I didn’t move, my hands still on my ears, even after the dragons passed over us. The way Andar held me close was more intimate and secure than I ever expected. It wrenched my thoughts back to where they’d been just before the dragons arrived. This had not been part of our bargain. He didn’t need me any longer. Why would he hold me here like he cared?
What was motivating this behavior?
Did he, perhaps, see something in me worth sticking around for after all? And was that something I wanted to risk encouraging?
He lowered his raised hand to rest on the saddle and released me.
I stepped away from him, and Andar leaned against the saddle. “You—” I hesitated. He did not seem like the sort of fae who would appreciate me pointing out his exhaustion. ”What did you do?”
He straightened up and met my curiosity with an impassive gaze I could not interpret. “I bent the light, smells, and sounds of us and our horses so they would not rise above us. I curved the light around us so thespot we stood on looked like an empty part of the path. In short, I made us invisible and undetectable to the dragons.”
My jaw fell. “Who are you?” I whispered. “And why are you not ruling one of the summer kingdoms?” He had to be the most powerful fae I’d ever met.
He shrugged and climbed onto his horse. “There was a situation with a lamp.”
Chapter 13: Andar
We did not speak during most of our ride to Civa Exima. I should have left the queen as soon as she’d freed me, before my wretched emotions—emotions that should have shriveled and died after the centuries I’d spent ignoring them—ruined everything.
But she’d given me a room while I was still a slave to the lamp. And when I was lightheaded, she made me tea. And then I agreed to her bargain. And I thought giving her some of my peaches would balance my debt, but instead she was ridiculously adorable when she enjoyed the fruit so much that she named her horse after it.
And then—when I wrapped us in magic—she felt too good in my arms. Too much like the kiss of sun on a summer day, despite her body being degrees cooler than mine.
If I left her now, before we reached the city, I could cut off the dangerous attachment that was growing between us. I would always wonder if she found her humans and destroyed them, but I would be free.
She’d released me from the lamp, but I would be tied to her if I let my emotions continue to grow as they were trying.
I clenched a fist. I was weak. Too weak to walk away right now. And if she realized that, I would never be free. I could not let her know how attractive she wasbecoming to me. She would certainly exploit that weakness.
“Andar?” She stopped her horse at the top of the hill we’d just crested and waved at the city gates in front of us.
“Yes?” I should have used her title, but I couldn’t have her thinking I was offering her respect that would endear me to her.
“I don’t want the people here to know who I am. I want to collect information about Prince Bylur, but if the people here are as intimidated by me as the farmer was, nobody will say anything.”
That made sense. “So cast a different glamour.”
“I—” She clenched her jaw. Such a small movement. She must have chosen it to hide her nerves—a clenched fist would have been obvious to anyone, but I noticed the tightening in her face. I wanted to smooth it out, make it relax so she could finish talking.
She swallowed and continued. “I want to use a disguise deeper than a glamour. I want a story they’ll rally around, one that will encourage them to talk.”
I raised a brow.
“I’d like us to pretend to be refugees, a couple that just escaped the Snow Queen.”
“That will get you more sympathy than if you appear as yourself.” The words came out before I thought about them. I should not be encouraging her to consider me as an asset as she gathered information.
But her eyes brightened and her lips curved into the first hint of a true smile I’d ever seen on her. Itwasn’t huge, but it was real. “Then you’ll help me?” Hope, instead of her typical frosty glare, filled her face.
Did she not realize the power she’d given me? Shown a weakness that I could exploit?
I opened my mouth to tell her that our collaboration was over. Whatever truce had bound us together had expired.
“I—” The words did not come. I might have been a monster for centuries, but I could not crush her hope. Not after she’d done more for me than any other fae since I’d left my grandmother’s farm. “What would you have me do?”
* * *
A tall fae so muscled he could have doubled as a troll guarded the gate with a battle axe strapped to his back, a long sword at his side, and more daggers and knives than I could hold at once in sheaths around his body.
