That’s when Ronan, in front of the entire court, had declared he was finished with her.
Just like that.
In love one minute and publicly dumped the next.
Bella’s heart had shattered. His rejection of her had been humiliating, but it had been her broken heart that had made her literally sick.
Even worse had been the years of having to live at court with him. She became a master at avoiding him, until she’d decided her pride couldn’t allow that kind of behavior. They said hello once in a while in a corridor, made small talk when forced. She’d tried to build a wall of non-emotion between him and herself. She’d never managed it. Not quite.
Ronan emerged from the bathroom wearing only a towel around his middle. Water droplets still clung to his chest, and his dark hair was slicked back, throwing his handsome face into sharp relief.
Bella sat up against the pillows and cleared her throat. There was not even close to enough fabric covering that man. His smooth golden chest, back, and arms rippled and flexed with every movement he made. She knew it was only some primitive female mating directive that made her react to all that muscle and strength. That’s what made her want to lick him all over. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact it was Ronan. Nothing. She fussed with the coverlet as Ronan moved around the edge of the bed, closer to her.
“I won’t drop my towel, I swear.”
Anger flared in a hot rush through her veins. She glanced at him. “It doesn’t matter to me. Drop it. See if I care.”
“Okay.” He removed the towel and she turned her head away, but not before she got an eyeful of his narrow hips and long, wide cock.
“You’re blushing, Bella. I thought you didn’t care.”
“Danu, Ronan.” She cleared her throat again and concentrated hard on the opposite wall. It was better to change the subject and fast. Something. Anything. “Tell me what it’s like in the Unseelie Court.”
“The Unseelie Court?” He pulled on his pants and zipped them up, then worked the towel through his damp hair. “I told you my impression of the Black Tower long ago.”
“Tell me again.”
He shrugged. “It’s dangerous, but not as bad as you’ve been led to believe. The Summer Queen likes to demonize the Unseelie. Although it’s true it’s where the dark fae live. It can be brutal and violent, but it’s not the absolute evil that most of the Seelie Court believes it to be. The Seelie Royal herself is darker than many of the fae who live in the Black Tower.”
Bella disagreed. The Seelie Queen’s magick was dark in nature, and she had the will to spill blood—
which she’d demonstrated amply over her long lifetime—but her magick could not be used directly to cause harm. She could only take life if it was in defense of herself or her court, and the darker portion of her power was never passed on to her progeny. That was the law of the Seelie and the confines of the royal station.
“But to be Unseelie one must love to spill blood, that’s the saying. One must be able to kill with one’s magick. You don’t enjoy spilling blood and that’s why you came to Seelie.”
“No, you’re wrong.” He shook his head. “I came to the Rose Tower for you and no other reason, Bella.
If I had never met you I would still reside in the Black.”
She looked away from him, her jaw locking. Right. Then why had he dumped her and broken her heart?
He dropped the towel on the bed. “My magick is dark and I can cast spells that will take someone’s life.
It’s that capacity that makes me welcome in the Unseelie Court. I have the ability to kill with my magick; I just don’t have the will.” He paused and then said gently, “There are many more Seelie than you can imagine in the Summer Queen’s court who have Unseelie blood.” Her gaze jerked upward and locked with his. She had the capacity to spill blood with her magick. Did he know that somehow? Did Ronan know she was Unseelie?
“Many Seelie carrying the DNA of the Unseelie? That’s impossible. A couple, I could imagine.” Herself and Aislinn, namely.
He held her gaze in a way that unsettled her. “There’s more crossover than you might think. More liaisons between the Seelie and Unseelie than you can imagine. It’s secret on the rose side, considered shameful, but not so much on the black.”
She licked her lips and fiercely examined the fabric of the blanket covering the bed. If what Ronan said was right, they’d been fed a pack of lies about the supposed flip side of the fae coin. Even if it was possible that many more Seelie were in a predicament like hers and Aislinn’s, she still wished she could shake her attraction to the dark.
Just as she wished she could shake her attraction to Ronan.
Mastering her emotions so they didn’t show on her face, she commented, “Maybe one day I’ll see it, the Black Tower, I mean.”
“No.” Ronan shook his head and pulled his shirt back over it. For a moment Bella mourned the loss of his bare chest. “It’s not as bad as you think, Bella, but if I have anything to say about it, you’ll never find out firsthand.”
She glanced up at him. “Why? Don’t you think I can handle it?”
“You can handle anything, but the Black Tower is too dangerous for someone who hasn’t grown up there.”
“So what’s with being so protective of me?”
“You haven’t figured it out yet, Bell?”
Their gazes held for a moment, until she broke away and scooted off the mattress. “I’m going to use the bathroom.”
She inched around the bed and went directly into the bathroom to wash her face and shed as much clothing as she could to sleep better. When she exited, Ronan was on the floor, lying wedged on his side between the bed and the wall. She wasn’t going to think for a minute about how uncomfortable he must be. He’d been the one to get himself into this situation, after all, not her.
Bella crawled onto the bed and lay down with a heavy sigh.
She wasn’t going to think about what this bed was normally used for, either.
SIX
The light snicked out in the quiet air and the room sank into inkiness. Outside the window, fat snowflakes had begun to drift down again, catching and melting on the metal of the fire escape.
Tomorrow night was Yule, and all the fae in Piefferburg were celebrating the coming of the longest night of the year. The day after Yule the light would begin to increase and rule the world once again.