A Little Night Muse. Jessa Slade

are your things?”

      She resisted looking down at the remaining mushroom and lifted her satchel in mute explanation.

      “No boots even?” Josh shook his head. “Never seen a woman travel so light.”

      If only he knew.

      He swung up onto the horse in a fluid move she didn’t quite follow. Then he reached a hand down to her and waggled his fingers. “C’mon.”

      She stared at his big, wide palm and those long, strong fingers. With a reluctant sigh, she slid her hand into his.

      The shock of her musetta powers seeking a target rattled through her again, weakening her bones. But he hauled her up with the strength in just one arm and sat her across his lap. The front hump of the saddle pressed her close to the human. To Josh.

      Oh, he was so warm. She hadn’t realized how the cold had sunk in until his radiant heat surrounded her. For days now, she had been loosing her powers in this world that seemed endlessly hungry for the touch of her magic. She longed for the phaedrealii where—she couldn’t believe she was willing to admit—she was nothing special. Her head bobbed wearily, the warmth and the rocking of the mere horse lulling her.

      “You never told me your name.” His voice rumbled through his chest, intimate with their forced proximity.

      “Adelyn.” The truth escaped her lips before she could censor it. A sliver of shock pierced her. Why had she told him that? Did his voice have a power over her?

      No, he was a simple human. He couldn’t use her name against her.

      “Adelyn.” His tone was soft, soothing. “Pretty. Does it mean something?”

      “No.” Agitation made her twist upright. “And I ask you not to share it with others. I prefer not to be known.”

      “Fine by me. This is a good place for people who want to get away.”

      So Vaile and Imogene and the other escaped phae must have discovered. Adelyn had never wanted to get away. Fleeing had been forced on her unfairly.

      “I meant to ask you,” Josh said. “How did you get here? I didn’t see a car.”

      “Oh, I just...dropped in.” Adelyn gestured randomly, using the misdirection of her hand to pull a bit of the swirling mist around them to cloud his mind.

      “Just dropped in,” Josh echoed obediently. A fleeting note of disbelief canted his tone upward, and she cursed her lack of experience with stubborn human males.

      She needed to occupy him with other things. “Have many more like me come here?”

      He shrugged. “I’ve seen a few of the Hunters’ friends when I run stock through here. Vaile says he’s happy not to mow.”

      Adelyn forced herself not to scoff. So the Hunter disguised himself as a good neighbor by letting cows tromp through his fields? How...worldly of him. “Where do these friends go, after they leave here?”

      “Back to Hollywood, I suppose.”

      The phae had their own holy woods, but none of the runaways would be welcomed there. Not anymore. Was Josh hiding more than he was saying? Out here in the world, she was uncertain of the strength of her musetta power to inspire him. Maybe she just hadn’t found the right incentive to unlock his secrets. She had to find it and, through Josh, find the Hunter, if she wanted Raze to lift her exile.

      Josh was scanning the valley—as if there was anything interesting to see—so she used the moment to study his face.

      Even the ugliest phae had a certain undeniable intensity that compelled the eye. Josh had none of that. And yet...

      Maybe the simplicity of him stunned her. What sort of man rescued a damsel in distress without expectation of...Ah. Speaking of simple. Inspiration was about passion. And buried passion had a special power.

      “Thank you for taking me.” She let her voice thrum in her throat.

      His arm, looped behind her back to hold the horse’s reins, flexed against her shoulders. “It was nothing. I couldn’t leave you there alone.”

      She resisted the urge to huff in exasperation. She didn’t want him thinking it was nothing; she wanted him to want payback.

      To want her.

      “Still, I’m imposing on you.” She gazed up into his muddy-agate eyes. “As you said, people come to get away. Yet here I am, intruding on you with my needs.”

      A ruddy flush brightened his cheeks, highlighting a thin scar that arrowed up his right cheekbone to a point below his clouded eye. “Vaile would want me to watch out for you.”