like a gentle hand around his nape, drawing him out of his concerned thoughts.
“Why can’t she be trusted?”
“There’s no way of knowing if she’s leading enemies to the fae-borne to have them taken out. She’s psychic, Rose. It will be very hard to catch her because she sees her enemies coming. But if she doesn’t want that gate to open, she could make sure those who want you all dead do indeed find you. She’s the reason I found you.”
A frown puckered between Rose’s slim brows. The thought upset her.
Silence fell between them for a while, and Fionn found he couldn’t stop looking at her. There was something magnetic about Rose.
Fionn had a type. The woman he bedded all looked like Aoibhinn. Any sane man would do the opposite, yet nearly all his lovers had her red hair, full mouth, and full figure.
Rose was the opposite. Dark hair, pale skin, blue eyes, an athletic figure, small, perky tits, and her mouth wasn’t full and lush. It was an intriguing mouth, nonetheless. Her upper lip was slightly fuller than the lower, giving her an upside-down pout.
Rose looked up from staring thoughtfully at the table, and he felt like he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t. She didn’t seem to be aware of his perusal.
“Why are you helping me?” she repeated.
“I already told you why.”
“And it was a very altruistic answer. I want the real answer.”
Fionn felt a hot glow in his chest. Admiration, perhaps. Respect, even.
Guilt too.
The guilt he squashed.
Centuries he’d waited for this. No one, and certainly not a slip of a woman like Rose, would get in his way.
“I told you: I won’t see you or the others killed for something that was done to you. I will help you, and the others when I find them, to control your powers so you can protect yourselves against those who would use you to open the gate. But make no mistake, Rose,” he continued his lie, “if you or the other two try to open the gate, I’ll be there to stop you.”
It was a gamble to threaten her.
Yet it did the trick.
He watched her relax in her seat as if she understood him now.
“Fionn,” she said, her voice soft. “I would never do that. I want to protect this world too. Tell me what to do.”
Her sincerity pierced the hardness around his heart when sincerity in others usually elicited nothing but his disdain.
Fuck, he thought regretfully, why did it have to be her?
First class came with a meal, and Rose descended upon the pasta dish with relish. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was. Between bites, she watched Fionn eat, a little surprised to see that he needed to. She was beginning to think of Fionn as a godlike being who didn’t need to deal with basic human needs such as eating and drinking.
And using the restroom.
But he did.
When he saw the guy coming to take their lunch order, Fionn had lowered the spell that blocked their conversation from other passengers and put the headphones away. The spell was still down as they settled into their seats. They’d only been on the train three hours. After he’d told his story, Fionn had fallen into silence. Rose had discerned correctly; he wasn’t much of a talker beyond mandatory explanations.
The silence, however, was not awkward between them. It was comfortable.
“There’s another four hours to go,” he said, glancing out the train window. They traveled along the Adriatic coast, and the late afternoon sun glistened across the sea. “Perhaps get some rest. We have a two-hour wait in Milan.”
Usually this would suit Rose. She was used to sleeping during the day because of her job, but now she was too wired. “I’ll rest on the train to Barcelona.”
He shrugged like it made no difference to him.
“So I’m immortal, right?” It sounded crazy saying that out loud.
“Yes.”
“When do I stop aging and changing?”
“You already have. From what I gathered from my time on Faerie, the fae stop developing once they reach adulthood. Roughly twenty-one, twenty-two years old.”
Huh. Rose let this sink in. No wrinkles for her, then. That was pretty cool.
Speaking of which …
“When can we start training?” She was itching to learn to control her powers but also to see what she was capable of. The last thing she wanted was for Fionn to hide her behind him again like he’d done in the woods with those warlocks. Rose hated depending on anyone for anything, and that most definitely included her survival.