Page 25 of Lies Within the Darkest Tower

The fae, however, were so much more than I imagined.

They were just as seductive and alluring as I’d been warned against, and I was going to have to be very, very careful. Especially if they were as kind as Talon. Even if I’d been flustered at seeing him naked, he’d made me feel comfortable, that my life was safe with him.

And that was a dangerous feeling. I might be safe with him when we were fighting side-by-side as guardsmen, but I wouldn’t be safe if he found out I was a girl.

CHAPTER 16

Sage

The towel roomhad two sizes of white towels: big and small, and a small crate with various-sized bars of soap that — of course, because nothing at the Black Tower was what I’d expected — had a smell that reminded me of the forest instead of the ash and animal fat and cloying perfume I was used to.

I grabbed a couple bars of soap, a few small towels and a big one then hurried back up to my room, thankfully not running into anyone and having to explain why I’d come from the bathhouse still covered in shadow blood and holding a bundle of towels.

My door didn’t have a bolt on the inside so I couldn’t stop anyone from entering if I wanted to, but I still had to strip to clean myself and my clothes.

I prayed no one would just walk in as I shrugged out of my jerkin and shirt and unbound my chest. It was a relief to finally take a full deep breath after being bound for half a day, but unnerving to see the bruise Edred had given me. I was free from him now, hopefully forever, but I wasn’t foolish enough to think my days of being bruised were at an end.

I scrubbed away the blood from my face, neck, hands, and forearms, then washed my shirt and jerkin as best I could sinceI didn’t have anything else to wear and I wasn’t going to put on blood-encrusted clothes in the morning, even if I was just going to muck out the stables.

With my clothes clean and draped over the basin and pump so they could dry, and the fae light as dim as I could make it — which was nearly out save for a pinprick of light in its center — I collapsed onto the cot, pulled the blanket over me, and closed my eyes.

Except despite my exhaustion, I couldn’t get my mind to stop spinning.

Edred had manipulated the lottery and Sawyer wasn’t safe until he was out of the Five Great Kingdoms. The rings closest to any of the boarders, even in Helialonde and Thermalea were still at least a month of travel away by horseback, and there was a chance Sawyer would have to sell the horse to survive. Although hopefully he’d have enough common sense to sell my pendant first.

Then my thoughts flitted to the monsters in the Gray and the Lord Commander calling me a moron.

I was going to have to keep my head down and not draw anymore attention to myself, and that meant not complaining about mucking the stable or whatever else the Lord Commander saw fit to punish me with.

But the thought of punishment made my mind leap to that strange moment with Talon and that made me think of his breathtaking body.

I didn’t think I’d ever be able to look at him and not remember all that muscle… not to mention his cock. Would sex with him be as quick and unsatisfying as it had been with Royston?

That would be a serious disappointment.

Except that wasn’t something I was going to find out… not that he’d be interested in me?—

Which was also a disappointing thought and —jeez!— not something I should be thinking about.

I tried to shove the thoughts aside and prayed I’d just fall asleep, but my mind kept whirling around and around, always coming back to the image of Talon’s naked body, water trailing over the hardened ridges of his abs, drawing my gaze back to?—

This was ridiculous!

I jerked up and?—

I wasn’t in bed.

My pulse stuttered as my mind lurched, trying to figure out what had happened.

I sat on a patch of short, soft grass at the edge of a pool. Beyond lay a garden filled with flowers, their colors muted in the dim torchlight and pale moonlight, and a stone path leading from the pool to a courtyard outside of a towering building… or was that a tree?

It sort of looked like both, but I couldn’t exactly tell with the night’s shadows partially obscuring it.

Tall pillars shaped like beautiful women held up a gauzy, green canopy over the courtyard, and more of the cloth draped between them. A gentle breeze made the cloth billow and caress around the statues’ legs like dresses, giving me glimpses of the people inside— No, from their tall, graceful figures they werefae.

I had to be dreaming. I’d been thinking about how beautiful Talon was and drifted into the most beautiful dream. That, and it was the only explanation how I’d ended up in a garden when I’d gone to bed in my room in the Black Tower, and how I now wore a red dress when I’d been naked. Not to mention how my head felt heavy, like my hair was long again and my chest didn’t hurt nearly as badly as it had when I’d gone to sleep.

I stood — my feet still bare — and took in the dress. It looked like it was made half from the same strange, gauzy materialcurtaining the courtyard, and half with exquisite lace depicting a flowering vine that curled from the hem at my toes, up one side, and wrapped around my hips and bodice, hiding just enough of me to not be indecent. The bodice was cut low, in a style from the Southern Isles, and accentuated the inside curve of my small breasts and clung around my ribcage before flaring out around my hips into a full floor-length skirt.

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