From there, we met Xander. He was the polar opposite of Luca. Very much a rebel and hard to control. It took quite some time to get him to conform. I was still surprised that he even joined the military in the first place. Everyone had given up on him, but his loyalty to us, his friends, had convinced me that he was salvageable as a soldier. I saw the good in him beyond the violence and inappropriateness. He was a man searching for a family he could really belong to. The same as Luca and, deep down, the same as me.
Xander stood up, stretching. “I think I might want to keep her, Sef. There’s something about her beyond the fact that she’s gorgeous. Can’t you feel it?”
I could, but I wasn’t ready to say that yet.
Zelda cleared her throat, capturing our attention. “How long will you keep her?”
There was a disapproving tone in her voice. We had never done anything so risky before, and I was sure Zelda didn’t like that we were holding Lila against her will. Still, the alternatives were low. “It will have to be for a while. If we are going to put ourselves in such jeopardy, we should first see if she’s worth it. For all we know, she really is a talented spy sent by the humans or even our other side to take us out. We know there are tales where the Nodoors have offered stolen humans or those in debt against us in exchange for their freedom. They could have implanted memories in her mind to trick us.” I raised my hand to silence them both in advance before they could respond. “I’m not saying this is the case, but we can’t ignore the possibility.”
Zelda clasped her hands in front of her stomach. “So, when you have come to trust her, you will seek her return to her realm?”
I didn’t respond, and she narrowed her eyes at me. “You want to vet her to keep her?”
Xander stood in front of me. “That’s the plan, right?”
I stood up, leaving the kitchen. “For now, because she was banished, she can’t go home anyway. It might be that she can’t get home no matter what. How our time with her evolves will help me better decide whether we keep her or give her to the court. That’s the plan.”
Zelda shook her head. “I am concerned that this will begin a slippery slope to the dark. That poor woman deserves our help.”
I kept walking, exiting the kitchen. I didn’t need Zelda’s guilt. “And she’s getting just that. How she behaves will depend on how much help she gets.”
* * *
The next morning before heading to duty, I walked toward Lila’s room, the door still not returned. I did enjoy looking at her so vulnerable with the door open but had caught Xander masturbating at the sight of her the night before from the hallway. Having a bit more time to think, and because she had come to dinner last night, I decided to return her door. Not that it would keep Xander out of there. I’d spoken to him about respecting her, and he claimed he was. Until she complained, I would have to believe him.
However, when I got to her room, she wasn’t on the bed. I walked in and didn’t see her anywhere. The ensuite bathroom door was open.
I looked in Xander’s room and the rest of the spaces, but she was nowhere. Zelda was in the kitchen serving breakfast, with Xander sitting at the table drinking tea. “Has anyone seen her?” I thundered, suddenly feeling a sense of panic that disturbed me.
Zelda looked up at me with concerned eyes. “I haven’t seen her yet today.”
Xander yawned, looking very unbothered. “You let her roam free now, so she’s probably somewhere on the grounds. The guards are here, so I’m sure she didn’t go far. Plus, there’s the ward.”
I snarled, leaving the kitchen. “She’s a mage, she could break it.”
“If you thought it would be that easy for her to escape, then why let her out of her room in the first place?” he called after me.
I ignored him. Actually, her ability to escape would tell me a lot about her strength. I prided myself on my warding abilities. Even if she was able to get past or harm my guards, once she went beyond the confines of my land, even the lake, she would be faced with my magic wall. To date, no one had been able to get through it. It proved quite useful during battle times.
I left the house and walked the grounds, passing the front transporter park where one guard stood behind the gated front. He stated that he had not seen her but that my other guard was walking the grounds. I walked to the left past my garden, where a gardener, a green fae, was tending to the plants and vegetables. I was not much for caring for plant life, but I enjoyed the look of it. I had a seating area in the middle of the garden with a small pond. I often sat there to meditate, strategize, or clear my head. Lila was not there.
I headed to the lake behind my house. My particular part of it was closed off from others, but the lake was shared by all the homes surrounding it, although not open to the public. It was there that I found Lila sitting on a blanket on the slopped sand leading to the water. My other guard stood off in the grass, watching over her. She looked beautiful in a thin-strapped flowing green dress with lace detailing. It was our warm months, and I was going to enjoy seeing her smooth skin exposed. Her curly hair was out around her shoulders, and her deep toffee-toned skin seemed to sparkle in the daylight, making her look almost like one of us.
She dug her toes into the sand, leaning back on her hands as she tilted her head up toward the sky. I had to admit that a bit of relief passed through me at seeing her so relaxed and not in a battle to escape as I expected. Did that mean she finally understood her situation?
“Are you going to stand there and stare at me all day like the man in black back there, or will you talk to me?” she asked, eyes closed.
I shook my head, snapping out of my trance. “I was just checking to see if you had left us.”
She glanced up at me, lips twisted in annoyance. “As soon as I left the house, this guy followed me around like a shadow. Plus, I know you have the ward. I haven’t been able to break it. Yet. I also didn’t feel like freezing your guards if they tried to stop me.”
I heard my guard behind me cough. He was probably insulted that she assumed she would overpower him but then again, he had not seen her magic.
I smiled. “How thoughtful of you.”
She lifted a shoulder, looking away. “Well, now that you know I’m not leaving yet, you can go back to whatever you were going to do.”
“Are you dismissing me?”
