He glanced down at me, a lazy smile on his lips and the barest of dimples in his cheeks. Why’d he have to have dimples? He was cute enough already, but this just set me right over the edge. I wanted to be annoyed, but now it was an act.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize. How can I make it up to you?”
And he was nice. Cute, in a respectable position, and he had manners. No wonder everyone liked him, but I wasn’t going to be one of his little followers. I jutted out my chin. “No need. I just wanted you to know before I started to bruise.”
Ivan slapped his chest, looking crestfallen. “Ah, now I feel bad. I must make it up to you, or I’ll never get over it for the rest of my life. On my death bed, it will become my greatest regret. Family and friends will surround me and ask me what I want most and I’ll say, ‘to apologize properly to that beautiful faerie with magnetic eyes who I carelessly bumped into.’ And then I’ll die, carrying that regret to the after-world.”
I chuckled, shaking my head. “You are absolutely ridiculous, you know that, right?”
He leaned against the bar, fully disengaged from his friends behind him. Maybe I might have been a little pleased with the full attention I was receiving. “I get that way when I see someone who makes me nervous,” he replied.
I cocked a brow. “I make you nervous?”
He nodded, still with that adorable grin. My heart squeezed as we locked eyes, for a moment both of us devoid of words but full of some unspoken chemistry that I could never describe. It was as if everything around us had paused, no sound, noother scents, no one else. This was beyond an alpha and omega connection. This was us.
My wine arrived to break our trance, and Ivan immediately straightened up. “Let me pay for that,” he stated, pulling out some money from his pouch.
“No, Ivan, you don’t need to.”
“I insist for all the trouble I caused so I won’t live with regret.” He paid the bartender. “Also, you know my name?”
I stilled. Darn it, he wasn’t supposed to know I knew him. I had to play it off. “Uh, yeah, we’re both in the military. You’re in a different regiment than mine, but I think you’ve trained my unit once.”
He considered me as he rubbed his chin. “Well, how lucky am I that Evenbright noticed me?”
I shifted in my stance, placing a hand on my hip. This was starting to get suspicious. “Wait, you know who I am?”
“I’ve seen you around a time or two.”
I looked around the bar, thoughts running through my mind. Had he really noticed me with all his admirers in his face? Should I be flattered? Wait. “Did you bump into me on purpose to get my attention?”
He leaned back, eyes wide with mock shock. “Who me? No.” He nodded his head despite his verbal answer.
I giggled in spite of myself. He was a charming one. “Is that how you pull the attention of females? I’m guessing it works for you.”
“The question is, did it work on you? Because I would love to take you out to dinner.”
He had heartbreaker written all over him. I was not going to be that kind of victim. I grabbed my carafe and turned to leave. “Not this time. Thank you for the wine.”
“Evenbright!” he called. I turned slightly to him, and he had the audacity to not look phased in the slightest by my rejection. “I will wear you down.”
And that adorable dragon did just that. Until he broke my heart. Exactly what I feared he would do.
***
The next morning, I made the dreaded drive to see a local Nodoorian leader. Since the ending of the war, the Prinaths, the true winners, had insisted on blending our two kingdoms to erase the divide. We were forced into marriages but also allowed to work in each other’s communities and live. I suspected one day in the far future, the Prinaths would rename Nodoorian territories. We could pretend to be combined, but the truth was, Nodoor was being subsumed.
Not that I cared. I no longer had any loyalty to my home and enjoyed the place I’d made my own. As I drove my hover transport to my destination, I allowed my mind a moment’s peace. I looked around at the city streets bustling with life. I’d moved close to the bar when I came here, enchanted by the clean, sparkling onyx roads, brightly colored establishments and houses wrapped in flora, and holographic images filled with advertisements and positive messages popping up here and there. Even the weather seemed a tad warmer here, the sun brighter.
Recently, I’d gotten permission to visit the human realm and marveled at how our realm was so close yet different in minor, yet impactful ways. I’d heard we had similar advances except our world worked with our environment through magic, instead of the pollution I was dismayed to experience in the human realm. I wasn’t sure who came up with the advances first, whether thehumans had copied us and called it their inventions or whether we were inspired by them.
I left the city to the more suburban, less populated area. More vegetation surrounded me with tall, thin colorful trees and flowers as tall as me lining the roads. Despite the colder temperatures, we were still blessed with crops and vibrant plant-life. One day I would own a house outside the city. Maybe near a lake or even a pond would do. With a garden.
The house I was visiting had none of that. It was a basic two-story white structure with a rustic-colored roof. It wasn’t ugly, but it was not inspiring, surrounded by other similar looking homes and an end road wrapped by trees. I parked, got out, and knocked on the door. I was greeted by a caretaker who escorted me to a sitting room off from the entrance area. She offered me a beverage, but I didn’t want a thing to drink. This was not going to be a fun conversation, and I just wanted to get in and get out.
“What the hell happened, Ms. Evenbright?” came a thin male voice that felt like ice freezing my spine.
I turned to find Jullian Brittlewood standing at the entrance of his room, arms crossed. He was an older fae with sharp features etched in wrinkles around his yellow cat-like eyes and forehead. His pinched mouth was set in an ever-present frown on his pale face, which was framed by short stark white hair. The Nodoorian council member walked into the room and sat down in a leather chair near his fireplace. He was dressed in a dark suit; I’d never seen him in anything else.
