“Don’t say a fucking word.” He ran, and this time, I had no trouble keeping up with him. I was properly dressed and able to move.
Tears flooded my eyes. I’d just destroyed these people’s livelihood. I didn’t even know how or why. Well, I knew why. That fairy. On his lap. But why was I so concerned with what my captor was doing? Was I seriously so desperate for affection that I would do this?
I struggled to stay with him, though my boots were significantly more comfortable than the slippers I had worn before. Women and children on the street walked toward the inn as we fled it. Their murmurs of confusion filled the space. “Did you see what happened?”
I shook my head and ignored them. “Keep up,” Cypress growled loudly before squeezing my arm tighter. I was so ashamed and a little drained. What had I done? How had I done it? After nodding toward an empty alley on our right, Cypress yanked me over to it and slammed me against the brick exterior of a tall building. “What the fuck was that?” he asked.
My cheeks flushed in embarrassment. “I-I don’t know.”
“You just randomly conjured a tree in the middle of a crowded inn?” he growled. Cypress looked back at the street as a Fae man fluttered by, before drawing his attention back to me.
“That’s never happened to me before,” I stammered.
“Well, of course not. The prison wards made sure the moon couldn’t power you up, and the wards protected against any other reserves your birthright had.”
Yes, that made great sense. And now that he’d lined it up for me, I understood. I still didn’t know the why or how. “Cypress, I don’t even know how I did that.”
“Well, that fucking sucks.” He spoke through gritted teeth. “Because we can’t prevent it if we don’t know how you did it in the first place or even why.”
I was glad to see we were on the same page. “I..I was mad.”
“You were mad?” He lifted an eyebrow, which just proceeded to piss me off.
I shoved at his shoulder. “Just as you intended me to be. And don’t deny it. Be man enough to own what you did.”
I gasped when I saw vines poking through my skin and wrapping around my hand where I’d shoved him. What the hell was happening to me? He grabbed my wrist to inspect the vines, and lightning shot out like a snake to bite at him. “Ouch!” he yelled while snapping back, shaking his hand with a wince.
“Explain to me exactly what I did,” he demanded.
I rolled my eyes, both annoyed with myself and frustrated with him. Saying it out loud made me feel foolish. “You had that fairy woman in your lap. You were trying to get a rise out of me,” I murmured. Hearing my own voice make those words forced a blush to my cheeks. My mouth opened and closed as I tried to process what I was feeling. My reasoning seemed childish and out of sorts. Even though I hadn’t planned on blowing up the place, I still hated how out of control these new powers were.
Cypress’s face twisted into a series of expressions. Confusion. Realization. Annoyance. And then…
Cocky assholery.
He smirked, and I wanted to slap him across the face. The ground trembled where we stood in echo of my anger, and I fell forward, bracing my hands against his muscular chest. “You’re jealous,” he said in a matter-of-fact voice.
I didn’t dignify his comment with an answer. “I have no control over my powers.”
“But you can control your emotions. Let me simplify things for you a bit,” Cypress said while bracing both hands on my shoulders and pushing me away from his hard body.
“Last night? Was nothing more than pity.” I curled my lip as he continued to speak. “I know you’re probably confused. You were locked up in that prison with virtually no interaction. Infatuation is normal.” He sounded pretentious and condescending. I wanted to tear my eyes away from his and knee him in the balls.
“I’m not infatuated with you,” I gritted, though I wasn’t sure if it was true or not.
“Good,” Cypress replied. “Because I’m no knight, Princess. I’m a killer, and you’re a job.”
Cold ice infused with pain slashed across my chest, but I didn’t want him to see the effect his words had on me, nor feel out of control of my emotions. If my powers were triggered by that, then I’d draw them in and lock them up in the prison behind my rib cage.
I took a steadying breath and closed my eyes, drawing upon that familiar numbness I knew well. Being in the prison required a certain unfeeling. If you wanted to survive with your sanity intact, you had to take your wants, hopes, disappointments, and wishes and bury them within yourself. You simply had to exist in nothingness.
I opened my eyes. “You’ve made your point. I’ll be sure to remember our dynamic.”
Cypress stared at me for a moment before shaking his head. “Alright. I need to go back to the inn to get our supplies. You stay here, okay? Don’t talk to anyone. Don’t go anywhere. I’d take you with me, but I don’t want the Fae to smell the residual magic on you.”
I didn’t understand what that meant, but I didn’t question him. “Fine.”
He left, rounding the corner, leaving me standing there all by myself. Goosebumps broke out on my arms. I rubbed them away. This was screwed up. I was with a stranger that, yes, I was infatuated with. Why? Because he’d saved my life and held me last night. I was starved for attention. There was no question about that. People had come and gone from my life in shifts for as far back as I could remember.
One woman would raise me, and then she’d leave. Another would take over. I’d learned to hold on for brief periods of time, to take temporary love in lieu of ever having the
