A Little Night Muse Read Online Free Page A

A fleeting note of
disbelief canted his tone upward, and she cursed her lack of experience with
stubborn human males.
    She needed to occupy him with other things. “Have many more
like me come here?”
    He shrugged. “I’ve seen a few of the Hunters’ friends when I
run stock through here. Vaile says he’s happy not to mow.”
    Adelyn forced herself not to scoff. So the Hunter disguised
himself as a good neighbor by letting cows tromp through his fields?
How...worldly of him. “Where do these friends go, after they leave here?”
    “Back to Hollywood, I suppose.”
    The phae had their own holy woods,
but none of the runaways would be welcomed there. Not anymore. Was Josh hiding
more than he was saying? Out here in the world, she was uncertain of the
strength of her musetta power to inspire him. Maybe
she just hadn’t found the right incentive to unlock his secrets. She had to find
it and, through Josh, find the Hunter, if she wanted Raze to lift her exile.
    Josh was scanning the valley—as if there was anything
interesting to see—so she used the moment to study his face.
    Even the ugliest phae had a certain
undeniable intensity that compelled the eye. Josh had none of that. And
yet...
    Maybe the simplicity of him stunned her. What sort of man
rescued a damsel in distress without expectation of...Ah. Speaking of simple.
Inspiration was about passion. And buried passion had a special power.
    “Thank you for taking me.” She let her voice thrum in her
throat.
    His arm, looped behind her back to hold the horse’s reins,
flexed against her shoulders. “It was nothing. I couldn’t leave you there
alone.”
    She resisted the urge to huff in exasperation. She didn’t want
him thinking it was nothing; she wanted him to want payback.
    To want her.
    “Still, I’m imposing on you.” She gazed up into his muddy-agate
eyes. “As you said, people come to get away. Yet here I am, intruding on you
with my needs.”
    A ruddy flush brightened his cheeks, highlighting a thin scar
that arrowed up his right cheekbone to a point below his clouded eye. “Vaile
would want me to watch out for you.”
    Vaile would kill her, and maybe Josh too, if the Hunter
discovered her task.
    She tried to stifle the thought of the deadly phae , but the tremble in her hand wasn’t feigned when
she reached up to lay her palm against Josh’s jaw. She let her fingertips brush
the old scar on his cheek. “I could have died there.”
    He snorted. “It’s not that cold.”
    Adelyn blinked. Raze had said Vaile would take her in because
of her helplessness. Musetta weren’t celebrated for
their sturdiness and survival skills, after all. But this man thought she would
have been fine. Wasn’t she obviously useless? Except for one use, of course.
    He wrapped his fingers around hers and pulled her hand down to
rest in her lap. He patted her thigh with as much lustfulness as he patted
Wolly’s head. Which was to say, exactly none.
    “Look.” He pointed toward the clouds. “An eagle. Headed down to
the river to fish.”
    She blindly followed his pointing finger. Eagle? Fish? This is
what she inspired in him, a nature show narrative?
    True, she didn’t know much about humans, but she had gleaned
enough from gossip of other phae who played in the
world. Humans like William who had found their way—or been tricked—into the phaedrealii never seemed particularly
complicated. Josh seemed simpler yet. And yet his core eluded her.
    A musetta had to get to the
core.
    “You love this place,” she said slowly.
    He angled his face to track the dark spread of feathers across
the bright sky. “Why else would I be here?”
    Why else? Oh, because he’d been forced there and had no other
choice. Because he was too afraid to be elsewhere. She was just hypothesizing,
of course. “Why do you love it?”
    He smiled, and a dimple appeared below the scar on his cheek.
“Look around. Who wouldn’t be inspired?”
    She narrowed her eyes. Was he teasing her? But