Page 43 of Unraveled
“Mia.” His eyes pin me down with an intensity I’m not prepared to face. “You have no idea.”
Something else quickly replaces the heat of embarrassment I felt before. My mouth goes dry, and I forget what I was about to say or do. My name spilling from his lips sounds like something I’m not supposed to hear, forbidden, and my poor twisted heart has no defense against it.
“Get dressed. I’m not a patient man.” And with that, he closes the door and leaves me inside this sweltering room.
No one has ever offered to train me in magic before. I shake off my shock and dress as quickly as I can before I rush out of the room. If Ash wrote that grimoire... I can barely hold in my excitement about what I may learn today.
“You’re training me?” Incredulity that seeps into my tone as I catch up to him.
“Seems like the logical next step, since you’re going to help me with my... situation.” He looks pointedly into the courtyard through the large windows to my left. The three sculptures I spotted earlier drift across the dilapidated space. Lunargyres that look much like Nera. Their hissing vibrates almost as loud as our footsteps.
“I didn’t think those were—” I begin, rubbing my hands over the gooseflesh that lifted on my arms. I shift away from the windows and closer to Ash. Like the mass of his body might protect me from being seen.
“They blend rather beautifully with the stone outside.” Ash stops at an impressive set of doors, and gold swirls of power wrap around each of his fingers before the lock clicks. The two panels swing open in unison, revealing only gaping darkness in the room ahead.
“The one that attacked me before wasn’t made of rock.” It looked like a bald mole, much like Alaris in the kitchen.
“The high fae transition to stone, while low fae change to a more animalistic lunargyre.” He pauses, gesturing for me toenter the room. “The sculptures blend with the garden. It makes them deadlier.”
His words don’t match the true devastation in his expression. I feel sick thinking about it, remembering the dead beast the scientist dragged out of the machine. I haven’t thought about it in a while, but the image seldom leaves me.
“And about the training, it’s an insurance policy on my part, to keep you from dying. Especially since you seem to enjoy danger.”
I could have told him I didn’t, but that would be a fat lie. Proven by the actions that brought me to this very moment. Or by the fact that I’m truly considering stepping into that dark room, where beasts could be hiding. “What if I use my newly gained skills to escape you?”
“Then you’d better run fast, Monster, because I like the chase.” He disappears in the darkness.
As soon as I step inside, I can’t see anything around us except for tall columns that catch the dim gray light from the hall. Ash steps around me, rolling his sleeves up over his forearms, revealing his pale gold skin and the contrasting peppering of small feathers on his forearm.
He looks different from the night I met him. Now he looks a lot more like I imagine the fae did once upon a time. The plumes are a reminder: A curse still lingers inside him, around us all.
I force my attention away from the newly revealed skin of his arms, and from the memories of how he looked last night when I stitched him up.
“I trust you’re feeling well enough to train me?” Are we practicing my fencing skills, or does he intend to test my handle on magic? I guess it’s safe to assume it might be the latter.
“Why? are you worried about me?” His eyes dance with humor.
“No,” I say. “Are we supposed to train in the dark?”
“Yes. The lunargyres lurk in the dark corners of the castle. It seems wise for me to teach you how to read the small shifts of energy that might help you figure out where they are.”
I nod, glancing around as my eyes adjust to the lack of light. There are pockets where the sun spills from small skylights in the ceiling to catch on surfaces around the room. A table here. A pillar holding a vase there.
“As you now know, many of our lunargyres appear to be sculptures. It’s important for you to read the way magic shifts around you. It might help you stay alive.”
“Aw.” I smile at him as I throw his own words back. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you worried about me.”
“To my own misfortune...” Judging by the slight pinch between his brows, he’s as displeased by the revelation as I am by my concern for him. “But make no mistake, I have the animalistic need to protect what belongs to me.”
I open my mouth to tell him I don’t belong to anyone but myself, but he strolls away, waving a hand over his shoulder as if to dismiss my future comeback. “I’m going to disappear into the shadows now. Your job is to find and stop me before I get you.”
“And what do I get if I do?”
He laughs, like I asked the most ridiculous thing he’s ever heard. Perhaps he doesn’t remember that I saved him yesterday.
“Your incentive should be getting to survive. To walk out in the halls without one of us having to keep you safe. If you don’t stop me today, we will meet here every morning until you can.”
“So, if I find you, I’ll be able to explore the castle on my own?”
