To let her keep her secrets.
“I’ve never had the opportunity to do so.” True enough.“I prefer to keep to myself and live a simple life.”
“Hmm. I envy the prospect.” He sighed, a wistful sound that she felt to her bones. “Tell me, what do you do with your ‘simple life?’”
He sounded genuinely curious, which surprised her.
“It’s not at all exciting, I assure you.”
“It is to someone who wishes for it. Unless you’d rather I bore you with realm matters and the papers piled up on my very official desk? The price of grain from Thodelebor has gone up, especially. And don’t get me started on the hoops I have to jump through to procure a particular cloth from the Kohamaians without bankrupting the Montrealm. They?—”
“Alright, alright!” she interrupted, laughing. “I surrender. Spare me from talk of money.”
“As I said—dreadfully boring.”
“Well…” It took her a minute to decide what was safe. What would keep him from any prodding inquiries that dug too deep and too close to the truth. “I live in a cottage I built on the edge of the Northern Forest— Why are you looking at me like that?”
His brows had punched up his forehead. “You’ve just said you built yourself an entire home.”
Stars and arses. Mucked it up with the very first sentence.
“Yes, well. Um. It wasn’t hard.”
That’s the exact opposite of what you should have said.
Now his eyes had narrowed, mouth quirked. “I know many a Sorcerit who would wholeheartedly disagree with you.”
You can either lie, or change the subject. There’s no other choice.
“It’s not what you’re thinking.”
Ugh.
“And what is it I’m thinking?”
His smile wasn’t fair. It made her want to do something brainless like tell him everything.
“That I conjured it up out of nowhere, covered in mystical light, and magically didn’t kill myself doing it.”
He scoffed. “I was more wondering how you managed it alone.”
“Oh. I guess I do everything alone, so same as I manage anything else.”
“You don’t get lonely?”
She couldn’t bring herself to answer that. Last week she would’ve chuckled and saidabsolutely not!Now, she wasn’t so sure.
“What’s your favorite color?”
You were supposed to change the subject three sentences ago. And where are you even going with this?
“Blue,” he answered quickly. “Like the sea on a clear day.”
She didn’t miss the fact that he was staring intently into her eyes as he said it, and tried to ignore the prickling heat creeping up her neck.
The rest of the idea finally came to her when she fixed her gaze on a cluster of trees nearby, their limbs swaying as they clung to the mountainside. The Demons did seem to appreciate their wood.
Oh, no.
