Of Frost and Feather (Flame Cursed Fae, #2)

by Eliza Raine

"You just risked your life for me," Kain growls, low and dangerous. The wolf sparks back into existence, and I hiss a curse as his presence knocks my control, and my confidence, out. "Stop pretending that you're not as obsessed with me as I am with you."

"Leave me alone," I croak. "Never. Featherblade is revealing secrets to you it has kept hidden from me for two centuries. Where you go, I go." "You can't follow me everywhere." His eyes flash, and his wolf snarls beside him. "Watch me, princess."

Kain's glare matches my own. "It's not just the others here you're different to. You're nothing like anyone I've ever known." "Because I'm soft and slow?" I hiss. "Because you are untested. You don't know what you are capable of, where your limits are." Flames roar across his irises, and he moves quickly. His mouth is barely inches from mine and his breath whispers over my lips as he speaks softly. "Do you have any idea how much I want to find your limits?"

My mouth opens, and for a horrifying second, I think I'm actually going to tell him to take me to every fucking limit he can think of. I'm his, ready and willing to do whatever he tells me to. Mercifully, though, he speaks before I can. "I'll be watching, princess. You saved my life. You've shown your hand. We are bound, somehow, and you will get me into that vault."

He's dangerous. He wants to use me to get into the vault, find a powerful magic, and use it to hurt people. "That is not arousing, Maddy," I tell myself, aloud and as firmly as I can. "It's deranged."

That's what he had said. But if he lied to me when he was tied to that post, I'd already be helping him—so apparently to him, "whatever it takes" doesn't involve lying. So, I'm dealing with an insanely arousing, unhinged, and detrimentally honest villain?

throw him a glare. "We're not going back to the pampered princess horseshit. I miss my home, and that's allowed, so fuck you." "Fuck me?" He takes a step toward me, eyes flaring. "Oh, princess, you keep standing there, wide-eyed and excited, sighing in pleasure like that, and I'll turn that 'fuck you' into a 'fuck me' the whole of Featherblade can hear."

"I deal with the dead. I have flown over a thousand battlefields, watching and waiting for those about to die. I know when somebody has the mark of death hanging over them." She leans forward, and I stop breathing altogether. "Madivia, let me tell you with absolute certainty that there is no mark of death over you."

I nod. "It is. What is your name?" "Thyrvi," she answers. "Thyrvi," I repeat in a whisper. "Where do you go when you're not with me?" "Nowhere. I just… don't exist." I frown, trying to imagine that. I can't. "It's shit," she announces, and I blink.

"Did… did you just try?" "Yes." "What did you try to make me do?" "Tell me where the fae who tried to kill you sleeps." I rub my hand over my forehead. "How old are you?" There's a distinct air of childishness about her. A monstrous, killing machine child. "I don't have an age. I'm part of you."

She's a spoiled princess. I watch her because she fascinates me. I follow her because Featherblade favors her. I need her to get into the vault. Lies. All lies. She's a fighter. I watch her because she's fucking beautiful. I follow her because if anyone harms her I will burn them alive, for as long as I can. I need her… period.

"Get. On. Your. Knees." She drops to the ground, removing her boots and untangling her trousers quickly. "Crawl to me."