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“You were worried about me,” Fisher said roughly.
“You don’t hate me as much as you pretend to,” I said. He stepped toward me, leonine, predatory, dangerous. “Don’t I?” “No, you don’t.” “That’s an interesting theory.” “I don’t think you hate me at all.”
Had he thought about me like this? Naked and at his mercy? Had he imagined what it would be like to touch me, and taste me, and have me willing to do his bidding?
Duh????
“Perfect. You’re absolutely fucking perfect. If Danya does rip my head off tomorrow, at least now I’ll die happy.”
“Back in the forge at the palace, I caught a hint of this. I knew then I had to taste you. This smell has been haunting my fucking dreams. I haven’t been able to think straight for remembering the scent of your need.” “I could probably use a sho—” “Do not fucking dare finish that sentence,” he snarled. “I don’t want a mouthful of soap and perfume. I want to taste you.” With that, he placed his mouth right onto the very center of me, as if he were biting into a piece of ripe, delicious fruit, and my whole world ignited.
Gods and martyrs. I would never forget seeing him like this. If I did manage to make my way back home, the image of him like this, seated inside me, skin slick with sweat, chest hitching, would sustain me until the day I died. Fisher. Kingfisher. Lord of Cahlish. I hated him, I did. But you couldn’t hate something without caring about it just a little, too.
He called me a waste of carbon. What does that even mean?
Carrion’s grin faltered. “You are extra fucking miserable today. You should really get laid. Might help improve your mood. Tell him, Sunshine.”
“Don’t call her Sunshine,” he commanded. “Why not?”
“Because she is moonlight. The mist that shrouds the mountains. The bite of electricity in the air before a storm. The smoke that rolls across a battlefield before the killing starts. You have no idea what she is. What she could be. You should call her Majesty.
“I’m sorry, are you just permanently on the brink of a nervous breakdown, or have I shown up at an inconvenient time for you?”
“She has a mind and a mouth of her own. I am the keeper of neither.”
“Precisely. If she can’t even figure out how to wipe her own a—” “Danya, I swear on the seven gods, if you don’t shut up, I will toss you out of here myself,” Ren muttered darkly.
We have one year, Danya. Twelve months. If we don’t figure this thing out, by this time next year, Malcolm will have won.”
“It’s a sex thing. If a male drinks from someone, it’ll make his dick harder than it’s ever been in his life. It makes you euphoric. Both of you. While you’re fucking.”
lmao
“Fisher says he’s not worried about what happens to him if he dies first,” Lorreth said. “And I’m not worried, either. Truth is, I plan on dying first, anyway. But if the fates guide the stars in a different direction and our better angels claim him first, I won’t permit a single breath into my body beyond the last one Kingfisher takes. By my own hand, I’ll make sure the piece of soul he loaned to me finds its way back to him. And if the fates consider it just, and I’ve done enough to earn a place at his side, I’ll go quietly and happily with my brother into whatever lies beyond.”
The sound of Fisher’s genuine laughter was rarer than water had ever been back in Zilvaren; it almost brought tears to my eyes to hear it.
In my absence, Onyx had jumped up onto the bed and tucked himself into the male’s side, resting his head on Fisher’s stomach. He whined when I entered the room, his eyes moving from me to Fisher, as if he were trying to tell me something.
He was lying in my arms, immobile and vulnerable in every sense of the word. Laid bare. I could be a little vulnerable, too.
When he let his hand fall again, he let it rest against my leg. Comfortable. Familiar.
“Come here,” he said. “What?” “Don’t make me drag you down here.” There was a tired but playful catch in his voice.
“My mother was killed, too,” he whispered thickly. “We have that in common, Little Osha.”
I’m going to mark you in every way imaginable, so that everyone knows you’re fucking mine.
crescendo of pleasure came down on me like a landslide. I was crushed by it. It broke me and made my soul fucking sing. It was better than any drug I’d ever experienced before.
The moment Fisher slid into me again, drinking a little deeper, I lost any sense of pride I possessed and reached back, grabbing his head and pushing him down onto my neck as hard as I damn well could. Ruin me.
