AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Forty-Seven
Lonan
The heat was smothering me.
I lay in our bed, staring up at the dark ceiling, trying to breathe slowly through my mouth. In and out. Ash’s head was on my shoulder, his arm draped over my belly, his breathing steady in sleep.
He was like a furnace. He’d always been warm, his skin hotter than mine, but now it burned. I was sweating from his proximity, my brow beaded with moisture, my hairline damp.
Dipping my head, I pressed a kiss to his curls and carefully eased out from under him. He didn’t wake, exhausted from the day and how hard I’d fucked him once we got into bed. My body reacted to the memory of it, my cock twitching before I stuffed it into a pair of loose linen trousers from the drawer, too hot for leathers.
I didn’t put on anything else. The floorboards were warm under my bare feet as I slipped out of the room and into the hallway. This part of the palace had previously been guest quarters, but it was being cleared out to become Ash’s new private chambers, with a meeting room, living quarters and a private dining room for us.
Everything was dark wood and warm accents. So unlike the cold, white palace I had grown up in. I’d always thought I hated how cold the unseelie palace was, but this was… too much.
Too hot. Too stuffy. Too crowded. Just too much.
The hallways were empty as I walked through the palace. I didn’t know where I was going. Trying to escape the heat. But the seelie lands were growing ever warmer as the peak of summer approached. At least the days were finally getting shorter, the Summer Solstice over, the countdown to winter begun.
The thought soothed me, made me sigh as I stepped out of the palace and made my way down the living steps, the grass cool under my feet. But the air was still warm. Fragrant with the scent of blooming flowers. Cloyingly sweet.
Rotten. It all smelled rotten, like decay was already setting in, the heat speeding up the process.
The lights from the seelie town winked in the distance, the press of so many Folk living within seeming to weigh down on my shoulders. So many Folk. So much life. It felt unnatural, out of balance.
The fields were empty and quiet as I crossed them, walking aimlessly. I worried about Ash waking up and finding me gone, but then the forest loomed ahead of me, thick and dark, pulling my mind towards it.
My footsteps sped up as I approached. My skin tingled, a weak rush of prickling cold chasing off the warmth. I stopped just outside the treeline and stared into the depths of the forest. Something in my gut tugged, trying to pull me forward.
Cool. Dark.
On the other side, unseelie lands waited.
Mine.
Frost and snow and ice. Cool winds. Dark lakes. Sweet food and wine.
I wasn’t supposed to be here. A single black spot marring the warmth and life and colour of Ash’s lands. I was a stranger here.
I was… wrong.
My fingers twitched as I stared into the forest. My branch leg made an aborted step forward. At my back, I could somehow feel the warmth of Ash. Of everything he now had—all of this. Longing made my chest ache, my throat close up.
He was what I wanted. For him, I would endure the heat. I would endure this sense of misplacement.
At my front, the forest called to me. And the unseelie lands beyond, cool and quiet. Mine.
My muscles locked when eyes appeared in front of me, just beyond the treeline. Cobalt blue, shining in the dark. White teeth gleamed in a familiar sharp grin.
“You are mine, Lonan.” Balor’s voice made my gut roil. “Not his. You won’t be able to stand this place for long. And when you succumb, I will be waiting for you, my sweet brother.”
