AllFreeNovel
Share Us
So, I went out to the nearby balcony and folded my arms over the stone walls. Out in the forest, blue lights danced between the trees. I could hear their music from here. It was almost an echo of the beats that Hilda dropped inside. It seemed that the Sluagh were having a party, too.
“Hey,” Cerri said as she touched my arm. “Why are you out here? The party is inside.”
Though I gave Cerri a reassuring smile, inside I felt the turbulent waves of a storm over the ocean. The churning left me off kilter. I couldn’t quite dredge up the words that I wanted to convey.
Of course, Cerri could see right through me.
Her lips twisted wryly to the side. “The court is still being standoffish, aren’t they? I really hoped this wouldn’t happen.”
She turned her back to the stone wall and leaned against it while crossing her arms over her chest. From here, I could see the delicate splattering of star-like freckles across her porcelain skin. The gentle arch of her nose had me transfixed. I couldn’t help but stare at the beauty beside me.
The waves in my gut took on a new meaning as my heart fluttered for her. I reached over and tucked a curl behind her ear. Her eyes drifted shut as she leaned into my touch. My gut clenched with a new kind of need.
Eyes still closed, she said, “I was really hoping this would help. Maybe we need to jump into the deep end?”
“What, pray tell, doesjumping into the deep endentail?” I gave her a wary look.
Cerri smiled deviously. She pulled me away from the wall and back towards the party. I would have dug in my heels were it not for the dress she wore. It was mischievously short and fluttered around her thighs. My gaze would have stayed there were it not for the deep dip in the dress’s neckline that left very little to the imagination up top.
When she turned to lead me into the party, I could see the tattoos of delicate moth wings on her shoulder blades. Cerri chose to hide nothing tonight. She let everyone see her mortal shape and the curse that Beryl had laid upon her. