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He held her gaze in a way that unsettled her. “There’s more crossover than you might think. More liaisons between the Seelie and Unseelie than you can imagine. It’s secret on the rose side, considered shameful, but not so much on the black.”
She licked her lips and fiercely examined the fabric of the blanket covering the bed. If what Ronan said was right, they’d been fed a pack of lies about the supposed flip side of the fae coin. Even if it was possible that many more Seelie were in a predicament like hers and Aislinn’s, she still wished she could shake her attraction to the dark.
Just as she wished she could shake her attraction to Ronan.
Mastering her emotions so they didn’t show on her face, she commented, “Maybe one day I’ll see it, the Black Tower, I mean.”
“No.” Ronan shook his head and pulled his shirt back over it. For a moment Bella mourned the loss of his bare chest. “It’s not as bad as you think, Bella, but if I have anything to say about it, you’ll never find out firsthand.”
She glanced up at him. “Why? Don’t you think I can handle it?”
“You can handle anything, but the Black Tower is too dangerous for someone who hasn’t grown up there.”
“So what’s with being so protective of me?”
“You haven’t figured it out yet, Bell?”
Their gazes held for a moment, until she broke away and scooted off the mattress. “I’m going to use the bathroom.”
She inched around the bed and went directly into the bathroom to wash her face and shed as much clothing as she could to sleep better. When she exited, Ronan was on the floor, lying wedged on his side between the bed and the wall. She wasn’t going to think for a minute about how uncomfortable he must be. He’d been the one to get himself into this situation, after all, not her.
Bella crawled onto the bed and lay down with a heavy sigh.
She wasn’t going to think about what this bed was normally used for, either.
SIX
The light snicked out in the quiet air and the room sank into inkiness. Outside the window, fat snowflakes had begun to drift down again, catching and melting on the metal of the fire escape. Tomorrow night was Yule, and all the fae in Piefferburg were celebrating the coming of the longest night of the year. The day after Yule the light would begin to increase and rule the world once again.
“Why did you do it?” she asked, her voice startling in the quiet. “The job for the Phaendir? I know you won’t tell me what you stole for them, but can you tell me why you did it?”
Silence.
“Ronan?”
“Sometimes you guide your life down a path where it seems like you have nothing to lose, so why not?”
“That’s not really an answer.” She sighed. “You’re the king of non-answers and games.”
He rema
ined silent for several moments before saying, “It is an answer. You’re just not listening closely enough.”
Rolling to her side, she sighed again. “Ronan, you’re a mystery to me. There was a time in our lives when I thought I knew everything about you, but now you’re nothing but an enigma.”
“You always did like puzzles.”
“Ugh. Go to sleep.” Bella flopped onto her back, closed her eyes, and tried to follow her own advice, but her muscles were tight with stress.
On top of it, every couple of seconds she would hear Ronan shift on the floor, trying to get comfortable.
“Ronan, get into bed. There’s no sense in you being down there when this bed could fit three people.” She winced, wondering how many times the bed really had fit three people.
He crawled onto the bed. “I thought you’d never ask,” he said on a groan as he lay down.
“Just remember it’s an invitation to get into bed, not into me.”
“I value my balls. I know better than to try anything with you right now.”
