Smolder (Crown of Fae #3) - Sharon Ashwood Page 0,19

night,” he mused. “A dangerous course, given your audience.”

“I got away.”

“So why risk coming now?”

Leena considered her answer. “Elodie isn’t well. She would not have danced to your satisfaction.”

“Honest, but incomplete,” he replied. “What do you know of my interest or my satisfaction?”

He lingered suggestively on the last word.

Anger pricked her. “I am a priestess of the temple.”

He drew closer, looming now. “Have I offended your modesty?”

It was a clear attempt to unsettle her, perhaps trick her into revealing more secrets. She refused to rise to the bait. “The Flame touched you when I danced.”

His brows drew together. “And what does the Flame know of my desires? Did it tell you?”

No, the Flame never spoke to her. Not directly. She would have been a better healer if it did. Mounting tension made her muscles ache. “No. I mean…it knows you. Whatever happened, you are still a child of the Flame.”

“Whatever happened,” he murmured, but there was fury in his words. This time, he pulled away, putting space between them. “What else did it have to say? What did you learn in your dance?”

Slowly, Leena shook her head, unsure how to reply. This was why he’d chosen to speak to her. He knew they’d shared something significant, and he wanted answers as much as she did. But what to say? If Kifi had guessed right, Morran had been irrevocably broken. Telling him that served no purpose, especially right now, when she needed his help.

When she didn’t answer, he shifted impatiently. “Well?”

“Flame recognizes desire, rage, lust, heroism, love, compassion.” She spoke each word quietly, forcing him to bend slightly to listen. “The Flame saw the places inside you where those fires have been.”

“You mean it saw the desolate ashes of my soul.”

This was dangerous territory, inappropriate between a servant and lord, much less two strangers. Still, Leena didn’t falter. This was the sorcerer who might save her brother. “Ashes or embers, that is not for me to say. I’m just a dancer.”

He laughed then, a soft chuckle that was both bitter and genuinely amused. The sound slid over her skin like warm fur. “Fire dancers are healers, and I thank you for what you did. Last night, I recovered a scrap of who I was. I wonder if you could give me more.”

Sudden wariness made Leena grow still. She hadn’t expected gratitude.

“I can’t restore your familiar,” she said.

Puzzlement spread across his features. “I don’t understand.”

Her breath caught as she glimpsed the extent of his inner wound. He doesn’t even know. “Then it does not matter.”

He began a slow circle around her, studying her from every side. From beyond the silk walls came the squeak and rumble of the heavy wagons, the sound of shouting soldiers, and the stomp of hooves. The camp was mobilizing. She was running out of time.

The light suddenly dimmed. Leena spun to see that Morran had let down the silk panels forming the space’s entrance. No one could observe them now.

She was alone with him.

He walked toward her. No, he prowled, a stray shaft of morning sunlight highlighting the hard lines of his warrior’s body. Leena swallowed, suddenly aware of her heating flesh. Whatever crippling wounds he might bear, they weren’t physical.

Morran came to a stop, clasping his hands behind his back like a general reviewing the troops. His forehead furrowed in concentration, the corners of his lips turning down. Leena was grateful for the cloak that still hid most of her form. She needed a barrier between them.

“I require your healing power,” he said in a voice pitched for their ears alone. “But first I require the complete truth. Why did you really come in your friend’s stead? You might care for her, but no one walks into the lion’s den for one reason alone.”

Something within Leena cracked—whether it was her reserve or her resolve, she wasn’t sure. She’d expected to study Morran from afar, to choose her moment, to slide her plea into a conversation like a magician pulling a coin from thin air. Instead, he’d pinned her inside of a minute.

His gaze held hers, patient and unblinking. Her mouth went utterly dry.

“My brother is here, among the guards. I’m afraid for him.”

“Ah. So you should be.” For the first time, there was a softer edge in his voice. “There is no return from serving with the Shades.”

Leena flinched, pressing a hand to her stomach as if he’d struck her. “If you know that, why are you here?”

Her pulse drummed in her ears. She’d spoken without