But the fulgurite, no surprise there, showed I had an affinity for wielding lightning, or flaming lightning, in my case.
He swept those stones away with his magic and brought out more. And more, with no response from any of them. When he announced we’d tried all the common stones, I nodded, standing beside him staring at the obsidian and fulgurite he’d nudged to the side of the table.
“I have skills,” I whispered. “Skills!”
“You do.”
I hopped around with Farris dancing along with me, crowing and waving my arms in the air. “I've gottwopretty skills.”
“At least. We’ll work with those and test you for less common ones at another time.”
“I'm going to learn how to use them.” I skipped and sashayed around Lore to his obvious, jaded amusement, until I stopped in front of him, gazing up.
If he hadn't been looking at me as if he actually liked me, I wouldn't have the overwhelming urge to climb all over him.
I couldn't do that.
So I called out to Farris and bolted from the room.
31
REYLA
Iwoke the next morning to Farris snoring by my side and someone moving around in the enormous sitting area next to my equally large bedroom—a bedroom that Lore, of all people, had decorated. I’d never be able to look at it in the same way again.
No, each time I lay in this bed, I’d feel the stroke of his fingers as I shifted beneath the silver blankets shot through with bits of green. The weight of his hooded gaze would fall on my body as I stepped into my bath and dried with one of the matching towels. And the stirring, irritating, yet arousing mocking tone in his voice would tease across my skin as I tugged on my clothing.
He wasn’t here with me, but I still couldn’t shake the feelings gliding through me. I swore I even caught his scent in the room. Impossible.
“My queen?” Moira called out from beyond the bedroomdoor. “Are you awake? I could come back in a bit if you’d like to slumber longer.”
“I’m awake.” I stretched and sat up, shoving my hair off my face. If I’d braided it last night like usual, it wouldn’t resemble a reddish blonde bird’s nest.
My thigh banged against something lying on the bed, and I squinted in that direction, finding my old, formerly beat-up sword lying on the blanket between me and Farris. Formerly beat-up because, even with the blade secure in its new, lightly decorated leather sheath, I could tell someone had done something to it.
I slid it from the dark leather threaded through with bits of silver and held it out in the dim light. Every ding and dent it had earned through years of hard use had been smoothed away as if he’d taken it to a blacksmith and made them work on it all night.
I turned it this way and that, admiring how gorgeous it was now. This blade had saved my life more times than I could count. While I’d collected a different sword in the armory after I’d proven I was decent enough with the practice blades to be given a real one, this particular sword had been a gift.
I’d treasured something this simple more than I should.
No longer simple. Even the hilt had been reworked from the plain silver worn smooth by my hand to a burnished golden metal. Real gold would be too soft, but he must’ve spelled it to keep it from wearing off. It . . . It felt good in my hand, the grooves worked into the surface heightening my grip. Squinting, I studied the pair of spread wings and an embossed symbolin a swirling pattern below the grip and wondered whose shield it might be.
Merrick’s? It had to be his. Even Lore wouldn’t be so bold as to place his own mark on my weapon.
“My queen?” Moira called out again. “May I come in?”
I quickly sheathed the blade and flung the top blanket over it, making Farris snort and lift his head. He blinked at me in a sleepy way that was incredibly cute, and I leaned forward and gave him kisses.
“Yes, you may,” I told Moira.
She cracked the door wide enough to poke her nose into the opening. “I’ll come in and get your bath started for you, shall I? While you wait for that, Calista has brought you a lovely tray for breakfast. Unless you’d prefer to eat with the court lords and ladies in the formal dining room this morning?”
“No, I'll eat here.” The fates save me from my next encounter with the lords and ladies if any of them happened to belong to Erisandra's entourage.
Moira bustled inside and strode to the bathroom, turning on the water. She returned to the bedroom and walked over to the windows, thrusting back the thick silvery drapes spun with green that matched the bedding perfectly.
Her gaze fell on the leather outfit I’d stripped off last night and tossed onto a chair. She lifted each item, and her eyebrows rose high enough to brush her blonde bangs. Her lips parted, though only slightly. She was much too well trained to show a stronger reaction. “These are interesting, now aren’t they?”
