Bad Fae | romantasy | Bad Fae #1

Chapter Ten

Our routine was the same and days blended into each other until time started to lose all meaning, and I felt like I was starting to understand what an immortal life would look like. But I wasn't bored. I didn't have time to be bored.

Ninleyn filled my mornings, bringing me more books he thought I'd enjoy. We'd read together or talk. In a moment of probable madness, I even tried to suggest some ideas for more specific ones. Information on the Darkrealm itself. Maps of Aegrath. Ideas on fae architecture. Of course, I could only hint about an interest in these things and hope that he'd bring me what I needed. I wasn't sure if I could risk him realising my true motives for wanting the knowledge. It was true that I was interested in general but, if he realised that I was also trying to plot an escape, then he might not be so helpful. Then, I realised that he knew full well that the geas stopped me from actually escaping, so he probably thought it was harmless. Actually, it may easily have been a form of playing with me; give me the information I want, tease me with it, knowing I could never use it.

Nephinae bruised and battered and broke me in the afternoons under the guise of training me. I felt myself getting stronger each day, but I didn't think I was getting any better. My weak human taint meant she would always be superior, and I quickly came to realise that she had in fact been taking it easier on me that first day. Because while I was sure I had to have made progress, it was like she managed to go harder at the exact rate of said progress so it felt like I wasn't making any.

Venali continued to distract my nights as often as I wanted. And, with Dain hovering in the background of my life just tempting me with his existence, I made use of Venali's availability more often than I probably really needed to.

Every day I spent in that place, I was one step closer to forgetting what Dain had done, what he'd taken from me. No. Not forgetting. But it threatened to fade into insignificance. I would never believe I could forgive him, but it felt like I was on the edge of it just not mattering. Because every day, I was closer to giving into the blazing heat between us. And I just couldn't. I wouldn't. Perhaps I was spiting myself to spite him, but I needed to know there was a line I wouldn't cross.

As Nephinae glamoured me into my armour that day, I was thinking about some of the books Ninleyn had brought me that week. How that knowledge had built upon what I'd been told all my life, and what I just seemed to understand from a part within myself I didn't really know.

"There are different kinds of glamours, yes?" I asked Nephinae once she had me punching her hands.

"There are," she agreed. "Do you want to show off what you know, or were you asking for a lesson within a lesson?"

I smirked. There was no malice in her voice. Rather she sounded like a pleased tutor who is proud that their student is learning and wanting to use that knowledge. All any of my previous tutors had ever felt for me was annoyance, and they had regularly called me 'precocious' as though it was bad that I enjoyed learning.

"Both?" I offered and she inclined her head for me to continue. "There is physical illusion, there is actually changing reality, and then there are mind games. Mental illusion."

She nodded. "Even so."

"Is there a way for mortals to tell the difference?"

She shrugged. "Not really. I don't think." It didn't surprise me that the fae didn't care what their effect on humanity was, so long as it got them what they wanted.

"This armour," I suggested, and her eyebrow rose in amused question. "Did you change reality, or do I just think I'm wearing armour?"

She laughed. "I was going to say that Dain and Venali would certainly both be here watching if you were actually naked, but then I suspect, if either of them caught sight of your arse in that leather, there would be no keeping them out."