The world came back into existence little by little, like snowflakes fluttering from the ceiling. It took a long time for my body to stop trembling. Just as he had done when I woke up, Fisher lay behind me, still as the dead, not breathing. Only this time, he was holding on to me for dear life. He didn’t let go.
Shit. “How long have you known I was here?” He smiled sadly. “I always know where you are, Little Osha.”
“Is this the kind of thing you imagine me wearing often?” “When I imagine you, Little Osha, you’re very rarely wearing clothes.”
No, I can’t take that back. And I’m sorry for that. He hadn’t been talking about the bird tattoo. He’d been talking about the bite mark at my throat.
“This might be a little easier without you breathing directly down my neck.” “I seem to recall you liked me breathing down your ne—”
“Yes, I’m talking to it. What do you think I’m doing?” “I don’t know. You look constipated.”
LOL
finally spoke again. We will bear witness to the blood. What… does that mean? We will be forged anew. When you have upheld your end of our bargain, we will taste the blood of the one who would carry us. If they are honorable, we will consider allowing the old magics to flow through us again.
Carrion’s cheeks were mottled red with annoyance. “How the fuck was I supposed to beat him when he’s some kind of killing machine?”
Come in from the cold, Kingfisher. I will. Soon. I’ll sit here a little longer, I think.
To all those who’ll listen or haven’t been told, of the day the last drake woke and rose from the cold. Of the young warrior who came veiled in shadows and blood to defeat the foul creature and save those he could. Of the Fisher King, and the wolves at his back, who came howling in the night, together, a pack. The frost blessed the morning. The warriors faced their fate. And thus begins our tale, The Ballad of Ajun Gate.
“I name you Avisiéth. The Unsung Song. Redemption’s Dawn.”
Fisher’s brow dipped for a second. He seemed frustrated, but he nodded. “I need to go and talk to Ren first. But yes. I’ll be sleeping here. With you.”
See, Little Osha. Just like the butterfly I named you after. So weak. So vulnerable.
Even after a long day’s work at Elroy’s forge, I’d never felt this gross. Kingfisher looked at me like I was the most astonishing thing he’d ever seen. As if he didn’t see the grime and the exhaustion clinging to me like a second skin. Midnight hair. Jade green eyes. That strong jaw. The full mouth that softened the powerfully masculine lines of his other features. The runes at his throat pulsed like a heartbeat as he lifted me again and lowered me gently into the bathtub.
intentional contact between us was the most intimate we’d ever been. I marveled at the sight of our fingers touching, an array of emotions vying for my attention.
“What?” I whispered. He thought for a moment, appearing to decide whether he’d answer the question. Then he said, “I was wrong, y’know. You are a good thief.” “What have I stolen?”
HIS HEART BITCH
woke to hands built for violence gently soaping my scalp. No one had ever washed my hair before. It was an experience I wanted again and again. But only from him. Only from Fisher.
wanted to stay here and soak this in. War was at the doorstep. Tomorrow was uncertain. Hell, today was uncertain, but this tiny moment was real. It was, godsdamnit, and I didn’t want to let it go.
She is the dawn. She is the moon. She is the sky. She is oxygen in our lungs.
Ren’s expression was one of deep satisfaction. It seemed to say, “Good. At last. This is as it was always meant to be, Saeris Fane.”
“Be unrelenting and unmerciful in the face of the wicked dead,” Fisher
“And if you should find soul sundered from flesh, order a drink for us at the first tavern you come across in the afterlife. We’ll settle the tab when we get there.”
“Don’t you dare die on my watch, Saeris Fane! Fisher will never forgive me if his sole reason for living is torn to pieces on her first fucking battlefield.”
It was Everlayne. And she was flanked by at least a hundred vampires.
OH MY GOD?????
“You can kick and scream all you like,” he said. “But he wants the Alchemist, Fisher. If he has to burn down all of Yvelia to claim her, you know perfectly well that he’ll do it.”
