Deciding I’d dealt with enough for the first part of the day, I headed back to the first room and plopped down on the bed, not even bothering to remove my shoes before I passed out.
When a weight dipped onto the bed and I realized it was pitch black in the room, I was momentarily pissed my parents had let me sleep all afternoon and evening. That was until the body next to me was pulling the comforter back and I couldn’t see a damn thing.
Moving over, I assumed Jordan was getting into bed with me, but when there was a grunt followed by a hand around my throat, I quickly realized that was not the case.
Using the skills that I’d worked almost a year to hone, I grabbed the wrist of my attacker and twisted before flipping him onto his back. “What the hell are you doing in here?” I snapped while pinning his arms above his head.
I only knew it was a guy, because he wasn’t wearing a shirt and a muscled chest was barely visible as my eyes adjusted in the tiny bit of moonlight that peeked through the closed curtains.
“I was about to ask you the same thing.”
I recognized Ryland’s voice from earlier in the day, and I was once again thankful he wasn’t a relative considering I was straddling him, but that didn’t last long. He ripped his arms from my grasp and, with little effort, grabbed my waist to toss me back on the other side of the mattress before rolling off the bed.
“Are you staying here?” he asked as he turned on the bedroom light.
“Of course, I am. It’s my parents’ house.”
He glared as I moved from the bed to stand level with him. “No, this is their guest house. A house I normally stay in when they’re home. Why don’t you stay in the main house?”
“Because they offered it to me. Not that it’s really any of your business,” I retorted. He smelled of alcohol, and gone was the kindness he’d shown me earlier. A scowl marred his face, and I was not awake enough to deal with his diva attitude. “So, run along to your own house,” I added when he continued to glower.
Besides the similar eye color, Ryland had tanned skin and russet hair that fell over his forehead in that natural messy way I’d always found appealing. His broad shoulders and muscled abs were also on full display, and I let my gaze wander until he cleared his throat.
“Enjoying the view?” He smirked, which was better than his previous surly attitude, but still not something I wanted to deal with after being rudely woken.
“Nope. Just sizing up the competition,” I quipped. Thank the fates I’d always been quick on my feet with retorts. I did not need this guy knowing I thought he was hot. Something told me he was already well aware of how good-looking he was.
“So, considering you’re supposed to be my parent’s guard of sorts, why don’t you stay in the house with them? You don’t want to be caught slacking on your job all the way out here,” I said, then wondered if Jordan had come back at the same time as him, but I wasn’t leaving until the sleeping situation sorted out. Sure, there’d been an attraction, but I wasn’t giving up my space for anyone.
Before he could respond, the door slammed open in the living room. “Ryland, don’t—crap.” Jordan was a couple minutes too late.
Ryland threw his shirt back on as Jordan waltzed into the room. “Sorry, Kali. I made it here as quick as I could when your mom said you were sleeping.”
“Why didn’t anyone wake me up earlier?” I asked, pretending Ryland wasn’t still staring daggers at me.
“She tried. So did your dad. You wouldn’t budge. Come on over to the house and we’ll grab some food while we chat. It’s just after nine, so I’m sure you’re starving now.”
It was only nine? Then, why was Ryland already exhausted and ready for bed? Was he secretly some old man who needed his beauty sleep? That thought made me grin, which seemed to further irritate him.
“What about him? He thinks he’s sleeping here.” My head nodded toward Ryland and he wasn’t at all happy with me.
“Listen here, Princess. I don’t care what you—”
Jordan cut him off. “What he means to say is that he understands this is your family home and he’ll be gone before we’re back. Right, Ryland?”
He mumbled his reply and stormed out of the room into the bathroom.
Jordan pulled on my hand, and I gladly followed. When we were outside, I asked, “What’s his problem? He was nice for like two seconds earlier.”
“Don’t mind him. He’s just going through some stuff and might be a little inebriated.”
“So much for him being a top guardian,” I scoffed.
Jordan grasped my elbow. “He’s had a rough day. He deserved an evening of reprieve. Just try to cut him some slack and things should work themselves out soon enough. Ryland is one of my best friends from here. I promise he’s not all that bad.”
Deciding she was right—even if I didn’t know the whole story—I let it go and continued on to the main house with her. Hopefully, whatever attraction I had to Ryland would pass because he clearly didn’t feel anything for me based off his attitude. I was counting on his surly disposition to make sure any blossoming feelings disappeared.
When we entered the house, my mom was already setting out more food in the kitchen, because she was awesome like that, and my dad was sitting on the couch reading a book, which I immediately took interest in. We both had a love of reading, but I hadn’t been keeping up nearly as much as I liked.
“Glad to see you’re alive,” Dad joked when we walked in.
“Yeah, I guess jet lag exists even with portals,” I replied with a shrug.
“You’ll get used to it after a few times.”
Dad went back to his book, and I headed toward the kitchen to check out the spread my mom had laid out. There were several platters of baked goods and light snacks, making me realize I was famished.
“What’s wrong?” I asked after taking a seat at the counter and noticing the frown on her face.
She glanced up and smiled. “Just a lot of adjusting today. Don’t worry about me.”
I wasn’t sure I believed her, but I was already on information overload and didn’t push. After all, we were in a world where my magic was supposedly putting into motion the plans for some fae who wanted to destroy me. There was a slight chance I was overanalyzing things, because everyone had a perfectly good reason to be acting stressed.
Chapter Six
While at the kitchen counter, I focused on sampling the sweets first before putting some protein on my plate. Once I was stocked up with food, I decided to fill the silence with some lighter topics and turned to Jordan.
I brushed my hair back and pointed to my ears. “Why do they look pointy and yours don’t?”
She snickered. “Well, you’re more fae than me, more than anyone else in Arvayta actually. So, you get perks the rest of us don’t.”
“You call this a perk?” I glowered at her while gesturing again to my ears.
“Yep. Just be thankful you don’t have wings like the original fae did. Then, you’d really stand out in a crowd.”
Ugh, she was not helping. Time for a different topic.