Page 43 of Sworn to the Shadow Throne

He lifted his tunic, and I peeked under the bandages, avoiding touching his skin so that little zap of lightning wouldn’t remind me of everything inappropriate I felt. “The stitches look great. At this rate, you might be able to ride a horse by tomorrow. You heal very fast.”

“Fae thing,” he said dismissively. “And a you thing. You’re a very strong healer, Lunette. Tell me truly, does the Assembly know of your ability?”

I poured two oversized pancakes to cook on the griddle while I thought about how to answer. “No. My parents stated in no uncertain terms that I should hide my power and ears from everyone outside our village. Especially from mages.”

“And then I came along…” he mused, sniffing the air as our breakfast browned. “What were they worried about?”

The lightness in his voice sounded forced, so I trod carefully.

“They said the Mage Assembly had hurt our people in the past.” I swallowed. “Especially the females.”

“Females?” His eyes blazed with such an intensity that I would’ve expected any other man to reach for his sword, but I’d experienced his profound capacity for gentleness firsthand.

“Your education on this is probably better than mine, m’lord,” I gibed.

“It missed one very important detail about Nocthel already,” he offered. “Also, still not a lord, m’lady.”

That self-satisfied grin.

He seemed to be at peace with the knowledge this morning. He had a stubborn streak, but he wasn’t inflexible. The contrasting sides of his personality had earned my respect and made him even more attractive.

What I said next immediately silenced the flutter of butterflies that had tried to take flight in my belly. “It’s common knowledge that the shrinking Fae population played an important role in the collapse of the Avanfellian Empire. And it was humans versus Fae for hundreds of years before that.”

“There were human-Fae alliances,” he offered.

“See, I didn’t know that. Like I said, that lordly education,” I rolled my eyes. “But I’ll get to the female part. My parents said that about a hundred years after the fall, the Mage Assembly started grabbing Fae-blooded females off the streets—never to be seen again. That’s why the remaining Fae families vanished. They moved into the mountains to hide.”

“A century ago…” Rowan tilted his head, brow scrunched, stormy expression still in place. “If my history is correct, that’s around the time they started opening charitable orphanages. You think…”

I nodded. “Round up females and suddenly have to spend cartfuls of gold to open orphanages? What else could they have been doing?”

“Breeding mages.” His hands came up to cover his face. I could practically feel his anger burning the air. “They’re still at it, Lunette… Just using slightly less violent tactics.”

“So I keep my ears covered when I leave the village,” I said, shrugging. “Plus, they make people uncomfortable. I think it’s the shock more than anything.”

“They’re lovely,” he said, voice firm, eyes pinning mine.

There were those damn butterflies again. “My parents were older when I was born, so they might’ve had outdated ideas.”

It seemed like he wanted to ask more about the Assembly, but he asked instead: “Old?”

“I think my mother was nearing fifty and my father around sixty.”

Rowan abruptly spat out a bit of the water he’d been sipping. “By the cursed gods.”

“Fae thing.” I offered a small shrug and a grin. “They waited a long time to have me, but being longer-lived than full humans meant that was okay.”

Before I was born, my parents had lives outside Selmont, returning to live with my grandmother only to have me. They said that with their obvious Fae ears, they didn't feel safe bringing a child into this world until they returned home.

His eyes grew wide. “So, how old are you?”

“Thirty-four.”

Another surprised look from him. His voice was tinged with amusement when he said, “Given what you shared about your parents, I’d have guessed you were in your fifties or sixties.”

“I’m older than you, aren’t I?” I teased.

He made a tiny gap between his index finger and thumb in the air. “Just a little.”