Page 26 of Lies Within the Darkest Tower

The breeze fluttered my skirt around my legs, and I stepped closer to the pool to use it as a mirror and get a better look at myself.

But a part of me couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and I stared at my reflection, stunned for a long moment.

I was beautiful.

I’d never been so beautiful before, only proving this was a dream.

My eyes were a vibrant green, like the emerald in the pendant I’d given to Sawyer and not their usual brown, and my hair was a darker, more vibrant red than my usual color. It hung half loose, reaching my waist, and half piled on my head in an intricate plaited style that turned my sharp features into stunning sculpted lines and drew my gaze to my delicately pointed ears.

Strange red spots on my skin encircled my neck like a necklace, trailed between my breasts, and disappeared beneath the bodice of my dress. The spots were of varying shapes and sizes, although none were bigger than my thumbnail, and were oddly clustered, some close together, some farther apart in no discernable pattern.

I brushed a finger over them. They pulsed with a soft, red glow and warmed against my skin. A heat fluttered in my chest for a moment, then the heat and light vanished and I was back to myself… or as myself as I was going to get in this strange dream.

“My lady, are you strolling alone?” a sensual masculine voice purred and the reflection of a fae stepped into sight beside mine.

I raised my gaze to look at him properly. He was beautiful like all the fae I’d already seen but didn’t have the same magnetic pull Lord Quill or Talon had. He was taller than me and as broad-shouldered as the Lord Commander had been, and his waist-length black hair had been braided back at his temple and hung loose down his back like Lord Talon’s, showing off the gold earrings on each ear tip. His eyes were so dark they appeared black in the pale moonlight, and he studied me with an intensity that sent a shiver of uncertainty sliding through me.

His lips curled back in a smile that only made me more nervous. He looked… hungry and not in the sense of needing food, but of wanting me. Some of Edred’s men had also looked at me that way and while this fae was better at hiding it than Edred’s men, I could still see it and it still made my stomach churn with worry.

“Have you gotten anything to eat yet?” he asked as he gestured to a bench on the other side of the pool. “Why don’t you take a seat and I’ll bring you something.”

“Planning on keeping the new arrival to yourself?” another masculine voice asked behind me.

I spun around to face another fae, just as stunning as the first but with white hair, pale yellow eyes, and warm brown skin. Beside him was another man, a mix between the two with gold hair — cut short unlike the other two — and dark eyes.

“She looked hungry,” the first man replied.

“And more than capable of walking,” White Hair shot back. “Come.” He held out his arm for me to take. “Everyone will want to meet the new arrival.”

“I… ah…” I glanced into White Hair’s eyes and caught a glimpse of the same hunger Black Hair had.

Maybe this was my inner most desire: to be craved by beautiful men, especially since acting like a boy and chopping off my hair made me even less desirable than before. Maybeseeing Talon naked had awakened something in me that I’d been suppressing because no matter what I’d wanted, I’d never be able to have it.

Up until I’d made the reckless decision to take Sawyer’s binding spell, my body hadn’t been my own. I might have been able to have more sexual encounters if I’d wanted to, at least until I was sent to my husband, but I would have always ended up with a man of Edred’s choosing.

White Hair didn’t wait for a response. He captured my hand, hooked it into the crook of his arm, and led me up the path to the courtyard. The third fae who’d yet to speak, Short Hair, pulled aside one of the gauzy curtains and White Hair ushered me inside.

A hush fell over the courtyard. I hadn’t even realized people had been talking.

Of course, it was a dream, there might not have been anyone talking for it to suddenly feel as if a silence had descended around me.

The courtyard, illuminated by hundreds of tiny lanterns all with the steady glow of the fae lights was large and stretched into the tree-building. And it was indeed half building and half tree with a strange mix of stone walls and tree trunks and branches. Conversation areas of benches and couches and chairs, some stone, some with plump, plush cushions, were scattered throughout the area along with tables with food and drink.

There were at least a hundred fae men in the courtyard, all beautiful and bigger than most humans. They sat, stood, gathered in groups for conversation, or at the food and drink tables about to pour wine or fill a plate of food, and all of them had stopped whatever they were doing and stared at me.

“A new arrival,” someone murmured.

“Look at her marks.”

“—not yet mated.”

“—talk to her. You might be one?—”

“Something to eat, my lady?” White Hair asked.

“She’s probably thirsty,” Black Hair replied, not giving me a chance to speak.

“Come stroll with me,” another man said, drawing close, towering over me.

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