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Chapter Forty-Five
Ash
“Wake up, king.”
The husky voice curled around me, but it wasn’t enough to make me open my eyes.
“Nnn,” I mumbled, already drifting back off to sleep as I squished my face deeper into the pillow.
I heard a low huff of amusement. Cool fingers trailed down my bare back, pushing the cover off with their descent, as the mattress compressed at my hip. Lonan’s crisp scent drifted over, making my morning wood twitch, but I resolutely buried my face deeper and curled my arms under the pillow.
“You have a busy day, Ash.” Lonan leaned down and kissed my shoulder. “Time to get up.”
“Jora said the Solstice stuff doesn’t start ‘til the evening,” I mumbled, my voice croaky from sleep.
“Yes, but it’s not just the Solstice today, is it?”
My eyes cracked open at that. I stretched and slowly rolled over, blinking blearily up at Lonan sitting beside me on the bed, already dressed with his hair damp.
He gave me a tiny smile and leaned down to kiss me. “Happy birthday, Oak King.”
I smiled back at him when he sat up, but as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, my gut twisted into a tight knot. Not with excitement for whatever Lonan had planned for my birthday, or the Summer Solstice festivities later, but because another anniversary was approaching.
My parents had been killed just a few days after my twenty-first birthday.
Sitting up, I exhaled as I pushed my hair back from my face, my fingers snagging in the wild curls. I’d tried not to think about it. I hadn’t mentioned my birthday at all, because the reminder of its approach just made me think about that horrifying night only a few days later. Waking up and hearing someone banging on the door. The two police officers waiting there. The kind bereavement officer Beth and the brisk Constable Grant.
In some ways, it felt like it had all happened just a few weeks ago. In others, it felt like years. Decades. Like it had been a life so far removed from mine now that the details were fading.
I didn’t want the details to fade. I didn’t want to forget. I wasn’t mortal anymore, but they were still my parents. They’d still given me an amazing childhood. I still missed them so much it hurt.
And I was still determined to kill the Carlin and her other sons for what they’d done.
I realised I’d been staring down at my hands instead of answering Lonan, but before I could look up, he reached out and curled his fingers over mine.
“I’m sorry,” he rasped. I heard him swallow. “I know that… I shouldn’t have said anything. You probably don’t want to—”
“No.” I looked up and smiled at him, then leaned over and cupped his chin as I kissed him. “Thank you.”
“We can ignore it.” His fingers clutched at mine, like he was afraid I was going to rip my hand away. “Your birthday, I mean, if it—”
“No way.” I kissed him again and tugged him down with me as I lay back. “I want to find out what you have planned for me. Does it start right now?” I added eagerly.
Lonan’s mouth curved up into a tiny, crooked smile as he leaned over me on straightened arms. “It does. With you getting up. I’ve run you a bath.”
I groaned dramatically and reached up to finger the acorn hanging from Lonan’s throat. “What if I told you that mortals always start their birthdays with blowjobs once they reach adulthood?”
“Then I would tell you that you’re lying.”
I shot him a mock-glare. “I might not be.”
“You think I haven’t caught on to your clever wording already, seelie?” He leaned down and gave me a firm kiss before getting up from the bed. “Up.”
“You’ve already had your bath?” I asked as I reluctantly slid out of bed. “So I don’t even get to bathe with you on mybirthday.Ugh. What’s even thepointof being a king?”
Lonan chuckled, patting my backside to get me to walk to the bathroom. “We can later.”
I stretched on my way with a huge yawn, the sadness from earlier fading away as I wondered what Lonan had planned. I hadn’t even been sure if he’d know it was my birthday.
