She angled her head and stared at me for so long that I felt uncomfortable. I scrunched my nose, giving her a look in return—What?
“Wild magic guards this tower, answering only to Graysen’s command. No one besides myself can enter this room.”
I blinked, surprised. “Not even his family?”
She shook her head. And that’s when I realized that was why Kenton remained outside, why it had to be Penn and I helping Graysen into bed.
“Why?”
Penn shrugged as if she didn’t know, but she also had a sharp glint in her eye as if she did. Finally, she parted her lips and said, “Have you ever considered that he’s not so much locking you up as he is keeping them out?”
My swift glance took in the heavy door to the room, with the intricate pattern etched into its dark wooden surface.
He’d go so far as to keep his own family out?
“This is the one place in the Keep he can keep you safe. No one besides myself can enter. And if his family did…” She spoke so softly I had to strain to hear her. “If they found a way to get inside this room, he’d be standing in front of you. To get to you, his brothers would have to go through him.”
My eyes flared wide.
He wouldn’t…
But my mind flashed back to the night he’d grabbed hold of me before I’d reached my father, and instead of locking me away in the dungeon as his aunt had ordered, he’d brought me up here at the top of a tower.
And he…
He hadn’t known what he was doing either. He’d lost himself somewhere along the path of dark machinations his family had planned for me. And he’d defied them all by keeping me here…locked away…
Safe.
Had he locked me up here to keep me safe from his family, in his dark, twisted way, thinking that he was doing some grand gesture?
Penn placed the book down on the table beside the couch, slipped her legs from beneath her, and bent down to draw her shoes closer. Sliding her feet into them, she rose and smoothed her skirt, adjusting her sleeve cuffs before addressing me once more. “I’m quiet, one of the shadows. I watch. I hear things.” She angled her chin toward Graysen. “The Crowthers are goodat hiding what’s at the core of them, some of them better than others. That mask Graysen wears outside his family, he wearswithhis family as well. But here, in the past few days with you,” she shook her head with a knowing smile, “not so much.”
Ducking my head, my long locks fell like a curtain in front of my face as I tied and untied the belt around my waist. I didn’t want to glance to where Graysen lay sprawled on the bed. I knew she was telling me the truth.
And shamefully, I wished I’d been a little kinder to him for the last few days.
Penn walked past me, her footsteps silent, leaving a faint smell of jasmine as she headed toward the entranceway. I twisted around as she opened the door. She turned back with a polite dip of the head. “Goodnight.”
I gaped, astounded she was going to leave me here with Graysen, alone. He was vulnerable. I moved closer to her, pointing to him over my shoulder. “I could do anything to him.”
Suffocate him with a pillow.
“You’re no killer,” she replied.
I rolled my eyes, popping my fists on my hips. “How in hells would you know that?”
Her fingers curled tighter about the metal door handle. Dark eyelashes fluttered around a haunted gaze. “Because I lived with one once.”
I blinked.
Here or elsewhere?
Had she lived with one in the life of mortals before she’d entered ours? And I wondered how she had found herself to be here in the first place, and why the Crowthers had taken her in.
Before I could open my mouth to ask, the door shut with a soft snick.
I stood staring at the door, bewildered, my mind swimming with so many questions regarding the mortal woman who servedthe Crowthers. Deep in thought, I slowly turned around and found Graysen had shifted his position to face me once more. I glared at him, but really, childishly, I was annoyed at myself, not him.
