Ashes of the Fae by Sophia LeRoux

Author:Sophia LeRoux [LeRoux, Sophia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-05-27T16:00:00+00:00

7

It had been so long since I slept well that I’d almost forgotten what it felt like to be completely rested. Refreshed. Having Iris back in my arms put me at ease. Though I had instinctively awoken several times during the night, I quickly fell back asleep. Even though he had killed the Hag, my head still sang with “what ifs.”

I had planned on going back downstairs to speak with him a bit more the night before, to learn more about him, but once we lay down I was out. Before dawn broke the horizon, when the first gray haze of day began to flood the room, I awoke. My throat was parched something awful.

Iris was still lost to the dream world. Her cheek was squished against the mattress, hair matted with sweat, and chubby little fingers clinging to her stuffy. She wasn’t going to be up anytime soon. In the foyer, Maddy was nowhere to be seen, but I’d spotted a neatly folded pile of blankets beneath a pillow at the end of the sofa.

Half awake, I slunk down into the kitchen, feet dragging along the frigid wood as I crept. The house was quiet, dusky, and filled with a pleasant aroma of burning wood from the stove. As the faucet squeaked, I watched the water cascade into the glass, mesmerized by it. My body was already enveloped by the warmth that flooded the room as the light tapping of feet approached behind me.

“Leila.” His voice chimed in greeting, and a queer smirk teased my lips before I spun around to meet him.

“Maddy.”

I looked at him over the glass, sipping down the liquid between shy grins. He shot me a few himself. He didn’t come all that close, stopping at the end of the island several paces away.

He had donned no hat or gloves in the dim light as I watched him swallow in anticipation. His eyes trailed down my body curiously before flicking back up. All the while he was tucking in his white button-down before lifting the straps of his suspenders, a quiet snap singing as they secured. His finicky nature then took over as his delicate fingers hugged the taut elastic—running up and down the length of it to caress any folds or twists away.

The air between us reeked of nervousness. Peculiar how even adults could be afflicted by such teenage emotions, but it was also somewhat exciting—all the raw passion and unsureness that flurried between us. The only downfall about it all was being unaware of his feelings on the matter.

“Did you sleep well?” I asked, watching him rub the base of his neck in what could’ve been a kink or just uneasiness, his elbow falling as the hand clung to his shoulder.

“I um…yes, I did. Thank you.” Again, he couldn’t look me in the eye. Instead he became distracted by his ungloved hands, studying me for some sort of reaction. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen them without gloves before.

“I would like to apologize for last night.

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