Page 49 of Sun Elves of Ardani

Dream use was taboo among Ardanians, but she’d read enough about it to know it wasn’t harmful in small doses, and it wasn’t addictive. And she knew she was safe with him. It wouldn’t be like it was with those other soldiers.

But, still. “No. I was just curious.”

“It makes the world brighter for a while,” he said. “But then you wake up the next morning, and everything is still as drab and dark as it was before.” He wiped a hand over his platinum hair again. “Do you have a towel or something I could use?”

“In the hall closet,” she said, tilting her head. “That way.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Neither of them moved. Neiryn began to smile. It was the scheming Ysuran smile, not the innocent dreaming smile. He was enjoying the effect he was having on her.

“You can leave now,” he said. “Unless you’d like to stay and stare some more.”

“That wasn’t staring,” she said as she opened the door again. “It was a brief glance, if anything.”

Chapter 14

Kadaki managed to avoid running into Neiryn again until that night, when she found him sitting at her desk in her library.

She stopped in the doorway to stare at him. He glanced up at her impatiently, as if she shouldn’t have been interrupting him. As if it was his room andshewas the one intruding.

“What are you doing here?” she said.

He leaned back in his chair. Inherchair. He waved a hand at the paper in front of him. “Writing a report about what happened yesterday. Unfortunately.”

“Is there nowhere else you could be doing this?”

He paused, looked annoyed, then gave her a sarcastic smile. “It’s the only desk I could find. And my room is rather uncomfortably damp at the moment.”

There was a desk in Roshan’s study as well, but she supposed it would be unfair of her to inflict Neiryn upon Roshan.

She went to peer down at what he was writing. It was all in Ysuran. She knew the letters, but few of the words.

He shifted his arm to cover it. “Do you mind?”

“I can’t read Ysuran.”

“It doesn’t matter. This is classified.”

“I was there. It’s not as if I don’t know what happened.” She nervously glanced down at it again to see if she could spot her name in the parts of the page not obscured by his hand. She couldn’t see much. “How much detail is included in this report, exactly?”

He showed his teeth in a grin, then returned his attention to the paper and continued writing. His handwriting was clean and elegant, the delicate curves and flourishes on the letters flawlessly formed. “Whatever do you mean by that?”

She glared at him, but he wasn’t looking at her. “You know I only said those things I said down there because—”

His eyes sharpened. “Because you would only take me if the only other option was no one,” he said. “Yes. I understand very well.”

She almost wanted to correct him. She remembered the hurt look on his face when she’d insulted him the previous night. Now his expression was cold and closed-off.

“I have chosen not to mention any private discussions that occurred between us,” he said. “I did not think they were relevant.”

She relaxed. “Thank you.”

“I wouldn’t want to embarrass either of us.”

She perched on the edge of the desk. “So, whatareyou including?”

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