He took another step toward me, his head bowed to look down into my eyes. I licked my lips, trying to hold my ground. “You know all you need to know,” he said. “You merely have to release the information from your mind, and the magic with it. Slowly at first, to get used to it, but then in wild, hard, pleasurable gushes.”
Okay, that was a little much with the double entendres. I knew that logically, anyway, but my body hadn’t quite gotten the memo, because I shivered hot and cold.
“How do you know that?” I asked.
Another step, right in front of me now, leaning over me so our breath merged, the air between our mouths heating. “I don’t know,” he whispered, his voice not much more than a hum. “I just do. The second I landed on Ivy House soil after rescuing you, I felt it. I felt it as hard as I felt your summons. Just like I can feel your magic, which isn’t something I can normally do. I am meant for this role, Jacinta. I am meant to help make you our queen.”
Like Edgar finding the book because he was meant to read the old scripts. Clearly Ivy House had deemed Damarion worthy, and given him a few tools to help him train me.
She couldn’t somehow superheat my blood within his proximity, could she? Because that was just wrong on so many levels.
“Okay, well…” I took a nice, big step back, just in case. “O-kay. I’m going to go. I’ll see you tomorrow. Flying, right?”
“Yes. I’ll take you flying after your training, and then to dinner.” He put his forearm in front of his waist and bowed. “If you’ll allow me to escort you.”
My belly fluttered. “Uhm, sure. I should warn you, though, I haven’t been lucky on the dating front. Zero for two. Well, zero for three if you count the failed marriage…”
What was wrong with me? He’d said dinner, he hadn’t said anything about dating! Even if he had, my response shouldn’t have been to knock myself and call out my divorced status in the same breath. Abort, abort!
“Anyway…”
“Tomorrow, we will end your streak of bad luck.” He took hold of my hand gently, his palms baby-soft, and brushed his lips across my knuckles.
I wanted to swoon, but instead all I felt was awkward, especially since his pants had tented, I couldn’t stop from noticing, and this situation was escalating a lot quicker than I was comfortable with.
“Good night.” I yanked my hand out of his grasp, turned like an army captain, and strutted away.
My first breath came after I turned the corner. Holy crap, that had been intense. He’d been super forward. His confidence was off the chain, so that was probably why, but still, that whole exchange had blown the doors off my comfort zone.
The door on my left opened, and I jumped, startled. The door slammed shut.
“Oops.” I magically pushed it open again. I might not have mastered much of my magic, but I did know how to work with Ivy House. “Sorry about that,” I said as Ulric, the guy with the pink and blue hair, jumped back from the door, looking at it, then me, with wide eyes.
“Hey,” he said, running his hand through his hair. He pointed at the door. “You can do telekinesis, huh?”
“Yes, supposedly. Edgar says so, at any rate, but I don’t know how yet. That wasn’t telekinesis, though, that’s just the power of Ivy House.”
“Uh-huh.” Tilting his head with squinted eyes, like he was processing that uncomfortable fact, he stepped out of the room. He was compact, not much taller than me, and leanly muscled, like a dancer, his physique less brutish than many of the others. He pointed the way I was headed. “That next room has a bunch of dolls in it. I accidentally walked in there thinking it was my room. It is not.”
“Yeah. They aren’t mine. I mean, technically they are, but Mr. Tom won’t let me burn them, so…”
“Ah. Well, you know, some are nice…and normal. Some, though, are a little…”
“Screwed up?”
“Nightmarish, I was going to say. Made from a warped mind. The jar of doll eyes floating in liquid is also a little…” He put up his hands. “I’m not judging. My sister had a ton of dolls—not that many dolls, but a lot. I mean, a lot for a normal house. I don’t mind them, I was just surprised, is all.” He grinned at me, his signature facial expression. “Just didn’t peg Her Royal Highness for a doll lover.”
“I hate them, actually, especially since they come alive and kill people.”
His smile dripped away. “What?”
“Don’t worry, they can’t open doors. Ivy House can, but they can’t.”
“If I get on Ivy House’s bad side, I should get out of this house as quickly as possible, huh?”