Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
She clutched his shoulder. Her body tightened. His tensed, and they shuddered with the rush of climaxing together. He dropped her dress and wrapped his arms around her, crushing her into him and hugging her tightly. She held him as well, breathing heavily, the tingle of her high spreading through her.
I apologize, he said.
For what—
He abruptly nudged her off him. She rolled away, a mess of wetness from her assertions. He put his arm against the back of the couch for her to lean into.
I’ll make it up to you, he said.
It better be in addition to that present you promised me.
She felt his elation—apparently he thought that was a joke.
She sighed, picking at a gold chain on his jacket.
Now what? she asked.
Now…we wait for the fallout.
It didn’t take long to come.
24
Daisy
The moment Daisy dropped her feet from the couch, the shadows were there. The voices resumed, and the darkness swirled. A new feeling emerged, though—a strange, oily, acidic feeling that curdled her stomach.
“I find these things so dull,” Tarian said, his pants still open and his erection finally starting to fall. He was showing himself off to the masses. When he proved a point, he really went for it. “The music is always the same. The dancers never mix it up. The food is hardly varied. It is like watching the same TV show in the human world over, and over, and over again.”
“Was the other court like this one?” she asked as the shadows at her feet slithered across her skin and bit down with sharp teeth. She jerked and then focused harder on ignoring them. “The one you came from?”
He twirled a lock of her hair absently. Pleasant shivers coated her body from his magic. His eyes never stopped moving, similar to hers.
“I didn’t used to think so, but then I took part in it. I danced. I sang—”
“You sing?”
He glanced down at her. “Of course. All fae sing. Some just do it better than others.”
“And you?”
“The best.”
“Obviously,” she said sarcastically. The princess hadn’t looked at them once.
He laughed, pulling her hair back to tilt her face up. He placed a kiss on her lips.
“I’m not the best, actually,” he admitted as the acidic feeling grew. The bites dug deeper, going from a mild pain to a dull ache. “I’m not bad—I can entertain a court just fine—but two of my sisters and one of my brothers are much better. They were the first called on to perform. Always.”
“Do you miss them?”
He was quiet for a long time. Her skin started to burn. The chant changed from “it” to “her.”
Kill her-kill her-killer—
The way the words ran together, it almost sounded like “killer” instead of “kill her.” Like a warning to the rest of the court.
“I do. Even the brother who betrayed me. I miss so much of that life, but it feels like a distant memory. I’ve changed a lot, I think. Grown cruel. Despicable. I doubt they would even know me.” He paused. “Or maybe I’ve become what they feared all along.”
“Or maybe you’re giving yourself a hard time for the guy you had to become to survive.”
He slipped his hand under her hair and stroked his thumb down the back of her neck. “It feels wrong to let myself off the hook so easily.”
“It shouldn’t.”
The shadow sliced across her ankle. She jerked, stopping herself from looking down to see if it had drawn blood. Was she supposed to pretend it didn’t hurt? Was that part of ignoring it?
“What…” Tarian stopped stroking, looking down at her in confusion.
Another slice, this one then drilling in. She sucked in a pained breath, unable to help it. Nor could she help looking down. Blood poured out of the fresh wound and seeped from the other. A black claw ran across her other calf, and the feeling of bugs across her chest dug in like flesh-eating beetles.
“Fuck—” She slapped at her chest, but there was nothing there. The pain intensified, magic spearing into her. Through her. It felt like white-hot spikes—real spikes.
Tarian quickly did up his pants before bending forward, reaching down to her leg. His fingers came away with a smear of blood. Rage and worry blazed in his eyes. This couldn’t have been the magical allure; she was being attacked. He didn’t know by whom.
She cried out with another sharp jab. Power pulsed in her middle—the diamond chalice calling to her. Another slice, this one across her ACL. She bent over, and her breath dried up. She couldn’t breathe!
She tried to enact her nulling magic, but it wouldn’t work on the shadows at her feet. She needed a fae to target. She needed a body or her magic was no good.
“Gods, Daisy—” Black so deep it was solid flowed over her body. Gold shimmered across her skin. The spikes of magic were dragged out one by one, only the last allowing her to breathe again. The tingles suggested that Tarian was using the magic she had stored. It wouldn’t be enough. The attacking magic aimed for her stomach now while redoubling its efforts on her legs.