Page 14 of Cold Hearted
We were pressed close enough together that I felt his body go rigid, his back muscles tensing.
Zander shook his head. “I don’t know.”
I didn’t believe him. He was hiding something. I had a feeling this hadn’t been an isolated incident.
“You realize with my hands bound together like that, I could have died,” I snarled.
“You seemed to be holding your own.”
“I already told you I can protect myself, but that doesn’t negate the fact that having my hands bound together during a fight puts me at a severe disadvantage. Especially if you think this kind of thing might happen again.”
Zander fell silent, then after a few moments said, “All right. I won’t reattach them.”
I knew it. He thought this could happen again.
“That was some pretty impressive sunlight power you showed back there. What other magic do you wield?” he asked calmly.Too calmly.
My internal alarms started to sound. Every seelie had magic to some extent. But only royals in my world had such power over the elements as I’d just demonstrated. Was it the same here? Did he suspect me? Had he noticed the sunstone in the hilt of my dagger?
We always assumed the Ethereum fae were in the dark about Faerie. Our worlds had been separated for thousands and thousands of years. But was it possible the creators who built Ethereum so long ago had left extensive information about us for their descendants? Would they know the powers royals possessed? Was it possible that Ethereum citizens knew more about Faerie than we thought?
I shook my head. I was being silly. Perhaps one of the lords had some limited knowledge of us or our realm. After all, we’d been traveling to their land and assassinating them one by one for as long as their world existed, but I didn’t think they would know intricate details of our land and people.
What I needed to focus on was finding out how Zander was related to the Northern lord. He was a black bleeder. That meant he was royalty as far as Ethereum was concerned. When I killed the Northern lord, he could be next in line to the throne. Now that we were out of the heat of the moment, the glee I felt when I found out he was a royal started to melt into fear. I was currently holding on to the waist of an heir to an Ethereum throne. My mortal enemy. But he wasn’t like the monster I’d been told the lords were. Maybe that didn’t happen until he took the throne. I had seen a darkness come over him when he’d fought back there. Maybe the beast was waiting just below the surface.
“I have powers that would blow your mind.”Literally.“If you take off these cuffs I’ll show you,” I taunted playfully, hoping it would ease his mind about me.
His body relaxed a fraction, and he glanced back at me with a smirk. “As I already mentioned a great many times, when you stop intending harm to me, they’ll fall off.” His gaze slid down the limited amount of my body that he could see from his position in front of me, then back up again before settling on my face. “But I won’t deny that it would be my great pleasure to see whateverotherparts of you that you desire to show me.”
Warmth settled low in my gut at the suggestive twinkle in his eye and tone of his voice, reminding me he’d probably already seen more than I was willing to show him because of his trick with the bath last night.I had no doubt this fae was quite the womanizer, but I had no intention of revealing the effect he had on me.
“What I desire now is for you to become intimate…” I lowered my voice into a whisper and Zander’s brows rose as he waited for me to finish my thought. I leaned closer so I could whisper the next words directly into his ear. “… with the end of my blade.”
I might not be skilled at seduction, but coming up with clever ways to threaten this fae came easily to me. Interestingly enough, I expected the cuffs to squeeze my wrists, but they didn’t, which made me frown. Did I not want to see him dead anymore? When did that happen?
Zander let out a deep bellow of laughter and turned back to the road. “I don’t doubt for a second, little bird, that that is your deepest desire.”
I grinned, and was I imagining it or did these cuffs just get looser?
Chapter 5
We’d been riding for hours, long enough that the sun had risen and traveled well across the sky. My butt was sore, and we were riding in the thickest part of the woods, off the main road. I was getting the distinct impression that Zander was running from trouble. Those fae in our room were after him specifically. Why, I didn’t know, but wanted to. Any time I asked him about it again, he just said it was none of my business and reminded me that I was still his prisoner.
“How do you feel about camping?” Zander asked.
I physically revolted, my entire body flinching against him.Camping.Lying on the ground outside. I was a princess. Was he insane?
“I think it’s for the destitute and vagrants.” I tipped my chin up high. “I will pay for our room at the next inn if money is a prob—”
He scoffed. “I have coin. But I think we would be safer to stay off the beaten path.”
I sighed. “Because those fae are after you?”
He growled. “Obviously. You saw it.”
“Butwhy?” I shot back for the tenth time. “And who are they?”
He yanked the reins on the horse, and I nearly fell off the back when the stallion skidded to a sudden stop. Twisting, Zander looked down at me from beneath his long dark eyelashes.
