There was both a threat and a promise that laced those words, and I shivered despite the heat that immediately flooded my cheeks.
“It’s none of your business,” I choked, my throat swollen with anger and embarrassment as I turned to glare at him.
I hated that he’d seen that part of me, but I didn’t owe him an explanation. I didn’t owe him anything.
Something dark and terrifying swirled in those gray eyes of his, but he didn’t press the issue. A muscle ticked in his jaw as he regarded me, reaching down to place a warm hand over my still-bleeding wound.
The effect was instantaneous. I shuddered as his power hummed through me, seeping into the torn flesh and burning with an icy heat that made me gasp for air.
It only lasted a few seconds, pulsing through my whole body before fading to a soft tingle.
Once the pain had ebbed away, along with Kaden’s magic, I looked down and stared in disbelief. The laceration in my side was completely healed — the skin smooth and unblemished.
“You seem to be very good at getting into trouble,” Kaden observed, his jaw still tight. “Want to tell me what happened?”
“Not really,” I muttered, yanking my shirt down the rest of the way and draining the water from my glass.
His eyes flashed dangerously. “That’s twice I’ve saved your life now.”
I scoffed.
“I think you at least owe me a good story . . . and your name.”
“I make it a habit not to owe faeries anything,” I grumbled, snatching my jacket off the couch and getting to my feet. My head swam dangerously as I stood, and Kaden reached out to steady me before I slumped back down. My heart skittered erratically in my chest, and I felt suddenly weak all over.
“Easy,” he said. “My magic can’t replace the blood you lost. Not that I’ve tried since I made the last guy explode.”
The last bit he added almost as an afterthought. My horror and disgust must have shown on my face, because a dark chuckle rumbled through him. “Try this.”
He held a steaming cup of something under my nose — whatever he’d been making in the kitchen, I guessed.
I gagged as I stared down into the yellowy liquid, where bits of burned herbs and grit floated near the surface. “Whatisthat?”
“Just an old folk remedy. Females back home drink it after giving birth to help the body replenish blood.”
By “back home,” I guessed he meant Anvalyn — the faerie kingdom in the Otherworld.
“I think I’ll pass,” I croaked, glaring down at the murky tea. Kaden might have saved my life, but I still didn’t trust him — certainly not enough to accept a strange concoction from another realm.
“Suit yourself. I just thought it might be prudent to get you back to full strength as quickly as possible, given that so many seem to be hunting you.”
I rolled my eyes. While it was hard to argue with that logic, I wasn’t drinking any faerie brew. Hunters, even half hunters, were gifted with quick healing. And with thelaceration along my ribs already healed, I’d be better by morning.
“What were you evendoinghere?” I asked, annoyed that Kaden had seen me at my worst not once, but twice. “And don’t tell me you just so happened to be in the neighborhood . . .”
The corner of Kaden’s mouth twitched. “It that so hard to believe?”
“Yes.” I narrowed my eyes. “I could believe you ran into me once by chance, but twice feels a bit stalker-y.”
This time, his lips stretched into a full-on grin. “You think I’m stalking you?”
I shrugged.
“You must think very highly of yourself if you believe every male out for an evening stroll is stalking you.”
I gave him a deadpan look. “Faeriesstroll?”
“We do.”
