A Little Night Muse Read Online Free

He retrieved the gun from beside the door where he had left it and came
toward her.
    She swallowed hard.
    Not that she feared his gun. It was steel, not iron. And he was
no Hunter that she should fear him, gun or no. But something about his steady
gaze and unfaltering step made her heart double its pace. She was too tired from
her ordeals to maintain a thick glamour and had only blurred the preternatural
edge of her beauty. She wanted him to tell her about the missing phae , not contemplate odes to her eyeballs. She’d had
entirely enough of odes.
    Still, she had the sense he was seeing more than she might
like. That muddy-colored gaze of his—neither blue nor green nor brown under the
shadowing brim of his hat—seemed too perceptive for a mere mortal, despite the
faint clouding of a scar in his right eye. Perhaps he had a trickle of phae blood in him. That would explain the strands of
gold in his sandy hair, seeming to beckon her fingers to run through the thick,
ragged locks. And that would also explain why the missing phae were comfortable in this land of small, bitter, ugly
valleys.
    She supposed the Hunter and his paramour weren’t exactly missing . They had fled. And she had been sent to
return them. The reminder of the vizier’s charge made her shift uncomfortably,
her feet cold in the thin slippers on the icy ground. Every phae should want to be back with the court. Even if some— musetta among them—might occasionally venture into the
sunlit world, they belonged in the phaedrealii , not
wandering among sharp-eyed humans like this Josh who might bring the iron
back.
    He reached around her to slide the gun behind the horse’s
saddle. “You ready to go?” When Wolly barked, he smiled at the dog before
returning his gaze to her. “Where are your things?”
    She resisted looking down at the remaining mushroom and lifted
her satchel in mute explanation.
    “No boots even?” Josh shook his head. “Never seen a woman
travel so light.”
    If only he knew.
    He swung up onto the horse in a fluid move she didn’t quite
follow. Then he reached a hand down to her and waggled his fingers. “C’mon.”
    She stared at his big, wide palm and those long, strong
fingers. With a reluctant sigh, she slid her hand into his.
    The shock of her musetta powers
seeking a target rattled through her again, weakening her bones. But he hauled
her up with the strength in just one arm and sat her across his lap. The front
hump of the saddle pressed her close to the human. To Josh.
    Oh, he was so warm. She hadn’t realized how the cold had sunk
in until his radiant heat surrounded her. For days now, she had been loosing her
powers in this world that seemed endlessly hungry for the touch of her magic.
She longed for the phaedrealii where—she couldn’t
believe she was willing to admit—she was nothing special. Her head bobbed
wearily, the warmth and the rocking of the mere horse lulling her.
    “You never told me your name.” His voice rumbled through his
chest, intimate with their forced proximity.
    “Adelyn.” The truth escaped her lips before she could censor
it. A sliver of shock pierced her. Why had she told him that? Did his voice have
a power over her?
    No, he was a simple human. He couldn’t use her name against
her.
    “Adelyn.” His tone was soft, soothing. “Pretty. Does it mean
something?”
    “No.” Agitation made her twist upright. “And I ask you not to
share it with others. I prefer not to be known.”
    “Fine by me. This is a good place for people who want to get
away.”
    So Vaile and Imogene and the other escaped phae must have discovered. Adelyn had never wanted to get away.
Fleeing had been forced on her unfairly.
    “I meant to ask you,” Josh said. “How did you get here? I
didn’t see a car.”
    “Oh, I just...dropped in.” Adelyn gestured randomly, using the
misdirection of her hand to pull a bit of the swirling mist around them to cloud
his mind.
    “Just dropped in,” Josh echoed obediently.