Chapter Ten
Ash
I narrowed my eyes at him, not lowering my bow and arrow even an inch. I stayed silent at first, even though I wanted to ask who he was, and why he was in here, and how he knew my name.
And why the fuck he was wearing my old shorts.
Rage made me grit my teeth. Fucking unseelie fae, thinking he could just move in here and take my stuff?
“If you move, I’ll kill you,” I told him with far more confidence than I actually felt, darting my gaze quickly down to the blade at his bare feet. I tried to ignore how hard my heart was pounding against my ribcage.
He didn’t appear to even be listening. He was shaking, his throat bobbing repeatedly as he stared at me with big, endless black eyes that glistened in the dark.
“Y-you… you…” He swallowed, his eyes darting to my new arm, the spindly branch hand visible as it gripped my bow. “Y-your arm.”
I eyed him suspiciously. What did he know? Did he know my arm had been cut off? Who the fuck was he?
“I’m just here to get my stuff,” I said tightly, still aiming my arrow directly at his face, even though my flesh-and-blood arm was starting to shake from the strain of keeping my bowstring pulled taut. “And then I’ll leave. Don’t move and I won’t hurt you.”
Part of me wanted to anyway, just because he was unseelie. But I didn’t like that side of me. It felt too fae. Too cruel and cold, so I tamped the urge down.
And the fae hadn’t moved an inch, except for the way his half-naked body was trembling wildly. I silently berated myself when my eyes drifted down his frame, but I couldn’t help it, despite how tense and afraid I was.
He was mind-blowingly beautiful. I’d seen plenty of beautiful Folk over my time here before, so it shouldn’t have affected me, but it… did. He was distracting me just by standing there. His features were fae-sharp, but his eyes were so big and soft, the black of them seeming to suck me in. His hair was inky and sweetly mussed on one side, as if I’d disturbed him sleeping. I could see the pointed tip of an ear peeking through the strands.
His body was long and lean, and there was a tiny metal acorn nestled in the hollow of his throat that paused my perusal momentarily. I remembered seeing that for sale in the village. I remembered wanting to buy it, but I didn’t know why. And I had no idea why the sight of it made my throat close up.
My gaze caught on a thick scar that ringed the fae’s right forearm, my brows twitching with confusion when it looked familiar. And then heat rushed through me, startling me and pissing me off all at once, when my eyes shifted and I saw the faint valleys of muscle pointing to the waistband of his shorts—myshorts—and just a hint of jet-black hair as they hung too low on his narrow hips.
What the fuck are you doing?I shouted at myself in my head, refocusing my gaze on his face and steadying my arms again. My flesh-and-bone arm was screaming with pain, but I kept the bow and arrow up.
“Ash, please—” The fae took a halting step forwards, and my fingers almost released the string to shoot him.
“Don’t fucking move,” I barked, and he stopped dead.
His throat bobbed again, and I stared in bewildered suspicion as a tear dripped onto his cheek.
“I—I won’t move. I promise.”
I jolted at that, wondering why this unseelie fae was so readily giving me promises. Maybe he was just a fucking idiot.
My eyes darted about wildly, and I jerked my chin at the bedroom behind him.
“Back up to the bedroom wall,” I snapped, because I knew there was nothing nearby that he could grab as a weapon.
He did it readily, still watching me with his intense black eyes as tears silently fell from them. What the hell was wrong with him? I followed him in, kicking his discarded blade to the side until it disappeared by the front door. I kept my arrow trained on his face until his back was to the wall beside the tiny window.
I gritted my teeth when I realised I’d have to lower my bow to grab anything. The big canvas bag from Gillie was slung over my shoulder, and my dagger was in its sheath on my hip.
“If you move, I’ll kill you,” I told the fae again, quickly swinging my bow onto my back and clutching the arrow in my fist to use as a weapon in case he lashed out. I fumbled for the dagger on my hip, swapping it for the arrow in my dominant hand.
I didn’t take my eyes off him as I opened the chest of drawers and shoved my clothes into my bag. I looked away only briefly when my fingers caught on something sharp, making me hiss. I glanced down to see two crowns nestled in the drawer beside my clothes, one made of oak leaves and one of holly. I blinked. I remembered the oak crown, but I had no idea why the other one was there.
Leaving them and looking back at the silent fae quickly, I crouched and blindly felt under the mattress for all the notes from Nua I’d stashed there. I didn’tneedthem, but I wanted them, especially in case this fae started snooping around after I left.
From the corner of my eye, I could see that the bed had been slept in. The sheets were rumpled, and there were black clothes dumped in a pile on the floor. As well as two more long blades and a sheathed dagger that looked faintly familiar.
I clenched my jaw and straightened up, staring at the fae. “Get in the living room.”