Page 29 of Foxin' Around

“You knew that I thought you were human,” she countered, but her outrage dwindled as he cocked his head at her curiously.

His brows rose, amusement glittering in his eyes. “Do humans summon fire to their fingertips and do plants answer to their magic in such a fashion? I did not realize that there were any powerful mages left among your people.”

He had her there. She wanted to pick at something, anything, that he had done or told her to directly deceive her into believing he was an exceptionally powerful human being, but he was right… outside of his illusion, he never spoken in a way that suggested he was human. She tried to think back if there had ever been a clever twist of words but, fuck, who was she kidding? All the signs had been right in front of her that he was not human, and she had ignored them and simply gone along with everything because she had been comfortable in the story she told herself about him rather than questioning it.

She drew in a deep breath in an attempt to think clearly. “Ok, so you felt it was necessary to hide what you are when we met. What about all the days and nights since then? At any time, you could have come clean instead of… this.”

He gave her a faint smile. “Have you ever got so caught up in a secret that finding a way to reveal it proved to be impossibly challenging?” He sighed when she wrinkled her nose at him. “Not only was there your fear of me to contend with, but then the lamia appeared. You have been existing in a state of fear that I could not bring myself to compound. Believe me, that I wished to tell you. It is tiring for me to always be expending my energyon the glamour. It takes its toll on me, especially after so many nights when the light of the moon was concealed by the storm.”

Her brow furrowed. “What does the moon have to do with anything?”

“The moonlight is a regular energy source for foxes,” he explained. “There is another method but one that I would never use now that I have you. Allowing myself to weaken was a small sacrifice.”

Krystal frowned in response. She refused to feel guilty when she was the one being influenced by his ridiculousness, but she couldn’t help but feel a little sympathetic. She still hated that she found out by being rudely hit with it—quite literally—but she couldn’t disagree that it had been a difficult handful of weeks and that it might have been difficult for him to interrupt what peace she’d found. And hehadtried to tell her before lying with her, but she’d been too impatient, and perhaps too afraid, to hear it. She couldn’t entirely blame him, but nor could she entirely excuse it. She was still annoyed… but mostly she was now embarrassed at how clueless she’d been. She’d just accepted everything. If Syrix had intended her harm, something horrible could have happened to her before she even realized it.

That was frightening.

She licked her lips nervously. “What else are you hiding?” she whispered. “When I asked you if you were making me feel calm and relaxed—have you been influencing the way that I feel?”

He hesitated and her heart plummeted.

“No, do not,” he pleaded, his hand grasping hers. She shook it away and he withdrew his hand with a sad expression that tore at her heart. “It was me,” he admitted, “but it is a side effect of when my kind find our mates, we grow… close… which makes us sensitive to each other’s moods and feelings.”

She recoiled. “Did you manipulate me to feel things?”

She immediately felt ill. The possibility that every good thing she had felt had been manufactured by Syrix made her sick. If that was the case, she would have no way to know what feelings were real and what weren’t.

His eyes widened as he realized her meaning and he shook his head. “We cannot do that. We can heighten desire, which a fox might use when hunting to feast from pleasure, or we can dull certain feelings, but we cannot produce something that does not already exist,” he assured her, and some of the tension eased from her.

“I don’t understand, aren’t you contradicting yourself? How can it be something formed between mates but also a skill that you use so casually?” she asked, and he laughed tiredly.

“There is a nuance,” he admitted. “With strangers, it is very short term, for as long as we keep the influence directly engaged with them. But with mates we are able to reach along our energetic connections to soothe each other. That is why I said that you were meant for me, and I was meant for you. It is part of my nature. When I feel you hurting or afraid, I instinctively react the only way that I can. I cannot take your fear away—and nor would I if I could because fear is necessary to some degree, but dull it so that you are not overwhelmed by it. That’s all.”

She shook her head, bewildered. “Mate? That is the second time you’ve said this but I’ve never?—”

He gave her a small smile. “It is just on my side. You are not required to be my mate, but I have already given all to you. I have ever since I cast my magic into the ether, to call for the one meant for me.”

Krystal’s heart sank. There was no call that pulled her, just practical reasoning. That meant whoever he had actually called was still out there. What if she arrived a day, a week, a month or even a year from now? Krystal would lose him, and that realization brought more despair and pain that suddenly madeall of her anger and embarrassment leading up to this moment feel insignificant. She was going to lose the man—monster?—spirit?—that she had fallen in love with.

What a tragic way to discover that she was in love and somehow it just fit with how her dumb luck was running.

Syrix tipped his head and peered at her. “Krystal? What is it?”

Now that she was aware of it, she could feel the brush of him reaching for her and she mentally thrust him away, throwing off the touch of his presence within her. Syrix jerked back in response, his eyes widening with pain and shock but it didn’t make her feel any better.

“Sweetheart?” he whispered, but she shook her head and swiped away a tear before it could fall.

“It’s not me,” she whispered. “I wasn’t called to you, Syrix. As I told you before, this is my family’s home. Whoever you sent your magic for—it’s not me.”

His look of confusion melted away and to her surprise, he laughed. “Oh, my sweet, adorable human. Magic often looks for the route of least resistance and it found you, who not only was a match for me as a suitable mate, but who already had a tie established to this place to assure that you would hasten to my side all the quicker. Blind summoning spells are seldom easy, but trust me, you are the one.”

She shook her head. “You can’t possibly be sure.”

“But I am,” he murmured as he took her hand and flattened it against his chest. She left it there, wanting the closeness despite everything. “It was you since the day you arrived, and now you are so under my skin and such a part of me that there will never be another. My kind mate for life, you see. There is no other I will ever accept. Even if you insist that I leave and you find another to live your life with, there will never be another for me. That is how I can be sure. That is why I am certain.”

Her fingers withdrew from his chest, and she pulled her hand away, grateful that he didn’t try to push the matter. “I just need time to think about all of this. It’s a lot. I never imagined that after what we just shared, everything would suddenly be thrown into chaos.”

He looked sad but he nodded. “Take whatever time you need—I will remain by your side for as long as you want me here.”

---