Page 62 of Frozen Hearts and Death Magic

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Naia and River

Naia closed her eyes, moved by the hypnotizing melody River played in his carlay, a small harp, an instrument from his people.

He had spent the day with her, and every second in his company made her more and more certain that this had been the right choice. From the lunch with fish and some weird seeds they had prepared together, to him helping her set up her things, there was a calm normality to it, a special soft, serene companionship. And now this music that dug deep within her, reaching for some buried pain, then transcending it into song.

River stopped. “It makes you sad.”

Naia realized she had tears in her eyes. “It’s a good kind of sad, emotional. Not sure why.” Perhaps she was still hurt because of her father, but she didn’t want to think about it.

He sighed and put the instrument away. “Some pains are better left alone instead of stirred. I wish I could play something joyous.” He smiled at her. “Maybe someday I will.”

“It’s beautiful, River.”

He sat on the cushions by her and took her hand. “Do you like it?” He gestured to the house around them. “Us here. It’s not going to be here forever, but I mean… This…”

“Is good.” She kissed his cheek.

He closed his eyes, then ran his hand through her hair, his long dark nails so close to her face. “We’ll have a lot of quiet days like this, and joyful days, and more. But for now… I need to do what I’m doing, Naia.”

She stared into his beautiful reddish-brown eyes. “What is it? You need to tell me, otherwise I’ll think you don’t trust me. Unless you’re tricking me.”

“You think information is a gift, and it can be. But it can also be a curse, or a heavy load, or even a treasure people will do anything to steal. I can’t tell you everything. Yet. But I can tell you a little. Let’s do a question for a question. But we can refuse to answer some of them. Does that work?”

“It depends. If you refuse everything, it’s pointless. Let me ask you five questions. Yes or no only. You don’t need to explain. But answer them.”

He swallowed. “Go ahead.”

She was surprised that he’d agreed so easily, but then she didn’t waste time asking the one thing that had been bugging her for a long time. “Were you targeting me or my family when you first appeared by my house?”

“No.” He had a hint of a smile, as if the question had been amusing.

His playfulness made her worry that he wasn’t being truthful to her, that he was tricking her, but there was no way to know if it was true or not other than asking questions. And she did have quite a few of them. “Do you have any other lover or, hmm, special lady?” The question sounded odd, but she wanted to know.

He grimaced. “No!”

She sighed, relieved at his reaction. “It was just a question.”

“I can’t believe you’d think that,” he said, sounding offended.

“Fine.” But there were so many more things she wanted to know. It was even hard to pick a question, but she did. “Are you truly spying on the Ironholds?”

“Yes.”

He sounded certain. This was good. But then, what else could he be doing? There was a big question she’d wanted to ask for a while. “Are the fae returning?”

He paused, his face conflicted. “Ask something else.”

“You said you’d answer.”

“I don’t know the answer, and yet I promised yes or no, but I can’t lie, and I can’t give you an answer to that.”

She took a deep breath. “You truly don’t know if the fae are returning?”

It was as if his eyes were cloudy for a moment. “Yes, I don’t know, Naia”

“Is bringing me here part of some scheme?”

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