Black, not green. I frowned at them, my fingers drifting through the silk as I glanced up into a pair of silver-blue eyes. “Oh,” I breathed, surprised. “I didn’t realize I’d fallen asleep.” The last thing I remembered was Zeph kissing me thoroughly after taking me for the third time in his bed.
He really did know how to knock a girl out.
My blood heated at the memory of his tongue between my thighs, his scruff tickling my skin in the most sensual way.
“You’re blushing,” my figment mused, his lips curling at the edges. “Is it your newly bonded mate inspiring those thoughts? Or one of your others?”
“Zeph,” I admitted, my cheeks burning hotter. “They all make me blush, though.”
“I bet,” he drawled, lounging on the pillow beside me in a pair of black pants and no shirt. I tried really hard not to admire his physique.
Tried and failed.
Because he truly was sculpted to perfection, something I blamed my mind for doing.
“Why do you keep visiting me?” I wondered out loud.
“Why do you think I’m here?” he countered, arching a brow. “You created me, right?” There was a hint of teasing in his tone that I probably deserved, because yeah, I did.
“Yeah. For sex,” I admitted.
He chuckled, the sound a deep reverberation in his chest that hypnotized my senses.
Why did he have to be so beautiful?
Oh, right. Because my mind made him that way.
“I love how honest you are,” he mused, his silver-blue eyes glistening with approval. “So am I here now for sex? Because you seem rather sated at the moment, little star.”
His observation heated my cheeks once more. It probably shouldn’t bother me that my mind recognized my satisfied state, but hearing it out loud—or in my head, I guess—flustered me a bit. “I’m… I don’t know why you’re here. Maybe to talk about what happened today?” I’d avoided thinking about the village, so it made sense that my subconscious would push me to consider it.
“What happened today?” he asked as he went up onto his elbow to stare down at me. “Anything I should be concerned about?”
“I think someone tried to trap me,” I told him, frowning. “We went to the tavern to see if I recognized the magic used during the attack the other day, and somehow he knew I’d be there. He was waiting for me… and then he attacked me.”
His white-blond eyebrows shot upward. “Attacked you?”
I nodded. “Yes. Or that’s how it felt, anyway.”
“Maybe he was just testing your powers, to see how much you know,” he suggested.
“Maybe,” I agreed. “But it felt… aggressive.”
“That could have been the village reacting to your magic,” he pointed out softly. “Perhaps he was actually protecting you from a bigger trap set to catch him, not you.”
I considered that angle. “The alarms were going off,” I admitted, recalling the cawing and sounds of stones shifting. “But I didn’t feel like they were trying to attack me.”
“It’s possible he deflected it away from you and onto himself.”
“Yes, that could be true.” My brow furrowed. “But I still think he meant to trap me.”
“Or see you, yes,” he murmured, reaching out to tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear. “Does he feel ominous to you? Threatening? Do you even know who he is?”
“I feel like I know him,” I whispered, glad to be talking to my mind and not to someone else. “His magic reminds me of my past, but I don’t know why.”
“You’re missing memories,” he replied. “They were stolen from you to protect you.”
“What?” I gaped at him. “How could you know that?”
