“Thank you.”
He inclined his head to her.
The sane part of Gisela told her to get up and find a private spot to sleep. But leaving comfort like this was hard.
No, it was impossible.
If she didn’t know better, she’d swear the bed was holding her in place.
Unable to resist, she yawned again, then fell down to sleep.
Xaydin smirked at his half-brother. “What did you do?”
“Small sleeping spell. She’ll never know.”
“You better hope not. By the way she carries herself, I suspect she’s one hell of a warrior. Did you pick up on anything?”
Masakage gave him a droll stare. “You know I did.”
“Are you going to share?”
He set aside his cup. “I don’t play well with others.”
That was certainly true. Xaydin still remembered the first time they’d met. Masakage had been covered in pig shit.Struggling with the chores Meara’s flunkey had heaped on the poor child. Back then, Masakage’s powers had been undeveloped and unpredictable.
Not knowing they were related, Xaydin had felt awful for the boy, as he’d been terribly bullied by others.
Being the bastard son of a troll, Xaydin had been born with his strength and powers intact. Powers no one expected courtesy of his fairy mother. He’d used them to fry the assholes who’d picked on any of his friends.
But that hadn’t gone well for him.
The more he resisted, the worse his punishments. Sadly, resistance was his best trait.
At least it gave him an inhuman pain tolerance. And a bitterness in his soul that had never healed.
That was fine by him. With the exception of his handful of friends, Masakage and their sister, he didn’t like being around others, anyway. He found most people too taxing to deal with.
Masakage was one of the few exceptions. While his half-brother had been held hostage in Meara’s court with the rest of them, he’d never officially been admitted as one of their “Outlaws.” No one knew why he’d refused to claim their kinship. His brother was mysterious that way and it wasn’t in Xaydin to judge anyone else.
Masakage tucked away his dishes. “What do you think we should do with her?”
Xaydin shrugged. “Not quite sure. I suppose it depends on her reaction once she finds out who I am.”
“And the fact that she’s been sent to protect the beast you’re here to slay.”
He arched a brow at that. “Pardon?”
“That was her final thought before she went to sleep. You’re her archenemy, X.”
That was nothing new. He seemed to be most people’s archenemy. “And?”
Masakage put away his things, then stretched out on his pallet. “Indeed.”
He shook his head at his brother’s weird one-word comment.
But this news was definitely something to ponder as he considered how Gisela would react to their conflicted goals.
Xaydin used his own powers to pull the blanket up around her so that she wouldn’t get cold. She was a creature of great beauty, and he was trying to reconcile how she’d come to serve the centaur bitch queen.
