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His jaw tightened, and he looked away, then shook his head. "Well, my charisma doesn't work on you, anyway, so I highly doubt sex with you would even satisfy me."
Satisfy him?!
My fists clenched around the reins. I was damn good at "satisfying" thank you very much …
But he was right, of course. I was immune to his charisma for some reason, so sex with me probably wouldn't replenish it enough to help hold the monster back.
The asshole didn't need to be so damn dismissive of it, though. He was the one always flirting with me!
Forcing a deep breath in through my nose and out of my mouth, I pushed away the irritating emotions to focus on the important thing. His low charisma could really pose a problem for the mission.
"What about boosting your magic through our bond?" I asked, studying his hunched back.
He might pretend he was fine, but his body language said something very different. We had to find another solution.
"I read about it in one of Liam's texts last night. Supposedly, bond mages can reach through bonds and amplify another mage's magic. I assume there are the beginnings of a bond between us from our time together, so there's a chance I could use it to access your charisma and —"
"Absolutely not," he snapped, turning to face me. "I've heard the stories, and I don't want you to do anything that might strengthen any bond between us. Moreover, I'm Fae, AND I have a shadow monster sealed inside of me. Did that book happen to say how those would affect the bond?"
I gritted my teeth and shook my head.
"Exactly. And I don't want to be some experiment." He turned back to the path ahead. "Besides, I'll be fine for a few days. Let's just follow Liam's route and get this mission done with."
"Fine." I pressed my lips together and sat forward on Jax, trying to ignore all the little changes in Jaiel hinting he was not in fact "fine."
Chapter 33
Kaiya
The first few hours passed quickly, my attention was absorbed by the new surroundings. Who'd have thought this island would contain such varied environments? And the creatures!? The wildlife was unlike anything I'd encountered during my travels on the mainland.
I would have liked to examine some of them closer if Jaiel hadn't warned me how fucking deadly most of them were.
And the ruins?! Gods! It felt like every time we turned a corner, there was a new crumbling building or vine-draped structure. If only my work for Lady Frexin had me hunting more relics on the Isle, it would be a dream come true.
Unfortunately, I wouldn't be exploring any of it.
Missions here were rare, and this one would be over within a few days.
Even our time today needed to be rushed — we likely wouldn't make it to the village until late afternoon.
Travel had been even harder than I'd expected, which made sense given the roads were nearly a thousand years old. Not to mention the several times we had to stop to deal with errant wraiths and fallen trees blocking our path.
And Jaiel still hadn't gone back to his usual flirty self. I tried to ignore the worry niggling at the back of my mind — for the mission, of course. But I couldn't help feeling like he was wrong about being fine.
Finally, though, we saw the tattered rooftops of the little village in the distance.
Jaiel stopped his mount as we neared the first homes and looked around. "Does it seem unusually quiet to you?"
Pausing, I listened.
He was right … besides the low roar of waves, there were no other sounds. No buzzing of bugs. No errant squawks. It felt … unnatural.
Jax shifted nervously beneath me. I gently patted the side of his feathery mane and met Jaiel's concerned gaze.
Dropping from our mounts, we pulled out our weapons and lead the fleirals forward.
The buildings and roads were overgrown with vines and coastal grasses and the streets were empty save for a few abandoned carts.
