“Yes.”
“So they aren’t a myth? It’s an actual place?”
“Yes.”
“They were in my dream… sorry, memory last night.”
“Your ancestor, Aleida, was taken there and buried. She held the bloodline of the fae.”
“A dragon took me there. Her. Took her there.”
“Yes. On the night of the Great Fall.”
“The Great Fall. The night true fae were wiped from existence. A series of coordinated attacks by hunters.”
Callum’s lips flatten into a fine line and he looks at me, eyes broken. “Yes. It was a sad night.”
His pain. It’s radiating off his body and washing over me in waves. My hand moves to cup his cheek, bringing our lips within an inch of each other. Breathing each other in.
I could just tilt my head a little and feel his lips pressed to mine. Taste him. Savor him.
“Everlee,” he whispers. His words are equal part soft and sweet, hesitant and pained. “We can’t.” He pulls away.
“Sorry. I… I don’t know what happened.”
He smiles without speaking. “This book will talk about the Great Fall and the ancestral memories of the true fae.”
He’s dismissing me. Putting space between us.
“Ok. Do you mind if I stay in here? The reading light is better and if I have any questions...”
His hand brushes my cheek, but he pulls it away and again, he balls it into a fist like he’s mad for letting himself want… me. “Of course. What’s mine is yours.”
His cock?
As if reading my mind, he adds, “Well, most of everything.”
I blush because I feel like he caught me, but there’s no way he knew what I was thinking. Right? Oh Goddess. Can he hear my thoughts?
Callum?
My eyes thin to narrow slits as I study him for any sort of reaction. Nothing. Not even a twitch of his head.
Wanting to give him the space he clearly wants and that I need, I grab the book and walk over to the bench by the window. I crack it open. Chapter 1.
I don’t know how much time has passed, but it’s been several hours. Even though there’s considerable space between us, I stillfeelhim.Hearhim. His breaths, the way it picks up or slows down based on what he’s reading or perhaps what he’s thinking. The way his fingers tap on the desk when he’s lost in thought. When he moves around the room, grabbing books or putting others back, the hairs on my arms follow him like a magnet. My stomach feels like there are a thousand butterflies in it, dancing and swarming.
His eyes catch mine staring at him, but I don’t hide it. It’s no use. We’ve been playing this game all afternoon. Stolen glances. Brushes of the hand when I have to ask him a question. It’s almost torture staying in this room with him, wanting to touch him. Taste him. But leaving would be worse.
I’m halfway through the book and there’s so much about the true fae I didn’t know, but if he wasn’t here, I’d probably be done. I’m a fast reader and not stupid, and the number of silly questions I’ve asked just to be near him or create that bridge to him is almost embarrassing. But I have learned a lot.
The ancestral dreams connected all the fae together, their lifeline and story. Being true fae, they were the only ones that could do it, as long as they were buried at Morgai. It’s believed that Morgai was the first place the fae came to be and holds all the magic of the fae. When Aleida was buried on Morgai, she joined the ancestral realm and waited. Waited for the right time. While I’m not Aleida, I have her blood and memories pulsing throughout me. I have her strength, her passion, and her magic.
The sun is setting and turning the sky an orange, pinkish color, casting long shadows on the ground. Knox has flittered in and out of the room several times, but hasn’t been here for some time after he got called in to speak with Samara. Jax and Emmett still haven’t come back yet, which isn’t a bad thing, but I can’t help but wonder where they are.
“Are you done?”
Startled, I turn from the window and see Callum turned around in the chair with his legs casually sitting open. Inviting. The smart thing would be for me to stop staring at him. To leave. But I’m not always smart.
