Page 44 of Taken By Shadows

It didn’t seem to be a negotiation. Not at all.

“I don’t understand? You want me to defend myself? After you’ve kidnapped me and kept me as your prisoner? You want me to learn how to beat you?” I couldn’t deny that I wanted that. In fact, I was a little agog at the suggestion. But I didn’t let him see that. Maybe if I’d had more training in the meadow that first day, I wouldn’t be in this mess now.

He sniffed like he was trying to swallow a laugh. “Trust me. You couldn’t beat me. Not fairly anyway.” He looked up from under the damp strands of hair that had fallen to his eyes.

“Who said I’d play fair?” I allowed my lips to curl around the words. His eyes tracked the movement.

Silence clung to the steamy air as it vibrated around us.

Kaed made to leave, but I scrambled to block the door. “Stop. Wait. You’re making no sense. You don’t care about me, not really. Only about what I can give you. Why do you want me to do this? I can defend myself already.” I wanted what he was offering, but I knew it would come at some sort of price. Of course I wanted to learn from someone like Denora; a sentinel. But the instinct to fight him, to push back when he said anything, stuck in me like brambles in a berry bush.

“Clearly. That’s how you ended up captured. Twice.” He leaned in. “In one day.”

“You’re incorrigible.”

“And you”—his head leaned even closer until his scent engulfed me—“are starting lessons.”

“Why?” Couldn’t he just give me a straight answer?

“Simple.” He straightened to his full height and pushed his hair back with a ringed hand. “I’m protecting my investment.”

“You’re a bastard.” But he’s already pushed past me.

“So you keep telling me, peach.”

I reached for and threw the nearest bar of soap at him, and it skittered across the marble hallway beyond the bathing chamber.

I missed. By a long way.

Maybe Denora could work on my aim at the very least.

Chapter fourteen

After Kaed had barged into the bathing chamber, I had trouble focusing my thoughts away from him. That male needed boundaries. Or at least someone to show him where they began. And if he didn’t understand boundaries, I didn’t trust his word on bargains.

He acted like no one ever told him no or denied him anything.

A twisted part of me had enjoyed landing a slap to that angular jaw. Watching his eyes flare afterward was like being held beneath fire. And I somewhat enjoyed the flames that had licked at me.

But maybe more, I enjoyed watching him restrain himself before me.

There was a quiet power in that. And in the way his eyes had trailed me as I’d dripped over the bathing chamber floor, only a towel around me. Had he bargained for his temptations to take root? It was to my advantage, regardless of whether he was pleased or displeased, that his eyes lingered on me.

I needed space from this “not-palace.” I donned the simple clothes that had been left for me while mine were still being cleaned. I wasn’t trying to sneak off exactly. I just didn’t want to have to explain anything to anyone. Least of all Kaed. Not after he’d ambushed me like that.

A walk in the cool night air would be just what I needed. However, the house hadn’t slept until late, and now it was some grey hour of the middle morning. The sun hadn’t risen, but it wasn’t full, inky night. It was that strange time between waking and sleeping, where everything was still hushed with the blanket of dreams.

This excursion beyond the pale walls of the Alabaster Palace was partly to understand where I’d been taken to, and partly, I was just awake and alive with curiosity.

Eventually, the footfalls of servants around the house faded as sleep took them one by one. I wasn’t sure whether Denora or Gavrin even stayed here. The house was enormous; perhaps they had rooms here.

To my utter shock, the door was no longer magically locked, and I found my way out onto the streets of Viverna, the warm fae orbs lighting the way.

My feet made no sound as they skimmed the polished streets. After long hours circling my cage, my muscles welcomed the use. My body enjoyed the freedom to move.

Sleeping streets and lazy lanterns were my companions at this hour of the morning. A few early notes of birdsong rang out overhead.

A purple-ish sky hung over me as I meandered the streets, so grand and different from the muddy trails of Shadowfall. Trees lined the avenues, hemmed in by circles of cobblestones.