Which made him both intriguing and very, very perplexing. Robin had left her to hang back alone with her lamp. Not that she could do anything about it. Her lamp had been rubbed by him; ergo she was bound to him. Period.
The sky was now completely dark, and the forest rang out with the sounds of night creatures on the prowl. Closing her eyes, Nixie listened to the sounds she’d secretly feared for decades she’d never hear again.
The absence of it made her appreciate it even more now. The wind smelled so much crisper. The sky was a deeper shade of blue than she’d ever remembered it being before. The grass beneath her was soft as velvet. And that apple, the first bite of food she’d eaten in seventy-nine and a half years—thanks to Robin, she now knew how long she’d been trapped—it’d been ambrosia.
The snap of a twig had her opening her eyes. It was Robin, back with a lit torch and a plate of roasted meat in hand.
“Take this.” He thrust the plate at her distractedly.
Too tired to take offense, Nixie took it. The rich, oily scent of it made her stomach growl.
“I’ve eaten. You may have whatever you want,” he said as he walked a perimeter around them, gathering up twigs and other things he could burn.
Nixie didn’t have to be told twice. She ripped off one of its hind legs and bit down. At a guess, she’d say the meat was rabbit. It settled crispy and sweet on her tongue, tasting slightly of grass, but still delicious.
Nix was working on her second leg when he finally spoke up.
“You’ve given me much to think about.”
His blue eyes pulsed like neon in the night. It was unnerving and even slightly sexy. They weren’t always glowing either, that was the strange thing about it. Almost like the color was tied to his emotions.
The meat in her mouth suddenly didn’t taste so delicious anymore. Setting her plate aside, she wiped the back of her mouth.
“Did you compel me earlier, Robin?” She’d had no intention of asking the question, but the longer she thought on it, the more sense it made.
“And if I said yes?” The light of the flame drew shadows and hollows upon his face, making her feel slightly breathless and out of sorts.
The man was undeniably attractive.
“How?”
“It’s all in the eyes.” He smirked.
He didn’t even seem contrite about it. The man was really annoying sometimes.
“Why? None of what you asked me seems all that important—”
He held up a finger. “I learned you know very little of Kingdom. The rules, the way we govern ourselves. You’re bull-headed, and prone to taking offense easily—”
She gasped, mouth falling open, ready to rip him a new one.
Full lips stretching into a satisfied smile, he nodded. “Am I wrong?”
At her silence he continued.
“You still ache for the comforts of home, but the banishment has lessened the pain a degree. You’ve now gotten to the stage in your curse where you’ve accepted your fate. You’re not happy about it, but you’re willing to deal with it, though you still count down the days to your release. You’re a genie without a compass, you were tossed into our world, and know very little of who you are or how to behave yourself. Which makes you easily led—”
“All of that from what types of food I like to eat and where I used to live—you think way too highly of yourself,” she snapped.
“You granted one of your masters a bottomless pit of sweets. You took her literally at her word. Most genies are duplicitous tricksters, so much so that anyone who owns you knows they must think long and hard on how they should phrase a wish, and yet you give them all they want and more.”
She scowled, breathing just a little bit harder. “You’re a bastard. And now you won’t get what you want. So thanks for the heads up.”
“Already been established, but in fact, I’m not trying to be one now. And yes, pet, I will get what I want.” He leaned back, resting the weight of his body on the log behind him, confident and sure in his assertions, and she hated him just a little bit for it.
“Why run the risk of telling me all this? Don’t you know it’s just as likely to make me harden my heart against you?”
“Because I no longer believe the stories of you are true. Granted, you did kill a man, but I’m sure I would have done the same had I been in your shoes.”
Flustered by the sudden, bright glow of his eyes, she glanced off to her left. “What have the stories said about me?” she finally asked a second later.
“That you’re a beacon of death. Many have searched for you, genie, but twice as many have chosen to let you rot in your prison, hoping you were never released.”
Those words stung. Silly that they should bother her, but they did. “So why tempt fate, what if I was the demon of the stories?”
Reaching into his shirt he pulled out another apple. Her mouth watered at the sight of it.
“Where in the world do you keep hiding those things?” she asked, there’d been no lump under his shirt, she knew because she couldn’t seem to stop herself from staring at his chest, remembering the way the muscles slid and moved as he’d walked earlier.