Page 41 of Heir Of Sun And Moon
He turns and looks at me from where he is leaning forward, tossing the second half of the brownie into his mouth. He chews so incredibly slow that, for a moment, I wonder if I’ve upset him with my question. If asking this was a social faux pas somehow. When he finishes his bite, his tongue darts out slightly to lick away any chocolate at the seam of his lips. I track the movement, fighting the urge to mimic it with my own tongue. My eyes move slowly back up to his, and I nearly gasp at what I see reflected in his gaze. He’s looking at me how the characters in my romance novels describe their lovers’ gazes before passion consumes them.His irises are like liquid slate, threatening to devour me wholly from the intensity in them. Shadows from the candlelight writhe on the walls as a thick and heady tension between us keeps building.
Seconds or hours pass—I’m not entirely sure which—before he responds, the deep rasp in his voice igniting a new flame within me. “How about a question for a question?” he counters.
My lips purse together, wondering if it’s smart to agree to answer anything he might ask. In the end though, my curiosity can’t deny him. “Deal. Answer me first,” I command, giving him what is supposed to be a hard look.
He smiles, like I’ve just given him an amazing compliment instead of an order. That’s one thing I’ve noticed about Flynn—he is never bothered by me in any way. I’m sometimes short in my answers, sometimes awkward, but each time he just looks at me like it’s normal. Like he’s totally unaffected by the fact that he’s talking with a girl who can literally count on one hand the men she’s had any length of conversation with. The butterflies that never disappear when I’m around him respond in kind.
“Home for me is east, out near the edges of the forest.” He looks towards the library as he answers.
I hear longing in his voice, and I wonder if he must be from one of those outpost border towns I had read about. “Do you get to go home often?” I ask.
He leans back against the couch, crossing an ankle over his knee with the kind of confidence that definitely makes that flame inside me grow larger. “That is two questions, Sunshine. Time to answer one of mine.” The nickname rolls off of his tongue way too easily, and I don’t know if I absolutely love or loathe it.
“Sunshine?” I repeat, an eyebrow raised as I subtly angle my body closer to his without a second thought.
“Yes. Now answer my question.” He fights back a smile when I scoff at him. He stretches an arm out along the back of the couch and taps his long fingers there. “You said before that you hadn’t stepped past the doorway. Did you mean that it has been awhile? Or did you meanever?”
Of all the things I was expecting him to ask, that was definitely not one of them. The air feels thinner, like I can’t quite grasp it enough to take a breath. He watches my reaction, probably wondering why I’m stalling. In truth, I’m calculating the risk of telling him. After a moment, I determine there really isn’t anything he can gain from knowing that I haven’t left this prison at all. “I have never left this tower,” I reveal quietly, shrugging and dropping my gaze to my hands in my lap.
“Ever?” he asks incredulously.
I nod, taking a breath before continuing, “Alexi told me that after my parents were murdered, my uncle placed me in this tower under the guise of protection. That the people who murdered them—mages, he claims—had come for me as well.” Flynn lets out an irritated noise, drawing my attention. He clears his throat, looking somewhat surprised at himself, before he gestures for me to continue. “Of course, you already know what he’s told the kingdom as I’ve gotten older. But I have never left. When he visits—” I cut myself off there, realizing the guard—Flynn—doesn’t need to knowthosedetails. “When I was a child, I had maids taking care of me here, but eventually the king ordered them to stop coming. Alexi stepped in when he saw that the king wasn’t giving me an education or really any of the basic necessities beyond keeping me alive. Once I became an adult, he kept coming because I was so lonely.” This feels much harder to talk about than I ever thought it would, though I suppose this is the first time I’ve ever talked about itat allwith someone else.
“Did King Dolian ever wonder how you learned to do all of the things Alexi taught you?” Flynn asks gently.
“No, he hasn’t exactly spent time getting to know me. He mostly— It’s not important,” I choke out quickly. I dare another look at Flynn to see if I can gauge what he’s feeling.
Disbelief. Pure disbelief contorts the features of his face. His muscles are wound tight as he holds himself still, like he wants to jump off of this couch and hold someone responsible for what I’ve just said. “That’s why he was leaving his post,” he murmurs under his breath, avoiding my eyes. I study his profile, seeing something flash too quickly in his expression for me to comprehend.
