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Bright and I followed him into the room where he’d taken my measurements the last time. At his command, I stripped. My face heated as I looked down at myself.
Yeah,everythingwas too tight. Scanties included.
“This will only take a moment,” Reo said absentmindedly, as he started measuring my different parts. I fixed my gaze on one of the lights moving lazily through the room, and for the first time since I’d been in Jirev, I wondered what they were made of.
“Where do the lights come from?” I asked him, as he finished up his measurements.
He held up a finger, going back to the wall and scribbling some things down. When he returned, he said simply, “We call them glow bugs. In the language of the lost gods, they’re namedhuvin.” He held a hand out toward the creature.
After a moment, the bug descended slowly. Finally, it landed on his palm.
I stepped closer, eyes widening in fascination as I looked at it. We didn’t have a human equivalent for it, but it was big and round, with a bit of fuzz on its body and two teeny antennae. Its entire body glowed, and seemed to brighten as he held it.
“What makes them glow?”
“They feed on our magic,” he explained.
I blinked, resisting the urge to jerk away from the creature.
Reo’s lips curved upward again, and he lifted my dress off the floor before he handed it back to me. “It doesn’t hurt. The amount of magic they can take is so minute you won’t even feel it. Quite handy to have around though, hmm?”
“Definitely.” I tugged my dress back over my head. “Thank you for doing this. I should be able to get by with three more dresses, since I’m not sure if I’m finished growing or not.”
He nodded, and we started walking toward the exit. “What colors?”
“Whatever you have that matches the flowers outside.”
He assured me that wouldn’t be a problem, and I headed out.
As I slipped onto Bright’s back, I asked her,“Do you know where we could go to talk to someone with a farm? I’d like to be able to use my magic to grow food for the kingdom, if they’re interested in my help.”
“Of course.”She headed down a bridge I hadn’t crossed before, one just as covered in flowers and vines as the last one we’d walked.“It’ll be good for you to find your own place here, in case Kierden ends up being a worse man than I think he is.”
“You have a lot of faith in him,”I grumbled at her.
She chuffed.“I have a lot of faith in the power of mate bonds.”
I supposed that was good enough reasoning.
Chapter15
Nissa
The pain in the handprint on my wrist grew fiercer as Bright carried me to the farm. It was on the ground, at the base of the town-sized tree the castle was built into. There was another farm in the treetops too, according to Reo, but it was on the far end of the city. That was too far from Kierden, so I knew it wasn’t a possibility for me.
I ignored the stabbing pain as my gaze moved over the many rows of crops in awe. I’d helped my dad in the fields as a kid, so standing in front of them again felt a lot like coming home.
My town had been a mess of fruit and vegetable plants, all of which had been allowed to grow wildly and without reason so long as they produced something edible or sellable. In Jirev, even with my magic making everything grow better, they were still being kept neat and orderly.
I’d planned to walk out to the middle of the fields and sit down for a while, taking the time to try to figure out how to control my magic again. Staring out at the plants, I was no longer sure I could make my way out there without messing up any of the crops. And I really didn’t want to piss off the farmer, so…
Guess we were staying near the castle.
Bright plopped down and closed her eyes, readying herself for a nap.
I noticed a wide door built into the tree’s trunk and figured it must be the house of whoever the farmer was, so I walked up and knocked.
After a long moment, the door opened.
