“You do our hair all the time,” Darius told him.
“That involves clippers, not scissors, and I am not sure I can fix that. You do it. You are used to cutting long hair. I have never done a woman’s hair before,” Tobias argued. That surprised me. I couldn’t really picture any of them doing hair. Darius growled at him, but Tobias shook his head.
“Nope, you want it fixed, do it yourself. You used to do your mo—” Tobias stopped, his words cut off abruptly with the thunderous growl that left Darius. Tobias glared at him and walked out, and I looked at Darius, who was fuming before he scrubbed a hand down his face and looked over at me. I flinched when he stepped closer, but he only reached down and grabbed the comb.
“Just sit still,” Darius said. He turned my head straight, so I had to look at the tiles. Frozen with shock when I felt him combing my hair, I stared off at the tiled wall. I was curious to know what Tobias would have said before being cut off by Darius.
“You like long hair?” I blurted the words before I could stop myself.Fuck, Aleera.Curiosity killed the cat. You are the cat in this situation, I tried to remind myself. However, I was shocked when he answered.
“Yes, Lycus used to have long hair. But it annoyed him, and he cut it off not long after we found him,” Darius said. I felt him brush up against me as he continued to comb the knots out. He reached beside me, pulling a clip out and piling my hair on my head, leaving sections.
My hair started falling away as he cut it, and I glanced down to see it was cut just below my shoulders before he pulled another section from the clip and combed it.
“Were you a hairdresser in a past life?” I chuckled at the thought.
Darius huffed. “You believe in that past life crap?” he asked.
I shrugged, unsure what I believed or if I believed in anything after death. “Not sure,” I answered honestly. I jumped when he placed the scissors beside me and walked off before rummaging under the sink. He returned and wet my hair with a spray bottle, which made me jump again at how cold the liquid was.
Darius, distracted while fixing my ruined hair, almost seemed like an average person, or maybe it was the bond. His aura remained threatening. But he wasn’t being cruel, so I figured he must have had some shred of humanity in him. I tried to contain my laughter at that thought when I remembered him telling his recruits my hair was off-limits when they threatened to burn it off.
“I will try not to grab it, but don’t cut it again. It is now short enough,” Darius said behind me, and I almost turned to look at him, but his fingers forced my face forward before I could.
“Stay still,” he snapped, and I swallowed.
“I can’t picture Lycus with long hair,” I admitted, and Darius chuckled.
“When we found them, it was really long, almost as long as yours.”
“So, you liked doing his hair?” I pried.
“No, he cut it off. I was furious, but—” He stopped, like he remembered who he was talking to.
“Do you even care? Or are you just trying to make small talk?” he asked.
I thought about it for a second because it was kind of both; I cared because if he was talking, that meant he wasn’t killing me, but I was also curious why he was so upset about hair.
“Just curious why you got angry when you seem so intent on ripping mine out,” I told him honestly. He paused his cutting and cleared his throat.
“Don’t try to cut it, and I won’t grab it,” he finally said, and his aura dropped, which allowed my shoulders to relax.
“My sister used to have long hair.”
“I thought you were an only child?” I asked him.
“She died when she was seven.”
“What was her name?”
“Molly. She was my mother’s illegitimate child. She had an affair, and my father found out.”
I chewed my lip at that bit of information. That definitely wouldn’t have gone down well—especially if he was anything like Darius.
“He forgave her, but when the plague hit my sister, she died, along with the rest of the fae.”
“Wait, your sister was a white fae?”
“No, a harmony one. Both my parents were dark-demonic. Molly’s father was a white fae.”