2_-_court_of_mist_and_fury_a_-_sarah_j._maas

CHAPTER
48
Apparently, the nearby “inn” was little more than a raucous tavern with a few rooms for
rent—usually by the hour. And, as it was, there were no vacancies. Save for a tiny, tiny
room in what had once been part of the attic.
Rhys didn’t want anyone knowing who, exactly, was amongst the High Fae, faeries,
Illyrians, and whoever else was packed in the inn below. Even I barely recognized him as
he—without magic, without anything but adjusting his posture—muted that sense of
otherworldly power until he was nothing but a common, very good-looking Illyrian
warrior, pissy about having to take the last available room, so high up that there was only
a narrow staircase leading to it: no hall, no other rooms. If I needed to use the bathing
room, I’d have to venture to the level below, which … given the smells and sounds of the
half dozen rooms on that level, I made a point to use quickly on our way up and then vow
not to visit again until morning.
A day of playing with water and fire and ice and darkness in the freezing rain had
wrecked me so thoroughly that no one looked my way, not even the drunkest and loneliest
of patrons in the town’s tavern. The small town was barely that: a collection of an inn, an
outfitter’s store, supply store, and a brothel. All geared toward the hunters, warriors, and
travelers passing through this part of the forest either on their way to the Illyrian lands or
out of them. Or just for the faeries who dwelled here, solitary and glad to be that way. Too
small and too remote for Amarantha or her cronies to have ever bothered with.
Honestly, I didn’t care where we were, so long as it was dry and warm. Rhys opened the
door to our attic room and stood aside to let me pass.
Well, at least it was one of those things.
The ceiling was so slanted that to get to the other side of the bed, I’d have to crawl
across the mattress; the room so cramped it was nearly impossible to walk around the bed
to the tiny armoire shoved against the other wall. I could sit on the bed and open the
armoire easily.
The bed.
“I asked for two,” Rhys said, hands already up.
His breath clouded in front of him. Not even a fireplace. And not enough space to even
demand he sleep on the floor. I didn’t trust my mastery over flame to attempt warming the
room. I’d likely burn this whole filthy place to the ground.
“If you can’t risk using magic, then we’ll have to warm each other,” I said, and instantly
regretted it. “Body heat,” I clarified. And, just to wipe that look off his face I added, “My
sisters and I had to share a bed—I’m used to it.”