“Was that a learned trait?”
I laughed. “Oh no, my aunt is anything but optimistic, and while my uncle isn’t as pessimistic as her, he’s more of a realist, I suppose. My endless optimism is for me and me alone. I was definitely born this way.”
Kole’s lips curved, ever so slightly, and a streak of triumph bolted through me that I’d made him smileagain. “So your ball of positive energy is innate?”
“It is. And what about you? Would you say you’re an optimist?” He gave me a flat look, and I couldn’t help but laugh again. “I take it, that’s a no?”
“I’m positive if there’s a reason to be,” he said dryly.
“But that reason doesn’t present itself often?”
“I imagine I would align more with your uncle. I would consider myself a realist versus an optimist. In my line of work...” He shrugged. “It’s not always pretty. Optimism can be hard to hold onto.”
My pulse thrummed, and I asked cautiously, “Have you been an Imperial Warrior for long?”
“Going on thirty summers, but I’m still considered one of the new ones.”
A smile spread on my lips that he’d readily offered that much personal information, and I decided to try for another tidbit. “So which kingdom were you born in?”
I waited for him to say Faewood, since I knew he had an airelement, but he glanced ahead and said slowly, almost cautiously, “I wasn’t born on the Silten continent. My parents moved around the realm a lot when I was a kid.”
My head cocked in surprise. “Yet, you have Faewood magic?”
“I do.”
“That’s interesting.” Normally, the land’s magic was what imbued Silten fae with their abilities, but it wasn’t impossible for a Silten fairy to acquire another kingdom’s magic, as I had, even if they hadn’t been born upon that land.
I figured that was what had happened to Kole, even if his parents were overseas. “In that case, where were you born? If not on our continent?”
He opened his mouth to reply, and my stomach dipped at learning such an intimate detail about the stoic warrior, but a sound ahead snagged his attention.
Kole growled, and his aura spiked.
I followed his gaze, and my eyes popped, because lining the road just ahead of us were six fae, standing shoulder to shoulder, blocking the Wood’s road.
And they all held weapons.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Stars Above. This doesn’t look good,” I whispered as anxiety churned within me.
I frantically assessed the Wood more, looking for a way to avoid the group we were quickly approaching, but the canopy above was thick and woven so tightly together that we wouldn’t be able to fly over them.
“What are we going to do?”
Kole’s attention stayed on the males. “Let me handle this.”
Our carpet was nearly upon them, and the six males widened their stances. All of them smiled menacingly. My stomach dropped even more. Their sinister grins were as sharp as the blades in their hands.
When only ten yards separated us, Kole commanded the enchanted carpet to careen to a halt. The supplies behind us heaved in protest, but their magical bands held, and we hovered silently.
Kole scanned the trees around us, his nostrils flaring as he scented the wind. Even the Wood had grown eerily quiet.
I did the same, but instead of smelling for more fae, I released a stream of magic and sought additional lifeforms around us. But no siltenite consciousnesses pulsed back to me, only nervous wildlings and other woodland creatures that remained hidden and still.
“It’s just the six of them,” I said under my breath to the warrior, then sucked my magic back inside me. “No other fae are lurking about.”
Kole glanced at me, but he didn’t question how I could know that. “Stay here.”
