Kashvi stood on the porch in snow-crusted boots and a maroon coat, brow scrunched as she looked Fi over from head to toe. Let the hangover take the blame for her disheveled appearance. Fi gulped frigid morning air, begging it to ease the ache Antal had left in her.
Boden’s boreal horse snorted beyond the porch. Kashvi must have borrowed it for the ride up.
“Making sure all’s well this morning.” Kashvi tipped a skeptical look into the dim interior of Fi’s cottage, scowling at Antal in the rafters.
“You see, Kashvi?” he called down in a droll tone. “I didn’t eat her. As promised.”
Liar. The tease sparked in Fi’s belly.
“Get yourself together,” Kashvi said. “We need to go.”
“… Go?” Fi said.
“Yousuggested we start training recruits today. And don’t go giving me hangover excuses. That was your idea, too.”
Fuck. Fihadagreed to this. She silently cursed her past enterprise.
“Get dressed,” Kashvi ordered. “Iliha will have breakfast ready by the time we get back to Nyskya.”
“Yeah. Sounds great.”
Fi slammed the door shut, leaving Kashvi on the porch.
Gifted with privacy, she slumped against the wall and shut her eyes. She took several slow breaths as adrenaline and lust loosened their hold. The heat between her legs took longer to abate.
“A shame,” came a taunt from her rafters. “I suppose we’ll have to pick this up later.”
Fi would skin him with her teeth. Splay him like a pelt across her bed. That thought threatened to make her ache again.
But he was right. She shouldn’t leave Kashvi waiting, or risk the woman barging in on something hard to explain.
That didn’t mean surrendering to Antal’s barbs. Fi drew herself up straight and locked eyes with the beast in her rafters, unflinching as she strode across the room. She pulled her shirt over her head in one swift tug, baring naked skin from the hip up.
Antal’s tail swayed to a halt.
His rapt attention kept a coal burning in her, a flame to harbor against the cold. With similar nonchalance, she removed her pants, ignoring the slickness Antal had left between her legs. She opened her dresser and strapped her breasts into a bra. Next, a pair of slim black underwear with lace frill, barely enough to cover her ass.
When she looked up, Antal sat utterly still, claws curled against the rafter.
“What’s wrong, Antlers? See something you want?”
His grin came wicked. “Such sharp teeth.”
He dropped down in a flash, a tap of claws on floorboards then a rush of air from Fi’s lungs as he grabbed her into a kiss. She sank into him, fingers knotting behind his neck, one final moan as his hands caressed the bare skin of her waist. She wanted to fall against him. Let him take her back to bed and ignore whatever obligations lay beyond her door.
“It will have to wait,” he said, chuckling as he pulled away from her hungry grasp. Then, in a low that would rumble through her the rest of the day. “I need time to devour you properly.”
Fi tried not to crumble at the thought. Reluctant, she reached for a shirt.
They arrived in Nyskya by late morning, sky lavender as the Winter sun struggled to crest the surrounding cliffs. Fi inhaled a breakfast of grouse eggs and crisped boar belly at Kashvi’s tavern. Tried to ignore Antal’s burning looks every time she met his eyes.
Then it was time. The fruits of their labors, finally coming together.
They met Boden in a snowy clearing near his ranch. Howevershitty Fi felt that morning, her brother looked ten times more bedraggled. With him stood crates of energy crossbows and sword hilts, delivered from Yvette’s forges.
And there to learn how to wield them: fifteen volunteers from Nyskya’s bravest, humans come to face the impossible in defense of their home.
They all knew by now of Antal’s involvement. The sight of the daeyari still drew wide eyes, a nervous murmur through ice-sharp air.
