Page 15 of Dawn to Dusk
“Glad I don’t share that annoying personality trait.”
“Until your mate comes along and wraps you around her fingers.”
“Until then.” He grinned.
It didn’t matter how big and bad you were, your mate was your world. Most species of beasts worshiped the land their mate or mates walked on. It was gonna be fun watching someone tie him up in knots one day.
“But Esmerey isn’t your mate.” He poked a teasing finger into my side.
“I never knew how spunky she was.”
She surprised me. That small lapse in control excited me more than I was mentally prepared for. Now that she was no longer associated with Jalis’s death, nothing stopped my mind from properly appreciating her.
“You do love them feisty.” He chuckled. Balthazar preferred his women to step in line. He was a dominant man, and he knew his mate would show up in his life one day. I understood him not wanting a woman to think she possessed more power than she did, especially considering he was our leader. It prevented problems. You are either a mate or a paramour, there was nothing in between for us. As a man with power, he needed that to be abundantly clear.
I always enjoyed a woman with spunk. It was one reason Esmerey always made my skin crawl. It disgusted me that someone who inspired so much desire in me could do the things she was known for. Now that I knew the truth, she became more appetizing by the minute.
She kept the world at a distance to hide her truth. After she revealed a tiny piece to me, I found myself craving more.
Like the giant sap I am, I found her that book she wanted after sundown. I knocked on her door and felt the fuzzy feeling of magic against my skin. I grabbed the nearby wall torch andangled it towards her room. The slightest golden sheen coated not only the door, but the walls too. She warded her bedroom.
Out of fear of us or something else? I hoped it was something else, and not that I might attack her in her sleep. Especially since I considered it at one point.
The door cracked open half an inch. Only enough for her to peer out to see who disturbed her evening. As I put the wall torch back in its holder, one ruby eye stared out at me. “Yes?”
“I have something for you.”
“The sun has gone down.” Her tone called me ignorant without her saying it.
“Is it past your bedtime?” It was only five thirty in the evening, but what did I know about sol witches?
“My magic is gone.”
We stared at each other. Maybe I was a dullard, since I didn’t understand what she was insinuating, but after a long moment, she opened the door for me.
“You may enter.” Her wards sparked at her command.
I put a hand out, prepared for it to blow me back like so many of her wards before. Instead, it tickled my hand, reminding me of a dog sniffing a stranger, and let me through. My movements stayed cautious as the years of her wards getting the better
of me was still vivid in my mind.
She turned her face away in an attempt to hide her amusement. The slight twitch of her lips gave her away. She shut the door, and when she turned back, that mask was set in place.
I wanted to shatter that stupid mask.
A book was tucked to her chest with her fingers wedged between the pages to save her spot. I glanced at the book in my own hand then waved it around, unsure how to present it to her.
She set her book down, taking pity on me, and grabbed the one from my hands. Her fingers gingerly traced the cover asher eyes roved over the symbols in curiosity. “This language is foreign to me. What is it?”
“Nahuatl.This is the findings of a healer that documented Balthazar nurturing the Americas in the early fifteenth century. I thought this might have some of the information you wanted.”
Her eyes went wide with wonder, and she gingerly opened the leather cover. The desire for knowledge brimmed in her eyes. “This is so thoughtful. I wish I could read it.”
“I figured I could interpret it for you.”
“Why?” She studied me with the critical assessment of someone looking for an ulterior motive.
Way to make me feel like a turd, Sunshine. “So you can have the knowledge you want.”
