14. Sage

CHAPTER 14

Sage

My nerves steeled against seeing more of the men of the Black Tower than I really wanted, I slipped out of my room and down the stairs just outside my door.

Grefin had said any of the stairs in the barracks would take me to the bathhouse and the stairs closest to my door meant I wouldn't have to try to look masculine while walking past that group of men who'd stared at me before — although I now realized they'd been staring at me in part because I looked like a child but also because I was covered in shadow monster blood.

The stairs ended in a plain wooden door like all the other doors I'd encountered in the barracks, and I cracked it open to peek first so I'd be prepared for what lay inside. But the only thing on the other side of the door was another stone hall that stretched ahead and to my right and was brightly lit by more fae lanterns.

Heat and moisture filled the air, indicating that there was hot water nearby, and I stepped into their embrace, savoring how much it was like the Herstind I loved and had left. Ahead, there were a few doors, but only on one side of the hall, as if I stood on an outside edge and the hall traveled the perimeter of the bathhouse. Other than that, there was nothing to indicate what lay behind each door.

In search of something to tell me where I was going, I headed right. At the end of the hall was another door at the corner leading to a stairwell and more hall stretching to the left that looked identical to the hall I'd just walked down: long, stone, brightly lit, and with a few unmarked, wooden doors.

That hall turned left to another hall and another, and I was back where I'd started. I hadn't run into anyone, so I hadn't been able to ask directions, and each door had been identical. Even the stairwells had been the same, and I'd really hoped one of them would have been bigger indicating a main entrance. Which meant I was going to have to open a door at random and hope for the best.

I looked at the two doors closest to me.

If I was setting up a bathhouse, I'd set towels just inside the door of every pool. Which meant all I'd need to do was open one, pop in, grab a towel, and leave. Maybe no one would notice me.

Maybe no one would be in the room?

Except I didn't even know if there were rooms on the other side. Maybe it was one big open area.

Shadows!

All right, if I was going to put the sacrifices anywhere, I'd put them in rooms the farthest away from anything useful and that included the baths. Which meant the door closest to me was probably a storage closet or a servant's entrance… not that they had servants in the Tower but?—

Just pick a door!

I grabbed the latch for the closest door and eased it open a crack. Steam billowed in my face, blinding me for a moment, but once it cleared all I could see was a gold and white tiled corner and no towels. Not even a rack or a bench.

Swell.

I pushed the door open wider to search the room, and my gaze landed on the most stunning fae I'd seen so far.

He lounged in a pool large enough for two dozen people with steam curling from the water and caressing his skin. He was exactly like the fae from the tales with long white hair that surely reached his waist when he stood. Four thin braids at his temples held it back from his face and exposed his delicately pointed ears, while the rest was splayed across the tiles behind him, and a gold earring, adorned with tiny pearls, capped the tip of one ear and looped through three holes pierced down the side, catching the light.

He'd hooked his arms over the edge of the pool behind him, his muscles sculpted to perfection, and the water lapped halfway up his chest, giving a tantalizing glimpse of his muscular torso.

Then he looked at me, capturing me with eyes that were soft mesmerizing swirls of white, pink, purple, blue, and gold, and my whole essence stuttered, trapped within the whirlpool in his gaze.

"Ah, so you're the reason Rider's in a foul mood," he said, his words sliding through me, sending a shiver of sudden, shocking need thrumming low within me. "Why would you risk going through the ring after dark?"

"It wasn't fully dark when I stepped through," I said, barely managing to remember to sound gruff.

"You're that eager to become a novice? That's unusual for a human." He sat up, showing more of his chiseled chest, and my mind jumped to the fact that he was in a pool and had to be naked.

My essence stuttered again and I fought to think straight.

"Why do you call us that?" I blurted out, saying the first thing I could think of. "Grefin called me that, too. I'm a sacrifice." In a literal sense. Edred had purposefully ensured Sawyer's name would be called and I'd given up my freedom, possibly even my life, to save him.

"Because sacrifices have nothing to live for and that makes a man reckless. Reckless men get their fellow guards killed." His eyes narrowed. "But maybe that's why you stepped through the ring after dark. You're probably one of the youngest novices the humans have ever sent us. Maybe you'd rather the shadows deal with you than face the rest of your life in the Guard."

"It wasn't dark when I stepped through," I insisted.

Oh, shit.

I snapped my mouth shut. I shouldn't have talked back. Even if I was supposed to be a boy and could look him in the eyes — which were seriously distracting — I should have just bowed and agreed. He was still a fae which meant he was more powerful than me in every way.

"I didn't realize the sun set sooner in the Gray, my lord," I said, heaving my gaze to my feet.

"It seems your education has been lacking."

"Yes, my lord," I replied.

The sound of sloshing water taunted me to look up, telling me he was swimming closer, but I kept my gaze locked on my feet.

"And it seems I need to start right now," he said with a huff.

My breath picked up and I fought to stay where I was. Edred had been a general in the king's army and he liked to teach lessons, too. It made sense that the Black Guard followed a similar discipline, especially since the members hadn't volunteered. The Lord Commander had already assigned me smelly labor, I should have expected a thrashing as well so I wouldn't forget what I learned.

"The first lesson is don't look at your feet," he said.

What?

My attention jerked up in surprise before I could stop it and I fell into his swirling eyes again. He'd shifted in the pool to lean his chest against the edge closest to me, his long hair trailing in the water behind him, undulating in the waves and showing me teasing flashes of his back and butt.

"You're a member of the Black Guard, you bow to no one. Not to me, the Lord Commander, my peoples' high priestess, or even your king. We're the guard against the shadows and we're always vigilant."

"Yes, my lord."

"Lesson number two," he continued. "Only the commander and the captains are called lord. Everyone else is just who they are."

"Grefin already explained that one," I murmured.

"And yet you're still showing me deference," he said, his lips curling into an enigmatic smile, and I couldn't tell if he was pleased that I wasn't following the ‘no lord' rule or not.

Then he stood and my heart stopped. The water sluiced over muscles honed to perfection and lapped around his hips, the churning water obscuring his cock. But as soon as the water stilled?—

I heaved my attention up before I got an eye-full of something I feared would taunt me for the rest of my life and strained to keep my expression neutral. Except neutral was impossible so I twisted it from shock to hopefully gruff concern.

"For all I know you're one of the captains," I forced out, my mind screaming, caught between the urge to look and the need to get out of there before I revealed I was a girl.

He chuckled and climbed out of the pool.

Oh Father, save me!