I carry it to Callum.
“Impressive,” he murmurs.
He holds out his hand, and when I drop the ring into his waiting palm, his fingers brush against mine.
Just for a moment.
Just long enough for me to feel his warmth and for a zing of awareness to shoot all the way up my arm and into my chest.
But then he withdraws his hand, and I could almost convince myself I imagined it. I could almost convince myself his pupils haven’t doubled in size and the hitch in his breath is nothing at all.
I could convince myself I don’t feel it, too.
Callum examines the ring. He turns it this way and that in the light, and the brilliant, deep blue stone catches every morning sunbeam.
“It was my grandmother’s,” he says quietly. “She passed when I was very young and left this to me.”
It’s breathtaking.
The ring gleams in the light, the jewel more vibrant than anything I’ve ever seen.
I’ve got about a million and one questions.
Why was this what he chose? Why did he send me after it? Why did his grandmother leave it to him? Was it for someone special, or…
None of those questions are even remotely appropriate to ask, so I choose a different one.
“What was her name?”
The ghost of a smile passes over his face. “Amalin.”
“It’s beautiful,” I murmur. “The ring, and the name.”
He nods, then seems to shake himself out of whatever memories he’s lost in. Standing and crossing the room, he replaces the ring in its box, then turns to face me.
“So, we’re working together now,” he says, and a different kind of zing runs through me.
Unbridled excitement. Unexpected, but unmistakable.
We’re in this together. In the hunt for the fae queen’s heart.
“I suppose we are,” I say, and don’t let myself examine the way something slots into place in the center of my chest.
Damned Goddess and her magick. Damn this finicky bond.
Not that I feel it.
Certainly not.
It’s just a trick of this realm, a trick of the way the light passes over Callum’s face, his lips—almost obscured by his thick beard, but quirked up nonetheless.
“Well then,” he says, rubbing his hands together then crossing to the closet. “We’re going to have to make sure you’ve got some better ways to defend yourself this time.”
20
Callum
“Pick one.”
