Page 123 of Huntress

“It’s how you’re supposed to feel. You’re supposed to want me.” Saint lowered his mouth to her throat, stopping just before making contact. He moved over her pulse point, breathing her in. His side of the bond joined hers, and the thread between them sang so sweetly she could hardly stand it.

Elsie tilted her jaw back, crushing his shirt in her fingers to prevent herself from touching him. If only she’d put on her own gloves, she could at least come close. It was an exquisite kind of torture, holding back when his desire was as real as her own. Her lower tummy was aflame, her sex pulsing with need.

“I can change your whole world if you’d let me,” he murmured.

“Saint,” she whispered. He came back to her, dark eyes searching. “I want you to keep going–”

His mouth dropped to hers, pliant and soft. Elsie moaned, fissures of electricity coursing through her body straight to her core. His lips parted hers, but before he took it further, she slid a finger between them and pressed it to his lips. Saint blinked, looking at her with gentle confusion.

The bond retaliated, doubling the ache in her chest and belly, demanding that they continue. Elsie took a long, slow breath.

“Let me finish speaking,” she said. “I want you, but I need you to stop.”

He sat up, a pouty frown forming. “Why?”

“I’ve already explained. I don’t want to be the reason they kill you.”

“You won’t seal the bond with me until you’re safely away from their grasp,” he sighed. “If we were to run right now, how far would Albright chase you? We’ll hire a ship and cross the ocean, if that’s what it takes.”

“I don’t know, but I don’t think we’d get far enough to hire a ship.”

“There’s something that’s been bothering me,” he said. “You can’t leave the hunters, or your father will find you. Is that some fear your mother instilled in you to keep you from running off? What’s stopping him from finding you right now? It isn’t like you’re hiding in the compound.”

“I was afraid to leave the compound for a long time.” Elsie reached over and took his hand. “My mother believed that he wouldn’t look for me on earth, but more than that, he wouldn’t consider looking for me among the hunters. Every hunter has at least a little fae and a little witch in their bloodlines. I can blend in with them.”

“I’ve seen his ravens a few times since I first started taking missions. They barely even glance my way before flying off, continuing their search.”

“How do you know they’re his ravens?” he asked.

“He stole two of them from a god. Huginn and Muninn, thought and memory. They travel the world every day and return to him every night with what they’ve seen and heard. They’re easily recognizable,” she explained.

“So we wait on the whim of a woman who left you fourteen years ago,” Saint said glumly. He sank down to lie on his own cot, but refused to let go of her hand. “I’ll be good until then. But don’t close yourself off from me. It’s harder to be obedient when the evidence that you want me, too, is so obvious, but knowing I’m not suffering through it alone makes it easier to endure.”

“Suffering?” Elsie sighed, rolling onto her side to face him.

“Unfathomable suffering,” he expanded.

“As long as you’re not using it to push my boundaries, and it isn’t affecting our behavior when we’re not alone, we can leave things as they are.”

“I intend to take full advantage of this, you know,” he warned. “I’ll learn everything about you. I’ll know how to take care of you, how to comfort you. Soon enough, Mistress, you won’t need anyone but me.”

“Is that your goal? Are you some jealous, possessive little puppy?” She chuckled.

“Yes.”

It took them two full weeks to take down every tree within half a mile of Nest Tallow. The farther they moved from the nest, the larger the trees became, and the slower their progress. The forest was pristine, and the clean air was filled with birdsong. Each downed tree felt like a sacrilege against some ancient, sacred place.

“Is it guilt-tripping anyone else out?” Riven asked over lunch one day. “There’s a lot of earth magic here.”

“We feel it.” Grady gazed into the woods. “It draws you in while telling you that you don’t belong.”

Heads bobbed in agreement. He’d described what they were experiencing perfectly.

“Hopefully Tallow’s hunters maintain it better in the future, then no one will have a run-in with whatever’s causing it in the future,” Elsie said.

That night when they went back, a stack of seven missions waited for them.

“I was told to give you these when you finished your job here.” The nest’s assassin cringed. “You guys really messed up, huh?”