Bale turns a dark look on me. “Are you calling me old?”
“You are old.” I move my booted feet toward the fire. “And I’m a sunblood.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I might…if you’d tell me what it is.”
“Why would you believe what some vampire said? Who is this man?”
“Someone from Fanghaven,” I remind him. “Pay attention, Your Royal Forgetfulness.”
His jaw ticks. “You’ve obviously been drinking, and I’m patient.” I snort, and he adds, “But not without my limits.”
“Well, what are you going to do to me, Bale Cinderheart?” I lean back in the armchair, closing my eyes. The warmth of the fire makes my limbs even heavier, and my head still spins. “Ten days in the dungeon for insubordination?” When he doesn’t answer, I finally open my eyes. Bale is staring at me, and he’s so close that I can see the yellow and russet pigments illuminating his amber eyes.
I don’t move, staring back at him. I know we’re mostly arguing, but longing still sinks through me like a wish on a star, desire mixed with feeling safe and warm and seen. How can I have utter confidence in a man I suspect is lying to me? I can’t reconcile my own feelings, and I’m too tipsy and tired to try.
“The right time will come to ally with Fanghaven,” he finally says. “You’ll see.”
“Will I?” I smile without humor. “If I live that long. Didn’t you hear? Rannigan and his goons are after me.”
Bale’s fists clench in his lap, the fingers of one hand tightening over the pocketed necklace. For all I know, my hair is also in that pocket. Dragon shifters are hoarders, and when Kellan was falling in love with me, he kept things too.
Despite my heavy lids, my eyes widen and my heart thuds in my chest. I know things are changing, but falling in love?
Half standing, his face a thunderstorm, Bale leans forward and places big, heavy hands on the arms of my chair. “They touch you. They die.”
I gaze into his burning stare, a riptide of emotion dragging a heated shiver up from deep inside. If I’d had one more dragon’s brew at the tavern, I’d stretch up and kiss him. Fortunately, I’m not that drunk. “Good luck keeping a sunblood alive.”
He doesn’t move, so close his breath stirs my hair. “Don’t buy into everything you hear.”
“The source was pretty good.” I shrug.
A muscle pinches near his eye. “Who?”
I bite my tongue. “I just meant he looked reputable.”
Bale stops pressing and slowly sits back in his chair. He wants answers from me but won’t give any himself, so I slough off my guilt at keeping secrets from him.
He’s quiet for so long that I get sleepy, the pleasant crackle of the fire and the heat of the blaze relaxing me. I finally curl up, pulling my feet under me, and shut my eyes. The brightness of the flames still dances behind my closed lids. The warmth feels amazing. Or maybe that’s Bale’s inner heat, seeping into my bones.
“Idallia?” he rumbles.
I wish he’d called me Sunshine. “Mmm?” The fire is lovely, the room safe and warm. I still like my quarters better. My birds are there. There’s the roosting wall.
“Don’t fall asleep here.”
“Why not?” I murmur. “You have plenty of room.”
“I don’t usually have…guests.” His words trail away, the loneliness in his voice definitely not my imagination.
“Not really a surprise. Your lair is at the tippy top of the mountain and about a million steps up.”
He clears his throat. “If you stay here, I’ll…”
It takes effort, but I crack open my eyes. “You’ll what?”
The way he stares at me wakes my whole body up like embers popping to life in the hearth. He finally drags in a breath that lifts his chest. “I’ll go somewhere else.”
