Five (Elemental Enmity Series Book I) (33 page)

He grinned as though he was looking at a child. “You are mortal, but not human.”

I slurped down the sugary sweetness. “How exactly did that happen?”

He grabbed a throw pillow and placed it behind his head as he lay down. His calves rested on the arm of the couch. “As I was saying before, Faine changed the course of your life by the decisions she made.”

“Stupid girl.” I hit the mattress above my head. I would have punched her if I could have. “So how did you all get here in the first place?”

He looked over at me, his expression dubious. “Some arrivals are mentioned in the Book of Invasions although it is full of inaccuracies. We tried to blend in with humans in the beginning, but our differences were too great. We could not go back to living like barbarians, and we could not introduce technology so quickly as to overwhelm the race. That was when we decided to separate the realms completely. There are only a few entrances into the borderlands, and it is unlikely anyone who finds their way into them would ever come out again. We have no way to control the creatures that govern that place.”

I thought about that for a minute. The fae had once lived among us. “So how long had you been here before Faine decided to completely mess up my life?”

Zach threw a pillow into the air and caught it, laughing. “Several centuries. Most of us had lost interest in humans, but we sent patrols occasionally to check for adequate progress.”

I rolled onto my elbow. He lay there comfortably as though nothing abnormal had happened between us. It would have been so easy for me to do the same. I reminded myself of how he had lied to me, how he compelled me to get me to trust him. I wished he was holding me, but I stayed where I was. “You said that Faine chose this life. Why?”

He shrugged. “She followed a newcomer into the borderlands. He was so stunned she could see him that he took her to the counsel instead of returning her to her home like he should have.”

I began to ask another question, but he stood. He stretched and yawned. Had he been up all night?

I peeked up at him, trying not to let my mind wander to what else we could be doing together. “Thank you for getting me more food. I do appreciate it.”

He knelt in front of me and brushed my arm with gentle fingers. “I would do anything for you, Rayla. You are my world.”

Hearing those words come from him did strange things to my heart. He wasn’t using compulsion, but I almost felt as though he was. I looked away shyly. “Zach,” I said, not sure how to ask him what I wanted to know. “Why are you different than the other lords?”

“How do you mean?”

I studied his handsome face but didn’t dare continue while I said what I wanted to. “Don’t get me wrong. You are absolutely gorgeous by human standards, but they are…”

Zach laughed. “Look at me.”

I raised my eyes and gasped. Standing before me was the most beautiful man I had ever seen, fae or otherwise. His face was a study in symmetry, every angle complementing the next, the golden ratio epitomized. His pale-blue eyes shone like a summer’s sky. His body would have even made Da Vinci weep from the absolute perfection of it. A soft glow emanated from his every pore. He was only slightly different if I was being absolutely truthful, but the little changes added up to a huge problem for me. Wayward comet meet black hole. I backed away from him. “Whatever you did, turn it off!”

He frowned. The glow radiating off his tawny skin only intensified. He glistened like an avenging angel. “You don’t like it?”

My heart was hammering, my pulse racing. If he had asked me to do anything at that moment I would have happily complied. I forced myself to say the words. “No. I. Don’t.”

A knowing chuckle escaped his lips. He knelt in front of me, pulling my face around to his. His strange eyes swirled with a happy light. I gulped hard.

“This is what I would have become,” he said softly.

I narrowed my eyes, breathing methodically, attempting to keep myself focused on something other than what I wanted to do to him. Or worse yet. What I wanted him to do to me. “What do you mean?”

He smiled, the glory of a thousand suns. “If I had stayed on the path of progression, this is what I would have looked like, eventually.”

Was I glimpsing a fraction of the divine? I closed my eyes, unable to take his perfection. “Please change back.”

He sighed, suddenly back to himself. It didn’t matter how he looked now. I would always see him that way.

He gave me a conspiratorial smile, as though he knew what I was thinking. He was doing that a lot lately. “I will return in a few hours. Promise me you will not leave the building.” He stood by me motionless.

I licked my lips, not sure if I really wanted to let him go. He began lowering to a knee.

“Okay. Fine,” I said. “I’ll stay here.”

He nodded before he left. Rolling onto my stomach, I pounded the mattress and screamed into my pillow. Finally exhausted, I cried myself to sleep.

The room was dark. Whispers flooded into my ears. My muscles tensed as my brain computed what was being discussed.

“Your highness,” said a low, gravelly voice. “Please come away. You cannot be here. I have this under control. I have done what you have asked.”

“You are a deceiver.” In spite of the harshness of her tone, the woman’s voice was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. “You had no intention of bringing the other one to me. I had to pretend to be a human to even get in here.” She spat the word human at him as if it were rotten meat.

