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You’re so cruel. I haven’t stopped thinking about you.” “Oh, please. How many women have you slept with since then?” He narrowed his eyes, looking confused. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Saeris, no! Do not touch the sword. Do not… turn the key!” he panted. “Do not open the gate! You—you’ve no idea the hell you will unleash on this place!”
“Graceless gods,” he hissed. “What’s this? A fucking joke?”
“Obsidian. Ob-obsidian!” exclaimed Harron. “Broken. Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere. Down in the ground. In the passageways. In the walls. They move. In the ground. I can’t… it won’t die! It has to!”
Of course Death was beautiful. How else would anyone choose to go with him without putting up a fight? Even though he scowled at me, his dark brows tugging together to form a dark, unhappy line, he was still the most savagely beautiful thing I’d ever seen. “Pathetic,” he murmured. “Absolutely…”
The Alchemists were all Fae—” “She must have a drop of Fae blood,” a
“Elroy swears that a man will lie about the size of his cock every time a woman asks him.” Kingfisher stilled. “Are you asking me how big my cock is, Osha?” “I don’t care how big it is. I care about the way you answer.” A slow, terrifying smirk spread across his face. “It’s big enough to make you scream and then some.”
Everlayne had been waiting for me when I returned to my room yesterday. She hadn’t banked on Kingfisher kicking in my bedroom door, me thrown over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and wailing like a banshee. Nor had she expected his ultra-foul temper, his split bottom lip, or the thin line of blood trickling down his chin. She’d squawked when he’d thrown me unceremoniously down onto my bed and snarled, “Bad human,” at me.
“Then your brother isn’t a warrior, Everlayne. He’s a mindless savage with a shitty temper. But I think I could have already told you that.”
“Admittedly, I do enjoy when a female kneels for me, but in this particular case…”
He looked down at himself, his mouth twisting into a cold smile when he caught me looking at his upgraded armor. “You like it?” he purred. “I figured some extra protection was in order this morning since you’re now given to hurling yourself at me like some kind of rabid feline.”
“I’m hungover,” he announced. “The sun is trying to crack my skull open, which is making me very unfriendly. But please. Feel free to open the curtains.” How did you
“Today has rules, human.” He started counting them off on his hand, a finger for each. “Do not shout. Do not throw any punches. Do not make me do any physical exercise. Do not—”
“Careful, human. We Fae have an excellent sense of smell. You’d be amazed what we can scent floating on the air.”
“I like being surprised,” Fisher said, spinning his fork over in his hand. “I’m also a fan of aggressive foreplay. It’ll be a fun reminder.”
Kingfisher leaned forward, his tongue running over his teeth again. He smiled suggestively as he said, “Swallow.
“And… and why does it smell like a brothel in here? If you’re going to spend the night out whoring and drinking, the least you could do is wash the smell of sex off you before showing up for breakfast.” Kingfisher looked like he was about to explode with laughter. The monstrous bastard was enjoying this. I braced for the cruel jibe—he was seconds from
“You could at least say hello before you start eye-fucking me.”
“NO! STOP! What are you doing?” He drew the weapon to one side just in the nick of time. “Graceless fucking gods, human! Stop fucking yelling!” “I don’t
“It’s going to bite you,” Kingfisher said. “No, it won’t. It—” It bit me.
“Wait. I seem to recall that your intestines might have been a part of your ensemble.” “Pants and a shirt,” I said dryly. “And a pair of boots with really good soles. Do you have any idea what those boots cost me?” “Let me guess. Your virginity.” “Fuck you, Fisher.” “Sure.” He smirked. “But I’m afraid I don’t have any new boots to trade you for your time.”
“I don’t hate your kind. I’m just disappointed by how breakable you are. If I held you down and fucked you the way I’m imagining fucking you right now, I doubt that you’d survive it.”
“That your body is betraying you in other ways. That I can smell you, Little Osha, and I’m thinking about drinking the sweet nectar you’re making for me straight from the fucking cup.”
I hated this male. Hated him with every fiber of my being. But curse me, I wanted him just as bad.
“Careful,” he panted. “I swore I’d be still while you kissed me. At no point did I promise to exercise restraint if you climbed up into my lap and started grinding yourself against my cock.”
“It’ll take a while for him to… wake up. Humans are so…” Kingfisher groaned. “You’re all so fucking fragile.” I rounded on the warrior, the dull roar in my ears growing progressively louder, louder, louder… “This is not my brother, Fisher. This is Carrion fucking Swift!”
“You’re sure he’s not your brother.” “I think I know what my own brother looks like, don’t you?”
Trot? I laughed scathingly. “Nothing you can say or do will incentivize me to smash my genitals against this saddle any harder or faster than they’re already being smashed.” “Feeling a little sore, human?” “Sore doesn’t come close,” I grumbled. “I’ll happily kiss all of your aches and pains better for you once we strike camp. I’ve been told my mouth has healing properties. Especially when administered between a pair of thighs.” The suggestion in Kingfisher’s voice was a promise made of dark silk. Seductive.
To me, Kingfisher was a surly, foul-mouthed bastard who I wouldn’t piss on even if he was on fire. To everyone inside this tavern, he was a living fucking god.
“It’d be a real shame to have to pinch you, but I’m getting bored, and this rabid animal keeps showing me its teeth.”
and lastly…” He pointed at his foot. “Where the fuck is my other boot?”
“So you kissed that guy, then. The one with the creepy sword and the bad attitude?” I stared at him blankly, not understanding the question for a moment. At last, I said, “What does that have to do with anything?” Carrion shook his head. “You’re right. Ignore me.
