She just stared at me for a minute before turning her attention back to the fire, loose brown hair tumbling over her shoulders.
Blood and water. I needed sleep. Food. Sex. My shadow. That must be it, I thought, as I watched her patiently explain building a fire to Driscoll for the second time. That was why I was drawn to her. It must have to do with my missing shadow. I’d get it back, and then I’d finally be free of this woman and whatever hold she had over me.
Chapter Thirteen
POPPY
The fire popped and crackled between us, and I stretched out my hands to warm myself.
I chewed the juicy meat from a few rabbits Leoni had caught, savoring it.
Prince Lochlan sat across the fire from me. It cast a glow on his skin, his hair, highlighting the cut of his jaw. His mouth had been so close to mine when my magic had trapped us together. Close enough that I could’ve tipped my neck and brushed my lips right against his. My body filled with a heat that had nothing to do with the fire.
Then he’d made a joke. Turned on that charm. Flirted with me.
And that, of all things, had been what helped me let go. Everything with Gran was always doom and gloom, the end of the world. Scary. Dark.
If Gran was the dark, then Prince Lochlan was the light. Pure sunshine.
After he’d made that outlandish comment, I did as told and imagined dropping the string, and that was it. The wind had died down, and I’d leapt away from the prince.
There was something so enigmatic about him. You couldn’t helpbut want to be around him just to bask in his light, to hope that some of it might guide you out of your own darkness.
“Who’s staring now?”
Prince Lochlan’s voice snapped me from my thoughts, and I realized that’s exactly what I’d been doing. Spirits below.
I cleared my throat. “You have something on your chin.”
He frowned, swiping at his perfect chin that had nothing on it at all.
Driscoll and Leoni shot me looks that I ignored.
Driscoll tilted his head. “You’re very normal, you know.”
“Driscoll, that is so rude.” Leoni threw a rabbit bone at him, and it hit him square in the chest.
I burst out laughing. “It’s okay. Really.”
Leoni smiled. “You are very well spoken and well adjusted for someone who...”
“Who’s lived in a tower my whole life?” I finished for her.
“Um, well, yes.” She flicked another bone behind her.
Wind howled around us, but we’d made camp in between four tall rocks that jutted from the ground and towered overhead, giving us the perfect shelter.
I sensed a question they weren’t asking. How? How was I not completely insane or socially inept after the life I’d lived? Sometimes I felt like I was, but I also felt more at ease around these three than I normally did around strangers.
I finished chewing my bite. “Gran used to let me out of the tower quite often when I was little. Winged is the least populated of the territories, and the forest near our home wasn’t exactly a welcoming place to visitors. There were some who traveled there to gather herbs and spices. I’d play with their children while they worked. We’d talk and run and make up silly games.”
My voice grew wistful as I remembered those days spent roaming the forest, barefoot and surrounded by laughter.
“As I grew older, it wasn’t enough anymore, the little jaunts outside the tower. They didn’t lift my spirits. I couldn’t just run up to another elemental my age and make friends like I had when I was younger. I think Gran knew I was sad, lonely.
“So one day, she brought me a gift: a mirror with the ability to show me the world. I’d spend hours watching it. I learned about all the courts,I watched people dance, people visit markets. I watched mothers and their children. I watched wedding ceremonies, coronations, mercenaries, animals. Everything. It taught me so much about how people lived, interacted, the way the world worked, even if I couldn’t experience it myself.”
Leoni’s eyes filled with tears. “Your only way to experience the world was through a mirror?”
