Zach smiled, rolling his eyes as if I had asked the stupidest question he had ever heard. “The contact does not have to be sexual to take, but the more intimate the emotions, the stronger the bond.” He took my hands. “For example, if we were to bond right now….” I yanked on my hands, but he didn’t release them.
“I’m not that stupid,” I said firmly.
“Thanks. I was speaking hypothetically.” He winked at me. “Of course.”
“Yeah, sure.”
He shook my fingers lightly. “If you are finished being rude.”
He waited. I nodded.
“As I was saying, I could hold your hand, and open my soul to yours like so.”
He nudged my consciousness as though he were knocking on a door. I waited on the other side, unsure what to do. If I opened it, would this all be over? I could be his for a long time. Even if it wasn’t for eternity, wouldn’t it be better than not having him at all? “What would happen if I locked the door on you?”
He opened one eye and smirked. “I haven’t actually started the process, Rayla. If I had, and you refused…” He hesitated a little too long for my liking but continued before I could say anything. His voice was barely audible. “You would die.”
I jerked my hands from his and stepped back. “Why?”
His feet shifted in the dirt. “We did not make the rules. We only follow them.”
Too many people had given me that excuse lately. I gave him a wary look, but it couldn’t have been as guarded as I felt. “Who did?”
“Faine.”
My ancestor did this? How could she inflict such a punishment? “But why would she condemn her posterity to death?”
He shook his head. “It was meant as a way out. She was young and foolish.”
I laughed. “No duh.”
His face brightened in amusement. “Golly gee-whiz, Rayla. No one says that stuff anymore. You don’t swear. You’re still a virgin. I’ve never seen you drink or smoke. Where’d you grow up? Mayberry?”
I was offended on several different levels. “What if I did?”
He scratched his stubbly chin. “I’m not complaining. I just think it’s funny.”
“You would.”
He sidled into me, joking around. I shoved at his shoulder.
My smile fizzled and I looked away, overcome with pent-up fear. “What are you going to do with me, Zach?” I managed a tenuous glance.
He lifted his brows, smiling wickedly. “Other than ravage your body the moment I am able?”
I kicked the wall behind me and gave him my back. I couldn’t look at him knowing what I did about who he was.
He stood in front of me. His eyes were full of some kind of emotion I couldn’t read very well. Was it regret?
“I was kidding,” he said with a laugh. He lifted my hand, running his thumb across my wrist. He cleared his throat and searched my eyes. His barely there smile broadened. “Well, not really, but I’ll wait until you want me to.”
I looked away. He was too much right now.
His tone fell to a somber cadence. “We have to wrap things up here before I can take you to my land. You will have to say goodbye to your friends. I need you to make up an excuse to leave school.”
I blinked back unwelcome tears, not wanting him to see my pain. He was the last person I ever expected would ask me to give up my dreams.
He sighed, looking at me as though he knew what I was thinking. “I know how important art is to you. I will make sure you have the finest education. You will not regret that part of your new life.”
No—just the part that gave him more power over my world. I hadn’t missed that little tidbit even though he had tried to skim over it. I had learned something from Lily even if it wasn’t what I needed: Cowardice was not an option for me. If I couldn’t find a way around this whole mess, I only had one choice I could live with. Hopefully, that could be put off for longer than I thought.
Zach let me stew for a while as he led me out of the tunnels. We emerged in a dense forest.
I recognized the shack I had hidden in my first day on campus. “Where are we?”
“The borderlands. There are certain places that are neither human nor fae. Think of it as an alleyway. If we walked twenty feet that way, we would be in the nature area at St. Mary’s.”
Good to know. “What if we went in that direction?”
He smiled gloriously. “You would have the great honor of being in Faeresia, albeit a crappy part, but still.”
I looked at the rickety building again. The last time I was here, I hadn’t had time to really see the place for what it was: Other. Not when I had been fleeing for my life. The air was different here, a bit tangy like ozone and thick with the humidity of a summer’s day. My voice was raspy when I spoke. “Why didn’t you take me that day, Zach?”
He circled me, taking his time about it. My heart raced, a shadow of the first encounter I’d had with this man.
His eyes were aglow with a new intensity. “I wanted to. You could never know how badly. The way you looked at me—” He groaned. “Heaven would be seeing that expression on your face for eternity and knowing I was the cause. When those girls came, I cursed them. I wished them dead for taking that look from your eyes. Instead of unbridled desire, I saw fear. I couldn’t take you knowing how you really felt. That was when I changed tactics.”
“By lying to me?”
