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Right in front of us is the main living space with a large L-shaped couch and a TV mounted to the wall. To the right is a kitchen with a long counter dividing the cook space from the rest of the room. There are benches pushed under the counter.
On the left is a set of open stairs that lead up to a loft space. I can’t see what’s up there from where I’m standing, only a railing that would keep anyone from falling off the side if they were up there. Everything is clean except for a glass in the sink and a sweatshirt thrown over the back of the couch. The entire place smells like Rhys, masculine and spicy.
Rhys rubs the back of his neck when I finally peel my eyes away from his apartment. There’s a hint of embarrassment in his smile. I don’t know why.
“Thanks. I…ah…it’s the first place that’s ever been mine and I wanted it to be something special.”
“It is.” I smile as I drift away from the door, realizing that Rhys is still hovering in the hallway. Just being in his space has a calming effect on me. I want to curl up on his couch and burrow into his side for hours.
He follows me inside and the door clicks shut behind him. I move straight for the art, drawn to the dark, bold colors. It’s abstract and I’m not certain what the painting is supposed to be, but it makes my heart want to burst.
“These are incredible.”
Rhys comes to stand next to me, his arm grazing mine. The look he gives me is somewhere between smug and proud. “Ruby painted that.”
I spin to look at him, my mouth hanging open. “Ruby? My… Ruby?” I was going to say my sister Ruby, but it’s so strange to say that out loud. I don’t know if I’ve fully wrapped my head around that fact yet. Not that I don’t believe it to be true, but it’s just so life changing. Like everything has been these past weeks.
“You mean, your sister?” Rhys says for me, and I fall back onto nervous habits, gnawing on the inside of my cheek.
“Ruby took me to meet Birdie.”
“How did it go?”
I sigh, turning back toward the painting. The painting that Ruby apparently created. I had no idea she was so talented.
“There’s so much I don’t know.” I didn’t intend to say those words out loud.
“Give it time. You’ll know more about us than you’ll want to soon enough.”
I smile, warmth spreading from the center of my chest out to the edges of my body. “It was sad. Our visit with Birdie. Everyone has lost so much.”
“You have as well.” Rhys shifts, and the back of his hand brushes against mine. That one little touch ripples heat through my body.
“I know, but maybe it was less cruel because I didn’t have to watch people I love get taken away from me.”
“It’s just different. Not less. It’s still a loss, but there are just different emotions that come along with your experiences.” Rhys sounds far too wise for a man his age. He’s lost things as well.
“Ruby’s mom, my mom too, from what we’ve put together, was pregnant when Ruby was just a baby. Birdie said she lost the baby, but we think her understanding of what lost meant was different than what happened. We don’t know for sure, but Birdie seems certain that I’m that child. She says she can sense it to be true, and I believe her, because I sense things too.”
Rhys’s fingers nudge the back of mine. I don’t know which one of us moves, but our fingers are laced together before I can blink. He pulls me away from the painting and toward the couch. It’s only when I sit down that I realize how tired I am of standing. Rhys settles in right next to me, his muscular thigh pressing against mine.
“What kind of things do you sense?”
Talking about my magic in Fairy could have gotten me killed, which is twisted because the Duke liked to use me to gather information in the astral plane. Drudges weren’t supposed to use magic, even if we had it. The Duke knew exactly what I could do and even though projecting wasn’t part of my magic, he used me for it anyway. What did it matter to him if I died?
“Sometimes I have premonitions. Not like visions or anything, I can’t see the future, but I’ll have a bad feeling and just know to avoid a place or person. Or, on rare occasions, I’ll have a good feeling and know I need to be in a certain place.” I shrug.
“Is that your magic, then? We should have Miri test you.” Rhys sighs as he settles back into the pillow behind him. “And me too, I guess.”
“Test how exactly?” He talked about this before, but I never asked him about it.
“She’s some kind of potion master. She’s got a concoction that can identify the type of magic we have. I haven’t let her do it yet because… I don’t know why exactly. Maybe I was waiting for you.” Rhys turns his head, a smile crooking up the corner of his mouth.
His black hair falls over his forehead, almost to his eyes. It’s unruly and the temptation to run my hands through the silky locks is hard to resist. There’s a shadow of a beard covering his jaw and I wonder how rough it would feel against my face.
The warmth that bloomed in my chest earlier grows until heat stirs much lower.
“Zara,” Rhys rasps out my name, sounding pained, but his eyes are skimming over my face and body like I just did to him. Did I look that hungry too? “I should get you back downstairs.”
