Page 33 of His Darkest Desire

“I’m just saying you don’t fit how goblins are described in stories.” Smiling, she peeked up at him. “You are green though, so there’s that.”

“Then I am not evil?”

“That remains to be seen.”

Vex fell silent, and Kinsley chanced another look at him. He was still watching her, his dark scowl replaced by a contemplative frown.

She cut off a piece of cheese from the slice on her plate, slipped it into her mouth, and nearly hummed as she savored the creamy texture. God, it had to be the best cheese she’d ever tasted.

“Where are your…wings?” she asked.

“Away.”

Kinsley stared at him blankly. “Away.”

Vex arched a dark eyebrow. “You understand the word, do you not?”

Flare brightened, making a curt gesture at the goblin. Vex glanced at the wisp and grunted.

“Of course I do,” Kinsley said. “But I don’t understand it as your answer. I don’t see wings bulging under your clothes. Are they detachable? Can you just set them aside? Are they magic? Do you understand how away” —she raised her hands to mimic quotation marks—“doesn’t quite answer my question?”

“If you desire specific answers,” he said, grasping the arms of the chair and sitting forward, “perhaps you’d be better served by asking more specific questions. My wings manifest when I have need of them. If you wish to see it as magic, you are most welcome to do so.”

“Were you born with them?”

His jaw muscles ticked. “Yes.”

“Then they’re not really magic.”

“Yet magic is woven in the very fibers of my being,” he grated.

“Do all goblins have wings?”

“No.”

“Can I see them again?”

“Finish your meal.”

“Is it true goblins like to scare and threaten to eat children?”

He dragged his hand down his face before returning it to the armrest. “Would that it were. Mayhap then I’d have been spared such questions.”

“Are there faeries?”

“Eat.”

Kinsley huffed, picked up a wooden fork, and looked back down at her food. “Can’t help that I’m curious.”

“But I would have thought you more than capable of helping the words that come out of your mouth.”

“So I’m not allowed to talk?”

A low growl rumbled from Vex. “However appealing a notion that might be, I have said no such thing.”

“No, you didn’t. But you’d rather I close my mouth and open my legs, right?”

“It would certainly expedite our dealings.”

---