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My mouth drops open on a scream as his teeth sink into my skin, so deep, the pressure makes every piece of my body go rigid as I struggle to breathe. Then I go pliant in his hands, my limbs too heavy to lift, to hang on, to move as euphoria sweeps through me. The pleasure is so intense, so palpable, that I nearly come apart in his hands, and he never even touches me. Not there.
My body thrums with magic, and it’s not until he releases me and I’m gasping, panting, desperate to fill my lungs that I notice my hair is black again, the dark veins gone as if they never existed. I can barely lift my head, and I choose not to fight it, letting it tip back against the stone.
“I said, you guys have to go! I won’t have anyone stealing my goods from the alley,” the man snarls, rounding the crates we’re behind. His eyes become owl-like the moment he sees us.
“And I said, just a fucking minute,” Loric’s tone is harsh, down right deadly as he buries his face against my throat. His tongue slips over the mark he left there and I shudder in his hands, moaning before I can stop myself.
He grinds his hips against my sex, igniting something within me that burns so hot, so bright, all I can do is melt against the wall and savor the feeling. To anyone looking in, they’d see two people having sex, they’d never know Loric’s pants are still on, that it’s only his belt dangling from the loops. My dress covers everything else.
“Look, the festival is over. Take your whore somewhere else before I get the guards.”
Loric’s head lifts from my chest with an unnerving slowness, his silver eyes alight as his dragon peers through them. Panic wells inside of me and I grip his face, silently demanding he keep his eyes on me.
“We’ll go,” I say, my chest heaving as I wipe my blood from his lips and chin with my sleeve. “Isn’t that right?” He hardly nods. If it weren’t for my hands cupping his face, I’d never have caught it.
The man turns his back toward us, giving us a sliver of privacy as Loric sets me down, his hand swipes over his mouth before scratching at the stubble on his jaw. I fix my dress, then hurry to buckle his belt while he glares at the man, and if pure, visceral violence had a stare, it would be the way he looks now.
I don’t give him a chance to act, intertwining my fingers with his and dragging him quickly out of the alley.
Chapter 34
Calamity
Iwalk inside, the kitten at my heels. Apparently, it waited for me to return, and finished off my plate in the meantime. Loric doesn’t seem to argue it, but I’m fairly certain he’s in shock. He didn’t say a word as we sped through the village.
Jesper, still wrapped in his blanket, is the first person I see. He’s heading toward his room, wine in hand, and the moment he sees me, his eyes latch onto my throat, growing wide. “Oh… my… gods… He fucking did it.”
I don’t know what to say. The only thing I can think to do is take Loric to the room, to try and wake him the hell up, shake him from his stupor. But Jesper must sense his vacancy too. The moment we walk past him, his arm darts out and he stops Loric dead in his tracks.
“What the hell happened?” Jesper asks, trying to get Loric to meet his eyes.
Except, he doesn’t so much as lift them from the floor as he tells him about the king, that the plan has changed. He doesn’t even look at me.
“Alright,” Jesper says, nodding repeatedly. “This changes the timeline, but it doesn’t mean the king knows about us. So, we get her to the moons now instead of later. Problem solved.”
Brenn clears his throat, making me jump. I was so busy watching them, I hadn’t seen him at the table. “It’s overcast, the clouds might be enough to hide us if we launch from the mainland. Especially if we go north a bit. There are no villages there and with the line of sight, the mountains should hide anything that peeks through the clouds.” He licks his finger, then takes another bite of his sandwich.
Jesper looks over Loric, his brow crinkling with the same worry as mine. He waits a moment for him to say something, then nods when he doesn’t. “Alright. Why don’t you and Mira go now and catch up to Vik and Faelor. Let them know what’s going on. They should probably go to the outer realm just in case the king does get word of us. They can warn them.”
Brenn nods, pushing up from his chair. “Sure, but I’ll be meeting you at the base of the mountain just north of town. I’m going.”
Jesper reels back, his eyebrows scrunching together. “Why would you want to go?”
“My plan, remember.” Brenn rolls his eyes. “And I’m also the only one who isn’t banished. Calamity hasn’t been there. She needs someone to show her where to go for a few days and I owe it to her for not killing me. One of you can go back up to get me.”
“You’d do that?” I ask, tilting my head.
“Yeah, when I’m not trying to kill people, some might call me a decent guy.” Brenn flexes his brow. “I’ll break the news to Mira.” Then he wanders off into one of the rooms.
We’re packed and on our way out of town within the hour. Jesper didn’t want to take any chances and with Loric still out of it, he’s taken the reins… both literally and figuratively. He didn’t think it would be a good idea to go on foot. It would take too long, so he rented horses and instead of letting me ride with Loric, he put me on his horse. Loric didn’t balk about it, he didn’t glare. All he did was scoop up my cat and hand it to me, letting it hiss the entire way into my arms.
“Are you really going to keep that thing?” Jesper asks, keeping his voice down.
“What, Loric?”
He frowns. “Thecat.”
“Oh, I mean I can’t shift, so there’s gotta be some way to get the cat up there with me. Might as well.”
