He studied me for a long, silent moment, his chest still glistening with river water.
“You get your morning bread from the eastern stall,” he said quietly. “You always choose the honeyed loaf, even though it cost more. You linger by the river after market hours, but only on Fridays. You speak to yourself when you think no one is listening.”
I stilled.
“How do you know all of that?” I asked slowly.
His gaze did not waver, one brow raising in question.
“Right,” I said sarcastically. “You have been watching me?”
“For your safety,” he countered, stepping closer until the scent of ozone overwhelmed my senses. “And because I could not stay away.”
“How long?”
“Longer than you have been seeing me.”
“You are a stalker,” I said, a breathless laugh escaping my lips.
Talon’s lips pulled down. “I prefer the termobserver.”
“That is a synonym!”
Talon waved me off. “Just get some rest, little flame. You can yell at me more when the sun rises.”
A scream of pure frustration bubbled out of my throat. I grasped a heavy fur blanket and hurled it at his bare chest. It smacked him with a soft thud and tumbled to the floor, but he did not flinch.
“Get into the bed, little flame,” he ground out, his voice dropping an octave. “Or I will put you there myself.”
My eyes widened. I knew there was truth to his words—and perhaps a part of me did not want to test his patience any further. I muttered a curse under my breath, scooped the fur aside, and slipped into the cool, silk sheets.
I pointed a finger at him. “Do not—under any circumstances—join me.”
His shoulder quivered with a silent laugh. “Then where, Kaelia? Where should I sleep?”
I turned my nose up, burying myself deeper into the furs. “You can sleep on the riverbank for all I care.”
Talon’s laughter rolled through the cavern, deep and resonant, as he moved toward a side chamber.
Despite the terror of the night, the sound of his laugh caused my own lips to betray me, tipping up just a fraction before I pulled the blankets over my head.
23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Istared into the cavern’s dim expanse, but sleep remained a ghost I could not catch.
The mattress was too soft compared to mine, the air too heavy with the scent of rain and mountain earth.
Talon and I had been bound for less than a sunrise, and yet we were already hunted, running from laws as old as the stone around us.
Restless, I pushed back the heavy furs and let my bare feet find the cool floor. I wandered toward the front of the cavern where the air grew damp and musical.
A subterranean river cut through the stone, its water glowing with an ethereal blue light that cast dancing reflections against the ceiling. Mushroom-shaped shadows glowed across the dark bank, dancing with the same cobalt that emitted from the river.
My eyes widened and I walked closer, my breath catching in my throat as the shadows resolved into a cluster of Aura-Crest mushrooms.
They were beautiful, their caps translucent blue and veined with pulsing silver light that seemed to breathe in rhythm with the water.