Page 77 of Autumn Queens & Shadows

“Neither did I.”

My fingers slipped down his cheek and over the scar on his lip. “Not even for a second.”

“No, not even for a second.”

“In fact—”

“Yes?”

“In fact,” my voice was low as I struggled to breathe. “I didn’t think of you at all.”

After we dined with the Lord of Modr, I followed Skadi to the hot springs. She’d left me alone after being called by a soldier, but the emptiness was rather comforting, and strangely, my mind wasn’t wandering, only thinking and thinking. Remembering. Recalling. It had been a while since I’d had the time to think. Maybe it was the pungent sulphur smell of the hot spring that could raise the dead right back that was keeping me pretty grounded.

“Now you were thinking about me,” his voice whispered in my ear, and I blinked to myself a couple of times, wondering if I had imagined. But the overpowering scent of eucalyptus he carried made me jump upright, holding a hand over my chest.

“Malik, hells.”

He threw off his shirt and started unbuttoning his trousers before sliding in the water. “You need to stop wandering off, little bird.”

“I wasn’t wandering off, you were just so quiet I thought I was imagining it,” I said, trying to not ogle his naked body.

“Yeah? You always have my voice whispering in your head?”

“More like an evil and conniving voice that tells me to do very bad things and happens to resemble yours,” I said, swimming back a little.

He leaned back against the edge of the spring rocks, elbows resting on it, drawing my attention to his bulging arm muscles. “He must be handsome, too.”

“Horrendous,” I said, letting my eyes shamelessly roaming down the rest of his body that wasn’t submerged in water. “All crooked everywhere. Very similar to you, actually.”

He crossed a hand over his chest. “Stop eyeing me up like that. I’m feeling very objectified right now.”

A laugh sputtered out of me, and I covered my face with both hands, full on chuckling.

“Now she laughs at me.”

Swimming forward, I splashed water right on his face. And before I could make my escape, he grabbed me around the waist. I held in a breath and waited for him to dunk me, throw me or splash me back. And I waited. After a while, I slowly faced him.

He poked a finger on my cheek until they deflated. “Thora.” His tone was serious, and my heartbeat picked up. What had I done now? “What are you wearing?”

“Nothing?” I quietly responded.

“In a public hot spring?”

“Should I have a dunk while wearing my ball gown?”

“What if a man had come here?”

“One did. And I am not scared of men, Malik.”

“Aren’t you scared of what I would have done to them if they had seen you?”

“No man deserves my pity.”

He bit into his smile. “Thora.”

“Yes?”

“Wear something next time. I’m trying to be a good person and move past murdering men for just having eyes.”