“I was coming to check and see if you were hungry,” he explains as his eyes dart to the hand that’s currently braced against my waist. As if he’s only now realized he’s still touching me, he drops both hands away from my body like I’m burning him. Maybe I am. His touch sears through me every time. His eyes quickly jump back up to my face and hold steady there, but I can feel the tension as if he’s fighting against letting them drift.
I clear my throat. “Yeah, let me throw on some clothes.”
He stares at me intensely for another moment before my words fully process. He offers me a quick nod before turning tail and fleeing from the room.
Way to flatter a girl.
I find the stack of clothes I left here before our trip to Fleur’s and grab a random tunic and leggings to throw on.
Walking out of the bedroom, I find Bastian standing at the kitchen counter, hands grasping the wood so tightly his knuckles are white.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yes. Fine. Everything’s fine.” Believe it or not, it doesn’t seem like everything is fine. Doesn’t he know fine is the universal word for when a girl is very muchnotfine?
“You sure?” I push.
“Yes,” he snaps.
I jerk back at the harshness of his words. “Whatever you say, sunshine,” I grumble as I drop into my chair at the table. In a blink, he has a plate dropped in front of me with roasted meat and vegetables. I nod a thanks at him because I’d much ratheravoid trying to have a conversation with him when he’s in a mood like this.
I shovel the food on my plate down, barely stopping to breathe. We didn’t have any rations for the walk so the last meal I had was a quick sandwich of breakfast meats Bastian sweet talked the innkeeper into providing before we headed out this morning.
After clearing every scrap of food on the plate, Bastian whisks it out from in front of me before I can even finish setting down my cutlery. I bristle at his attitude but simply watch as he clears everything off the table. He walks into the living room and rummages in a cedar chest pulling out a roll of parchment. He unrolls it on the now cleared table, and I quickly register that it’s a map of Alinea. The same one I snuck a look at before my run in with the boggart.
“We’re here,” he says gruffly, pointing to a spot off to the east of a village, at the edge of a forest that stretches across most of the eastern side of the land mass. “And we need to get here.” He draws his finger far south until he reaches a star marking that indicates a capital city within the more golden colored section of the map. He pops his eyes up to mine, ensuring I’m paying attention. I give him a small nod and a head tilt that I hope he understands asgo on.
It seems he does because he pulls his finger back up to where he indicated the cottage was. “We’ll follow the forest south until we hit this river,” he says as he trails the finger down, following the edge of the forest until he reaches a pale blue line that I see starts in the western mountains but flows east across the land. “We’ll then follow the river the whole way. East until we reach Shadow Lake and then south with the offshoot from the lake until we reach the confluence.” His finger continues to trace the path until it reaches the place where the mountain river meets one further south that cuts through, dividing the land. “Fromthere, we follow the big river east until we reach the bridge into Seelie lands. We’ll need to keep off the main path for the most part, but with a little glamour power we can stay the night in Pontera,” he says, indicating the marker for a little village that’s just over the bridge into Seelie. “From Pontera, it should only take about a day to get to Dawnspire.” He taps the capital marking again.
He looks up at me, indicating he’s finished. My fingers twitch and I can’t help but reach out and trace the southernmost river. “Is this the border of Seelie?” I ask, looking up at him.
“Yeah,” he nods as he grabs my hand, sending a pulse up my arm. He drags my finger up until it reaches a faint line that crosses through the forest. “And this is the Unseelie border.”
I look at the wide gap of space between the two borders. I let my finger circle over the space. “So, this is the Twilight Veil?” He nods. “It’s much larger than I thought it would be, but I guess that makes sense why the courts are fighting over it.”
“The Seelie border being a physical thing with the river makes it easy to have that demarcation. The Unseelie border is the more contentious one since it doesn’t really have the physical indicator,” he pauses a moment, “which is why the Queen is trying to push that boundary every chance she gets.”
I nod along. “I suppose that makes sense.” From the map alone I can tell that it’s likely difficult to enforce the Unseelie border against the push from the Unseelie queen. I trail my fingers over the words written in the Fae language, letting it drift to where Bastian pointed out Dawnspire. “This is where my parents live?” I ask the question as innocently as I can while trying to mask the nerves at being one more step closer to finally meeting them.
“In Summerswind Palace,” he nods. “The palace is set up on a hill so it can overlook all of Dawnspire and the other wayaround. The citizens of Dawnspire can look upon Summerswind and their royals.”
My nose scrunches. “Feels a bit gods-like doesn’t it? To put themselves on a pedestal like that for their people to literally look up to?”
He lets out a rough chuckle, melting away what remains of whatever tension had him acting like a grumpy asshole. “I suppose so. But it’s strategic for safety, especially in times of war. Being on the hill brings with it various defensive capabilities and visibility that will make it easier to defend should it come under attack.” He tilts his head as he thinks. “Come to think of it, the Unseelie castle is set up the same way.”
“What? No, it’s not. I’ve seen it,” I argue.
“It is actually. But it’s built itself into the hill in a way that it doesn’tlooklike it’s structured like that.”
I try to think back to the castle I saw when I first arrived. I remember the steps up from the garden and the terrace, but I didn’t have the chance to get much of a view of any other part. “Huh,” I say thoughtfully.
“That’s not to say that Blackdown Castle is at all superior to Summerswind. Or vice versa. Both homes have their flaws and weaknesses.”
“And what are those weaknesses?” I ask, leaning in closer to him with a smirk.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” he gives me a wink before rising from the table. He begins rolling the map in on itself. “Do you need in the bathroom before I jump in the shower?”
The mention of him in the shower sends flashes of images of damp, tanned skin through my mind. Heat climbs my cheeks and I internally scold my thoughts for falling into that scandalous rabbit hole.Again. I drop my face away from his, focusing intently on a knot in the wood, tracing it with my finger in an attempt to distract as many of my senses as possible.“Nope, all good.” I cringe at the way my voice comes out a little bit too squeaky. I can feel the heat of his gaze as he watches me, but I refuse to look his way. After a few moments, I hear his steps walk away until they fade into the bedroom and the bathroom door shuts with asnick. I let out the breath I had been holding and all the tension leeches from my body.
