No. Why?” Farhana stared at her from her seat across the table, her eyes large, and Zara wondered if it was possible that children had some sort of sixth sense for detecting dishonesty.

Tahir shook his head to himself as he straightened things around the room. He went to the fireplace and added several logs to it. “Someone was there. Some things are missing.”

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