Tray turned with a smile. “Hello, Mother.”
Mother? I thought, my eyes widening. This woman couldn’t be older than twenty-five, her porcelain skin nowhere near aging.
He walked into her open arms, kissing her cheek. “Apologies for our unexpected arrival. I wanted to show Ella our home.” He stepped to her side and smiled. “Ella, this is my mother, Reba Nacht. Mother, this is Isabella Cinder.”
“Cinder?” she repeated, arching a brow. “You mean Isabella Zorya, yes?”
Tray sighed. “We haven’t reached that part of her familial history yet, Mother.”
“That’s my mother’s maiden name,” I said, frowning.
“It’s your true name as well,” Reba informed me, turning. “Come inside, Trayton. It’s rude to keep the family waiting.”
With that lovely invitation, she disappeared into the colossal home.
“Your mother adores me,” I deadpanned.
Amusement flirted with Tray’s features, giving him a younger appeal. “She’s having a hard time accepting some of my choices, but she’ll come around.”
I arched a brow. “Choices? Like enrolling in Darlington Academy when you clearly don’t need the high school degree?”
“Yeah, things like that.” He held out his elbow. “Come on, Ella darling. I promise my parents won’t bite.”
“And you?” I countered, folding my arms. “Will you bite?”
He sauntered toward me, snagging me around the waist with his arm before I could step away. “I’m going to do a lot more than bite you, sweetheart.” He nipped at my bottom lip in a flash, leaving me hot and trembling against him.
How does he do that? I thought, livid with my innate reaction to him. He’s a vampire, for crying out loud!
Yet I swayed in his arms like a damn damsel in distress.
“What is this pull you have over me?” I asked, breathless.
His lips curled. “I could ask you the same thing.” He brushed his nose against mine. “Will you please come with me inside? I can’t explain everything tonight, but at least you’ll have an understanding of where I’m really from. Then we can discuss what comes next.”
What comes next, I repeated to myself. What came next was me getting the hell out of here.
And then what? Head back to Darlington?
Yeah, because there was so much I enjoyed there. Not.
The last few years had all been about graduating so I could escape. To run as far away from Darlington as possible.
What could be farther than a fae realm?
Tray lifted his hand to massage the lines of my forehead. “Stop frowning at me.”
“I’m not frowning at you.” I was frowning at this bizarre situation. He’d taken me to a place where I could actually escape. A new life where I didn’t have to worry about my stepsisters or Clarissa. A world with possibilities I’d never dreamed of. “What happens at Midnight Fae Academy?” Wasn’t that what he called it? The college-like school his kind attended.
“We perfect our access to the dark arts.”
“Right, you said that, but what does that mean?” An image of a wizard waving a wand around popped into my mind.
“There are a variety of dark-magic sects you can study, typically denoted by your bloodline. As a royal, you’ll be enrolled in the Elite Program to learn more about the source of our power and how to control it.” He drew his thumb across my lower lip. “You’ll understand more once you ignite your gift.”
“Which you think is blocked,” I said, shivering from the soft caress against my mouth.
He nodded. “Yes.”