Willa’s smile wavers slightly, her gaze guarded as it flickers between the four of us like she doesn’t quite believe Tiernan’s geniality would be directed at her.
Undeterred as usual, Tiernan motions to the chair beside him. “Here, have a seat! You must be starving after being trapped in the Crocodile.”
Willa flushes. “Oh, it didn’t actually feel long enough for me to be hungry.”
“If you weren’t starved of food, you were certainly starved of good company,” Tiernan laughs with another pointed look in my direction. “Join us!”
Willa stays where she is, eyeing Sam. “IfI sit, am I going to wake up two hours later not knowing what happened? Like I went on some sort of tequila-fueled bender with none of the fun?”
Sam dips his head with a sheepish smile, raising his palms in a show of peace. “I promise to keep my magic to myself.”
As if you’re capable of keeping anything to yourself,Marina replies snidely.
His promise is enough to appease Willa, and she hesitantly lowers herself into the seat beside Tiernan. My ribbons swirl at her feet, keeping a respectful distance from her skin with a carefulness I don’t understand. In the two centuries I’ve wielded them, they’ve always speared for life like they’re starved for it. Always hungering for what they cannot have.
But with Willa, they seem—content.
Sam fills a plate and slides it to her. With a small noise of pleasure, Willa digs in with impressive enthusiasm.
“Thank you,” she tells him through a mouthful, and I wonder again at her life before she fell into my kingdom. Though her body is toned, she has a slight appearance of malnourishment. Like she’d only eaten enough to keep up her strength, but never enough to be entirely filled. Like anxiety and guilt had sapped not only her energy, but her appetite.
A possessive pleasure rolls through me that she won’t have to worry about nightmares any longer; that I’ll be close enough to chase them all away. As quickly as it comes, I shove it away. The thought is far too dangerous. She is not mine to protect. She is mine touse.
Willa hasn’t met my gaze once since entering the room, but I find I don’t mind, as it gives me time to study her. To take in the flush of her cheeks, the movement of her mouth. The way her eyes dart between Sam, Marina and Tiernan as they engage with her. The shy way she answers them, the hesitation in her responses.
I understand it now. The reason Willa runs. The cause of her fear and her desire to remain invisible. And even more so, her outbursts of rage when she feels cornered or trapped. She said her tormenters were dead, that she’d killed them herself, and it still hadn’t slaked the hot thirst for vengeance against all those who wronged her. And I understand that perhaps better than anything else—how centuries can pass, and the demand for justice can still pump through your heart.
Her eyes drift away from the conversation, absently raking over mine. She stills, like she hadn’t meant to look at me, but now that she has, it’s impossible to look away. Her mouth pops open, and my entire body heats as the image of her in my bed fills my mind.
A rosy flush spreads over her cheeks like she’s remembering the same, and then it spreads lower—lusciously coloring her throat and collarbones, rolling over the tops of her breasts. I follow it slowly, greedily drinking in every inch of her. When I finally return my gaze to her face, her eyes are narrowed in challenge.
I told my friends I have no heart left to interfere with my goals, but perhaps I’d discounted the danger of my body; of the way it sings in her presence. I’ve felt only the ice of death for so long, the sudden heat of wanting is an addicting elixir. I should be thanking the star above I can’t touch her without killing her—or I might find myself at her feet right beside my ribbons, begging for even the smallest taste of her skin.
“Star above,” Sam mutters good-naturedly. Willa startles at his voice, and it’s only then I realize the table has fallen silent while we’d been staring at each other. “I think I’d take the death threats and stabbing at breakfast over whateverthisis.”
Willa’s blush deepens, and she tears her gaze away from me.
Now you know how we all feel every time we have the misfortune of being in the same room as you and Adira,Marina replies, and for once, I find myself thankful for her blunt honesty.
Tiernan snickers. “Unbearable, the two of them,” he agrees.
Sam rolls his eyes. “I’d like to think I have more restraint than to eye-fuck a woman at the dining table,” he replies mildly. “Even one as beautiful as Adira.”
Tiernan leans conspiratorially to Willa. “Three hundred and thirty-four years old, and the poor sap still doesn’t know what women want.”
“To be eye-fucked while eating waffles?” Willa deadpans.
“I can assure you, Adira wants nothing to do with my eyes,” Sam insists with a wince. And then, after a thoughtful pause, “Or mywaffles.”
Tiernan’s snicker turns into a full-bodied guffaw, as Marina signs with an innocent shrug,Maybe you don’t make them very well.
Sam’s eyes flick to the ceiling, and he sighs deeply with a shake of his head. “Star grant me the patience not to murder my friends before lunch.”
“Speaking of the enchantress herself,” I interrupt, partly to spare Sam anymore ribbing, but also because I’ve known the three of them for over a century and am well aware if I don’t stop it now, the conversation will only grow more raucous, and I really do have things to do today. “I’ll be taking Willa to the Grove after breakfast to see Adira.”
I ignore Sam’s coughed choke of surprise.
Willa tilts her head, the movement exposing the supple curve of her throat. I grit my teeth as she says, “Why?”
