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“Adar! Where are you?” her voice echoes again. How long has she been shouting? How long has she been out there? What if the Lesser Faeries find her? What if she’s in danger?
Disoriented, I let go of the net and turn around, trying to remember which way is up. The cold of the water does little to calm the fever raging in my body. The wound burns away at my flesh and blood, bleeding into the lake, the flesh never knitting together.
Something glimmers and without further thought I follow it, swimming upward, toward the reflection of light dancing on the broken mirror of the surface.
I have to make sure she’s safe, that she’s all right.
My tail is one long streak of pain, the blood burning in my veins, and yet I’m shivering. Gritting my teeth, I beat my tail and rise out of the water.
There she is, pacing the shore, her hood fallen back, her shoulders hunched over.
Something is wrong.
Forgetting all about the pain, about the fever gripping my body, I plunge under and swim toward her, cutting through the water. It takes me much longer than I’d like, a testament to how much weaker I’m becoming, how this wound is leeching my strength day after day.
By the time I reach the shore, she has sat down in the mud, her face in her hands. I throw myself out of the water, swallowing a howl of pain as my torn tail scrapes on the rocks and roots of the bank.
“Selina. What’s the matter?”
“You came.” She slowly puts her hands down and I’m relieved to see no bruises or wounds anywhere.
Still, I’m not satisfied. “Are you hurt? Did any Faerie touch you?”
“I’m unharmed. I’m fine.” But her voice trembles.
“You’re not. I can read you,” I tell her, dragging myself further up the bank to reach her side. I lift a hand to her face and swallow hard because I want to comfort her but I also want to kiss her. I want it so fucking bad. I want her with every fiber of my being.
She gives a small laugh that turns into a sob.
I haul her into my arms, rest my chin on top of her soft hair, close my eyes and draw in her scent. “What happened? I’ll drag myself to that damn palace if I have to and punch them all in the dick.”
She jerks against me, letting out a laugh, a real one. “Adar! That’s not appropriate language for a King.”
I smirk. “Not a King anymore, remember? I’m feral now. Practically an animal.”
She huffs against my chest. It’s torture, holding her like this when what I really want to do is put my mouth on her, tear her clothes off and cover her body with mine, when I want to pleasure her and mark her as mine.
But damn, truth is that I also like holding her, soothing her, being her strength when my strength is leaving me. I want to be important to her, to be there for her.
My heart wants her as much as my body, if not more.
“Tell me what happened,” I repeat. “Whose ass do I have to kick? All right, not actually kick, but this fishtail can pack a punch and—”
“He put his ring on me,” she whispers.
Hells. What in all the hells.A shockwave goes through me, rocking me, almost sending me down on the mud of the shore. I knew this was going to happen, I knew it, but it’s as if the thought belongs to someone else.
I feel as if someone has run a knife through me.
“You’re going to marry him,” I breathe, my lips numb. I’m numb all over. “You accepted his proposal.”
“No, Adar…” She pushes on my chest, leans back to look at me. “That’s not what happened.”
“Isn’t it? Show me the ring.”
“No, listen…” She cups my face and it’s strange how blurry she appears. I feel like I’m dying inside, but when she leans in and kisses me, it’s so sweet I can do nothing to stop it.
Sweet and hot and oh fuck, I fall into the kiss like a rock into crystal water, rolling deep into the dark center of the world. I gather her close, closer, as close as I can get, so I can deepen the kiss, lick inside her mouth, taste the essence of her, drown in her scent and the velvet touch of her skin, the softness of her lips, the butterfly brushes of her lashes, the tickling silk of her hair.
