“It is dangerous then?” he pressed.
“It can be,” I explained patiently. “Learning the boundaries of my power was a unique experience I do not wish to repeat.”
His dark blue eyes stared hard into mine. “You are being too polite, which means it can be Fae damned deadly.”
I lifted my arms wide and held them aloft. I smirked and reassured the best I could, “I am not dead yet. Let that be answer enough for you.”
Caspian’s fangs flashed the smallest bit, not wholly liking my response—but he did have his answer now. Turning his head back to the artwork, he murmured quietly, “Do you not wish to know more about me?”
“Ice power is the direct counterpoint to your king’s royal firepower.” I shrugged my shoulders. “What more is there to know about it?”
My soul mate blinked…and then his elven eyes became frosty blue. Ice chips reflected in his eerie gaze as the very air inside my lungs started to freeze and burn cold from within.
Puffs of white air blew from my lips as I shivered brutally and wrapped my arms around myself protectively. Trembling from the bone-deep chill, I rumbled quietly, “All right, elf. I see how it has its advantages.”
My soul mate smirked. “Precisely so.” Gently, he released his power, letting me know he had complete control of it, my body warming again in slow increments. Once his eyes returned to his normal elven dark blue, he cocked his head and enquired, “If I asked you to commune with the dead, would you do it?”
“It depends on your reasoning.” I placed my hands in my pockets and rocked back on my heels in thought. “As I’ve stated, there would have to be a real need for it.”
The elf rubbed his lips together slowly, and only gradually did he state, “Isabella Towers, King Traevon’s mother. She was a soothsayer. Even in death, I believe she would have advice to give.”
I instantly shook my head. “King Athon has had me try before. She does not answer my call.”
His white eyebrows snapped together. “Perhaps she does not answer your king’s call becausehewas responsible for her death.” He flicked a finger at himself. “But with me by your side, it may be different.”
I tilted my head and ran my honey-brown gaze down his delicate features, considering that unique perspective. I eventually grunted and whispered, “You may be right.” Watching my soul mate closely, I asked, “What do you wish to ask her?”
Caspian’s lips pinched into the thinnest line as he glanced back at the statue of the tortured lovers, eyeing it in the heavy silence. He eventually cleared his throat and grumbled deeply, “I wish to know if you and I were truly meant to be. And if we are doomed.”
I slowly licked along my bottom lip, mutely scanning his tense profile. “I understand your fear,your leeriness, elf. But do you not wish to find out on your own instead of trusting the words of someone else?”
“I don’t believe we have the luxury of that,” Caspian stated coolly, his cold dark blue eyes meeting mine once more. “Even if I wished that were true, time is not on our side right now.”
His words hit hard, right in the chest—in the organ beating behind my ribs. Because it was true. What time might have afforded us, we were currently in short supply of.
The punisher was coming for us and had already come for us—and if we were to die, it would be a blessing to know our deaths were not in vain and had truemeaning.
I grunted gently and nodded once. “Quite so.” Flicking my eyes between his, I sighed and stated, “I will try.”
Caspian watched me closely. “Is there anything I need to do?”
“Nothing at all. It is quite simple for you.” I grinned soothingly, and then I let my spirit power flare, my eyes turning a ghastly white. My soul mate’s eyes narrowed on mine right before I disappeared before him, his elven eyes instantly and frantically searching the area where he’d last seen me—where I still stood. I chuckled softly and whispered, “I am still here. Calm yourself.”
He blew out a hard breath and muttered, “This is greatly disconcerting.” My soul mate reached out with his hands and clumsily smacked his palms against my chest, roaming them over the hard planes of my muscle as if he had his eyes closed and were searching for me. “You are still solid.”
“Accurately so. I am merely unseen.” I bent down…and pecked his lips quickly, snickering when the deadly elf jerked his head back in surprise. Placing my lips against the bottom of his pointed ear, I whispered, “Imagine what I could do to you in bed like this. It would beall feeling, soft caresses and heated breaths and succulent touches.” I licked slowly behind his ear, in a long and pressure-filled drag of my tongue. “Would you like that, elf?”
Caspian shivered against me, closing his eyes. “I think…that could be interesting.” He breathed out a slow breath and lifted his lids. “A possibility to work up to.”
“I like possibilities,” I rumbled and kissed his ear softly. “They are endless, elf.”
“Fuck,” he groaned hoarsely, leaning into me, into the body that he could not see. He sighed heavily and took a giant step back. Pointing in my general direction, he cleared his throat and stated snootily in his elven clipped accent, “Behave, shifter. Let us commune with the dead. Seductions can take place at a later time.”
I tipped my head back and let loose a throaty laugh, actually fucking enjoying this man’s pretentious behavior, his attempt to grasp and regain some sort of control. “All right, elf. I’ll behave.” It was tempting to kiss him again, my attention lingering on his lips for too long, but I ultimately cracked my neck and focused on my power instead. “Stay silent while I do this. Sometimes a spirit is hard to hear, typically when they’ve been gone for a long time. But it does happen occasionally with the recently departed.”
My soul mate nodded, keeping silent.
Flaring my nostrils, I pulled on the delicate power deeply embedded inside my Fae-spark, my chest bubbling with it, cool yet horribly light. It tickled my rib bones and stimulated my lungs, sparkling with lightness and darkness in equal measure.