My eyes finally adjusted to the moonlight streaming through the window. The two shadowy figures stood near the couch: the one shapely and tall, the other, squat and boxy. The woman that I could only guess was Ainessa lowered a dainty hand to the top of the troll’s balding head. Standing rigid as a statue, he wrung a hat between stubby fists. His beady eyes were trained on the ground.

A pale purple fire erupted from Ainessa’s fingers, coiling around his body in thick bands. He convulsed but did not look up. Even though he kept quiet, the set of his shoulders told me he was in severe pain.

“Gibbit, this is your last chance. See that she comes to me willingly. I need not remind you of the consequence should you fail.”

His feet shuffled as though he wished to bolt. “No, my la…your highness.”

She vanished without another word. The strange little creature started pacing the room. He seemed to trip on something and lowered toward the floor. He gazed at the round, shiny orb dispassionately.

I had missed one. I shot out of bed and was on him faster than he could stand up. “Give it to me!” My whisper was louder than I had intended. I took advantage of his surprise and snatched the morsel from his box-like hand.

His orange gaze rose to mine. He was exactly as Cassie had described him: short with rough lilac skin, sunken button nose, and thin lips that hid two rows of pointy white teeth. His scalp was nearly bald except for the white stripe of waist length hair that circled the bottom of his head. He stepped back a few paces, grabbed his hair with one fist and shoved it through a hole in his cap. It stood straight up. Had I not known better, I would have thought he had a full head of hair.

“No need to get physical,” he said, rubbing his hands together like an arthritic. “There’s more where that came from.”

I put the candy in my mouth. Nothing on earth could compare to the rich flavor or pleasing texture. “What does that woman want from me?”

He shuffled uneasily, letting out a low grumble. “I need a different job.”

I bent to my knees. His eyes were still a little lower than mine. “Please. I have to know what she wants. I need my journal back, too.”

His grin showed chipped, rotting teeth that were still plenty sharp to do some damage. “I’d be happy to trade what I have for something better.”

“You’ve already used that line on my best friend.” I took hold of his shirt collar. “I need her stuff back, as well.”

“Begging your pardon, miss, but that’s not how this works.” He wriggled slightly, testing my hold on him.

“I would rethink your resolve if I were you. All I have to do is tell the lord who is courting me that you are a problem. He will be here in a few minutes…” I let my words hang there for a while, hoping he would concede.

“What lord? Mistress didn’t tell me of no lords.” He looked me up and down. “What they want with the likes of you?”

I cocked my head. “And just what ‘likes’ would that be?”

His nose pulled inward with his breath. “I’m not trying to offend you, miss, but they don’t usually go after their own kind.”

I wrinkled my face at him. “You should get some glasses. I’m not fae.”

He gave me a serious once over. “Oh yeah, what are you then?”

I stiffened uncomfortably under his gaze. “An Elemental.”

His eyes flew wider. “Of course you’re an Elemental.” He laughed. “Why not? It’s not like I would know the difference.”

I started where Cassie had left off. “Listen to me, you little thief. I am not fae, and I don’t have access to their stuff. So forgive me for not having anything to trade with you.”

His gaze went rigid. “How’d you come by that book then?”

I shrugged. “I found it at someone’s house. I have to return it. It isn’t mine.”

His lip curled back. “You should have thought about that before you brought it here.”

My fingers ached from holding onto him so tightly. I loosened my grip a bit. “What right do you have to steal from students? Why are you here anyway?”

His smile nearly covered his face. “This is my domain, little miss. I’m the one that decides what you gets to keep, and what I takes for the inconvenience of having you on my property.”

I laughed. “
Your
property! That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. And who you calling little, shrimp?”

He scowled at me, his body stiff. Surprisingly, he thrust a finger in my face. “It’s my right to make the rules here. I’ve owned this land since the world began.”

How could a troll own property in the human realm? “If that’s true, why is there a school here?”

He shifted uncomfortably in my grip. “That’s complicated, and I don’t have to explain nothing to you.”

His reactions hadn’t been what I thought they would be. “Why aren’t you afraid of the lords? I thought they ran all things fae.”

“They do, but you wouldn’t really know that. Would you?”

Had he really seen through my bluster? “I know more than you think.”

He eyed me disdainfully. “Were that the case, miss, you’d have told me there were five lords courting you, not one. So don’t mind me if I don’t believe you can command them at your leisure.”

“The others could be here any moment. None have relinquished claim to me. Since you seem to be having trouble believing the truth, I dare you to stick around.”

He pulled at my forearms. “I don’t do nothing I don’t want to.”

“Of course you don’t. You seemed to have everything under control with Ainessa.”

He let out a gasp that was more of a hiss, glaring at me as though I were the stupidest person alive. “Didn’t no one ever tell you not to use the names of royalty?”

I shrugged. “I wasn’t exactly taught about this stuff when I grew up.”