A Deal with the Elf King (Married to Magic, #1)(63)

“I did.”

“That must’ve taken you—”

“All night.” Yet he doesn’t look any different than normal. His skin is the same shade and no dark circles line his eyes. If looking refreshed after spending all night reading is some elf ability, I am going to feel extremely shortchanged as a human. “It completely enraptured me.”

“Really? I mean, I’m glad.” I try not to let my surprise give him the wrong impression and force a smile. Everything is awkward.

Eldas regards me with a guarded expression. “I would care for the next one you recommend.”

“Pardon?”

“You had others, correct?”

“Yes, but—” Eldas is already crossing the room. “Wait, where are you going?”

“To your apartments,” he says, as if the fact is obvious.

“Excuse me?”

“The other journals are there, yes? I would like to start the next one you recommend. I admit I glossed over some of the more detailed notes on plants, however. So please give me one with more margin notes and personal anecdotes alongside the herbology.”

“All right,” I say, as if this conversation is totally normal. “Actually, come this way.” I start for the door in the back of the throne room.

“But—”

“There are two specific ones I want to recommend to you. Well, three, but I’m not finished with the third yet. The last one I have in my apartments, but the others I’ve already returned to the laboratory.”

“Very well, lead on.”

If he’s trying to be normal then I will also. If he doesn’t want to address last night, then I don’t need to either. Ignoring it is the best, healthiest, most mature response, right? Right.

Hook pushes past me as I open the door. The wolf scampers halfway up the stairs, stopping to look back at me, as if frustrated I’m not going fast enough. He clearly already knows where we’re headed.

“Go on ahead,” I encourage. “We’ll be right behind.”

Hook lets out a small bark and bounds away.

“I started doing some other research last night,” Eldas says.

“Other research?” I laugh. “You had time to research something else and finish that whole journal?”

“I already told you I skipped the sections of herbology,” he says somewhat remorsefully, as if the very idea of not reading every word in a book is embarrassing for him.

“Fair. What is it that you researched?” I assume he wants me to ask. Otherwise, why bring it up?

“If there have been any other instances of Fade beasts wandering into Midscape.”

“And?”

“It’s not entirely unprecedented. But, usually, they do not linger this long. Fade beasts are the animals that were caught between when the worlds pulled apart. They might look and feel mortal…but they are part of the Fade itself.”

“Part of the Fade itself,” I repeat. “So every animal, tree, creature, was trapped in place when Midscape split from the natural world?”

Eldas nods.

“The Fade is almost like a creature unto itself, then. Isn’t it?”

I pause on the stairs, noticing Eldas has fallen behind. He stares up at me with his shining blue eyes. He stares at me in a way I haven’t had him look at me before. Yearning, if I had to describe it.

“That is correct,” he says gently. “The Fade is very much like something living, breathing, thinking.”

“And trapped in stasis.” Somehow, I pity that dark, primordial mist.

“No one has ever recognized that before,” he says with a note of surprise.

“I’m sure someone has.”

“No, they haven’t,” he insists and takes another step toward me. I wonder if he’ll kiss me again. I wonder how it’ll feel with both of us sober and sensible. I’m doing a very poor job of ignoring these thoughts. “It gives me hope that you’re so fond of something from the Fade.”

“Why?”

“Because it speaks to your capacity for compassion if you could care for something of the Fade. It is a cold place.”

Cold like me, I realize is what he wants to say. If the Fade comes from the Elf King, and I care for something of the Fade, does that mean I care for him? Is that what he sees? Is that the truth?

“The Fade…” That seemingly sentient wall is a part of Eldas. “I thought the first Human Queen helped make it?”

“Yes, the Human Queen’s magic, her gift from the earth, and the Elf King’s powers bestowed by the Veil. It took both of them.”

“See, we’re stronger when we work together,” I murmur. I’m against the wall again and he looms over me.

“Perhaps you’re right.” Eldas wears a small smile and continues up the stairs. I breathe a sigh of relief. I don’t know what I would’ve done if his attention was on me like that for a moment longer.

When we arrive at the laboratory, Willow is on his knees, knuckle deep in the most rigorous belly scratches I have ever seen. Hook is clearly loving the attention with tail-wagging, body-wriggling delight. “Who’s the best Hookie? You’re the best Hookie! Best boy gets his tummy scratched. Yes he does. Yes he does.”

“Oh, Hook, my fierce defender, what am I going to do with you?” I laugh and cross back to the bookshelf. Willow hardly acknowledges me. “You spoil him, you know.”