Page 147 of Of Bargains & Betrayal

There was so much peace written all over his sleeping face, it made my chest ache.

His softly bowed lips parted, just a little. The crease between his brows was nothing but a faint line. Even his eyepatch had slipped up a little, exposing more dark veining and scars that decorated the hollow of his eye.

That made my chest ache a lot, and I tried not to let my attention linger on it. He’d tell me one day, I hoped, what had left him so badly maimed, but I wouldn’t pry.

He must have been as exhausted as I was, though, because his eyepatch hadn’t moved an inch the entire night before.

Not after I had my hands in his hair endlessly, raking my nails over his scalp and tangling my fingers in his strands. I’d assumed he used magic to keep it so well secured, and this only confirmed my suspicion. So sated and drained, he’d let his hold on his magic slip in my presence.

My aching heart welcomed a beat of rakish pride.

As much as I felt the urge to keep lying there with him, soaking in the image I never thought I’d see, another urge crept up on me that was wholly inarguable—my poor bladder.

I wasn’t sure if it was really morning or not yet—not with how there didn’t seem to be a source of natural light anywhere in Jasper’s room—but a scattered few nytefire lanterns, throwing pale-blue light from their glass, gave me plenty to work with.

With as gentle a touch as I could manage, I lifted Jasper’s hand from its anchor on my waist and set it on the mattress between us. He made a soft huff of a noise and curled further in on himself.

I remembered seeing my clothing end up somewhere toward the foot of the bed, so I slipped off and tiptoed around, picking up the first object that resembled a shirt.

A small win—it was actually mine.

The hem rolled down to the tops of my thighs as I crept back towards the half-open door beside the bed. I glanced back quickly to confirm Jasper was still asleep before I stepped inside the bathroom and gently closed the door behind me.

Of course, every surface inside was immaculate. I wasn’t sure why I’d thought some part of the last fifteen years would change that staunch part of him.

Not a single dish of soap or bottle of bath tonic out of place. Every towel folded or hung with care. Two eyepatches lay on the counter, set out with identical precision.

I gave him the benefit of not rooting through his drawers, but I knew they’d be the same.

I made quick work of relieving my protesting bladder and splashed a little water on my face before I slipped back out into Jasper’s room. He was still sound asleep, and I refused to entertain the idea of disturbing that.

There was plenty else for me to distract myself with while he got the sleep I was sure he desperately needed, if the dark circle that graced his hale eye was anything to go off.

Just like his bathroom, the rest of his room was spotless and organized to an awe-inspiring degree. The bed looked so starkly out of place, with its rumpled sheets and discarded clothes at its foot. I could only imagine how neatly made it was before Jasper dumped me on it.

A full wall of bookcases sprawled out to one side of the dim space, and I couldn’t read the spines on most of them—both from their weathering and the languages they were written in.

The few I could make out came as little surprise—magic, magic, and more magic.

Bargains and plane stepping.

Syphoning and healing.

Illusions and elemental manipulation.

A few historical records were spread between them too, and I didn’t dare touch the glass and metal trinkets dotted amongst the shelves.

A small drafting desk broke up the wall of vast knowledge, and when I peered behind the curtains hanging above it, I found a boarded window. I’d ask about his aversion to daylight another time. I pulled out the small chair and sat down, running my fingers over the stack of notebooks squared off to one side.

My goal wasn’t to snoop, but I lifted back the cover of the top one, just enough to glimpse the edge of a page, and I smiled.

His writing was still the same.

He was still the same in so many ways.

I leaned back and looked over the weathered books, the fascinating trinkets, and the endless knowledge.

When Jasper was still Kieran, and we were so foolishly naïve, this was everything he had ever dreamed of attaining. A high mage with his personal trove of invaluable goods, of knowledge others could not fathom the meaning of.