And when I strode right up to her, not stopping until our tunics brushed together, her body trembled.
The urge to touch her, to do everything she'd allow, roared over me. This was a mistake. We were a mistake.
The fates help us.
“I like it here in this tower,” I finally said. “It'll suit our needs.” The stark isolation of the room felt heavier than it probably should, but it carried a sort of promise, a tension that could pull us closer while the rest of the castle faded into the background. I reminded myself of my purpose here. “Has anyone foretold your skill?”
“When you say skill, you mean like Tempest is a beast master, though honestly, she appears to have multiple skills while I have none.”
“I'm sure you have at least one yourself.”
“I appreciate your confidence.”
Her frank, self-deprecating words cut deeply.
“You must know you have incredible power,” I said. “I can taste it in the air around you.”
Her eyes widened, and she stepped back until her sweetly leather-bound ass hit the table, making it rock on its uneven legs. “Keep tasting and any of your other wayward senses out of this, if you please.”
“I'll try,” I rasped.
“My brother said I have a lot of power. I'm not completely untrained. He worked with me. Tempest's aunt worked with me. But other than this,” she lifted her index finger and lit it like one of the insect lights peppering the roofs of the nearby caverns. “I can’t seem to do much of anything.”
“You used that tiny light to scale the side of the ship—mid-journey on an open sea, I'll add—to reach my room.” Her scent remained after she'd left, and it haunted me whenever I entered the cabin.
“I can sometimes generate a little lightning or flaming lightning, I guess you could call it.”
“My name of wildfire fits, then, doesn't it?”
“Merrick's using it too.”
The bastard. I'd wring his neck. “Is he now?” Death lurked in my voice, and I let it shine.
“I couldn't talk him out of it, so I guess you're both stuck with it.” She looked up at me. “Unless you'd like to choose something different?”
She wasmywildfire, not his, but . . . “It hardly matters, now does it?” A snarl always came through in an awkward situation. “As for your skill, you have at least one. Trust me in this.”
Her shrug revealed the crack in her confidence. Her fingerlight extinguished, and her hand dropped back to her side. “If you say so.”
“What testing have they done?”
“My brother's very good at this.”
I brushed aside the defensive tone in her voice. “He'd have to be to survive growing up at Bledmire.”
“You seem to know a lot about my family and the fae who live on the courts in the land I grew up in.”
“I make it my business to know things like that.”
“You told me you're the king's bodyguard. A sailor told me you're also an assassin.” Her head tilted. “Who have you killed?”
“We can discuss names at another time,” I bit out. I felt no shame for my actions. I was never one to kill indiscriminately, but I didn't like the touch of judgement in her voice. “You'll one day realize you'll do anything to protect those you love.”
“Like Merrick?” Her eyes narrowed with cunning. “How can you love him yet kiss me?”
I wasn't going to discuss this with her. “I asked if anyone identified your skill.”
“No.” Her lips thinned. “Yours is elemental aegis.”
