Seven Black Diamonds (Seven Black Diamonds #1)(27)

She pushed the door open farther, murmuring a soft greeting to the remnant of the spirit of the wood that still clung to the aged timber. Vines clung to the walls and exploded in every hue of green she could hope to see. Inside the garden, paths were clearly marked. At the far back of the curated part of the garden was the mouth of a labyrinth. To either side of it, the plants seemed to have been allowed to go wild. The juxtaposition of the sculpted maze and the chaotic expanse was perfection. People didn’t enter the wild anymore. Fears of fae lurking in the shadows kept most of humanity to the fringes of nature.

Lily went into the maze and twisted through several passageways. Then, after a quick glance to make sure there were no witnesses, she asked, “May I pass?”

The plants rustled softly as they parted to allow her into the wilderness outside the labyrinth. She stepped through the opening in the hedge wall, expecting to be alone with the rarely visited plants of the wild, but there, dressed only in his tattoos and jeans, was Creed Morrison.

She was glad she hadn’t arrived a few moments earlier. He was buttoning his jeans.

At her gasp, he looked up and saw her. “And here I’d begun to think you disliked me.”

The anger in his voice was tempered by his apparent amusement at her discomfort. Lily looked down at her feet to keep from staring. She’d certainly seen pictures of him like this, bare-chested and barefoot. He’d been caught on a beach in Ibiza wearing nothing more than jewelry, ink, and a smile. He’d been photographed in the restored Trevi fountain in Roma. The journals had blurred just enough to keep from violating “privacy of minors” laws, but only just. She’d liked the pictures, as she suspected most anyone with functioning eyes would. Still, seeing the pictures of mostly naked Creed Morrison hadn’t made her feel dizzy the way the real person was.

“I was just”—she gestured behind her—“taking a walk.”

“And stepped through a hedge wall without a scratch? However did you manage that?”

She looked back at him as he buttoned the top button on his jeans. He didn’t sound as friendly as he had at her party, and she had exactly zero experience in being challenged. She kept her lips pressed together.

“Is this the part where you injure yourself by lying again or admit that you’re a fae-blood like me?”

She stared at him, consciously holding his gaze and not letting her attention drift to his bare skin.

Abernathy Commandment #6: Never confess your vulnerabilities if you can avoid it.

“Neither.” She smiled then, letting a little of her temper into it. “I don’t see the need to answer that question.”

Creed laughed. He was dangerous in ways she didn’t understand. Growing up with criminals had prepared her for a lot of things, but not this. She felt the urge to flee just as she had the first time she’d seen a mountain lion in the woods.

However, she knew enough to know how to protect herself a little. The fae were known to stand by their word—their literal word, but still, it was better than humanity, which could be treacherous for so many foolish, selfish reasons.

“Do you mean me harm, Creed Morrison?” she asked. It wasn’t a perfect request, but she’d spoken his name as she knew it, and the intent was there. She’d never attempted to elicit a fae bargain before because of the risks of exposure, but he already knew what she was.

Creed’s eyes glimmered in approval. “On my blood, I do not.”

She opened her mouth to reply, but he spoke over her. “And do you, Lilywhite Abernathy, daughter of Iana, mean me harm?”

They were alone in the garden. There were no witnesses, no one to hear her words or his. She sat down on the ground.

He matched her movements.

Slowly, not looking away from him, she spread her hands out over the ground. Tendrils of vines snapped to her like whips. They curled around her from wrists to biceps. It wasn’t the extent of her relationship with the things that lived within the soil, but it was enough to point out that she wasn’t defenseless even in their isolation. The knife in her pocket and the one strapped to her leg were a secret, and she opted to keep it that way. Her affinity with the earth she would admit, partly because her fae-blood nature wasn’t a secret from him and partly because she needed the touch of earth.

“I mean you no harm on this day and until such time as you mean harm to me or mine,” she vowed.

“Thorough,” he said mildly.

“Contracts and negotiations are familiar territory. My father is a crime lord.”

“The crime lord,” he corrected.

Lily shrugged. She’d reached her limit of admissions for the moment. The vines on her wrists slithered away, and she stroked her fingers over the soil, not lingering long enough that the plants would share their most recent memories. Seeing the full image of a naked Creed Morrison was a tempting idea, but definitely not a good one. Her memory flashed back to the photos with the blurred sections.

After a moment when it felt like the air became perfectly still, he sang, “Deadly girl. All I’ve ever wanted was a girl like you, a girl who kills me a little more every day.” His words touched her skin with each breath, despite how far apart they sat. “Sun-kissed skin and bloodstained heart. All I ever wanted was you.”

She shivered.

“All I need is a deadly girl, a—”

“So air,” she interrupted. “Your affinity is for the air.”