Page 4 of Invidia

Okay, I hadn’t been fishing for compliments, but I wouldn’t have complained if he’d slipped one my way. Maybe living in the shadow realm was going to my head—I was getting too used to being complimented every second of the day just for existing. This was different. This was the first time I’d actually wanted a Shade to flirt with me since I’d arrived here.

Maybe I just wanted what I couldn’t have.

“Why did you come to the shadow realm?” Evrin asked, moving right along.

I shrugged, mirroring his nonchalance. “I needed a change. I hadn’t been part of the Hunters for a while. There was no love lost there on my part. I guess I felt like I was getting one over on them by coming here.”

I doubted anyone cared, aside from my immediate family perhaps, but even those relationships had been strained in recent months.

The other reason that I’d come here—that I’d had nothing going on in my life, and desperately wanted to crawl out of my own skin and everything that had ever touched it—was less cute, so I kept that one to myself.

“You don’t have parents?” Evrin asked bluntly.

“I do. They’re Hunters first. Parents second.”

“Ah.” He didn’t apologize for bringing up what was clearly a difficult subject. I wondered what that would be like, walking through life without second guessing every word that came out of your mouth and whether they’d been offensive to someone, even unintentionally. “I’d offer to answer your questions, but I presume you have some kind of welcoming committee of Shades to do that for you.”

“Not quite. We have Ophelia—who is amazing, of course—but she’s answering questions from a human perspective.” Honestly, it would have been really helpful to have a Shade we could speak to privately, but I guess the king was worried that we’d feel too much pressure and leave if there was so much as a single Shade in our presence at Elverston House.

“You can ask me,” Evrin offered, tipping his head back against the wall, one leg bent and his arm draped over his knee. He was the very picture of languid ease, and I kind of wanted to crawl into his lap and absorb that sense of calm through my pores.

My scent might start making things awkward soon, because I was definitely starting to have a physical reaction. The more unbothered Evrin was, the more I contemplated having rabid, filthy sex with him.

I was glad there were no therapists in the shadow realm, so I didn’t have to feel guilty about not going.

Should I… try to seduce him?

The idea had never occurred to me before. I honestly wasn’t sure I had it in me. Verity ate Shades for breakfast, but she was drop-dead gorgeous and a ray of sunshine no matter who she was speaking to.

Still, I could try. Right? There was no one around to witness my humiliation if Evrin rejected me. And he said he wasn’t usually at these things, so I’d never have to see him again.

I could do this.

I could channel my inner Aphrodite, and try to get laid in this courtyard. Or at least do the Shade equivalent of getting his number.

Just… be sexy. It can’t be that hard. Right?

“I don’t know that the questions I have are appropriate for strangers,” I said with a slightly hysterical giggle that I didn’t quite tamp down in time.

Oh god, I was terrible at this.

Evrin angled himself to look at me better, and I forced myself to be brave and hold his gaze, admiring the sharp planes of his cheeks and the kind of jawline that humans paid good money for. To be honest, I’d never had a good memory for faces, and with Shades, their facial features were humanoid, but also very much not at the same time.

Aside from the dark blue eyes—which weren’t an uncommon color at court—and floppy hair, I wasn’t sure there was anything that would particularly make me remember this dude’s face again if I ran into him around the palace.

“Hmm, not appropriate for strangers… It wouldn’t be about our anatomy, would it?” he asked lazily. “I’m sure we’re all curious about yours, and this supposed compatibility between us.”

Alright, this was heading in the right direction. Maybe I wasn’t as terrible at this as I’d assumed.

“It’s hard not to be curious about that,” I admitted, glancing at his claws. “We’re very… fragile, compared to you.”

“Everywhere?”

I felt his gaze on my bare legs.

“Everywhere,” I confirmed. “Your claws would, um, shred us. You know. Down there.”

“Well, of course. We don’t use those on female Shades either. Down there.”