“You should smile more, Kole. It suits you, and I’m relieved to learn that your heart under here”—finger still in place from poking him, I tapped his chest—“isn’t made of stone.”
His gaze met mine, and I could havesworn something flashed in his irises. “No, Miss Hollaran, my heart isn’t made of stone. Not even close.”
He took a step toward me, closing the distance between us even more, and his aura pulsed. That strange glow filled his eyes again, so briefly, and I was certain I wasn’t imagining it.
The warrior placed his hand over mine, flattening my palm to his chest, and my breath stopped. Completelystopped.
For a moment, we stared at one another. The air grew heavy around us, and Kole’s focus subtly drifted to my lips, a look ofhungergrowing on his face again, just as it had in the hallway outside our rooms at the inn.
Abruptly, a flash of magic coiled around his wrist, electrifying the space between us, and in my next breath, the warrior was several feet away from me.
My breath rushed out of me, and I stilled because the warm air that had been swirling around me from Kole’s body heat was gone.
Not entirely sure what’d just happened, I opened my mouth to ask him if he was okay, but a noise came from down the street. A snarl or a growl. Something that didn’t sound fae but also didn’t sound animal, and it sounded strangely...familiar.
Kole’s head whipped in that direction, and before I could blink, he was standing in front of me, his broad back shielding me from the wind as he gazed toward where that growl had come from.
“Prim, go inside the inn.Now.” His words were said withsuch authority, suchintensity, that my body began to move before my brain caught up with me.
Before I knew what I was doing, I’d crossed the remaining distance to the inn and was opening the door. Kole was watching me, as though wanting to ensure I did as he said, and when I stepped over the threshold, that same sound came again.
Part snarl. Part growl. Partsomething.
A chill raced down my spine as cold as the Cliffs of Sarum. Every instinct inside me told me to run. To hide. To escape.
Eyes wide, I peered out at Kole. Snow flew around him, the night dark and the wind cold.
“What are you going to do?” The thought of him tearing off down the street, in search of the creature that had made that noise, made my heart pound and my limbs shake.
“What I’m here to do,” was all he replied, and with that, he disappeared in a blur of speed.
CHAPTER TWELVE
I knew I was supposed to close the inn door. I knew I was supposed to saunter over to the check-in desk and chat for a few minutes with Nivinity. I knew that I was then supposed to climb the stairs and retreat to the safety of my chambers and lock the door behind me.
I knew I was supposed to doallof those things, but Kole had just disappeared into the night, in search of whatever had made that shiver-inducing sound, and he was alone with only the sword at his back to protect him.
And even though he was an Imperial Warrior who had effortlessly taken down Abel and likely would have taken down the two bastard males as well, all I truly wanted to do was race after him to ensure he stayed safe.
My hands twisted, my fingers knotting together as I tried to shake sense into myself. Kole was a warrior. This was literally what he was trained to do. And while my magic was strongand I was tougher than I looked, I wasn’t trained to deal with situations as he was.
It would be foolish to try to find him.So why is every instinct inside me begging me to do just that? Why is my heart demanding that I protect him?
The thought of harm coming to him made me want to vomit.
“Stars Above,” I whispered aloud. Maybe I’d been wrong. Maybe the Stone trulywasaffecting me, because Gods and Goddesses, the impulse to follow him was so strong that I knew something was very wrong with me. Nothing reasonable andnotmagical could explain this type of reaction in me.
“Do you have strange nocturnal animals around here?” I called in a strained voice to Nivinity while peering out the window into the street again, but Kole was nowhere to be seen.
Nivinity stood at the check-in desk, her ledger closed and pushed off to the side. She craned her neck to look into the street over my shoulder, her hairy eyebrows drawn together. “We don’t normally, but some other villages have reported strange occurrences at night.”
I faced the wildling, and my eyebrows slammed together. “What kind of occurrences?”
Her large nostrils flared in her snout, her eyebrows tugging together even more. “Just weird sightings mostly, and some fae have reported hearing sounds.”
“Sounds?”
She took a breath, and I could have sworn she shuddered.
