Page 47 of A Legacy of Storms and Starlight

The room was long and narrow; a hall, Zylah realised as they passed tattered tapestries of creatures with wings and horns and claws and fangs.Lesser faeries. She tried not to gawk as she asked, “Did I do something between yesterday and today to elicit that behaviour?”

Saphi sighed. “No, you didn’t. Rose is a seer… and sometimes the visions weigh on her. Yesterday was a good day.”

“And today?” What if Rose had seen something… what if sheknew? Zylah swallowed. They reached the end of the empty hall, and with a glance back, she realised just how many might be living there at the safe house. Were they all Fae?

“Today is one of many. What other ingredients do you need?”

Zylah turned her attention back to Saphi as the Fae held another wooden door open for her. “Any vegetable or fruit oil, and beeswax, or just candles will do if you have any. And I’ll need a—”

They entered a large kitchen, worktops stacked with baskets and bowls of colourful vegetables. Zylah walked right up to the workbench in the centre of the kitchen and reached across for the pestle and mortar. “These. If the cook won’t mind.”

Saphi raised an eyebrow at that. “The cook? We’re all the cook here. And the cleaner, and the laundry service. Everyone pitches in.”

“Are they… is everyone Fae?” Zylah asked, sniffing at an earthenware jug on the counter.Nut oil. Of course, from the trees in the forest.She rested her basket on the workbench, pulling open drawers to look for a knife.

“Every member of the uprising is Fae or half Fae; humans are stationed with the Black Veil. Not that everyone agrees with that, but we’re just following orders.” Saphi’s eyes darted to the door.

“From whom?”

The door swung open, and Raif strode in, marching right over to the workbench beside Zylah. “From the boss,” he said with a wink.

“I’ll be right back with the wax,” Saphi offered, glancing between them.

Zylah nodded, her thoughts already back in the forest with Raif, remembering the way his hand fisted through her hair and he’d traced kisses down her neck.

He sat on the workbench, twirling a leaf from the basket between his fingertips. “You don’t trust me.”

“I don’t?” Zylah asked, snatching the leaf from him. She felt Raif’s gaze on her as she moved about the kitchen gathering things for Saphi’s return. He’d bitten into a brin fruit—gods knew where he’d pulled that from—and she did her best not to catch his gaze.

“You took us to the grotto first, not to the safe house.”

Zylah tugged her glasses off, folded them shut and placed them on the table. She was sick of looking at the world through the frames, but out there she still needed to hide. “We’ve just met, and things have been moving quickly.” Part of her didn’t want to hesitate; part of her just wanted the distraction.

“I apologise,” Raif said with a slight bow. “I keep forgetting you’ve only recently discovered your Fae side.” He snatched up the glasses and tried them on, lowering them down his nose with a finger to look over the top of the lenses at her, and took another bite of his brin fruit.

Gods above. Zylah reached for the glasses just as Raif gently caught her wrist. “And?”

He cast the glasses aside on the table, pulling her into the space between his legs. “Fae are known for their… ravenous appetites when it comes to pleasure.” He took another bite of the brin fruit, and Zylah couldn’t help but watch as he licked his lips slowly.

“My trust in you could easily be rectified,” she said, her treacherous gaze still fixed on his mouth.

He traced his fingers along her wrist, up her arm and across her shoulder, pausing at the opening of her tunic. “Tell me what you need.”

Zylah stilled his hand. “Tell me about the uprising. Tell me about the Black Veil. Tell me what it means that Arnir is coming here, why that’s so important that Rose couldn’t wait to tell you even though she doesn’t trust me.”

“And here I was thinking my good looks were enough to carry this relationship.” Raif set the brin core on the workbench beside him and winked at her.

Insufferable. “Don’t deflect. I don’t like lies.”

“Isn’t that what you’re doing?” He gestured to the glasses beside them.

“I’m… choosing to withhold the truth; that’s different,” Zylah said, taking a step back from him.

“Is it?”

It wasn’t, at all. She was lying to all of them, except for Holt, and maybe she’d have still been lying to him too if he hadn’t found her feeling so vulnerable.

Raif leaned his weight on one hand, never breaking his gaze from hers. “The members of the uprising are scattered across the city in different safe houses. Hang around for a little longer and this place will start to fill up. Or don’t, but I think you can see for yourself that there are more than just us staying here. The Black Veil is led by human allies, most of the humans that sign up don’t know that, but we mostly use them as a decoy for Arnir’s men. Rose doesn’t trust you because she just met you, and because she’s Rose. And Arnir’s visit is important, because of what we intend to do when he gets here.”

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