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“I want to know what you look like unleashed.”
Unable to keep the small gasp from escaping, I darted my gaze up at him again.
“Maybe that’s the once Kylorr in me though,” he added. “So yes, I think you don’t like when I look at you like this…becauseI’m looking at you in a very particular way, Marion. I always have, haven’t I?”
A memory from the market rose. Of Lorik leaning against the wall of the local apothecary shop, arms crossed over his chest. I’d caught him looking at me, but instead of being embarrassed, he’d tilted his chin up, that familiar sinful, flirtatious smile spreading across his lips. I’d been too shocked, too flustered, too excited that I’d looked away quickly.
Had that been an invitation?
Of course it’d been, you daft fool,I thought. But what had I done? I’d avoided his gaze, sold the last of my potions, packed up my supplies, and fled back to the Black Veil. Because it was familiar. It was safe.
Ever since Aysia, I’d never wanted to be in love. Love made a fool out of anyone it touched. It addled your brain; it was addicting like a drug.
More often than not, it left you brokenhearted. Or…dead.
“Tell me a secret, little witch,” he murmured in the sudden quiet. I couldn’t hear the birds or the wind or the scampering of Peek as he tried to catch a ground critter.
“You frighten me,” I told him.
He grinned again, but this time his teeth seemed sharper and his eyes gleamed in the lowering sunlight. With his sharp, proud features, he looked every bit the arrogant Allavari noble. Allavari were snobbish about bloodlines. I wondered about his…because he wasn’t a commoner—that was for certain.
“It’s probably best that I do,” he answered.
A lengthy silence passed after those words. I didn’t understand him. One moment he was telling me he wanted to see meunleashed…the next it felt like he was trying to warn me away.
The soapy water was icy in the basin, and I squeezed my fists together to get the blood flowing before I needed to start scrubbing the sheets.
“Here,” he murmured. “Allow me.”
I frowned, watching as he maneuvered himself toward me, all languid grace for someone so tall and large. When he reached the basin, he spread his palm across the surface of the water.
“What are you…?” I trailed off, my lips parting when I saw steam rise from the surface and an unseen current underwater jostle the fabric. “Lorik! Save your energy. This doesn’t matter.”
“It’s a small thing,” he replied, taking back his hand though the sheets continued to move in the basin. “Now your hands won’t be cold.”
And I realized itwasa small thing for him. I’d…I’d never seen…
It had hardlyphasedhim.
“You wouldn’t let me wash the sheets. You nearly took my head off when I asked,” he rasped, meeting my eyes. “At least allow me to warm the water for you and lessen the work.”
“I’ve never seen anyone channel their magic so quickly,” I commented, my hands hovering above the water as I knelt beside the hollow trunk. “That kind of magic is…”
Lorik leveled me a careful look. “The Allavari have lost their way. They’ve forgotten.”
“Forgotten what?” I asked, dumbfounded.
“Forgotten that magic is as natural as the air we breathe,” he told me. “This land is special, every layer of it. It’s alive. Even you have magic, Marion. It’s grown in you since you were born on Allavar. You pull it up from the ground you stand on, you fill your lungs with it in the sunlight, and you feel it drift over your skin like a silk sheet when you sleep.”
My lips parted. “I’m human. I don’t have magic. Not like the Allavari. I certainly can’t do”—I gestured to the basin—“that.”
“But you can keep all five species of glowflies successfully and befriend abraydus. Those are magical creatures, and they recognize that magic inyou. Have you ever thought it strange that they allow you so close?”
“There are people in the Healers’ Guild who keep glowflies,” I pointed out. “And I’m certainly not the first to have abraydusas a companion.”
Right?
Lorik went quiet as he studied me. Finally, he said, “Think what you wish, Marion. You say I can channel magic better than anyone you’ve seen? That’s because I understand that magic is an extension of myself, that it is rooted as deeply in me as I am in it. I understand there is balance in it. I don’t fight that. That’s something the Above world has also forgotten.”
