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“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” —The Tempest, William Shakespeare
But no matter how practiced a person was at hiding their feelings, their bodies always gave them away in the end. It was unavoidable. Emotions painted the blood. Happiness. Anger. Sorrow. Lust. Each gave off its own energy.
Humans were not good at taming their feelings. They felt everything so rudely, right out in the open, with no awareness of how their reactions might affect those with finer senses.
And he could have his reasons, so long as none of them involved him harboring any sort of hope that Saeris was going to confess her undying love for him. That wasn’t happening.
“What do you think I’m doing?” I snarled. “I’m saving the fucking fox!”
He’d left the safety of Cahlish. For her. He’d climbed the mountain. For her. He’d snuck through Irrín and crossed the river. For her. And now he was being chased across the dead fields of Sanasroth by a horde of feeders. He must have been tired and ready to give up, but he was still coming. For her. And I was not about to let that little fox die.
“Gods and fucking sinners.”
“Don’t you know? There isn’t much I wouldn’t sacrifice to make you happy, Osha. A little healing magic is the least of it.”
There were counterweights, perhaps. Different sides to the same coin? But also different currencies. Vampire. Fae. Maker. Mate.
“Your father was felled by his own hubris. He was too arrogant. He believed himself invincible, and I had the pleasure of showing him otherwise. A god sword will make worm food out of any of us, no matter who wields it. But, regardless,” I called in a clear voice. “I am no child. My name is Saeris Fane, and I am your queen.”
You can own your fantasies with me, Little Osha. There is nothing in this realm or the next that I won’t give to you if you desire it. All you ever need do is ask.
“She isn’t my girlfriend. She’s my mate,” Fisher said quite amicably. “And if any part of your body, literally any part of it, comes into contact with hers, then I will remove it.”
For now, I found myself growing more convinced that he was telling the truth. Because I could smell him, too. Bruised herbs. Citrus. Smoke. Leather. Pine, and cold mountain air. And underneath it all, the maddening scent of him—the scent that made him unique and made me want to climb the fucking walls. A trace of pheromones that sent electricity zipping up the length of my spine and—
“From now on, you are Lady of Cahlish.”
This is what they’d all been smelling on me whenever Fisher and I were together? Gods alive, that was mortifying.
“If they procreate, I’m banishing them from Cahlish. A combination of the two of them would probably tear open some sort of hell gate and suck the entire estate through it.”
And I still loved the male walking beside me. I’d fought my feelings for him for so long that giving them space to breathe now felt a little frightening.
“I love you, and nothing else matters beyond that. Wherever you are, I’ll beg the gods and all the fates to let me be there, too,”
The high that came whenever Fisher looked at me was way better than any bliss I’d found on the rooftops overlooking the Third.
“You forget that I’m a winter creature, Saeris,” Fisher murmured. “I don’t crave the attention of the sun. The snowcapped mountains, the forest, the frozen river… those
“I’ve killed more people than I can count. I lost the parts of myself that knew how to feel anything other than pain and sorrow centuries ago. But for better or worse, you have brought me back to life.”
Take me. Claim me. Fuck me. Own me.
“You taste like the end of the fucking world,” he purred. “Just kill me and be done with it. Nothing will ever be better than this.”
“Come now, Osha. Where else would an acolyte kneel to worship but at the altar of his god?”
“Thaaat’s it. Good girl. Ride it out.”
The smuggler was standing frozen in the middle of the hall with his hands outstretched, knees bent, ass sticking out like he’d shit himself.
There was no sense regretting events that had helped form us as beings.
“Orillith ken mas cree, Carrion Swift,” I spat under my breath. I hadn’t cursed in Old Fae in centuries, but sinners, did the situation warrant it.
I never felt more seen than when he looked at me.
“The most unique, most beautiful creature in the entire realm, on her knees in front of me, looking up at me like she’s feeling feral and might just like to fuck me? Yes,” he said, “I’d say I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself.”
“I could spend the rest of eternity right here and die happy,” he rumbled. “I could fuck you and feast on you until the ages turned and the suns all died and burned out in the skies, and I still wouldn’t have had enough of you.”
Thank the gods, I chanted in my head. Thank the fucking gods. Don’t thank them, came Fisher’s low, resonant reply. Thank me. I’m the one who’s about to make you scream.
“I had no idea what you would mean to me. I had no idea what I would do to keep you safe. When I close my eyes, you are all I fucking see, Saeris Fane. I could be dead in the ground five thousand years and the frosts could have taken my bones, and still no other male will ever have loved another female the way that I love you.”
He was larger than life. Stronger. More powerful. He was bigger than the swell I felt in my chest whenever I heard him say those three words. I. Love. You.
He could handle all the bullshit and the complications that came with loving me. He knew me. Saw me. Was capable of holding the both of us together if it all became too much. It was safe to love him back because, no matter what, he was never going to let me fall.
