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"Iknow this has been very disconcerting," Ryze started. "I also know you'd probably be happy to cut my testicles off with a rusty knife and choke me with them."
I crossed my arms, tucking my elegant fingers under my elbows. "That's both strangely specific and eerily accurate. And totally deserved."
He grinned. "There's only one thing more arousing than a pissed off woman. That's a pissed off Fae woman."
"If I didn't know better, I'd think you did this on purpose for that very reason," I told him.
He spread out his hands. "I think you're giving my magical ability too much credit. I have skills, but they don't run to transforming women to suit my particular tastes and needs."
"And yet," I gestured to myself, "you can't tell me you're disappointed that your plan worked."
"I'm as surprised as hells it worked," he admitted. "But no, I'm not disappointed. Not because your human form was any less than this. Although this," he ogled me up and down, "is very impressive."
He chuckled when I rolled my eyes. I’d been doing a lot of that lately.
"I'm not disappointed because it happened here, where we need you. The bond is, of course, an additional bonus. One I suspect would have happened either way."
"With this Cavan?" I lowered my arms. "Or are you trying to say you think I would have formed a bond with you either way?"
He grimaced. "Gods, not with Cavan. Not with anyone there."
"Is there any chance you're biased and they're not as bad as you make them out to be?" I suggested.
"I've considered that, but every time I interact with anyone from the Summer Court, they confirm their status as assholes." He shrugged. "Now, pissed off with me or not, you need to learn how to use magic. Presuming you can use it at all."
"If I can't, then all of this was a waste of time?" Wouldn't that be ironic?
"Not a waste of time," he said. "We got to meet you."
"And vice versa, so it might have been worse than a waste of time," I said, my tone icy.
He winced, but didn't stop smiling. "Ouch. Consider me eviscerated. Now, try to pull this water towards you." He waved toward a bowl on the table beside us. "Think about it coming to you like you might gesture to a person. You don't need the gesture, just the intention."
I put out my hand and thought about the water coming to me. I fully expected nothing to happen. Instead, the water immediately rose and threw itself at me, drenching my hand and dripping off my sleeve and the side of my shirt and pants.
"It doesn't surprise me at all to see how irresistible you are, even to water." He grinned.
The next gesture I gave was a rude one, aimed at him.
He refilled the bowl from a jug and gave me a smug smile. "Try again but with less…" He frowned, trying to think up the right word.
"Irresistibility?" I suggested.
"I was going to say forcefulness, but that works too. Think of the water like smoke. You want it to come to you slowly. To the palm of your hand. Then see if you can make it colder."
I shook the moisture off my arm and focused on the bowl again. More gently this time.
It lifted up out of the bowl and through the air in a trickle. The moment it touched my palm, it froze. Every drop on my hand and sleeve became ice.
"Fuck." I thought warm thoughts and shook my hand, before tucking it into my armpit to thaw it out. "Is this where you tell me there’s a risk of frostbite from doing this?"
"There is a low risk," he agreed. "And all the more reason to be here and not the Summer Court. If you were there, you might have set yourself on fire."
"Because this is so much better," I said sarcastically. I pulled out my hand and inspected it. My skin was tinged blue from the cold. "What would have happened in the Spring or Autumn Courts?"
"Much the same, but less extreme," he said. "In the Spring Court, you might have set yourself on fire, but then extinguished yourself."
"Why couldn't I have ended up there?" I asked myself.
