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Dade
Sleep eluded me, and though I longed to, I didn’t dare step into Opal’s rooms to watch her dream. Not only would it likely frighten her to find me there, but I would be tempted to crawl into that bed next to her and pull her close.
Too close and we’d do as she’d said—lose ourselves in one another, time dripping away like the waters in that ravine until it coasted into a racing river eaten whole by the ocean.
I did not mind the idea of that at all, but I could understand her hesitancy. She was scared, terrified of what was to come. Most of all, the conflicting feelings that being with me aroused.
Dawn leaked through the windows of my rooms, her scent a stain I never wanted cleaned, when sleep finally took me. Lunch was awaiting me in the war room when I arrived, still shaking water from my hair after bathing in haste.
I snatched a leg of chicken, tearing into it as I unspooled the plans Fang and Scythe had come up with in my absence.
“Get enough beauty sleep, sire?” the latter asked, entering the room and taking a leg of chicken from the tray before propping himself in the chair on the other side of the table. “That swan of yours must have quite the appetite.”
The leg of chicken smacked into his face before he saw it coming. He snarled, then gri
A whistle. “Oh, a one-eye insult.” He feigned a pout. “No goods were delivered to your rooms overnight, then.” He tossed the bones onto the tray, one missing and rolling grease onto the map of Gracewood taken from the wall and spread over the table. “Poor beastly king. Has she rejected you?”
“You know she hasn’t,” I grumbled, though it sometimes felt as though she still could, and I loathed how much that terrified me.
Scythe was silent for a moment, then kicked his feet under the chair and leaned forward. “She won’t. I saw the way those weird eyes watched you while you showed off those ghastly horns and wings in her rooms while she healed.”
I didn’t allow him to see what those words did to me, and instead, kept my attention fixed to the map, the markers placed where the warrior camps would wait in the mountain range, The Spring Forest and Gracewood Forest. “We’ll see.”
He wrapped his knuckles over the table, nodding. “Make it back alive, and yeah,” he knocked some markers aside, replacing them with a dagger that cut straight through the map and the wood beneath. “We will.”
“Those spies we haven’t heard from this past week?” Fang arrived with parchment in hand, his expression grim. “They’re dead.”
I gestured for the parchment, but the lettering was thick, wrong—as though whoever had written the message did not want their identity traced. I lifted it to my nose and scented sun and some type of berry. A female’s scent.
“Ballsy move on their part.” Scythe whistled. “Makes one wonder where they found such courage.”
We knew all too well of the human royals attempts to gather more forces. “We send more spies, two flyers only,” I said. “Just to check in.”
“Then what?” Fang asked.
Rubbing a finger over my chin, I eyed the map, the kingdom of Errin by the sea. “That depends on what they find, but I vowed to end the attacks, remember?” I closed my eyes and cursed. “Those were Opal’s conditions for marriage. No more violence.”
Both males said nothing, then Scythe exhaled out, “Fuck.”
I sighed. “Indeed.” I’d already deceived her, and to do so again was akin to poisoning myself and then waiting for the damage to be unveiled, but I still said, “When they return—”
“If they return,” Fang muttered.
I glared but nodded. “Have word sent to me. They have two days.”
Fang guffawed. “What if they can’t find shit in two days?”
“If there is something to find, find it they will before returning well within that time,” I said, cold and matter-of-factly. “Otherwise, we assume them dead and make other… arrangements. There is no time to waste.”
Apprehension swarmed, tension brewing inside the drafty room. For the first time since I was a child, I hoped not to head into battle.
Shadows coalesced and separated as I warped into the middle of the foyer right after di
He would oversee the ru
Opal rounded the corner from the library. “Where have you been? I’ve been searching for you for hours.”
“Busy,” I said, readjusting the sleeves of my shirt.
“Busy with what?”
My eyes shot to hers, which were simmering with suspicion as they dipped over my face. I swallowed the urge to snap. My blood was pressing at my skin, my i
That wasn’t her fault. It was my own, and though I didn’t deserve her and had all but forced her into this tenuous alliance, the last thing I ever wanted was for her to fear me.
“First of all,” I said. “I had trouble sleeping being that yet again, you made me do so alone and aching, so I woke late with my fist around my extremely angry cock.” Her eyes flared, lashes fluttering slowly, and I smirked when she pinched her smile between those pearly teeth. “Secondly, there are a great many details that go into ru
Not mollified in the least, my swan lifted her chin, exposing that long, delicate neck. “You reek of deceit.”
I had to touch her, couldn’t not, and so I closed the gap between us and gently clasped her cheeks. My eyes swam into hers, even as something weighted tried to hold the lie between my teeth. “Sunshine, I’ve finally got you.” At her raised brows, I gri
I was burning in the deepest pits of the underworld while standing on perfectly solid ground when her hands closed over mine, and those gold eyes stared up at me, hopeful, trusting, relieved.
Erasing any emotion from my features, I ignored the guilt gnawing at my chest and waited for her nod.
I slid her fingers through mine, lowering them between us. “Ready?” The room began to fog, shadows returning and gathering force.
“No,” she said, followed by a nervous laugh. “But let’s go.”
Within moments, we arrived under the cover of growing darkness, my feet planted on an unfamiliar stone floor.
And nearly stumbled into a bed as Opal raced away from me through the shadows.
I didn’t dare send flame to any of the sconces or candles, my eyes adjusting with each passing second until I could make out where Opal stood by a large wooden door. I smirked as she turned one of two locks. “That won’t keep anyone out.”
So quiet it was barely a sound, she turned the last lock. “It might give us time should we need it.”
I let her believe what she felt she needed to and set my sights on the large room. Her scent flooded the space, even after many weeks without her presence. The bed, half-veiled in blue netting and dressed in cream and lavender, was constructed from white stained oak and perched in the center of the far wall.