“Then do it,” I encouraged him, smiling. “I’ll go with you. And I’ll wear jeans.”
His amusement melted into shock. “You want to go to the ball with me?”
“Sure.” It seemed like the least I could do after all this forced guardian crap. And it hadn’t taken a genius last night to determine how much he didn’t want to take me to class today. Maybe something like the ball would show him I wasn’t so bad. And besides… “It sounds fun.”
“Fun,” he repeated, sounding dubious. “You really want to go?”
“Yeah, why not?” I smiled. “I mean, only if you want to.”
“What about Titus?” he asked. “Wouldn’t you prefer to go with him?”
“He’s not mentioned it.” But perhaps that wasn’t what Sol meant. Was he trying to come up with an excuse for us not to go? I glanced at the girl with dark curls, watched as she laughed with a beauty most men would adore. “Do you want to go with Aflora?” I wondered out loud. Because if he did, I’d understand. I mean, we weren’t dating. We were hardly even friends. But I sort of wanted to be friends. Maybe.
Sol followed my gaze, his expression turning into one of adoration as he slowly shook his head. Not necessarily the kind of look a man gave a woman he wanted to fuck, but perhaps Sol was different?
“Nah. Aflora has a childhood crush on me, but I’m not right for her. It’s because she was one of my sister’s best friends,” he explained, running his fingers through his copper-colored strands. His earthy brown eyes flitted shyly to mine, then dropped to the ground. “I, uh, lost my sister a few years ago.”
“Oh, Sol, I’m sorry.” That wasn’t
at all what I expected him to say.
He lifted a shoulder. “It’s the plague, you know. Spirit Kingdom is next to Earth Kingdom, so, uh, it spread.” His mouth twisted. “That’s why everyone looks, uh, small.”
“You mean this isn’t normal?”
“It didn’t use to be.” He grimaced, palming the back of his neck. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to talk about this, just thought you might want to understand why I’m so much larger.”
“I was wondering,” I admitted. “I… I don’t know much about the plague. But I know my, uh, mother somehow caused it.”
He nodded. “That’s the story, but I think it was general corruption amongst the Spirit Fae.”
“What do you mean?”
Sol shoved his hands into the pockets of his navy slacks, his shoulders hunching. “I shouldn’t talk about it.”
“Why?” I wondered. “Because it’s me? Or in general?”
His mouth twisted. “It’s, well, both.” His earthy gaze met mine, the light green flecks hidden in his brown irises coming to life beneath the sun above. “We’re not supposed to talk about it.” That last part was a whisper, his expression contrite. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“I’m glad you did,” I admitted. “No one will talk to me about my… what happened. I mean, Exos gave me the basics, told me how my mother left Mortus during the third stage of the bond and then refused him after returning to the fae world all those years later. And somehow that started a plague. But that’s all I know.”
Sol lifted his face to the sky, the glow tanning his features and lending him a handsome appearance. I could see why many of the Earth Fae females wanted his attention. He seemed completely oblivious to his charming looks, which made him all the more attractive.
“That’s the story they want us to believe,” he said quietly. “But my mother told a very different tale.” He glanced at me, then at the students assembling on a variety of tree trunks throughout the courtyard—tree trunks that weren’t there seconds ago. “Class is starting.”
Meaning he didn’t want to talk about this anymore. I understood. We hardly knew each other, and he didn’t trust me. Given my introduction to this world and the events of the last few weeks, I couldn’t fault him for disliking me. Maybe I’d read his responses to the ball completely wrong. It wasn’t so much shock at going as it was shock at me asking him to go.
Note to self: don’t bring it up again.
“Okay,” I said, recognizing that he needed space. “I’ll go find a, uh, seat.” I took a step and tripped over a piece of earth that wasn’t there a second ago.
Sol caught me by the arm before I could hit the ground and yanked me upright. “Shit, my bad. I thought you sensed that.”
I frowned, looking down at the two tree stumps that had magically appeared without my knowledge. “How…?”
“This is where I usually sit. I made you one, too, thinking you wanted to, well, you know, but you can join the others. That’s cool. I mean, you can do whatever you want. I’m not, this isn’t, well…” He palmed the back of his neck again and shook his head. “Yep.”
My lips threatened to curl at his stammering, my heart warming in his presence.