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This morning, he smiled at me across the table and cocked his head. “There’s something different about you,” he commented.
My heart skipped a beat. “Good different or bad?”
“Everything about you is good, Elix,” he murmured, reaching for my hand, and I melted in his touch. “I know you’re having a difficult time coming to terms with what’s happened, but you can’t ever forget who you are.” His eyes shone with love and affection. “But you seem… I don’t know, lighter somehow.”
“I feel a bit lighter,” I agreed. “I think those runeshade pepper seeds help—even if I didn’t really buy into it when Cirilla started feeding them to me.”
“You know that the faeries in Steelshire eat the seeds every day,” he informed me, and I stifled a groan.
“I know. I keep hearing that. Aren’t they worried that the effectiveness will wear off? That they’ll build up a tolerance?”
Jace shrugged and placed his lap napkin to the left of his finished breakfast plate. “I guess not because they continue to do it.” One of the servants moved to take his plate, and he turned his attention back toward me. “What do you have planned for today?”
I grimaced slightly at the thought of what was upcoming.
“Cirilla has reenlisted the elemental faeries to help me learn to control my magic better,” I reminded him, nervousness gripping my gut at the thought.
“Right…” He hesitated. “Do they know anything about your bloodline?”
I thought of how Calandria, the Master of Water magic, had looked at me during training the previous day, but when I roused it to Cirilla, she assured me that it was my own nerves talking.
“No one knows anything. It’s all in your head,” she’d said. “Arya, Vivette, Calandria, and Santrina know only that they’re here to help you fortify your strengths. You’ll train each day with them like you did before everything went to hell. But this time, you’ll actually focus like your life depends on it. Because I think we both know it does.”
“My love?”
“Hmm?” I replied warily.
“Are you okay?”
I nodded, and he smiled, rising to attend to his day.
“Jace…” He looked back at me, and I tipped my head toward him. “Has the DNA test come back yet?”
A line formed at his mouth, and my chest tightened.
“Not yet,” he replied, leaning down to kiss me gently. “You’ll be the first to know when it does.”
I exhaled as we parted, but he cupped my face reassuringly. “Whatever happens, we’ll take it on—together. And there’s no way that Lysandra is ever going to get to you.”
I believed him.
“What are you training in today?” he asked, shifting the conversation.
“Arya is working with me this morning.”
“She’s air, right?” I felt a fission of pleasure that he had recalled.
“Yes. And Vivette is determined to get me handling a sword, so I’ll be with her this afternoon.”
“That’s a full day. Vivette is the fire master, isn’t she?”
I nodded, again impressed he’d remembered. “I think she really just wants to light up a sword,” I admitted, and Jace laughed.
“I wouldn’t want to be on the other end of that,” he chuckled, dropping another slow, deliberate kiss on my lips. “Even if I wouldn’t mind seeing it.” He kissed me again. “Dinner already seems too far away.”
There was genuine remorse as he shuffled aside, like he was reluctant to go.
“Then try to finish early, and you can come to rescue me,” I teased, patting his ass as he turned away.
