Page 23 of Blackwarden
“Are you okay?” I finally asked.
His eyes snapped to mine, wide with shock. Fuck, I forgot. I was an idiot.He could feel my emotions.
“I’m tired. I...I just need more sleep,” he said, voice vulnerable.
Fire seared through me, heating my cheeks. I needed to smother this. I needed to reign in this attraction. As lonely as I was, I couldn’t let myself like him. He was a Dark Fae. I said the first retort that came to mind.
“You need something as human as sleep?”
He smirked at this, the surprise that had only moments ago covered his face washing away.
“I need sleep, just not nearly as much.”
I folded my arms forcefully. “So, you’ll answer that, but you can’t tell me if this is a curse? Or, you know...why my face is on the wall?”
“What are you talking about?”
I slammed my hands on the tabletop. “Don’t do that!”
Without warning, he stood, forcing me to shrink back in my chair. His eyes glowed white, his dark eyebrows drawn low in anger.
“I’ve no time for this,” he said as he turned, taking several large strides toward the door.
“No time for what? Entertaining a lowly human?” I snapped, the frustration that had been building inside me uncoiling all at once. “Answering questions you’ve encouraged me to ask?”
He paused, frozen in mid-step. I tried to keep the words from tumbling out but failed. It felt as if I’d been cracked open, anger and hurt that he didn’t trust me poured onto the floor between us.
“What’s wrong, Keres? Angry my poor, feeble mortal mind is curious? Or that I might learn something you’re uncomfortable talking about? Mother forbid I have enough information to make me truly prepared for whatever horror I’m to endure on the other side of your mysterious portal.”
He turned back slowly, shadows seeming to cling to his legs. The light in the dining room dimmed as he took one terrifying step toward me.
I’d pushed too hard and swallowed the last of my words.
“Tell me, Rosalin, what do you truly think of me? Of Dark Fae with our evil magic, our curses, and propensities to cruelty,” he asked, sarcasm dripping from every word.
My blood was boiling and it snuffed out any good sense I might have had. If he wanted to know what I truly thought of his kind I’d tell him.
“That you think we’re less than the ground you walk on. That we’re lowly bugs waiting to be crushed under your shoe. That we’re to do your bidding, to be sacrificed for your every whim. That our pathetic, short lives mean nothing.” I took a deep, shuddering breath. “That you’re arrogant and do whatever it is you please because you’re beautiful, and powerful, and my life is but an insignificant speck compared to the years you’ll live.”
He took an impossibly graceful step closer to me, eyes smoldering with rage. “Do you know what I think of you?”
I struggled to hold his glare as my eyes flooded with angry tears.
“I think you’ve waited all your meaningless days for someone to pluck you from your pathetic existence.” He took another step closer and I met his glare, wishing I hadn’t, but unable to look away. There was hatred in his eyes. Pure fury that froze my heart in my chest. “That you humans waste your precious short lives on fortune and shallow lust, all while assuming those who are different from you must be irredeemable monsters.”
He didn’t give me an opportunity to respond, leaving me alone, trembling in anger and shame. For a long moment I stared at hishalf-eaten plate of food, then sprung from my seat to follow him. As angry as he was, I was asking for trouble. I knew I shouldn’t push him anymore, but something told me if I did, if I pressed him just a little more, he’d break and tell me what I desperately needed to know.
When I reached the hall, it was dark. The braziers failed to light, and there were nothing but shadows pulsing along the walls as I tried to find my way. I turned to the right in the direction of the library, and the room I’d seen him painting in, but I didn’t make it far before I slammed into a rock-hard chest and stumbled back a few steps.
Keres towered over me. One of the braziers nearby chose that moment to ignite, leaving me with the terrifying silhouette of the horns mounted on the top of his head.
“Tell me, Ms. Greene, what do you see when you look at me? A monster? A beast sent to destroy you? To drag you to a vengeful queen?”
I stared into the shadowy void of his face, my hands in fists at my sides. I was trying to decide if I was going to answer him. And if I did, whether to tell him what I actually saw or what I’d expected to see. I must have waited too long because he turned, yanking the light with him. It was so jarring I struggled to keep my feet beneath me as the world seemed to tilt and warp in on itself.
“Wait.” I cried out, stumbling to one knee as I tried to follow him down the hall. “Keres, wait.”
A door slammed. Based on the distance it wasn’t the library, but further down—likely a room I wouldn’t be able to enter. I clambered after him and found the way clearer now that his angry shadow magic had disappeared into whatever room with him. I tried the library first, but as I’d expected, it was empty. A happy brazier burning as though it was just another pleasant day in the Gatehouse. I tried the next door, but it was locked.
