Flight (Children of the Sidhe) Read Online Free Page A

uncomfortable, not actually coming on to him.
    “You’re not bad looking yourself, faerie . But I’m not interested.”
    Tessa gave him a cold look , her jaw clenched.
    Nathan said, “How about this: I’ll just go back home now and Nemglan can come have a chat there if he wants.”
    Tessa stepped toward him, and again placed her hand on his arm. He resisted the urge to move closer to her. “Nathan, let your father have a chance to seek the assassin. Give him tonight, and tomorrow morning if he has not reappeared I’ll take you through the portal myself.”
    He doubted she meant to do any such thing, but he knew nothing of portals. What choice did he have but to trust her? His father apparently did.
    “You say that with such distaste.”
    “I haven’t been beyond the veil in many years. Your world was never to my liking. Too much clamor, too many vain and stupid mortals. I enjoy my scholarly life here. My home is quiet, even by Tir Nan Og standards.”
    “Mine, too,” he told her, for some reas on. She was still standing so close, looking at him with eyes like jewels. “Quiet by vain and stupid mortal standards, anyway.”
    “So you’ll stay?” S he gave him an encouraging smile, like she spoke to a child throwing a tantrum.
    “Tonight. That’s my only guarantee.”
     
     
    Five
     
    Nathan paced some more after eating a snack out of his bag. Tessa offered him food, but while he looked at it with longing, he turned her down. She’d smiled at that. So he knew something of the old tales. She didn’t know how half humans responded, but the food of Tir Nan Og was addictive to humans. It was one trick Sidhe had used in the past to trap humans here.
    Nathan’s pacing finally annoyed Tessa enough that she showed him to a room. He radiated tension as he followed her up the stairs. He needed to settle down or he was going to shift again.
    “I’m sure Nemglan will return by morning – time flows more slowly here in Tir Nan Og, so he’ll have a day or two beyond the veil in the course of your stay. Do you need anything else?”
    “I’ll need more water, but not until the morning.”
    “And food. You’ll need to eat, Nathan.” She wasn’t sure why she c onfronted him with it tonight. It could have waited until the morning.
    “I don’t want to eat Otherworld food.”
    “But you’ll chance the water?”
    “Do you think it’s safe?”
    “I could try a spell to ensure it.” Tessa entered a guest room and looked around. She hadn’t used this room recently, but all appeared ready for her unanticipated visitor. The walls were cream colored, and the dark wood floor had a woven rug in red and black. The enormous bed took up nearly half the space, and a fireplace stood in the center of the opposite wall.
    “Again with spells?” H e frowned as he followed her into the room.
    A single window showed the deep gray of a Middleworld night. This world moved between dawn and dusk, but never had a true night. The dusk deepened until you’d think you stood on the border of night, and then the dawn would stretch out before you, leading to the new day. Underworld was exactly the opposite. They never had a true day. What would seem to be pre-dawn light would give way to dusk, and a night that stretched on and on.
    “Let me light a few glow lamps for you. ” She touched one, and her spell hopped from it to the other two, in a chain that brightened the chamber in seconds.
    Nathan scowled at the spells, but she could tell from looking at the clear bottle he’d been drinking from that he didn’t realize how much he depended on human technology , which may as well have been spells for all he knew how they worked.
    “Now how do I turn them off?”
    “Give me your hand.” He did, his fingers warm against her skin. She touched his open palm, and he tried to pull back but she wouldn’t let him. “Oh, yes. I thought so. You have Sidhe magic,” she breathed. His magic felt bright and pure, far lighter than hers. She