Blackbird Broken (The Witch King's Crown #2) - Keri Arthur Page 0,36
my pulse rate skittering. “Because you look like crap.”
I laughed. “You really do know how to boost a woman’s ego, don’t you?”
He smiled and tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ears, his fingers so warm and gentle against my skin. “I meant it in a concerned way, not derogative.”
“Which makes me feel so much better.” I rose up on tippy-toes and brushed my lips across his. “Sleep well on your lonely little sofa, Blackbird.”
I turned and quickly walked away before the temptation to do more than tease him with a kiss became too strong to ignore. His gaze followed me, a heat that burned into my back long after I’d stripped to my knickers and climbed under the blankets.
I woke many hours later to the realization I was no longer alone. An arm was draped across my waist and a big warm body pressed against mine. Unfortunately, there was also at least one layer of blankets separating us.
But he was awake … and in more ways than one.
As I turned around, the blankets slipped from my shoulders, exposing my upper body to his gaze. His jade green gaze drifted slowly down my length and then came up so heated, my pulse leapt in anticipation.
“Morning, gorgeous,” he murmured. “You’re looking much better.”
“And this statement has, of course, nothing to do with the fact I also happen to be mostly naked.”
As was he. The blankets were sitting low enough on his hips to reveal the top of his boxer shorts.
“Of course it doesn’t—though it has to be said that I much prefer waking to the company of a lusciously naked lady than alone.”
I raised an eyebrow. “And how often do you wake up in such company?”
“Far too few times for my liking.”
A smile twitched my lips. “I thought you said Blackbirds weren’t monks?”
“We’re not. It’s just that some of us are more discerning than others.”
Or just more damn stoic. “What happened to the sofa?”
“It was too small and very uncomfortable.”
“I believe I said it would be. Someone was too stubborn to admit I might be right.”
“That someone was in self-preservation mode.”
“And still is, if the divide of blankets is anything to go by.”
“I won’t start something I can’t finish, Gwen. I can’t.”
It was a comment accompanied by a flash of old pain. I studied him for a moment and then said softly, “Who was she? The woman in red, I mean.”
He sighed. “Her name was Aurora Aquitaine. I was assigned to protect her after a Darkside kidnapping attempt.”
“Then how did she end up in a damn hecatomb?”
A hecatomb might have once been a place where the Greeks sacrificed either oxen or humans to their gods, but these days they were an exchange point—an arena where human life was offered up to Darkside for some kind of service or for information. We’d unfortunately uncovered one after Tris had inadvertently led us there—and we still didn’t know what information he’d received in return for the life of the young woman he’d taken there.
“She ended up there because I was young and overconfident.”
“We were all that once, Luc.”
“Yes, but I was a Blackbird—”
“You’re also flesh and blood, and mistakes come with that condition.”
He didn’t look comforted—hardly surprising, given how long he’d carried this guilt around. “So, what happened?”
“I fell for her—hard. It could have been lust, it could have been love—I’ll never know for sure, because she died at my feet in that hecatomb.” He drew in a breath and released it slowly. “We’d gone weeks without any sign of demons. Early one morning, I left her sleeping and went to the bakery to get some fresh croissants. I came back to discover the house had been ransacked and Aurora gone.”
“How did you find her?”
“The one thing I did do right was place a tracer spell on her.”
I frowned. “How? The Durant skill is manipulating light and shadows, not personal magic.”
“My grandmother was a Lancaster. Her ability trickled down to two of my sisters and me.” He raised an eyebrow. “How do you think I was able to lock down that gate we found in Ainslyn?”
“I thought you wove a light barrier around it.”
“I did, but I also locked it down magically just to be safe. I should have done the same for Aurora.”
I gently cupped his bristly cheek. “You can’t keep blaming yourself for something that happened over ten years ago, Luc. You were young and inexperienced.”
“All true. But it was a lesson learned and a mistake I’ll not repeat.”