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“If it were fun, more people would do it,” he responds. I raise my eyebrows. “Celibacy isn’t all that fun either, but perhaps it would do you some good,” I say tartly.
“The last of the Night Kingdom’s diplomats staying in our territory,” the lion-tailed messenger responds. “Our people demand justice for the murder of our king, the destruction of our palace, and the death of all the Fauna fae trapped inside the castle when you destroyed it.”
Des’s voice is like a swallow of Johnnie Walker after a long day. So smooth, you barely feel the burn of it.
“It’s a sentient nightmare. It eats fairies alive, subjecting them to their worst fears as it digests them.”
Des rotates me back around and places his hand over my pounding heart, as though he’s trying to capture the beat of it for himself.
Love, romance—the whole thing feels like a rabbit hole, and I’m Alice, about to plunge into it.
“What are you doing?” His hand caresses my upper thigh. “Disrobing my queen.” That stops me completely. Oh God, his queen.
He steps in close, tilting my chin up. “I want to be good at this, cherub. At us.”
“The only thing I dislike about your wings is that they hide your ass—and I really like your ass.”
Lol
“You were everything I never knew I wanted. You were chaos. You were desperation. You were the most mysterious secret I’d ever come across. Everything about you drew me in—your innocence, your vulnerability, hell, even your tragic life. You were the most captivating creature I’d ever met.”
In the darkness, I see him staring back down at me. “You are magic, love.”
Threatening kids, even creepy ones, is not kosher.
Karnon is not their father.
“then you’ve got to work on your intimidation game. I mean, you gave it a decent try, but I’m more turned on than anything else.”
He gives me a soft smile. “My mother would have loved you.”
“So Karnon is the casket children’s father?” Des leans back in his seat, his legs splayed. One leg jiggles restlessly. “So it seems.”
“Funny that after all I’ve demanded of you, cherub, you still think you can sway me with your protests.” Des steps in close. “You still owe me many, many favors.”
“Forcing me to do things against my will won’t make me like you more,”
“I’ve tricked, hurt, and killed men in front of you. I’m confident a few debts that you owe me won’t damage my chances.”
Oh no I have the ick
“We share similar dreams.” “You want a husband too?” I can’t help but tease him. He flashes me a wolfish smile, choosing that moment to take another—very suggestive—bite of his churro. “Perhaps,” he says, “but you’ll do.”
“Cherub, you’ll be making different moans when I break your ass.”
“That will only ever happen in your dreams.” Des stops and catches my jaw in his hand, forcing me to look in his eyes. “You know, the endearing thing about you is that you still say things like that, even though I know you’re more than a little intrigued.”
“this is the girl you’ve been searching for?” Des nods.
“He’s the worst of them.”
If Des were a city, he’d be Barbos. The lights, the chaos, the criminality, the sexuality, the excitement. It’s all part of who he is.
I want him to drown me in the madness of this. Us.
“I would steal the stars from the sky for you,” he whispers into my ear. “Anything to hear you laugh like that.”
I roll my head back, staring up at the stars. There are thousands upon thousands of them, and their light kisses my skin. Between each one of them is unfathomable darkness. It’s all around me, inside me, making love to me.
He dips underwater, moving my legs over his shoulders. And then, right in the middle of the pool, his lips press against my core.
“You say that as though you didn’t literally strip me of my pants five minutes ago,” I say. “I think it was a little more than five minutes ago.” I barely manage not to roll my eyes. Apparently, human or fairy, men’s egos are still very much the same.
“Someone else is taking the men.”
“Being a mate does not mean you stop being a king.”
Temperance “Temper” Darling, my best friend and colleague, is striding amid the blaze like she controls it, dragging a very frightened-looking fairy along with her. Her dark eyes glow like coals, bolts of electricity snapping from her.
A sorceress.
If she touches a hair on Des’s head, then friend or not, I’m taking her down.
“Thank you,” I whisper. “I love you, Temper.” Her arms come around me a second later. “I know. How could you not? I blew up a portal for you.”
“If you had been hurt…I wouldn’t have even had time to administer lilac wine.” Lilac wine?
Solstice is a gathering of all four major kingdoms—Night, Day, Flora, and Fauna—which occurs on the week surrounding the longest day of the year. It’s a renewal celebration hosted in the Kingdom of Flora, and its whole purpose is to celebrate the regeneration of life. Bitter rivalries and old enmities are set aside during this week so the four main kingdoms can meet, discuss issues of the realms, and revel together.
“Oh, but if your moans last night were anything to go by, then I think you do care about creativity—in all its forms.”
Eventually, the enchanter was put to death, and Thalia, in her heartache, fell on her own sword.
“I always thought there were two versions of Karnon, but what if there weren’t two versions of him—what if there was a completely separate entity inside of him?”
The arrow comes out of nowhere, whistling as it bears down on me. Des’s hand shoots out and snatches it just inches away from my breast.
I am the darkness, his eyes seem to say, and you are my lovely nightmare. And no one will take this away from us.
Nothing defangs a woman quite like being called beautiful,
“Word of warning, cherub: sass is a turn-on, so if you expect me to keep my hands off you and your precious beads, you might want to work on being pleasant.”
“Mate is the correct term,” he says, his voice pitched seductively low. “I’m not your”—he makes a face—“boyfriend. I’m neither a boy nor particularly friendly.”
“I’m the Green Man, king-consort to the Flora Kingdom.”
“Her name was Larissa, and she was someone I loved deeply…”
“I couldn’t wield magic, so I learned to bargain with magical creatures for bits of theirs.”
“I’d savor that sweet pussy of yours right until you were on the edge, but I wouldn’t give you that release,”