The corners of Fisher’s mouth twitched when I slammed down my plate and fork on the table to his right. I dared him to breathe a word about it as I sat down next to him. He ran his fingertips over the rim of his wineglass, shifting in his seat to turn toward me as he watched me pour myself an obnoxiously large glass of wine from the carafe he was hoarding.
“When you were grinding yourself all over my lap, you marked me up very efficiently,” he purred.
“You keep saying that. I’m still not convinced that it’s the truth. Either way, your brother wasn’t where you said he’d be. And when I reached your ward, I detected your scent from three miles away—” “Just stop talking, Fisher.” “—plastered all over that boy.” He gave me a cruel smirk. “Pheromones are signal flares to our noses, Little Osha. I was rushing, so I didn’t differentiate between blood and sex at the time. But when I walked into that room earlier, and your friend Carrion mentioned your little obsession with him—” “Shut. The fuck. Up.” “It became very clear what had happened. He still
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“I’d know the smell of you anywhere. On anyone. I’d know it blind and in the dark. Across a fucking sea. I’d be able to scent you
“You’re so determined to hate us, but we’re more alike than different.” He snorted at that. Rose from the chair and approached the bed. Standing next to me, he reached out a hand and curled a piece of my hair around his index finger, staring at it thoughtfully. “We are nothing alike,” he said quietly. “You nearly died from a scratch that would have been a mild irritation to me. You are soft. You are fragile. You are vulnerable. You are a newborn fawn, stumbling around in the dark, surrounded by predators with very sharp teeth. I am the thing that exists on the other side of the dark. I’m the
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“You know what’d really piss him off?” I knew he wasn’t talking about Onyx. “Just don’t, Carrion.” “Revenge fucking on his bed.” I shoved a piece of apple into my mouth. “Oh, yeah, sure. Sounds like a great idea. Idiot. What do you think he’d do to you if you fucked someone in his bed?” Carrion waggled his eyebrows. “I think he’d never know.”
“You could eviscerate a man with that expression. It’s one of the things I love most about you.” I snatched the toast from his hand and threw it down onto my plate. “I don’t love anything about you.” “Liar. There are so many things you love about me.” He winked roguishly, attempting to steal the toast again, but I slapped the back of his hand. “Get your own godscursed breakfast. This one’s mine.” “My hair. My eyes. My wit. My charm…” He counted them off on his fingers, making a list. “You have zero charm.” “I’m a hell of a lot more charming than Kingfisher,” he sputtered.
“They rubbed me down with this special kind of moss, which is where things got interesting. They paid particular attention to my…” His eyes trailed down his body until they rested in his crotch. I raised my eyebrows at him. “You let a fire sprite jerk you off with a handful of Fae moss?” “Not a fire sprite,” he said defensively. “These were water sprites. Three of them. They’re smaller than the Fae women and very nice to look at. I didn’t mind their attentions one bit.” “You’ve been in Yvelia for five seconds, and you’ve already had a foursome with a different species of magical creature?” I
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“Really? I seem to remember there being a very low-cut, sheer black dress on the end of your bed when I went back to the room earlier, and I can’t help but notice that you’re wearing a faded, threadbare shirt and some very dusty pants.” “So what? They are clean.” “That’s the only positive thing that can be said about them.” Carrion’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “I had a vested interest in seeing you in that dress.” “Why?” I shoved open the door to the dining room. “Your phenomenal tits, that’s why. They would have looked great in that dress. And your ass. The material was sheer as hell. Wouldn’t
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“You’ll be laughing on the other side of your face soon.” Carrion used one hand to dust the snow off his pants and the other to flip me off. “It’s almost your turn. My ass can’t take much more of this.” “I bet that’s the first time you’ve said those words,” I called. He stuck out his tongue like a petulant child. “I’m more of a giver than a receiver, actually.”
“You’re incorrigible!” “I don’t know what that means.” “Yes, you fucking do!” “All right. I do. What’s your point?”
Carrion raised his eyebrows at me like one of the old gossips who liked to while away their afternoons standing outside the House of Kala. He took a chunk out of the quiche and passed it to me.
“We have a fucking Alchemist?” “She’s mine,” Fisher said.
“Fair enough. Let’s talk about food, then.” “Food?” He nodded. “Don’t share food with that prick again, Little Osha.” “What?” “Swift. Earlier. Back in the war room. You were trading that cake back and forth with him for ages.” “It wasn’t cake.” “I don’t care what it was. Just stop sharing food with him.” There was a dangerous edge to his voice. One that dared me to challenge this order. If he hadn’t learned by now that I wasn’t one to be told what to do, then perhaps he needed reminding. “Why not?” “Because I fucking said so.”
“Malcolm’s a high Fae vampire. The very first. We were cursed thousands of years ago, and the Fae turned into something very like Malcolm. When a cure was found, my great-grandfather and most of the other Yvelian Fae took it. They were horrified by the monsters they’d become and wanted to return to their old lives. But there were those who liked the dark magic the curse afforded them. They liked the power and the promise of immortality.”
The cards had been on the table for a while now. We were either going to kill each other or fuck each other, and I was glad we were both opting for the latter option.
“You asked for this. When you’re sore from coming so hard and you can’t recall your own name, remember that, Little Osha.”
“My, my. So worked up already? You’re slick as hell. What do you taste like, mm? Are you going to scream for me like a good girl when I have you ride my face?”
