Hopefully, she had retired for the night. I could hear Sage inside the room, crunching metal and leather as he gnawed at my boot like a bone.
I’d carved a window for her so moonlight would bathe her while she slept. The only time I had any semblance of peace was when she was fast asleep. Nelle had employed psychological warfare for the past few days. Her chanting of“Free me,”and“Set me free,”had been endless. Sung in the shower, chanted as she strolled around the balcony, mumbled between mouthfuls of toast for breakfast and mouthfuls of fish for dinner, hurled at me when I was trying to concentrate on my research. I wasn’t even Crowther any longer, either. I was back to beingassholeandprick, and her new favorite:dickface.
In my kitchen drawer, I fished out a trash bag and filled it with the remains of my shoes, cringing as my fingers slipped on wraith-wolf drool that gunked up the mangled pieces. I strode for the door to my quarters, opened it up, and tossed the bag outside to be dealt with tomorrow morning.
Entering my bathroom, the dark stonework calming with its clean lines and minimal decor, I drew in a deep breath, releasing the ire and agitation before walking over to the vanity.
With a twist of the chrome tap, warm water filled the basin. I scrubbed my hands clean of saliva under the spray of hot water and liquid soap. Turning it off, I braced my wet hands upon the smooth stone surface to stare at myself in the mirror. I lookedlike shit. Bloodshot eyes with purple smudges beneath them, skin dulled to a tired hue. Days of being on edge around Nelle had worn me thin. It had been nearly a week since I’d last slept, the longest I’d ever gone, yet I couldn’t find it in myself to fall under. And I sure as hells wasn’t going to sleep in my quarters where she’d shove a pillow across my face and suffocate me.
Beyond the psychological warfare, Nelle had invaded my personal domain in a way I wasn’t prepared for. I’d never shared a room with anyone, not even my siblings, and I certainly had no idea what sharing a space with a girl would be like. In the few days of being awake and healthy, she’d asked Penn for a few extra items that were now scattered throughout the bathroom. In the recessed shelves in the shower were her favorite strawberry soap, shampoos and conditioners, hair detangler, and hair masques—whatever the hells that was. Cleansers and serums and moisturizers, along with facial scrubs and deodorants, were all over the vanity, left in random spots as soon as she was done with them. I couldn’t leave them like that, mocking me. I gathered the bottles into a tidy row near the back of the dark stone surface where it met the tall, wide mirror. Then rearranged them in height order. And made sure their front was facing forward. Re-adjusting them with the tip of my finger to make sure they were all aligned.
Her pink toothbrush sat next to mine in the glass canister on a shelf.
Reaching out, I plucked my toothbrush from beside hers, applied toothpaste to the bristles, wet it, and began brushing my teeth. I wasn’t going to sleep, but I was going to get ready as if I were and change into more comfortable clothes.
Minty white toothpaste frothed in my mouth as I brushed away. The bathroom door creaked open, and Nelle padded into the room barefoot, dressed in a nightie and an ivory silk dressing gown, the belt loosely tied around her waist. Her thick, wavy haircascaded down her back like wild, savage water tumbling off a cliff.
I tensed, my gaze snapping to hers, reflected in the large bathroom mirror as she casually sidled up.
What the hells is she doing in here?
I shuffled over, giving her room to stand in front of the mirrored vanity beside me, close but not touching.
Show no fear.
Show no fear.
The noise of running water and my panicked heartbeat picking up, then settling at a slower pace to match hers, was a deafening pounding in my ears.
I swallowed thickly. One more thing I hadn’t anticipated when bringing Nelle to the safety of my room was her trademark scent. It made perfect sense now, after learning what we were to each other—a pull meant to scramble my senses and draw us closer. Yet, she and I weren’t a typical wyrm and tamer, so I wasn’t sure if it was instinct born of what she was, or an exclusive trait that marked us as a unique pairing.
Nelle’s fragrance, touched by elderflower warmth, drifted through the room, seeping into my pores. Standing so close to her had thatthingthat existed only between us, whispering pure electric desire across my bare skin and making my heartbeat falter, then race to match hers.
I blew out a low, slow breath, trying to be inconspicuous and dampen down my yearning.
Nelle’s gaze flicked to the bottles I’d rearranged, and she made a disparaging sound that washalf-hmmandhalf-snort. A swift flash of cold amusement gleamed sharply across her features.
My heated need for her cooled as an unsettling sensation crawled down my spine.
Somehow, I had amused her. But I had no fucking idea how, or what I’d walked into. As I ran the bristles of my toothbrushacross the back of my bottom teeth, I quickly ran through the last couple of minutes. What I’d touched. And where I’d been.
What could it be?
Shit. I wasn’t only paranoid, I was terrified of this tiny little thing.
Nelle sighed lightly as she ran the hot tap, wet the cloth, and used it to dampen her face, dumping it on the side of the sink afterward. She picked up a cleanser, pumped a thick, oozy lotion into her palm, and rubbed it onto her cheeks, making them shine. “I helped Penn with her chores today,” she said in a conversational tone.
I spat toothpaste into the sink and replied cautiously. “The room is pretty tidy,”—apart from all the fucking shoes your wraith-wolf decimated—“thanks.”
“Yeah, there wasn’t much else to do.” She picked up the washcloth to wipe the lotion from her face, then tossed it onto the vanity with a wet slap, almost as if she was taunting me to retaliate.
I eyed the washcloth where it lay seeping water all over the dark surface. Why couldn’t she have folded it up neatly? Put the fucking thing on the shallow recess of the sink that had been carved for that very purpose?
Nelle scrunched her nose and said, “So I figured, while I still had these,” raising both hands to wiggle her fingers, “I’d help tidy.”
My gut twisted painfully, and that ever-present guilt sank its claws into me at the reminder that, in a few months’ time, she’d be standing on an auction block at the Witches Ball.
I glanced away to spit froth into the sink, watching it get caught up with the running water and swirl down the drain. Shoving the guilt deep down into the dark, festering pit of my black soul, I went back to cleaning my teeth, the molars in particular.
