Page 15 of Hearts on Fire

I slapped my hand over the hood, trapping his finger inside.

“No one can know about this.”

He moved his eyes to mine. “Why?”

“They got rid of my hair before. They’ll do it again, Elex. That’s why.”

A deep groove formed between his eyebrows.

“Why did thesalamandrasdo it to you? Did Mother make them? Was it the king’s order?” His voice lowered to a growl. He looked ready to rip apart whoever I pointed my finger at.

But I’d never held a grudge against the three women who waxed my hair off. It wasn’t their fault that the circumstances were against us all. Out of the three, Zenada was the only one left alive now. And I certainly wasn’t going to sic Elex on her.

Dropping my gaze down, I removed his hand from my hood, then tucked the loose strand back under the cloth.

“It doesn’t matter who did it. It was done for my safety and theirs.” He kept staring at me with that dangerous frown on his face and murder in his eyes, so I tried to explain. “Here is what I’ve been told, Elex. In this world, nothing good comes to those who are different. I’m the only human in Dakath, which makes meverydifferent. In addition to that, apparently, the color of my hair is also somehow important.”

“King Edkhar likes red,” he muttered under his breath.

“Why? I don’t feel all that special being a redhead. It often feels like a nuisance as it comes with all these freckles and the risk of sunburn at the slightest exposure to the sun.”

He slid my sleeve up, then traced the freckles on my forearm with the tip of his finger, as if connecting the stars into a constellation.

“Red is the color of fire,” he said. “And fire is the symbol of power. Long ago, it was also believed that in gargoyles with red hair, magic also manifested the strongest—” he cut himself short, as if thinking of something. “Well, since ‘long ago’ is now, it’s notwasbutis.Itisbelieved that red hair means more magic and more power.”

“But I have no magic. None. I’m a human, remember?”

He stroked the side of my face with his finger, his expression softening.

“How could I ever forget that? My dearest, most beloved human.”

Slowly, deliberately, the warm pad of his finger traced the shape of my face, from my cheekbone down to my jawline. His eyes stayed on mine. The red spark deep inside them flickered and churned.

I was no longer cold. My body heated, making me wish I could take the woolen robe off. I shrank away, turning my head to evade his touch.

He wouldn’t let me get away, though. Cupping my chin in his hand, he turned my face back to his.

His eyelids dropped a little, as did his voice. “Am I so hideous to look at that you keep avoiding it, my spark?”

Yanking my chin from his hand, I turned to his left. The man in the lounger a few feet away from us had asalamandrain his lap. Her hood was off, and I recognized the woman. Her name was Delsandra. She was a quiet one who spent a lot of time indoors. I’d hardly ever seen her in the courtyard back in the Sanctuary.

One of the man’s hands was buried in the hair on the back of her head as he kissed her. The ties of her robe were undone, the man’s other hand was in the neckline of her shirt, fondling her breast.

Delsandra gyrated her hips. Her moans mingled with his in the kiss. With her skirts pooling in his lap, it wasn’t clear whether he was inside her or if she simply rubbed herself against him through their clothes. Either way, this was a private scene, not for me to watch.

I turned away, meeting Elex’s heated gaze again.

“This ‘celebration’ is turning into a real orgy,” I muttered, my cheeks burning hot from what I’d witnessed.

Even without looking at them, I couldn’t escape the sounds of the people kissing and moaning next to us. On the right, similar sounds came from the king’s throne.

Elex didn’t seem bothered by what was happening around us. His attention was fully on me.

“Is this something all gargoyles do?” I blurted, just to say something as his stare started to burn a hole in my self-control. “The orgies? Did you have them in your time, too?”

“Orgies?” He swept the room with his gaze as if noticing his surroundings for the first time just now. “We had celebrations often, but not like these.”

“Were yours without sex?”