Thiswas how Sean had imagined love would feel before he’d met Isobel Faywood and realized how wrong he’d been. From Bel, he’d learned love was more like a prison than freedom. It was uncertainty and regret. It was a glass of water that sat just out of reach on a blistering hot day—the perpetual want of something more.
But this…
This was the key to his cage.
And it didn’t even belong to him.
Cathaire was speaking, but Sean had missed it all. Instead, his gaze tracked Anna as she hurried to the supplies table, ripping off her guards in the process. With one last glance in his direction, she disappeared into the milling crowds.
“Ashanta?” a voice floated to him from outside his awareness.
Sean turned to Cathaire, dazed.
“Is something wrong?”
A barricade of ice formed across Sean’s astonishment, and he blanked his expression. “Of course not.”
Cathaire contemplated the place Anna had disappeared, then studied him. “I understand she has found herself a goldenkeila?”
Sean forced his mouth into a crooked smile. “You figured it out, huh?”
The Blademaster gazed at him for a time, thoughtful. “I discover much by simply watching.” He stepped closer and lowered his voice. “Perhaps it would be wise to consider that I am not the only one watching.”
Sean said nothing, did nothing. He could barely breathe.
“Pixies can always tell,” he said. “Remember that.”
CHAPTER 37
ANNA
Anna stared at David’s closed bedroom door, knock unanswered, wondering what she’d done wrong. He’d been fine until this morning, and the change was abrupt, hardly detectable beneath the ice, but clearlysomethinghad happened. When she’d woken in his bed, he’d been distant. She chalked that up to a poor night’s sleep—he’d tossed about all night—but now she wondered if it was something more.
She tried one last time, her fingernail tapping lightly against the wood. “David? It’s me. Are you okay?”
She waited a moment, but no answer came. Maybe he wasn’t in there.
Giving up, she made her way back to the living areas. She hadn’t slept in her own bed in weeks. Maddy would be thrilled. Anna turned toward the door but paused in the doorway of David’s favorite sitting room.
Sean sat alone in the middle of the sofa, nursing a glass of wine. Behind him, the windows showed a gentle snow had begun to fall, Luster flashing in each flake, making the sky a canvas of silver glitter.
His troubled gaze lifted to her, and fluttersof agitation and confusion sprinkled like confetti over his emotions. Heat scalded her cheeks as she remembered the way his touch had pierced through her pixie network with spikes of unadulterated pleasure, unlike anything she’d ever experienced. She’d felt almost drugged by it, drawn in by an overwhelming sense of rightness, ofhome.
Ignoring it, Anna pointed down the hall. “Do you happen to know what’s wrong with him?”
After a sip of wine, Sean shook his head. “Haven’t seen much of him today.”
She glanced back toward David’s bedroom. “It’s strange, right?”
He shrugged and set his glass down. His body lengthened in a lazy stretch before he stood. “Did something happen?”
Anna cast her thoughts back to the previous night, and fire spread through her veins.
Open your legs.
Look at me.
You’re a masterpiece.
