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“An Oshellith is a type of butterfly,” he called as he went. “Osha for short. They hatch, live, and die all in one day. The cold kills them very fast. Isn’t that right, Renfis?”
“Gods.” Her eyes went wide. “This will come as a bit of a shock, then.” She took a deep breath. “I was born at the very beginning of the tenth age. I’ve been alive for one thousand four hundred and eighty-six years.”
“Next time you’re curious about me, feel free to ask me,” Kingfisher said as he laid his hand on the forge’s brand-new door.
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.”
“Ask a man how big his dick is, and he’ll show you that he’s full of shit.” “Maybe. But I’m not a man. I’m a Fae male.” He paused. “And maybe I’m just well-endowed.”
Show me that you’re tougher than I think you are.”
It was the kind of dress that would bring most men to their knees. I fucking hated it.
“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.” “Cats scratch,” I said flatly. “I came this close to knocking you on your ass.” “In your fucking dreams, human.”
“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.”
I’ll see you this afternoon, Osha.
Gods, he was a sight to behold. Every line of him was art.
But, of all the beautiful things I had seen, Fisher was the most beautiful of all.
“Our Fae hearts rarely betray us. We’re calm creatures. But you, Osha? You’re a
ball of chaos. Your heart betrays you at every turn.”
“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.”
“Go on. Pull back. I won’t stop you,” he said. “Or you could kiss me. You could kiss me. I’ll just sit here. I won’t move a muscle.”
Kingfisher just stared at me. “Find out.”
One second, I was standing there, wanting very badly to put some space between us, and then the next, I was rising up onto my toes, still having to reach up for him even though he was sitting down, and I was pressing my mouth to his… The forge disappeared. Everything fell away. Everything but him.
He kissed me back.
The scent of him washed over my senses, overcoming me, undoing me. Mint. Smoke. The winter morning air that I was becoming accustomed to the more time I spent in this strange place.
This was the kiss to end all kisses. Demanding, urgent, and carnal.
I hated this male. Hated him with every fiber of my being. But curse me, I wanted him just as bad.
“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.”
“I didn’t say I minded. But for next time, that’s where the line is. You want to cross it, I’ll happily join you on the other side. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
The tears came hot and fast now, brought on by anger more than the pain. I hiccupped softly. “Bastard.” “You like calling me that, don’t you. Knock yourself out. You did lie. You lied with your body. With your mouth. You crawled up into my lap, and kissed me, and rubbed yourself all over me, and used the opportunity to take something from me.”
“You understand that this is a blood oath? And you will be bound by this oath until death?”
“I hate that fucking place, but I went there for you. I got stabbed seven times in various parts of my body. For you.
I unleashed a string of foul curse words at him, only they didn’t make it past my lips. As he’d commanded, I didn’t make a sound. What the hell had he done to me? Why was my body not my own?
He only realized I wasn’t following him once he’d turned the corner and disappeared from view. “Come on, Little Osha!” he called. “Keep up. You can speak again, but no complaining.”
Kingfisher pushed past me, out of the stall, heading back to the tack room. “I said, verbatim, ‘I go, and I try to get your brother. You help me and assist me in any way I ask you to, and you do as you’re told.
“They died here? In this forest?” Don’t do it. Don’t ask him. Do not fucking ask. I had to know, though. “How did they die?”
“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.”
“Surprised that you’d offer to spend any amount of time between my legs. Not when I was able to steal something so precious from you the last time I tricked you into letting me close.”
You say it so mockingly, but I do care about your well-being. You’re important.
“I’m taking you to the borderlands, Osha. A small fiefdom at the very edge of Yvelian territory. A place called Cahlish.”
“My father and Belikon had a long history. He saw what Belikon was planning long before he murdered the royal family and stole the crown for himself. He took precautions and warded his lands so that neither Belikon nor any of his supporters could cross into them.
He was powerful, and his wards were strong. They remain as solid as ever. Belikon can travel to the borders of Cahlish, but he can’t enter. As long as I live and carry on my father’s line, he never will.”
have a relic.” He eyed me over the top of his tankard, the silver around his iris shimmering as he gave me an open-mouthed smile. “Oh? You had my ring, did you? Care to recount the tale of how that came to be in your possession, human?” “That’s irrelevant.” I glowered at him hatefully.
To everyone inside this tavern, he was a living fucking god.
was very feminine, with roses engraved on either side of a beautiful aquamarine stone.
“Defensive of him?” An unfamiliar tension radiated from Fisher. He seemed to be working very hard at nonchalance. “Mm. I wouldn’t have thought he was your type, but it explains a lot.” My type? A weightless, falling sensation made me sit back in the chair. I felt so dizzy all of a sudden. “What are you talking about?” “He mentioned that you were infatuated with him. Back in your room.”
“That’s right. But I wasn’t just covered in your blood, was I? I was wearing another of your… perfumes.” Perfumes. He deliberated over the word. Luxuriated over it. The dark, suggestive way he said it left nothing to the imagination. He had no mercy, so there was little point in begging for it, but I had to try. “Don’t. Do not, Fisher. Please. Just…” “When you were grinding yourself all over my lap, you marked me up very efficiently,” he purred. A fire burned in my throat, causing my voice to crack. “I hate you.”
“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 smells of you even now.”
“There’s every way,” Fisher rumbled, his eyes darkening. “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 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 thing that puts the fear of the gods into the monsters who would eat you bones and all.”
“Because sometimes, my pendant can’t stave off the darkness that creeps in.”
Fuck me. That smile. Slightly open-mouthed, flashing the smallest hint of pointed teeth. I had to be so, so careful around that smile. It would wreck me if I let it.
