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“You’d rather I pretend to be a voiceless fantasy you can fuck?” He was too close to her, her silk bodice close to his chest, and he chastised himself for imagining running his hands up her sides to feel the slick fabric, her curves under his palms.
Her mouth dropped as her cheeks reddened. “How awful of you. I would never–”
“Except for in your dreams.” He liked the red of her cheeks, and his body tingled, flaring to life, thinking all the ways he would explore that blush, incite it further. But he was as irritated as he was turned on.
Brinna crossed her arms over her chest once more and looked away, cutting off the connection. “Take me back.”
“Fine,” he snapped, grasping her arms. “That’s what you want?” The room faded to gold, then flashed white before the dark forest materialized around them.
It should have been easy to leave her there—she’d asked for it—and it would eliminate the temptation of her being so close. But it wasn’t. She’d be in danger. He’d never been able to leave her knowing danger lurked. And besides, the thought of leaving her tugged on his chest like threads pulled taut, as if she’d cast a line and snared him. As much as he was a solitary creature, he hadn’t wanted to bring her back to the forest—a realization that confused him as much as it irked him.
Brinna rustled her fancy skirt, running her hands over the fabric as if to press out any wrinkles. Straightening her bare shoulders, she wrapped her arms around herself, then shivered. Luc remembered her cloak was still draped over the edge of the chair where she’d set it.
“Thank you.” She wouldn’t look at him.
Even though he wasn’t supposed to, Luc extended his golden glow to bring her inside a bubble of warmth and light. “Brinna.”
“I can see myself home.” She turned and walked away, her boots crunching through the woods, leaving him and the warm light behind.
“Brinna,” he called, his ire cooling rapidly. Those strings tugging on his heart pulled harder as he her watched walk away.
She ignored him. When she was nearly swallowed by the darkness, she hesitated.
He could hear her breath whipping through her in short gasps. When a crashing sound cut through the dark forest, followed by a screech, she jumped.
His anger—gone now—had refined into a different feeling, something more patient and compassionate, leaving him to contend with its unfamiliarity, but also something more fearful. He knew he couldn’t —wouldn’t— leave her there. “Brinna,” he repeated, quietly, hoping she would come willingly.
She turned, shivering, and snapped, “You couldn’t have whisked me to the cottage?”
He shook his head, unprovoked by her hostility. “I can’t find it. Only Aurielle has ever led Nix there.” Brinna had led him there. Once. He paused, and she faced the forest once more, her back to him. His gaze caught on the softness of her neck, the tendrils curling around her pale skin, and he had the urge to go to her and gather her in his arms, offer her comfort. But he didn’t. “Brinna? Please give me some time to take care of the darkling. Then I’ll bring you back, I promise.”
Still, she remained where she was. “Everything looks the same.”
He glanced out at the forest, sensing something in the darkness, and cast a brighter light, reaching out further to make sure Brinna was inside the boundary. He could raise the sun, but it was too soon. “Will you return with me? Where it’s warmer.” He sighed. “I’m sorry for getting angry–”
She whirled around. “Because I’m just an obligation, right?”
Luc straightened and finally recognized the words he’d spoken the night he kissed her as they’d danced. Recognized the lie. He’d hurt her, he realized. He shook his head. “It was wrong to say.”
“But still the truth,” she said, her back to him once more, and Luc wondered if there was more to it than just this careless lie. She hugged herself, rubbing her arms. “How long will it take? Taking care of the darkling?”
He didn’t know, so he didn’t say. “I’d like to get you somewhere safe. We can talk about this there.”
With a sigh, Brinna turned back. “Fine.”
Rather than giving her time to change her mind, Luc closed the distance and held out his hand. For a beat she just stared at it, but then placed her hand in his. The moment Luc pulled them into the portal, another ghastly screech sounded—closer—as they left the forest behind.
Returning to Sol was strange. While it served as his god-seat, he hadn’t spent much time there, at least not until his father had sequestered him. Prior to that, Luc’s use of Sol had been as a stopping off place between Roaming, trying to free Nix, and whatever else he could find to occupy his time. But since being forced to stay, he’d had to come to terms with being alone with his thoughts, alone with himself. Which was torture.
And yet, seeing Brinna in danger, where to take her, he hadn’t hesitated. Sol had called to him then as much as it did now as it materialized around them. Only now, he was returning with someone and wouldn’t scurry off again, and that filled him with a feeling he couldn’t name and decided it was best he didn’t try.
Somewhere between Brinna taking his hand in the woods and the return, Luc had her in his arms. The proximity of her had him remembering her earlier actions, her unfettered and unabashed belief that they’d been immersed in a fantasy inside her mind, which resumed playing like a fevered dream in his own. Even with fabric layers between them, he thought about her hands on him, and his pulse quickened, her brazen look and words effervescing like warm sunshine in his bloodstream. Recalling the way she’d removed her cloak lit a fire at the base of his spine.
He frowned at an ache that compressed his heart. Nope. Nope. A blight.
Brinna opened her eyes, glancing at him quickly before looking away. “Oh.” She jerked out of his embrace and took another step away. “I don’t…”
His heart stalled and pinched as he studied her. He’d seen beauty, a feat impossible to forgo when Roaming. But he couldn’t remember the sensation of his body feeling both lost and found because of it.
