The Faceless Mage - Kenley Davidson Page 0,44

but it was completely gone.

What could have happened?

Her green eyes raised to meet the slits in his mask and her eyebrows drew down in what looked startlingly like annoyance.

“Stop that,” she snapped.

The Raven regarded her with stunned surprise.

“I very much appreciate you stepping in to stop those guards, but I won’t be smelled like I’m something you might prefer to eat.”

Good grief, she didn’t actually think he ate people, did she? That rumor had certainly made the rounds more than once, but her lack of fear indicated she didn’t take it seriously.

She touched her finger to the gem again, and this time, their connection was nearly instantaneous. She was curious. Frustrated. Exhausted. And… not remotely intimidated.

And he couldn’t understand it. Couldn’t fully grasp it, let alone decide how he ought to respond.

But he could at least acknowledge that to an outside observer, there would undoubtedly be something amusing about the picture they presented—a tiny, slender princess glaring up at a giant, nightmare warrior without a trace of fear.

As if she could command him with a twitch of her finger.

But the true difficulty was, so long as she wore that gem, she probably could. And if she ever discovered that potential?

It hurt him to think of it.

He didn’t even know why, only that it made him recoil inside to think of her learning what the gem was actually capable of.

“I should… I should retire,” she said, stuttering slightly and looking away. As if recalling that he was supposed to make her nervous, and that shy, magic-less Evaraine should be justifiably terrified of a creature like him.

“Will you be staying in here or standing guard outside?” she asked, then sucked in a quick breath as her entire expression changed. “Wait, when do you sleep? Will someone be taking your watch for part of the night, or do you just…” Her voice trailed off.

And yet again, the Raven experienced surprise.

She was concerned for him. She should be shaking in terror of her own predicament, but she was worried about whether he actually slept.

He took a step back, then another. It was time for him to leave, before they went any further down this bizarre road.

“You do sleep, don’t you?” she asked.

Even if he could have answered, there was nothing he could have said—no way to explain the nightmare of his existence. So he only continued to retreat until he reached the door. Pulled it open and left the room, closing it behind him with what he hoped was sufficient finality to put an end to her painful questions.

Neither of them would have liked the answers.

Chapter 10

Leisa didn’t manage much in the way of sleep that night. She was too unsettled. Too…

She couldn’t even begin to name what she was feeling. Couldn’t have said why she no longer felt afraid of her intimidating bodyguard.

But for some reason, even as he’d stalked her with that focused, intentional grace—like some giant predator—and smelled her as if she were food, her fear had vanished.

Maybe because she’d finally heard him breathing. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized how greatly she’d feared that there was no real and living man within the armor. But as she heard the hiss of air drawn in through the mask he wore, something within her had loosened in relief.

She should still be afraid. After all, at this point, there was no denying that he knew at least some of her secrets—more than enough to betray her to King Melger.

But how could she be afraid now that she guessed the truth—that he was even more a prisoner here than she was.

The second time her skin brushed against that gem, once she pushed past the heat, she’d known. She’d felt him, and oh dear gods, he was like a furnace. She could have closed her eyes and pointed to him a hundred miles away. It was as if someone had encased the burning heart of a star in that armor and then sealed it off so that somehow, the power could never be unleashed.

That much magic… Leisa couldn’t even comprehend it. In comparison, her own was a mere spark against the raging heat of a forge. Who—or what—gave that dark armor its form? How could anyone have captured him, let alone contained him and forced him to do their bidding? And what was Prince Vaniell really playing at, because there was no way in all Abreia that he didn’t know what he’d given her.

This gem, this innocent diamond pendant, was anything but. It was a