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“Aww, come on.” I try my most winsome smile. “It’ll be a fun adventure.”
“Haven’t you had enough adventure?” He swats at a horsefly that buzzes near me. “Haven’t you had enough of the hot sun, the dry lands, the arid wind? We could be awash in furs, roasted meat, and pleasure. Instead, we march toward danger.” Shaking his head, he lengthens his stride, each step just as angry as the last. “Me. Taking my mate into danger.” His words continue, but under his breath, and each one of them full of irritation.
“Glad we’re in agreement.” I pat his back.
Slaves wearing white kerchiefs stand at each street corner as we pass. Silmaran has stationed these peacekeepers throughout the city, though they haven’t been able to quell all the violence. Some slaves have taken vengeance into their own hands. Though the market street is clear, there’s a smoking crater where the alchemy shop used to be.
Parnon thumps along behind me, his head down.
“Are you okay?” I fall back and try to match his pace.
He doesn’t look up.
“Parnon?”
“Fine.” He doesn’t say the word so much as bite it off.
“I’m sorry.” I touch his arm. I expect him to pull away, but he doesn’t.
He keeps trudging along the road, his eyes down, his heart broken. “They knew the risk.” His gruff tone is still there, but now its coated with a layer of sadness.
“It’s not your fault. You know that, right?” I have a lifetime of regrets, of losses that I blame myself for—Clotty among them. Sometimes it’s easier to blame yourself than to accept that this world is hard and unfair. “You couldn’t have saved them if you’d been there. Cenet’s magic is too strong.”
“I can’t save anyone.” He flexes his fists. “I fight. That’s all.”
“You saved me.”
He finally looks at me, his sandy lashes shading his eyes from the bright sun. “I did?”
“You let Captain Bracanda drown you rather than call for help, rather than reveal that we were hidden in the walls. All you had to do was talk. You could’ve said we were there, and you would’ve been forgotten. But you didn’t. You died for us. All of us.” I step around a black crack in the road. “And you saved Gareth from being shredded during the uprising. You fight, but you’re more than that, too. Eldra and Nemar knew it. So do I.”
He grunts in response, but he doesn’t drop his gaze again. His eyes are up, looking toward the southern horizon.
I squeeze his solid arm. “They live on in our hearts, and we will avenge them.”
The pain still beats inside him, a dull echo of whatever he’s feeling reverberating inside me. They shouldn’t have died. They should be here helping the slaves start their new lives. Cenet and Zatran took their lives without a thought. But plenty of thought will go into hunting them down, making them suffer, and sending them to the Spires. The sooner the better.
Gareth slows his pace until he walks beside me. Parnon stomps on ahead, his spine a hair straighter.
“He needed that.” Gareth’s face is softer now. “And I don’t think anyone else could have reached him.”
“You still mad?” I give him a sideways glance.
“Maybe a little.” He takes my hand and weds our fingers together. “But then I remind myself that we are going to get Clotty and get out. You’ll be safe. My vow will be fulfilled. And then I’ll be so deep in your hot cunt that—”
“Gareth!” I smack my palm to his mouth.
Parnon’s step stutters, then continues.
Gareth’s eyebrows shoot up, then I can feel his grin behind my palm. I pull my hand back.
“Since when is my filthy Xalana shy about mating talk?” He grins, and Ancestors, that face is begging to be a saddle.
I can feel my cheeks flushing. “You’re just so … so …”
“Crass.” Raywen floats to my elbow. Well, she doesn’t float, but she walks so gracefully that you’d think she was a few inches off the ground.
“Crass, right.” I nod. Then again, I rather enjoy his filthy mouth. In fact, my lady bits are giving me a happy tingle. “Wait. He’s right. Never mind. Continue the dirty talk. Actually, just go ahead and do more altogether.”
He laughs, and Raywen looks at us with a mix of confusion and amusement. The pig in her arms does the same.
“Hi, Phin.” Gareth reaches out to pet Phin’s head, but a warning snort has him drawing his hand back. “Sorry, mate. You just look so darling in this form.”
Another angry snort has Raywen soothing him by scratching under his chin.
“You aren’t coming with us, are you?” I don’t want to offend, but Raywen would stand out even worse than my winter realm warrior. Her sparkle can’t be dimmed.
