It is easy to joke with him, their back and forth banter coming so naturally they could've been friends for years. In another life, they might've been close. She might have been able to smile at him and mean it, to fall into the ocean of his eyes and linger there happily knowing that the world was as it should be. In another life, but not this one - in this one, things were not so simple. In this life, power is more important than love, or lust, or hope.

She will will break him, one day. In this life, she is built to use and take and destroy, so she holds him at arm's length in her mind, enjoying their jovial conversation for as long as she might before she must tear it all down around them.

His weight on the couch next to her pulls her from her dark reverie and she edges sideways to make more room for him, her knees pulled up with her arms wrapped around her shins, careful of the fresh cuts that have begun to stitch themselves back together. She tucks her toes beneath his thigh, trying to warm them up with the heat of his body. It helps that the touch of him sends little jolts of electricity across her skin, excitement coursing like fire in her veins.

"Perhaps you can teach me about things that grown-ups do," she teases, an impish grin stretching the corners of her mouth. "After all, I am just a wee little lass."

She leans forward now, pressing her feet further under him as she rocks forward, her eyes bright with fervor. "So. Hear me out," she warns, a nervous flutter of butterflies in her belly. This is it, the magician's trick, the moment when their lives would change forever and she's terrified of failure, of admitting that this might be her last chance to stake a claim against her aunt and being unceremoniously dragged back to Fairy to whatever fate might be waiting for her there.

This moment, each breath an agonizing burn in her dry throat.

"I am in danger," she finally says, her voice rising an octave at having admitted it out loud. It's a leap of faith, a drop of trust in the ocean in hopes that he might have enough pity on her to accept the offer that seals his fate. A fool's prayer. "Four years ago, I escaped Fairy and the Unseelie court, my aunt Morrigan and her hunter, when I was brought to trial for losing a powerful artifact which I have since been unable to obtain." She bows her head, a look of true shame distorting her face.

If she'd ever had one true regret, it was losing the Amulet of the Dullahan after her mother had trusted her with it in her last moments. True emotion softened her features and clouded her eyes, and she bit down on her bottom lip hard to clear her head, the metallic twang of blood filling her mouth. "I've been hiding, trying to find the artifact in the meanwhile. But I haven't been able to locate it, and my time is running out. The hunter is close, I can feel him," she breathes, not deigning to mention that her and Vaughan had once shared a bond that she had only ever experience with him. "They'll take me back, and I don't know what they'll do then. I just know that I cannot be caught."

She emphasizes her last words with vehemence, her eyes gone hard and stony, determination setting her. She glances to him, her green eyes colliding with his own, the waves of blue taking her under and setting her heart to fluttering like a bird in a cage. "My proposition to you is that I will help you break your curse. In return, I ask you, beg you to be my Knight. To take the blood oath that you will protect me and I will, in turn, find the Faerie who cursed you and it shall be undone."

When I no longer need you, she doesn't add, but the thought is there.

For the first time in her short life, Blaise feels a moment - just a tiny, fleeting moment - of regret at having to deceive him so cruelly. It is gone before she can dwell on it though, and like the good pretender she is, she meets his eyes, her own pleading silently with him.

"You don't have to answer me right away," she adds, her voice a high squeak of anxiety, the doe-eyed expression on her face practiced and too perfect. "Just... Just promise me you'll consider it."

And now, now the ball is in his court. She holds her breath, her heart a steady thrum pounding a warsong in her chest.