his instant knowledge of exactly what I’m feeling—and the directions of my thoughts—doesn’t freak me out. Instead, it’s strangely comforting. He doesn’t know my exact thoughts since I’m not giving them to him, but he can sense my yearning and he’s offering me what I want so that I can accept it without guilt.
I could kiss him. A long leisurely kiss at that.
“Are you sure?” I whisper uncertainly, my wants still battling against the fierce determination of all the responsibility that I shouldered since my youth. “If we don’t have time for it…”
His ear flicks at me, and laughter tumbles musically through my mind.
I scent water some distance up ahead. A lot of it, and the faint sound of a waterfall. It will be a good place to stop for tonight. I can teach you a few things that work with the waters of my well that applies to any body of water. It will be a good mental exercise while we prepare to rest.
“If your unicorn is offering to show you a thing or two, that would be a rare treat that only a fool would turn down,” Grimsal opined.
That decides it—because he’s right. My daddy would be appalled if I turned down this sort of opportunity, considering how many parks within driving distance I dragged him through in my quest. I chuckle at the memory, and a weight that had gone unnoticed for so long in my chest lightens.
“All right, I can hardly pass that up,” I agree. “On one condition,” I add and point a finger at the goblin. “That you sit on your hands or do whatever it is that you have to do to keep yourself from participating in my magic lesson.”
Eliph chuckles in my mind, and I give him an answering grin even as the goblin scowls, his lips pinching together. Finally, he tosses up his hands and huffs plaintively.
“Oh, fine! Too damn quick, you are,” he mutters and squints at me. “Are you sure you’re not part goblin somewhere in your ancestry?”
“I’m going to pretend you mean that as a compliment,” I reply, my lips quirking, “but no, there are no green men or women in my family tree.”
He lifts a thick eyebrow. “Oh, is that all that’s turning you off of my obvious charm? That can be fixed easily.”
He drops his hands down his face, and suddenly I’m looking at a good-looking man with an olive complexion. His features are close to the same, except that when he smiles, he now has human teeth, and the tips of his ears are rounded. A shadow of stubble on his jaw gives him a sort of bad boy appeal, and all that dark, thick hair and bright green eyes… Okay, there aren’t many women who wouldn’t be tripping over themselves for his attention when he looks like this.
I don’t quite realize that I’m gaping until he chuckles. There’s a lusty sort of amusement to it that has me snapping my mouth closed and placing a calming hand on Eliph’s neck when a displeased rumble vibrates through him.
“I do cut quite a nice figure as a human, don’t I?” Grimsal preens.
And it’s all illusion, Eliph remarks. His magic has to be used constantly to maintain it. He can make the illusion last for a few hours to charm a female into his bed, unaware of what he is.
“Can you cast illusions?” I ask Eliph curiously.
“Ah, he’s telling on me, I see,” Grimsal retorts with a loud bark of laughter as he resumes his normal appearance. “Most of the long-lived fae can do at least some kind of minor illusion, not so much the common fae like the orcs, trolls, and werewolves. They have few among them that can master more than rudimentary magic, thank the gods. No one needs trolls and orcs running wild with such power.”
“Oh, but a goblin is perfectly trustworthy with it?” I counter.
“Perhaps not so much,” he agrees merrily. “But you will find that’s why goblins tend to be the most loathed among the fae, and we rather delight in that infamy. At least we are not magical prudes like your unicorn there.”
Eliph flicks his tail, and the goblin stumbles with the force of it hitting him in the back of his head.
Unicorns are not magical prudes, as he puts it, Eliph rumbles with distaste. We just do not flaunt our magic or use it excessively except when we must. We honor the balance of the wells in this way. Our