That night, for the first time in eleven days, Torin failed to show up at my room for training. To my surprise, I realized that I was disappointed.
I didn’t know why I missed him. He’d told me in very clear terms that he had no interest in true love, that he wasn’t even capable of it. That he’d simply chosen me on the basis of disliking me. In Shalini’s words, he was a fae fuckboy.
Maybe I just liked the thrill of sparring.
Tonight, the castle felt empty.
The cold air chilled my skin, and I pulled my blankets over my chin so just my nose peeked out. I’d spent most of the day reading books with Shalini, and Torin hadn’t come to find me for training.
Shalini had been scanning social media and the online tabloids to see what they were saying about me. While I really didn’t want to know, after today’s televised date, I’d become a favorite of audience members. Seems they despised cheating, and public opinion of my outburst had softened. They’d already dug up Andrew’s identity, and I felt a pang of guilt about that. I was angry, but it was no fun at all to get raked over the coals so publicly.
I stared through the diamond-paned windows at the coal black sky. Tonight, clouds hid the moon and obscured the stars.
The fire had simmered down to a few embers. Honestly, I really loved it in this little room. The coziness, the view through the tiny window. It was a safety nook—a marked juxtaposition to all the giant rooms and long hallways of the castle. I really was starting to feel more like I belonged here.
My gaze returned to the window, where snowflakes were landing and melting in tiny beads.
I snuggled under the sheets, happy to be warm, and my eyes drifted shut.
I can’t say what woke me. Not a draft—the room was just as cold as it was when I fell asleep, and I liked a cool room for sleeping. Nor was it a change in the light. A sound, maybe? A creak of the floorboards, or the squeak of a door hinge…
Except it wasn’t just a noise. Something felt fundamentally wrong.
I scanned the room, but I could hardly see a thing. Outside, the sky remained cloudy, and the light was dim.
Quietly, I opened the door to Shalini’s larger room and surveyed the space from the doorway. A low fire still burned in her fireplace, and everything seemed in its right spot—Shalini’s chest rising and falling as she slept, shadows pooling in quiet corners.
The hall door slowly opened without a sound, and I slipped back into the darkness of my room to watch. A silhouetted figure stood in the doorframe. What the fuck?
The intruder studied me for a long moment, and I slunk back a little, going very still. He inched toward Shalini’s bed, tall and cloaked in shadow.
My breath caught when I saw the dagger glinting in his hand.
Fuck. I didn’t have a weapon.
I could shout, but then he might panic and lunge for her. I didn’t want to warn him. The figure glided to the foot of the bed, his black shadow creeping over the sheets like billowing smoke.
I snatched the little vial of magic fog off the bedside table and darted into the other room. “Shalini, wake up!”
The figure spun to face me, and I hurled the potion in his face. Instantly, thick mist slid through the room, hiding Shalini and me from our attacker. Shalini screamed—which made sense, given that she’d woken into complete chaos—but I could no longer see her through the cold, damp mist.
“Shalini!” I shouted back. “Are you okay?”
Footfalls echoed off the stone, and a door slammed.
“What’s happening?” Shalini shouted.
I stumbled through the thick cloud of fog until my fingers brushed against one of the bedposts. “Someone broke in.”
The door opened, and Aeron’s voice pierced the mist. “What the fuck is going on in there?”
An icy wind swept through, clearing some of the fog away. Goosebumps rose over my skin, and I turned to see Torin standing in the doorway, surrounded by silvery magic. He carried a sword. And with a shock, I realized he wore only a pair of black underwear.
The sight of his sculpted, muscular chest and the dark tattoos that curved over his shoulders and biceps, weaving together above his collarbone, left me speechless. The designs were abstract, reminiscent of the sinuous, rugged lines of oak boughs.
“What happened?” Torin asked. And as his gaze swept down my body, I realized I was nearly as naked as he was—just a pair of black underwear and a thin camisole.
Guess we were all really getting to know each other now.
“Someone was in here with a dagger.” I sucked in a sharp breath, hoping I hadn’t dreamed all this. “I couldn’t find a weapon, apart from the magical fog, but I’m sure I saw him standing by the foot of Shalini’s bed. I’m almost positive I heard him run off after the fog filled the room.”
Aeron had already begun searching, looking under furniture and behind curtains. Like Torin, he wore only his underwear, and he gripped a sword in his right hand. His right arm was tattooed with a flock of crows taking flight.
Torin crossed to me over the stones. The dim light from Shalini’s fireplace lit up his bare chest from below, and shadows kissed the contours of his muscles.
“I will put a ward on the door,” he said. “You and Shalini are not to leave your quarters without an escort. Aeron will stand guard outside the room tonight, and I will have the castle searched. Is there anything else you can tell me about what he looked like?”
“I think he was wearing a cloak.” I rubbed my eyes. “I thought the door was locked.”
Torin took a deep breath. “Maybe he’s skilled at picking locks, but he won’t be able to get through my magic.” He turned back to the door and pressed his palm against the wood. He began to speak in the magical fae language, and the air around his hand began to glow with a cold light. Brighter now, tendrils of frost crawled over the wood. King Torin spoke more quickly, and the frost began to twist and turn in strange patterns. When he stopped, the frost flashed with a blinding light. Once my eyes had readjusted, I realized the glowing frost had disappeared.
He stepped back and turned to look at me. “Only the four of us will be able to enter now. I’m going to set patrols all over the castle looking for him, but Aeron is the one fae I trust the most.”
I caught Shalini staring at Aeron, the look on her face like a starved woman seeing food for the first time in months. I hoped I didn’t wear the same expression.
Torin rested his sword by the door, his blade against the wall. “I’ll leave this here. Aeron, will you be able to stand watch all night, or should I send others to take shifts?”
Shalini raised her hand. “What if he was inside our room? I mean, where it’s more comfortable.”
“No,” said King Torin. “For one thing, I need him searching for the intruder before he gets to the door. And for another, we wouldn’t want anyone getting the mistaken impression that he’d forsaken his vow of chastity.”
“His what?” Shalini’s face twisted into a horrified expression that reminded me of the time I’d told her my WiFi password was “password.”
Torin’s gaze met mine—but for just a moment, it swept down my body, and I caught the faintest curl of his sensuous lips. “I hope you sleep well. I will return in the morning to check on you.”
