AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She trailed the sound of his voice, and when Renton tugged back heavy curtains from an open window, faint light from the streetlamp revealed the cozy interior of his bedroom. It was as if the villa had accommodated their individual tastes. Her own room had changed to include a beautiful sun-shaped gilded mirror and paintings of Aranma’s sweeping landscape. The cotton sheets had also been swapped out to cool silks in vibrant colors. She sweated in everything else.
Renton’s room was carved from natural elements. Two dark wood chairs draped in furs were positioned before a dominating stone fireplace. Atop its chunky mantle, a glass orb swirled with curious insects. They pulsed a soothing blue like water reflecting against cave walls.
“Somehow, they discovered my love for tree lights.” Renton nodded at the little dancing lights. He fetched two horn mugs from a cabinet in the small kitchen lining the wall opposite of his massive, low-sitting bed.
“From Hathrowyn?” Tenah asked, accepting the mug he’d filled with wine.
She’d read much about the world. Obsessed over it, really. But visualizing things—giving shape to the words she’d consumed—was tricky when she’d spent much of her childhood locked away behind toxic walls and dense forest.
She knew that Hathrowyn’s trees shed some of their leaves each night to give light to its suspended, winding streets. By dawn, the lights unfurled back into leaves.
Her eyes roved over the assortment of junk strewn across a hefty wooden table beside his quaint kitchen. The innards of mechanical devices laid out in the middle of metal and leather scraps, tools, springs, and gears.
“Do I even want to know?” she asked, hiding her smile behind a sip of wine.
Renton perched on the corner of the table and swigged at his own drink. “I’ve been helping Fen with inventions. Turns out we’ve got a lot in common. I used to tinker with stuff back in Hathrowyn during my downtime.”
“So you do have skills beyond hunting and killing?”
His smile grew. “I have many hidden talents.”
Her pulse leaped under her skin. Was it the wine heating her blood or the shadow male she shared a private space with?
Avoiding truths as she did best, Tenah stepped out onto his balcony and hoisted herself up to sit on the stone railing. She sensed his presence and couldn’t help but soak him in as he rested against the railing.
It was easy to appreciate him when he wasn’t staring back at her with his mind-melting intensity. His straight profile, the ghost of a roguish smile on his face, the beautiful pale hair half-tied back to reveal his strong jaw, and the cut of his powerful form under a fitted, green shirt as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Renton’s guard was low this evening, allowing a rare glimpse of his unfathomably gentle soul. Her stomach flipped when his sharp eyes cut to her.
“What happened in the Ruzgorn camp?” he asked.
She rested her chin on her shoulder, the words stuck in her mouth like tacks.
Slowly, he moved between her dangling legs. His hands coasted up her thighs. It was enough contact to shock her heart and loosen her tongue.
“So much about me is…wrong. That rift is going to hurt a lot of shadows.” Her chin drooped.
Not to mention the countless others she’d torn open for the death king.
Renton took her face in his hand and lifted it back up to meet his gaze. “Keep talking, Tenah. Please let me in.”
She shook her head, breaking his hold. Where did she even begin? How could she explain the extent of her concerns over the memory of her cousin? She’d hurt him before. Probably hurt others. The death king, he’d called her…he’d called her a murderer. Could it be true? How many horrors hid in her mind?
Renton dropped his hands to her waist, his thumbs caressing the bare skin where her cropped shirt ended. “I’m tempted to persuade the words from you in other ways.”
She shivered, blood rushing to her cheeks and between her legs. “I can’t concentrate on anything when you speak like that.”
He didn’t budge.Such patience. It was almost infuriating. As much as she was curious about his persuasion tactics, she was also afraid of them. Her heart was rapidly learning how to incorporate him, knitting deep into the muscle. And she just couldn’t have that.
“What is the temple?” he asked, dipping a thumb below the waistband of her skirt. Goosebumps formed where he touched.
A shiver rolled through her. “I don’t know, but I think it might hold answers. That or it’s a trap laid by Chaos. Every time I enter, something bad happens.”
“The rift in the field. Did you try to enter the temple then?”
“Yes.” She kneaded her hands in her lap. “When my father’s magic struck me down, I found myself in that same place.”
No way would she divulge the bargain she’d struck there.
