He’d lived through wars like that? Poor man.
He seemed to dismiss my concerns and instead, looked at me with pity in his eyes. “We Fae are taught this technique from very young, Ava. You must guard your mind at all times from spells that would seek to harm you in the worst ways. I could have projected any image into your mind and taken away your ability to think, to see. You wouldn’t have known if those images were real, or not.”
I nodded, swallowing hard. Obviously, this was an area of my training that my mother had neglected, or it wasn’t a tool our kind used so she hadn’t known to teach us.
Either way, I needed to learn.
“Will you teach me how?” I asked as I stood up and waved my hand, making my park bench disappear into the ether from whence it came.
“Yes, of course. And I will also do a physical training session with you, guarding against offensive spells that I know Witches like to use.”
These words brought a smile to my face. I liked the physicality lessons. They made me feel like I was making a real difference in my arsenal.
“Thank you. I would love that.”
Horlow began to talk, explaining everything I needed to know about this new technique and how to apply it.
We spent hours together and by the end of the afternoon, my head pounded with new knowledge and my muscles ached from the spell casting work-out he’d given me. I wanted nothing more than to take a long, hot bath.
When I staggered towards my accommodations, I was strangely happy, yet a low whisper of unease worked its way through me.
Horlow had ramped up his lessons for a reason, and that meant that only too soon, he expected me to have to use them.
Chapter 2.
When I got back to my cottage, my entire body brimmed with energy.
I paced back and forth, arms gesturing wildly, as I recounted the protection spells I’d learned from Horlow. I needed to know them, inside and out. I had to become as proficient with them as if I had performed them my whole life I thought I might consider taking that bath I wanted, but I couldn’t force myself to relax even though I tried.
Someone knocked on my door. Relief rushed through me at being disturbed from my own thoughts.
“Come in!” I exclaimed, stepping back from the door.
Abigail stepped through the door, the smile on her face nothing short of spectacular, her green eyes sparking like the star-lit sky.
“What’s going on?” I asked her, closing the door behind us. I wasn’t sure if this was a good visit or a bad one. She had always been difficult to read.
“I... have a visitor for you.” She gestured to the door. “We might want to let him in, considering he’s not someone you want roaming about.”
I quickly opened the door. A tall figure in a hooded robe stood in the area outside my cabin, a few feet away. My breath caught in my throat.
“Tavlor...” His name felt like a prayer to me, and because of that feeling, I loved saying it. I couldn’t stop smiling. I felt like a fool, but I was too happy to care one way or the other. “What are you doing here?” I glanced behind him and managed to kick my li
ps up into a smile. “Are you alone? Or are the guards here to arrest me again?”
I grinned at him to show I was joking, as I was sure his Warlock side would know. I knew Abigail wouldn’t have let me get arrested by any of the Guard. If she brought Tavlor here, she did it because she knew he was alone.
“May I come in?” he asked, ignoring my joke. His voice was cold and clipped, as though we were nothing more than strangers.
My heart panged but I ignored the feeling.
I gestured to the small room. “Of course.”
“I’ll leave you to it,” Abigail said, and before I could stop her, she shut the door after stepping out.
My face heated with fire and I cleared my throat. I made sure to lock the door—I didn’t want anyone stumbling on Tavlor in my cottage. I wasn’t sure how the other Fae would feel about him being here. I didn’t want to lose their trust after I tried so hard to earn it. But I wasn’t going to lie and say I didn’t want Tavlor here.
The room, which contained my bed and a small couch, suddenly seemed tiny. Tavlor was huge by human proportions, and his aura filled any space around him.