Page 44 of How Does It Feel?

Chapter 12

Falling into the Flames

Mendax

“Did she scream Alist—” I turned, curious what type of massacre Alistair would have left me with this time.

My eyes crashed into the still-very-much-alive human girl’s.

I clenched my jaw so hard I felt the muscle pop, and my teeth ground against each other as I stared at her. The human stood proudly next to Alistair as if they were old pals. She looked ridiculous. Her red hair was tangled and matted against the sides and back of her head. She was so covered in filth that it was hard to see her skin color. Golden tan bits surfaced between the dirt and cuts. She wore the same whore dress as the night she landed on me in the forest.

It had been nineteen days since that night. Nineteen days I’d stayed as far away from her as possible, all the while hoping she would hurry up and die.

I hadn’t even bothered to get a good look at her that night. Why would I? She was nothing.

Nothing.

In the light of the torches now, I could see the creature that had haunted me since that night, since I’d touched her.

Even under my glove, I had felt the charge of electricity when I touched her. That had been shocking enough, but then her soft fingers had coiled around my wings and I felt . . .

I had rejoined the castle, unable to keep my thoughts from returning to her.

When I had returned to her body in the forest, simply to reassure myself that she was dead, I was startled to find that she wasn’t.

Ever since, I’d avoided the human, unable to stop thinking about what her skin would feel like under my ungloved fingers.

The fact that she was even still alive was a mystery. She hadn’t died from being stabbed clean through in the forest. I knew she would have died. I had watched the life fade from her pretty blue eyes after Fish had stabbed her.

When she hadn’t died in the dungeon, I thought I’d send a gift to my assassin and finally get her away from me. Surely she wasn’t that hard to kill. After all, she was just a human.

But as I stood in the room and watched her stroke my personal assassin’s muscled back like a house cat, I couldn’t help but wonder what was different about her.

Apparently, she was harder to kill than I thought.

“Cute. You picked up a stray,” I bit out as I tried to school my shock.

How was she still standing?

She shifted uncomfortably, and the filthy dress rode up her thighs, showing the claw marks of the forest bog. I knew it was from him. Good. I knew everything that happened in the Unseelie realm, which was part of why they feared me and precisely why my family held the throne. Her blue eyes looked fiery, much different from the doe-eyed act she had continued to attempt ever since she came through the veil.

Such idiots.

The humans really expected that I, the dark prince, would be distracted by a pretty slut in a short dress?

It would be that much easier to rid the land of humans and take control if they were that stupid. It still puzzled me how they knew we would be attacking that night. How did they know to send her at that exact time? If I found a mole in my men, I would drain his family’s blood as he watched.

“He’s not a stray,” she said defiantly. Her chin tilted up ever so slightly.

“I was talking about you,” I stated.

Fire was building in my blood as I watched her, and I knew Alistair would be able to track my heart because it was so fast now. Good thing I owned him, and he wouldn’t do a thing about it.

She shot daggers out of her eyes at me. What an interesting blue they were.

My pulse quickened.

“Tell me, Alistair, why are my eyes cursed with the pain of looking at this disgusting human alive? Do make it good, as your life does depend upon it.”