Caught in the Basilisk's Gaze (Monsters of Faery, #4)

by Mallory Dunlin

Please let the hilarity continue

I hurled the knife into the darkness

Well that achieved nothing.

"When the three silver wanderers meet in the sky, I will have need of you, mortal. Under their light, grant me your obedience."

He needed to know that he was being watched over, and that people were waiting for him. That he was safe, and that he was loved.

He was a cocky playboy with a deathwish, but he was way hotter than any man had a right to be, and he was mine.

He reminded me of a grumpy cat, making it clear that he wasn't anybody's pet, while still appreciating that someone was paying attention.

given his reputation as being emotionally unavailable and the town bike

Dead. 😂

Fuck it. Guess we're slutting it up in the woods.

The hilarity continues!

Who the fuck had authorized him to exist? He ought to come with a warning label.

😂😂😂☠️

I just upended my entire life to help save yours, without hesitation or complaint."

The plaque under the portrait read, "His Highness Yuvaenan Omahice".

"I feel like a ghost," he said in a low voice, sounding defeated. "A thing made of battlefield ash and remembered screams. I don't know how to be anything else anymore." "Then don't be." I ran my fingers along the edge of his sharp-tipped ear, then started rubbing it, a weary smile touching my mouth as he relaxed despite himself. "If you're a ghost, haunt me. Let me hold you when your nightmares leave you screaming. Water the ash with tears and watch the wildflowers bloom with me." I rested my face against his, and he didn't pull away. "I always loved ghost stories. I can love yours, too."

Fuck it, I decided.

"The name I was given is Yuvaenan Omahice,"

he was always looking for the next escape," Vaduin had said, looking at his own portrait.

If I join the litany of men who've taken from you what wasn't theirs I won't deserve to take another breath."

Good man. Basilisk?

Their dance was one of invitation and acceptance. I ask; you step forward. You offer; I reach out to take.

"I am really stupidly in love with you."

"You're the love of my life."

Don't you dare steal from a basilisk."

Sometimes his tail simply did things.

I swear it has some level of sentience

He looked stunned. It was a good look on him.

The sass continues!

someone must have startled Cass, because I shied at nothing, my skin heating and muscles on my back I didn't even know I had wrenching tight.

"Fix my sense of smell, if you will."

We were soulmates now, broken and scarred and fucked-up as we were. There was no reason to wait. No reason to hold back. Not for me; not anymore.

Good for you, girlfriend

She was my enemy now

He was there, and I was going to kill anyone who stood between me and him.

I got the sense that people had noted what was happening at the wall, and had made the command decision to get out of dodge before the Devil came calling.

"I'm not scared of you," he whispered.

"Then I'm yours," he said in a fragile voice. He took my hand and set it on his throat, his pulse under my fingertips. "Yours to harm or to harbor, and yours to succor or to strike. Set a collar around my neck, and I will submit. Set a crown on my head, and I will stand sovereign. But I beg thee, set thy hand over my heart, and claim what longs to be claimed." Vaduin's fingers traced over my face, seeing what his eyes could not. "Because I love you," he whispered, trembling, "and I'm already yours." Those were… those were fae marriage vows, the kind rarely spoken, ancient and unbreakable vows of total devotion and trust.

"I've done as I swore to do," he said, his voice pitched low. "I did what I thought best for Mercy and those within her, and I kept your Court from war and your people safe." His pale eyes flickered over to Vaduin, who had one ear tilted towards us, listening. Pelleas let me go, and stood, moving away from us. "Remember that, in the light of the dawn."

Cass grunted and crossed his arms over his chest, a menacing pose that was somewhat dampened by the irritated healer keeping her hand on his bare arm.

What's wrong with him? Or is he just exhausted and spent?

I think I healed… things. Not just… people." I glanced over at Vaduin. He gave me a shrug and made a face that told me he didn't know, either.

lethal ebony quill coming from the Traitor Prince's tail— I sat bolt upright. "Oh, that motherfucker."

Cass had unusual range for a healer, and that he was more powerful than most. It was another to see the wild magic of the entire Court of Mercy responding to his hand—and see what that meant.

With the slow deliberation of an owl, I turned and pinned Vaduin with my flinty gaze.