Page 23 of Compass Points
Luc tilted his head. “And yet you just described mine quite succinctly.”
Her cheeks colored slightly. “You’ve used magic multiple times since I met you. I’m pretty good at recognizing the smell, given my weapon-making senses,” she replied.
“But those abilities are traditionally aligned with”—he stumbled over the phrasing—“half-fae parentage.”
“They are.”
“But you are not half-fae. They can’t smell magic.”
“They cannot.”
He took another step back, sitting on the edge of the bed, his hands resting on his knees. “I thought I was done underestimating you.”
“Well, if it makes you feel better, I underestimated your magic too.”
“It does not, but what do you mean?” A smirk tugged at the curve of his lip.
“Mind magic, Luc? I didn’t even think that was real. I thought it was a bedtime story.”
The smirk turned to a small smile as he replied, “I used it to make them forget they saw anyone leaving Bury.”
She guessed they were being honest with each other now. At least, sort of. He still hadn’t asked what kind of fae she was.
“When you touched them?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“And you were somehow able to tell who all had been told the story?”
“Yes.”
“And so you know that there is one more person in the village that we need to track down, and you need to touch?”
A nod this time. He’d given up on verbal responses as his eyes locked on hers. She had a feeling that, as Suden Point, there were few he was completely honest with about his magic.
“Have you ever used that magic on me?”
A pause and another head tilt. “No, Rose. I want you to remember every one of our interactions.” His mounting concern at sharing information about his magic seemed to melt into a seductive smile before her eyes.
“Even the interaction where you attacked me?” she asked pointedly.
“Ah, but that fight was our proper introduction. Never underestimate the power of first impressions. You liked me so much you licked me.”
Gods, would she never live that one down? Impulse control. She needed to learn impulse control. “Keep telling yourself that.” She said, her hand coming to rest on her cocked hip. “But you can take memories about others, not just yourself? You were able to remove their memories of me?”
“No one remembers that two people were coming out of the village. Well, almost no one. Let’s wrap this up. Can you call Arie?”
She opened the window and didn’t have to look far before the familiar black bird flew into the room.
“Took you two long enough. What were you doing in here? It smells weird.”Arie looked at Rose’s face. It must have shown the weight of her revealed secret.“What happened? What did he do?”The bird’s head snapped towards Luc.
“Nothing—well, I messed up, and he caught me.” Luc’s gaze darted to her, trying to pick up the thread of the conversation with only her side of it. “He knows I’m fae.”
“Want me to kill him?”Arie said as he ruffled his feathers.
Rose raised an eyebrow at the bird. “Could you do that? He has a lot of power. Mind shadow, if you believe it.”
“I wondered,”Arie said.“Offer still stands. I can take care of him if you’d like.”
