Page 35 of The Lord of Whispers

I’d intended to go back to the manor and freshen up. But I didn’t have much time. Anyway, I didn’t know if Jay was home. If he was, I really hadn’t thought out how I wanted to handle the Cass situation with Jay yet.

“Ok, but I’m walking. People already talk too much about us, as is,” I replied.

Because of our near-constant presence with each other and the roles we sometimes played, often making a show out of being a littletoofriendly if we thought it advanced the position of House Vitruvian in whatever High Court maneuvering we were in the middle of, the whispers flying around the Court about us were pervasive. Even though Luke dated other women, it didn’t stop the Court rumors that we were an item.

“Your loss,” Luke joked, smiling. But he reached out his hand, allowing me to hold it and balance as I slid my heels back on.

As I crawled into my bath that night, after the party, after dancing the night away with Luke, my mind once more went back to Jay’s note, and his demand. My body began to react, pulsing between my thighs at the thought of not continuing with mylessonjust to see what he would do, what newlessonhe may teach me. But as my need continued to build within me, I thoughtof his words of praise for me. “Good girl,” he would say, and I would melt. And then I slid a hand between my thighs until I came undone with thoughts of my next lessons with the high lord when he returned.

16

Jay

It was the middle of the night when I returned to the Vitruvian manor after too many days of being away from her. I stood at the top of the staircase between the east wing and the west wing of my house. Between my room and hers.

I’d wondered as of late whether Alarie didn’t embody some vestige of high fae magic. But I wasn’t sure what high fae ability she might possess, some rare channeling ability perhaps. Her abilities didn’t seem specialized enough to be anything else. Instead, it was like she was the embodiment of magic itself. I felt like I was better with her by my side, like she somehow enhanced my abilities, even though my abilities still paled in comparison to the power I once possessed before the magic began to dull. Her effect on me could be in the nature of some kind of healing or protector ability, but I’d never known of such an ability.

I ran through the possibilities, at last admitting to myself that it was probably no magical ability at all.I had to own up to the fact that what I was looking for magical answers to was more likely a lot more simple—I was just plain old infatuated with the girl. I had been since the moment I laid eyes on her. And as good as I felt with her by my side, it was nothing compared to what I felt when she was under my hands. I wanted to feel that now, feelhernow. But it was late, and she was probably asleep, I told myself.

But it wasn’t just how she was constantly so ready for me before I ever laid a single kiss upon her or how she responded to my every move with eagerness. It wasjust her, everything about her.Her intellect was razor sharp in the sexiest way possible. She absorbed everything I threw her way and asked for more. Our conversations were intoxicating because she wasn’t afraid to challenge me.

And then there was her vulnerability, hidden behind the impenetrable walls she had built around herself. It called to me. Alarie was not raised at the High Court or anything that even resembled a court. She had worked immensely hard to earn her spot at the High Court, and the things she had done to make it to this point had left their mark upon her. She had a barrier around herself so thick that I did not know if I would ever be able to penetrate it.

Before I had managed to work my way into her good graces, she was used to taking care of herself to the point that she would not let anyone try to do anything for her. I understood, and I’d even come to admire the ruthlessness in her. It meant she would do what it took to succeed on her own.

But I also believed that behind her impenetrable exterior there was a girl who wanted to be loved, whoneededto be loved, and who cared so much that she had to pretend like she cared about nothing. I wanted to rip down the vestiges of every hurt she had ever had to endure in her short life and build my own walls around her, protecting her from ever having to endure anything unpleasant again. I had a primal need to make her feel safe and happy.

It was at this moment of reflection, standing at the top of my stairs, still unable to convince myself to go to my own quarters, that I had a revelation—I knewexactlywhat this feeling was, and it was more than ordinary possessiveness, which I had to admit I was prone to. It was a desire to magically imprint on Alarie.

My desire to magically mark her as my own was raw and primitive. I almost darted up the rest of the stairs and to her bedroom upon realizing it. But I wasn’t sure that she had enough magic for me to imprint upon. And, in any event, it was much too soon in our relationship to take such permanent steps. If I imprinted on her, I would be magically connected to her in a way that made her particularly susceptible to my magic. And we hadn’t even discussed my magic yet.

When I was younger, and my magic had been stronger, I’d imprinted on a girl or two. In our reckless, youthful love, we’d gone headfirst into things with consequences that youth couldn’t possibly understand. Because the young cannot grasp what forever feels like for an immortal. To this day, I could still feel the remnants of those broken magical links. I’d learned to ignore them long ago, and with the magic weakening, the strength of those lingering connections did as well to the point that I rarely thought about them anymore.

But I was still very conscious of the remnants of the single broken bond in my life. Before marrying Elizabeth, I’d been bonded to another—a beautiful young fae, Alanna. To imprint was just to leave a magical mark upon another, forming a connection to another’s thoughts and feelings. Imprinting could even be one-sided. But to bond was so much more.

Bonding was more than a magical connection—it was aunionof two people’s hearts, minds, and magic. Each person on each side of a bond literally gave a piece of themselves and their magic to the other and were only made whole again by replacing that missing piece of themselves with a piece of their lover’s magic. The bond was an innate dependency upon another and their magic. The bonded would physically crave the touch of their lover, without which their lover’s magic inside of them would eventually wither and die.

It wasextremelypainful to break a bond, and a bonded person could never get back the piece of their magic that they had given away. As the other person’s magic died and then completely disappeared inside of the bonded, they were just left incomplete, with a hole that could never be filled. I banished the picture of my magic, with a large, Alanna-shaped bite taken out of it, from my mind.

I wasn’t sure if Alarie had sufficient magic to allow me to imprint on her, but I would have to beverycareful, nevertheless. I could see myself, in the heat of the moment, when I finally let myself bury deep inside of her, not caring about the consequences as I sunk the talons of my magic into her.

17

Alarie

Ilay in bed feeling agitated at being deprived of the high lord’s attention for yet another night and wondering if I should continue my lessons, once again, alone. Thinking of the warmth gathering between my legs and what to do about it, I heard a discreet clearing of a throat outside my door, a pause, and then I saw the doorknob turning. Jay stepped through the door, shutting it firmly and placing his body in front of the door.

Standing there in his tailored three-piece suit, sporting a five o’clock shadow on his handsome, rugged face, his very appearanceslaked a thirst within mebut quickly created another.

“Jay,” I greeted him, sitting up straighter in my bed.

“I just got in,” he explained. “I wanted to check on your progress while I was away.”

His eyes unashamedly roved over the parts of my body that were not under the comforter.

“Did you get through all of theworkI left for you?” the high lord inquired, a delicious slight arch in his right eyebrow.

I knew he was not asking about the piles of books he had left me on the library table. Deciding not to shy away from his question, I met his eyes.

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