Page 8 of Fortress of Blood and Power

I shook my head. “But I don’t understand you,” I ventured. Perhaps it was the fact that Garrick didn’t scorn me, or maybe it was my hope to become better acquainted with this fae until I believed I could trust him, but I felt bold enough to ask personal questions. “If you grow so tired of living and hunting alone in the mountains that you chose to seek mortal company, why not live among your kind?”

Taking a long gulp of his tea—to give himself time, I imagined, since it hadn’t steeped nearly long enough—Garrick leaned back on his hands. “And whatismy kind, Starlight?”

This time, I scowled at him. “We are not familiar enough for nicknames.”

“I’ve already asked you to call me Garrick, and Miss Cantwell is entirely too formal for my world. Here, we don’t think it too formal to call someone by their given name. And a nickname?”His lips curled into another dimpled smile, and unbidden warmth spread through my chest at the sight. He reached out, tugging gently on a lock of my hair. “It doesn’t mean the same thing here. In my world, flirting doesn’t mean I’m proposing marriage.”

I swallowed thickly at his closeness. Among humans, it would surely mean he was courting me, trying to win my affections, or that he was a rake, carelessly breaking women’s hearts. But Garrick seemed to speak the truth. He seemed the type of man to be friendly and open with everyone, maybe even to flirt without it meaning anything. He possessed a natural charm. His nickname only meant he saw me as a possible friend. I could accept that.

“So tell me,” Garrick continued, “what is my kind?”

I frowned in confusion. “What do you mean?” I scanned his face, searching his gold eyes, focusing on his pointed ears. Misgiving clutched my heart, turning my growing warmth into something chilly. I’d heard stories of the monsters and other creatures that lived in Brytwilde, but they’d never had faces that looked like the high fae. “You’re fae...right?”

Garrick tilted his head. “I’m a shifter, considered one of the weakest types of fae. All I can conjure is the weakest sort of glamour, enough to occasionally trick humans with a few illusions, but not enough to control them. And I couldn’t trick anyone with magic in their blood, like you. Most shifters are ridiculed and looked down upon. Our magic is never strong, save for our ability to transform into another creature and occasional related abilities.”

I stiffened. “What sort of creature?”

Garrick didn’t flinch, didn’t look away. A slow grin crept up his face, wicked and wild. “A wolf.”

I jerked backward, sloshing my tea and cringing when the hot liquid soaked my dress.

“Are you all right?” the fae asked hurriedly, reaching for my mug.

More embarrassed than hurt, I nodded.

“No need to worry,” Garrick reassured me. “I was only teasing. I promised not to hurt you, remember?” He swept toward the cabinets, setting down my mug, withdrawing a cloth, and returning to dab at my wet dress.

“But...what do you hunt?” I asked, voice strangled, torn between flinching away from Garrick and trusting the promises he’d made me.

Another grin twisted his lips, this one less mischievous and more friendly, framed by dimples. “As a shifter, I don’t eat humans or fae, not even in my wolf form. That would be too close to cannibalism.” He sneered with disgust. “Iamstill fae. Not a monster.”

I shuddered despite his words, but his expression remained earnest. “And the law I’m sure you learned about us fae applies toalltypes of fae, Starlight,” he went on. “I cannot lie. But perhaps now you see why I’m looked down upon. I’m little more than a dog to most fae, unable to even wield strong glamour, unable to use any sort of magic but to transform into a furry beast.” He chuckled, but there was bitterness in it.

“Does that mean you choose to be alone? Do you...have family?” I asked, hoping my question wasn’t too invasive.

“I, like you, have never fit into my world,” Garrick explained. “The rest of my family died during a vicious battle at the Silverfrost castle over two decades ago.” His expression was distant, as if haunted by snatches of awful memories as he spoke. “I’m accustomed to being alone. No matter the adventures I experience in these mountains, there is never anyone to share them with while I’m out here. However, I do go into towns and cities—sometimes even the castle—to trade the meat and pelts I gather for other items. Sometimes I’ll stay a bit for the company,but I think you know as well as I that often, you can be even lonelier in a crowd than when you’re secluded.” There was a lightness in his tone that made me think maybe he was trying to make his life seem less sad. It was difficult to know how sad he truly was, when he continued to smile and jest as if it all were nothing.

Eventually, he sat back, laying the wet cloth aside and glancing at my still-damp dress. “I can offer you a change of clothes,” he suggested.

My eyes scanned the single room cabin and the one bed again, tension coiling in my stomach. I needed the safety of this shelter, and whether it was foolish or not, Garrick’s promises reassured me I would be better protected with him than on my own. I couldn’t face the cold or the creatures outside as I was. But I hadn’t really considered what an entire night alone with this man would entail.

In Altidvale, it would have provided endless scandal and gossip, and Charles would have been forced to bribe Garrick into marrying me. Here in the kingdom of Silverfrost? There was no one to care about scandal, and this was only survival for me. But what was it to a fae?

As if reading my thoughts, Garrick lifted his hands, palms facing me. “I’m not trying to take advantage of you. I couldn’t leave you to die out there. That is all. And now that I’ve saved you, I’m duty-bound to protect you. It’s in my blood, being part-wolf.” He winked before gesturing toward the washroom. “You can change in there, and then you can sleep in the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

Before I could open my mouth to question his generosity, feeling the polite thing to do would be to refuse to take his bed, he grinned. “I can manage sleeping on the floor just fine, Starlight. Iamconsidered a dog, after all.”

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