15. Sage

CHAPTER 15

Sage

"You've got me there. I'm Talon, Captain of the Gold Tower, but I'd rather you drop the lord thing. Welcome to the Black Guard, novice." He held out his hand in the customary human men's greeting between equals of clasping forearms. Still completely naked!

I will not look. I will not look. I ? —

I raised my hand to complete the greeting and caught a glimpse of darkness. That drew my gaze down to my shadow-blood-covered hands and then past to his cock. It was at ease, but still bigger than I'd seen before… not that I'd gotten a very good look at many other cocks… but still. Of course, he was taller and broader than most of the men I knew, and certainly bigger than the boy I'd given my virginity to, so it would make sense he'd be bigger there, too. And now my thoughts were rambling.

"I ah…" I jerked my hand back. "I don't mean any offense, my lord, but I'm— My hands are— I'm sorry."

I was still staring at him, at his sculpted abs and muscular thighs, and his cock. Oh, Great Father, I was stuck. I had to look away. Now. Please. Look away!

Heat burned my face, and I knew that under the shadow blood splatter it was the same color as my hair.

"Ah— No." He grabbed a towel from a shelf beside me that I hadn't noticed — because I'd been staring at him — and quickly wrapped it around his hips. "It's me who should apologize. Most of the humans in the guard aren't fae-touched and my nudity isn't an issue."

"What—?" None of that made sense. Did he know about my strange premonitions?

But then realization kicked in. When a human was referred to as fae-touched it meant two possible things and both were said with disgust. The first was that he or she had a hint of magic and somewhere in their family someone had been cursed by a powerful fae.

The second was a man who was attracted to other men instead of women. All of the fae living in the Gold Tower in Erellod's capital were men and it was well known that they had intimate relationships with each other. I'd even heard from the most recent minstrel who'd visited Herstind castle that some of the fae in the Gold Tower had taken marriage vows with each other.

Lord Talon thought I was attracted to men.

"My magic heightens an attraction that's already there. It's most powerful on humans. If I'd know, I would have been more discreet." He paused, as if waiting for me to respond, but I couldn't think past the knowledge that Talon thought I was fae-touch to come up with a response.

"I won't say anything, if that's what you're worried about," he added. "You can keep it a secret, but you'll find the only ones who might give you trouble about it are novice humans. We have a few bonded mates among our fae guardsmen, and everyone learns pretty quickly what is and isn't acceptable behavior toward them."

"I—" I had no idea what to say about that. A part of me wanted to deny it. But if everyone thought I was attracted to men, I wouldn't have to fight so hard to hide it and it would explain why I was shy around everyone when they were naked.

"You'll still have to deal with the communal bathing rooms unless you can get an elite assignment. But your reaction won't be nearly as obvious if I'm not naked. Now come on," he said, picking up a black shirt that was a part of a heap of black clothing on the rack where the towel had been. "I'll show you to the towel room and a pool where you can clean up."

He turned his back on me and opened up the towel — likely to put on his pants — and my pulse stuttered. I jerked away from him before I ended up staring at his butt.

"So, this is an elite pool?" I squeaked, unable to keep my voice gruff, the image of what his tight-muscled rear would look like jumping into my mind.

"No," he chuckled. "And it's safe to turn around now."

I turned as he drew closer and reached for the doorlatch. My pulse jerked and my face burned hotter. Even dressed in a black shirt, pants, and boots, he was stunning. And now I knew what lay under those clothes.

I had no idea how I was going to function, let alone pretend I was a guy, if I reacted like this with all the fae.

"Elite teams have a private bathing room in their suites for cleaning up." He opened the door and led me down to the other door.

I was going to smack myself if the towels were just behind that door. Of course, if I had picked the other door, then I wouldn't have gotten an eye-full of Talon… and I couldn't decide if that was a good thing or not.

"That's a soaking pool with healing water." He opened the door and led me into another hall with white, blue, and green tiles covering the ceiling, walls, and floor. It had a mix of wooden doors and open archways and ended in a large wide arch, tiled with a gold and black pattern. "It's good for aches and bruises. Anyone can use it if they have the free time. Training only happens in the morning and afternoon so there usually isn't anyone down here this late after the evening meal. This is when I use the pool so my magic doesn't end up making someone uncomfortable."

We walked to the large arch. Inside was an enormous, thankfully empty, pool. Wisps of stream swirled above its surface, indicating it was still hot, but not as hot as the healing pool. At the back were a series of open stalls with buckets hanging overhead.

"Come back to this pool area. Leave your towel and clothes on the rack." He pointed to a large, five-shelf rack just inside the archway with a couple sets of clothes and towels. "Scrub the blood off in the rain stall then soak for a bit in the pool." He turned and headed deeper into the bathhouse, passing another arch with a smaller pool, before opening a wood door beside the large arch at the end. "This is the towel room. Clean towels on the rack. Dirty towels in the bin or in the laundry bin near your room."

"Laundry bin?"

"There are a couple on every floor in the barracks."

Of course there were. There was a bathhouse in the basement, a room for each guardsman, and water from a pump in every room. Why not a bin for laundry? Next, he was going to tell me we ate fresh vegetables in the winter as if we were all royalty.

"Everything will be explained when the other novices arrive tomorrow. For now, clean up and get a good night's sleep." He turned, strode to the end of the hall, and left.

I stared at the closed door.

The Black Tower wasn't at all what I'd expected.

The image of Talon's stunning naked body flashed through my mind's eye and my face burned again with embarrassment.

The fae, however, were so much more than I imagined.

They were just as seductive and alluring as I'd been warned against, and I was going to have to be very, very careful. Especially if they were as kind as Talon. Even if I'd been flustered at seeing him naked, he'd made me feel comfortable, that my life was safe with him.

And that was a dangerous feeling. I might be safe with him when we were fighting side-by-side as guardsmen, but I wouldn't be safe if he found out I was a girl.