“No. I’m bound to the sea fae, Calyto, and I need to try and sort out how to return your friend to his fae form.” She frowns down at Phin. “I’ve tried every way I know how, but the magic won’t come. I can only do little things like—” She squinches her eyes a bit, and Phin lets out a huff as a tuft of dark hair appears on his head. “Like this. Not helpful.”
“But so cute.” I pet the hair until Phin gives me a rude squeal, and I stop. “Fine.”
“Anyway, I just wanted to see you off.”
“Someone say something about getting off?” A unicorn prances into view just ahead of us.
We stop, and Gareth swears under his breath. “This is the transportation?” He turns back to Chastain who’s been walking slowly and talking to Silmaran the entire way.
“Is it not to your liking?” Chastain’s tone is clipped. I suppose I can’t blame him. He’s leaving his chosen mate behind at a time when she needs him most. I haven’t had a chance to sit and talk with her, to share her pain and grief over what happened to her when she was Zatran’s prisoner. But things like that can’t be rushed. I well know how hard it can be to process it, much less talk about it, even to a friend. Even with Taylor, I couldn’t bring myself to divulge the most painful parts of my past, and maybe I never will. Sometimes, silence is a salve all its own.
“You all right?” Silmaran pulls me to face her. “You just seemed like … I don’t know, like an Ancestor called your name.”
I rub my upper arms, chill bumps dotting my skin despite the heat. “I’m good. Just ready to get to Clotty. And you?”
She drops her eyes, then meets mine again. “It’s what I’ve wanted. Freedom.”
“But the cost?” I take her hand in mine. “Can you bear it?”
She squeezes my fingers. “I have to.”
I nod, and a silent understanding passes between us.
Pulling me into an embrace, she quietly says, “Please look after Chastain for me. I can withstand a lot, but I don’t think I could bear it if he didn’t return to me.”
I return her hug. “He’s coming back, and hopefully, with an army.”
“From your lips to the Ancestors’ ears.” She leans back, her amber eyes swimming. “We will prevail. For those we lost and for those we can save.”
“Whoa, I thought there was going to be some girl-girl action, but you two look so serious now. Ugh.” A unicorn circles us, his horn giving off a pearlescent glow. “At least show me your tits or—Yow!”
Gareth smacks the unicorn’s ass hard, and he darts away to his paddock just inside the southern gate. “Nasty creatures.”
“Beautiful, though.” I watch as a mare—her mane streaked with golden strands, and her bright blue eyes a luminous wonder—bends down and starts licking one of the males. I turn back to Gareth. “But yeah, really gross.”
“Stop that.” Parnon grabs several sets of tack and separates the mare from her lewd lolly. Some of the other freed slaves help him saddle the unicorns. Most of them are young and agile, trained soldiers for Zatran and Cranthum—they’ll come in handy, especially because now they’re fighting for themselves.
Gareth puts his hands on my shoulders. “You will ride with me. You will not leave my sight. You will follow my order
s, because you know I am giving them to keep you safe. Do you understand?”
“I’m not a child.” I put my hands on my hips. “I’ve fended for myself for quite a long time without your help, Gareth Elliden, and I can keep doing it.” Why do I love sassing him? I don’t know, but I can’t seem to stop. I smile up into his face.
“Changeling, I will put you over my knee right here and now unless you tell me you understand my terms.” His growl is likely meant to be intimidating, but his threat has my nipples hardening and my panties going damp.
“You’d do that to your mate?” I pout, secretly thrilled at the prospect.
He leans down so that I have no escape from his direct gaze. “I intend to do much, much worse to my mate. But for now, all you have to do is tell me you understand. And then I will save your ass reddening for later, and in private.”
“But I’ll still get one?” I ask brightly.
His eyes flicker gold, and he licks his lips. “You want me to spank you?”
I run my finger down his chest and over the ripples of his abs. “Xalana needs discipline, my lord.”
He runs a hand to my ass and grips it. “My naughty beloved.”
“Now that’s what I’m talking about.” A large unicorn struts up, the saddle on his back almost comically small compared to him. “Show us some skin.”
Gareth pushes me behind him and grabs the unicorn’s bridle. “What’s your name?”
“Your language can’t even pronounce the beauty of my name.” The beast scoffs.
“Then I shall call you Horse.” Gareth holds his hand out for me. “And you will carry us to the Abyss.”
“Or what?” He tosses his beautiful head, his mane glowing in the sun.
“Or I will turn you into a gelding.”
