Page 137 of Wolf Caged
His fingers flexed around my wrist, warm and strong, and I gritted my teeth, despising how that touch soothed me, stirring a need to look at him, together with tears that stung my eyes.
“You are not just entertainment, Saphira.”
I wanted to believe that, I really did, because some reckless part of me had started to feel at home here, had started to see Vyr, Riordan and Neve as friends, and Kaeleron as something more than that. I had lowered my guard, and now I felt I was paying the price for it.
Suddenly tired and longing for quiet, to be alone with my thoughts, I tugged on my arm, but he only tightened his grip.
“You are right. I should have told you. I thought Vyr would let you know right away, and that is on me. Do not blame her.”
“I don’t. I blame you.” I kept my back to him, my arm stretched behind me, locked in his fierce grip.
“That is fine.” He sighed. “But perhaps this might make it better.”
I frowned as he slipped something cool onto my middle finger and looked back at my hand, wanting to see what it was.
A ring.
He released my wrist and I drew my hand up before me, studying the beautiful intricate silver ring. Miniscule markings lined the band, a language I had seen in the books and tapestriesin the castle but couldn’t understand. My handmaidens had told me it was ancient fae.
“It is called a moon ring,” he murmured as his fingers traced the band and the circular opalescent stone set in the heart of two crescent moons. “I thought it might suit you.”
My eyebrows knitted harder as I noticed he wore a matching ring.
“It will protect you.” He stroked the ring again, grazing his thumb over it, his fingers against my palm as he stared down at it. “It took me longer than expected to finish them. I had wanted them ready before my trip to Ereborne.”
I was too hung up on what he had admitted to hear the rest of what he said.
I stared at the ring, my eyebrows rising high on my forehead as I took in how intricate it was, how delicate, and how beautiful and fine. “You made this? I thought you had bought it.”
His smile was small, almost awkward, as if my discovering he had made something so incredible had left him as vulnerable as I had felt just moments ago.
“It’s beautiful,” I admitted and the air of vulnerability he wore faded a little. “Thank you.”
His thumb swept over the band on my finger again, his gaze distant now. “If I had not been born royalty, I believe I would have been a blacksmith or a jeweller.”
And he was back to looking vulnerable.
Because whatever gates guarded his heart, he had just opened them a little to me, letting me see some secret inner part of him he preferred to keep hidden.
“I didn’t really think you had the fine motor control to make something so delicate,” I teased, my smile bright, trying to ease the tension building in him.
And he was too delicious as he purred, “You know how skilled my fingers are.”
I shivered, barely suppressing the urge to bite my lower lip as I recalled just how skilled they were, as my body hummed with echoes of that pleasure he had given me and my nipples beaded.
“I can’t really dispute that.” I eased a little closer to him, growing aware that he was still holding my hand, his thumb grazing my fingers as his gaze remained locked on me.
The corners of his lips quirked into another dangerously seductive smile.
I glanced down at the ring again, avoiding falling under its wicked spell. “It really is beautiful. I can’t imagine making something so intricate. I wouldn’t even know where to begin and whatever I made would probably look like a gnarled piece of metal at the end of it. How did you even inscribe such tiny lettering? Or make those little vines that are holding the moons?”
“Centuries of practice, little wolf.” He turned my hand, making the pale stone catch the light. Colours like the aurora above us chased across the heart of the stone.
“Centuries?” My gaze darted up to lock with his and I feigned shock. “How old are you?”
“Five hundred and sixty years old.” He sounded proud about that.
“My gods, you’re old.” I gaped at him and he scowled at me, and I couldn’t stop the smile from blooming on my lips. “I read about you in the library.”
