Page 21 of The Midnight Arrow

“Stop looking at me,” I replied. “Stop smiling.”

He grinned in response.

“I like looking at you,” he told me. “Why does it bother you?”

“Because…because…” I trailed off, uncertain how to respond. It sounded ridiculous, even to my own ears. But how could I tellhim that every time he looked at me, I feltconsumed? How could I tell him that he made me nervous, shy, and elated all at once?

“Because you’re not used to it,” he murmured. “You live out here, alone. My beautiful little witch in the woods. You need to be appreciated. You need to be touched. I think you need to be loved.”

I stopped mixing the soapy water in the trunk to look at him in surprise.

He smirked. “You need a lover, Marion.”

“Are you volunteering for the job?” I asked, flustered but quirking a brow with more confidence than I felt.

I’d meant it as a tease, but Lorik said, “Yes.”

The word was soft in its seriousness.

“Humans can be so strange about sex,” he added. “Even if they grew up on Allavar.”

“And I would argue that Allavari are even more strange about it. Private,” I told him, looking back down at the basin. “Don’t you think? You’re part Allavari, aren’t you?”

“Once,” he replied, his tone breezy.

“You always say things like that,” I pointed out. “Things that never make sense and are only meant to confuse.”

“Maybe I want to keep you guessing,” he said. “Keep the mystery alive.”

“Oh, it’s well and alive, Lorik Ravael.”

“Maybe I’m boring. Maybe I’m quite dull to be around when I’m not suffering from a botched poisoning.”

A poisoning you won’t tell me much about,I thought silently.

“I want to know what you look like unleashed.”

Unable to keep the small gasp from escaping, I darted my gaze up at him again.

“Maybe that’s the once Kylorr in me though,” he added. “So yes, I think you don’t like when I look at you like this…becauseI’m looking at you in a very particular way, Marion. I always have, haven’t I?”

A memory from the market rose. Of Lorik leaning against the wall of the local apothecary shop, arms crossed over his chest. I’d caught him looking at me, but instead of being embarrassed, he’d tilted his chin up, that familiar sinful, flirtatious smile spreading across his lips. I’d been too shocked, too flustered, too excited that I’d looked away quickly.

Had that been an invitation?

Of course it’d been, you daft fool,I thought. But what had I done? I’d avoided his gaze, sold the last of my potions, packed up my supplies, and fled back to the Black Veil. Because it was familiar. It was safe.

Ever since Aysia, I’d never wanted to be in love. Love made a fool out of anyone it touched. It addled your brain; it was addicting like a drug.

More often than not, it left you brokenhearted. Or…dead.

“Tell me a secret, little witch,” he murmured in the sudden quiet. I couldn’t hear the birds or the wind or the scampering of Peek as he tried to catch a ground critter.

“You frighten me,” I told him.

He grinned again, but this time his teeth seemed sharper and his eyes gleamed in the lowering sunlight. With his sharp, proud features, he looked every bit the arrogant Allavari noble. Allavari were snobbish about bloodlines. I wondered about his…because he wasn’t a commoner—that was for certain.

“It’s probably best that I do,” he answered.

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