He cocked his head. “Omitting. There is a difference.”
“Maybe where you come from, but not in the real world.”
He tucked his hands under his armpits. “So my world is not real?” He nodded toward the boundary. “I dare you to find out for yourself.”
I bristled at him and walked deeper into the woods. He let me go a few feet before he stopped me.
“Come back. You are not ready to see it.”
I whirled on him. “Go…come. I am not your dog.”
He shrugged and started the other way. “Suit yourself. It won’t be long before someone or something finds you.” He put quite a lot of emphasis on something.
Images of enormous fanged creatures popped into my mind. I raced to catch him. “Stop trying to scare me.”
He laughed. “I don’t try. I do, or I do not.”
I couldn’t stay mad at him no matter how hard I tried. I smirked, glancing sidelong at him. “Okay, Yoda.”
A boyish grin spread across his lips. His eyes danced. “I love that movie.”
“I could tell.”
His smile faded, and he squeezed my hand. “In all seriousness, don’t ever wander the borderlands alone.”
“Got it the first time.”
“Good.” He rubbed his hands together menacingly. “Now what should I do to, uh, with you?”
I chuckled. “You’re enjoying yourself entirely too much.”
He tucked his thumbs through his belt loops, walking with a bit of a bounce. “This is way better than the ‘snatch and grab’ approach. I’m still trying to decide if it is you or my change in tactics.”
I laughed. “Let me know when you figure it out.”
To my surprise, he took me back to the dorm. Jessica came barreling toward me as I fiddled with the lock. I didn’t get my door open fast enough.
She seemed different today. Tension was visible behind her eyes.
“Is something wrong?” I asked.
She glanced worriedly at Zach. “I need to talk to you. It’s important. When you get a minute, I’ll be in my room. I’m sorry about Cassie. If you talk to her, tell her I miss her.” She turned and walked down the hall before I could respond.
Zach looked after her. He shifted his weight uncomfortably, glancing back one last time before ushering me through the door. “Who is that girl?”
Why the sudden interest? “What? Do you want her now instead of me?”
A funny look crossed his face before an ‘are you kidding’ one covered it. “She seemed familiar for a moment.”
Okay. I wasn’t going to rat her out if he couldn
’t tell what she was. “She’s a senior. She lives down the hall.”
He lifted a shoulder before it went slack. “I must have seen her here.”
“I guess so.” My stomach rumbled so loudly it startled me. How had I forgotten about food?
Zach groaned. “I came in such a hurry when I found out they had you that I didn’t get to grab your present.”
Butterflies replaced my hunger pangs momentarily. Zach had gotten me something. I rose onto my toes and rocked back. “What is it?”
He laughed. “Now I wish it were something special. I got you the fae equivalent of jerky.”
That was so sweet. He could have left me to suffer until I caved. “I still have a little candy left. I think I’ll survive, but do I need to eat regular food too?”
He bit his lip. “I hadn’t thought about that. You’d better. Your body is still human, so you need the nourishment. I wish you would consent to the bonding. It will be hell trying to keep both types of food around. It’s illegal to smuggle fae food into the human realm. I could get in real trouble if the wrong people find out.”
So did the fae have the same kind of police force as humans? I didn’t ask because I didn’t want to get off track. “How can trolls get away with it?”
He grunted. “They are technically not in our jurisdiction. They were here before we were.”
“I don’t understand any of this.”
Zach fell lazily to the couch, lifting an arm for me to slide under. I couldn’t do that yet. I sat on my bed instead.
He looked away, but I could see I had hurt his feelings. He got up and walked to the window. “There are five houses of fae. The power to control the basic elements has been divided. One cannot exist without the other, but we have begun warring for supremacy. Some of us have been around longer than others.”
“You don’t come from the same place?”
He clasped his hands behind his back. “There were several waves once word spread that my kind could reside on Earth.”
I leaned forward, hoping for some real answers. “What kind is that exactly?”
He turned around. An eternal sort of pain carved his face. “The fallen.”
I gasped. “You mean you followed Satan in the war in heaven?”
He smiled, looking utterly amused. “We are not from your universe, but you are not far off. The struggles for good and evil on this world are neither supported nor discouraged by my people. We cannot interfere with the fate of the souls of men. We are allowed to influence but never to coerce openly.”
I snorted. “I guess that doesn’t apply to Elementals.”
He moved back to the couch, picking at his nails. “You are correct in your assumptions.”
I plopped a piece of candy in my mouth. “But aren’t we human, too?” I had no idea if he could understand what I said.
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.