“That was three questions from you by the way. You are now in my debt,” I tease, smirking as I look him over.
Flynn smiles and runs a hand through his hair, pushing the locks back and holding them there for a moment before dropping his hand and letting the waves tumble back forward. “Eager to know more about me, Sunshine?” he provokes with a cocky grin.
“Perhaps I’m just trying to gauge whether or not I should still have Bella attack you?” His laugh is sultry, not at all threatened by my words. It could have something to do with the fact that Bella is happily sleeping at his feet. “And that isanotherquestion that you’ve added to your debt.”
“Ruthless,” he chides, though he looks transfixed as he watches me chew on my lower lip. I run through a list of things Ishouldask him, yet there is only one thing I really want to know at this moment, and imprudently, it has nothing to do with my escape.
“Did you ever talk with Alexi?” I ask quietly, a sharp hurt digging into my stomach. When Flynn doesn’t respond, I wonder if that was a stupid question. It definitely was a heavier one than I think he was expecting.
“I didn’t talk with him.” His answer is solemn when he turns to face me fully on the couch. “Before he—beforeIcame into this new position,” he starts carefully, “I was stationed on guard duty near the front of the castle. My job was to walk the grounds out front during the day. Alexi was stationed here, so our paths just never crossed.” I nod my head, settling back down in my seat and angling my body to face him. “But there was one time that I saw him get into a fight with someone.”
My eyes widen in surprise. “What? Really?”
“Yeah,” he answers, huffing out a laugh before continuing. “I was eating breakfast in the mess hall. It was my first year in the guard. I didn’t hear the words said, but something set Alexi off.”
I shake my head in awe. Alexi was always level-headed and calm with me. Nothing ever seemed to get a rise out of him. I know I had thrown many tantrums that ended in me giving up because he would just stare at me, unmoving in his resolve. “What happened?” I ask, my fingers absent-mindedly finding the ends of my hair and twirling them.
Flynn smiles faintly, looking down at his legs for a moment as he relives the memory. “He just started swinging, connecting every shot he aimed for this guy. Over and over until, finally, a few of the younger guys pulled him off. After he assured the guys holding him back that he was calm, Alexi walked over to the guard he was fighting and squatted down to him.” I tilt towards Flynn, anxious to glean something new about Alexi—wanting to know what he was like outside of this tower. “He leaned in close to the other guard, but didn’t lower his voice. It was like he was broadcasting it for everyone to hear. Alexi told him that if he ever heard anything as vile about ‘her’ again, he would make sure the man was no longer fit to work as a guard. I wonder if he was talking about you.” His eyes hold mine, something new and fragile feels built between us—a bridge, perhaps, of understanding.
Tucking my hair behind my ear, I say, “He could have been talking about Alanna, his wife. She passed away in an accident many years ago.”
Flynn nods, rubbing a hand over his jaw. To learn something unexpected about Alexi—even something so trivial, it loosens something in me. It’s like letting a different sort of comfort slip through the tiny cracks in my armor, smoothing along their jagged edges.
“Alexi is the one who brought Bella to me,” I confide as I lean my shoulder back against the couch and fully face Flynn. His arms fold over his chest as he adjusts so that he faces me as well. We mirror each other—our knees just delicately brushing. “I was seventeen, and he just walked in with her one night,” I say, smiling vaguely at the memory. “He said he found her hiding in the flowers near the tower and that he just had a feeling that she was different. She’s always been very keen—very aware. You would assume a wild animal would suffocate in this tower, but she doesn’t mind it much now.” I look at her sleeping form next to Flynn’s boots, memories of that first night together a welcome reprieve.
“Now? Was it hard for her at first?” he asks.
“She would lay around most of the day like she was sick almost. I felt guilty.” I pause as the happy memories melt away and are replaced with one of the night that I had made her leave the tower. “I still do. She deserves better than being trapped here with me,” I whisper before wincing, not meaning to speak those words out loud. They feel too personal, too close to letting this stranger in. I can feel my small smile turn into a frown, the rare moment of genuine happiness fading. Flynn bumps his knee into mine playfully, drawing my gaze back up to his and stopping my emotional spiral into the darkness in its tracks.
