Heart pounding, I quickly moved away from the window before he could spot me. Standing stock still in the bedroom, I panicked about what to do. Could I ignore him? Pretend I wasn’t here? But then what if he went off looking for me and realised I’d been here all along? What if he just opened the door and walked right in, then gutted me for ignoring Folk royalty?
The soft knock made me jump out of my skin. Heart thudding too hard, I found myself walking to the front door, my gut tightening with a confusing mix of terror and anticipation at the thought of interacting with him again.
The long, curved blade at his side was the first thing my eyes locked onto when I opened the door. I slowly dragged my gaze away from it to his face. His black eyes were somehow vacant yet intense as he stared at me, saying nothing.
I resisted the urge to reach up and rub my face nervously. “Hello.”
Dark eyes tracked briefly over me before lifting to meet mine once again. His expression didn’t change at all. Cold. Aloof. Uninterested.
“My mother wants to know if you enjoyed your party.”
“Oh.” Relief made me sag. Jittery with nerves, I stepped back and held the door open wider. “Do you—um, do you want to come in? I made tea, so…”
Say no. Please say no.I wasn’t even sure why I’d offered. Surely he had absolutely no interest in staying longer than he needed to. The Carlin had forced him to come here to ask me if I’d had fun at the party. I should have just lied and said yes, then shut the door.
My breath caught when Lonan gave a single nod.
“Fine.”
Oh fuck.
I swallowed and nodded, trying to make my tone pleasant when I said, “Great.”
I turned and walked into the living room, leaving Lonan to close the door behind him as he stepped inside. My heart was still racing. The cottage suddenly felt different with him inside it, like he was sucking up all the air. Dread and anticipation fizzed in my belly, making my legs feel weak.
He followed me silently into the kitchen and stood there, black gaze tracking over everything.
“Um, take a seat.” I gestured at the tiny table beneath the sole window. “I’ll bring the tea over.”
I didn’t actually expect him to sit down, but to my surprise he slowly walked over to the table. When his back turned to me, I noticed two more blades criss-crossed over his shoulders, these ones longer and thinner. Fear spasmed weakly in my chest, but then I got distracted as Lonan’s head bent slightly as he pulled out a chair. Inky black hair slipped over his shoulder, revealing the milky pale skin of his neck and the tip of a sharply pointed ear peeking between the strands.
For some reason, my nerves calmed. He didn’t seem quite so terrifying when he wasn’t lurking in the darkness. His skin looked soft, that flash of an ear making him seem… more vulnerable. And he looked young. He was my age, Caom had said. That was apparently young for the Folk.
The Carlin had worked fast to mould him into a ruthless, unfeeling killer in just twenty-one years. I wondered why he had the worst job of all of her sons. Eavesdropping, spying and whispering honeyed words were nothing like taking lives. Cutting open throats.
Had he been given that job because he was the coldest? The most ruthless? Or had he just embraced the role that had been foisted on him by his mother?
My eyes caught on long, elegant fingers that rested casually on the table as I approached with two mugs of tea. Lonan was gazing out of the window with bored, hooded eyes, like he’d rather be anywhere else.
Giving myself a mental high-five when I didn’t trip and pour boiling-hot tea into the assassin prince’s lap, I set the mugs down on the table and took the seat opposite him.
He didn’t say thank you. He barely even looked at the tea in front of him. I suddenly remembered reading as a kid that the Folk never thanked anyone, and you should never thank them. Foreboding made my hands clench on my lap. Had I thanked any of them? I was pretty sure I’d thanked Caom that first time he’d taken me around unseelie land. Fuck. What did that mean? Was I indebted to him now, somehow?
“So, did you enjoy the party?” Lonan asked in a flat voice, making me jump.
Of course. That was why he was here.
I nodded quickly. “Yeah. Yes. It was great. Please thank—”
I cut myself off. I didn’t know whatthank you’sdid, and I absolutely did not want to risk owing the Carlin a debt of any kind.
I cleared my throat.
“I enjoyed it,” I said instead.
Lonan’s eyes bored into mine as he stared at me from across the table. When he leaned forwards, just a little, I held my breath and resisted the urge to shrink back.
“You’re lying,” he said softly. My hands clenched tight, palms sweating.