Page 132 of Wolf Caged
I leaned against the doorframe, gaze tracking her as she moved deeper into the room, the fascination painted across her face a beautiful thing to behold.
Until she turned a confused look on me.
“What?” My eyebrows dipped low, because I knew that look, that teasing edge to her eyes.
“Do you have a brother I don’t know about?”
I locked up tight, heart seizing as I thought about my brother, and her expression softened as she noticed my reaction, her hands coming up and an apology dancing in her eyes, but I shook my head, dislodging the pain and subduing the shadows that twined around my legs and my shoulders, because I knew she had not meant to wound me.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her brow furrowing as she inched a step closer to me. “I was going to make this whole joke about the library and I forgot… I can’t believe I forgot.”
Vyr had told her.
I stared at her as that sank in, as she held my gaze, hers softer than I had ever seen it, all of that tenderness directed at me.
“My brother is not dead,” I said, voice hollow and distant to my own ears.
“But Vyr said?—”
“My sister believes he is gone. I know he is not. Seelie took him. I am sure of it.” I shifted my gaze to the stone fireplace behind her, at the other end of the open area, and summoned a little magic, enough to spark a flame that rapidly, hungrily engulfed the dry wood in the hearth. I forced a smile and purged the darkness from my heart just as that fire purged it from the room, not wanting this moment marred by it all. “That is a conversation for another time. I believe you were making a joke?”
She didn’t look sure if she should continue, so I waved her on, my smile gaining genuine warmth as I waited.
“You asked if I had a brother.” I willed her to take the bait, needing the moment of lightness to illuminate the darker reaches of my heart as I looked at her standing in a library my brother would have loved. He had always been the more bookish of the two of us. “I answer ‘no’.”
Not right now, at least. I would have a brother again soon.
“Um.” She tripped over the words. “Then… perhaps your… sister… loves to read?”
I frowned. “Also no. She despises books. What are you playing at?”
A little smile was my reward for playing along, acting the role of the gruff king she had assigned me in this little farce of hers.
“I’m trying to figure out why there are so many books. A family collection perhaps? Or a public library?”
I genuinely frowned at her now, as I realised where she was going with her teasing. “A private collection.”
“Whose?”
“Mine,” I snarled.
“But there’s so many books.” She took them all in, surprise colouring her eyes and her mouth gaping open, and then sized me up.
I folded my arms across my chest. “You make me sound like some kind of heathen.”
“You’re not?” Her eyebrows shot up and then she smirked. “I thought you were.”
“I have read most of them.” I smirked right back at her when she gawped at the numerous shelves and the thousands of books they held.
“How old are you?” She blinked at me.
I sighed.
I knew exactly where this was going.
“I’m just saying, as a king you must be very busy, yet you’ve read all these books! Or you’re not a very good king and neglect your duties in favour of reading.” Her smile grew teasing and a little wicked.
As did mine as I closed in on her.
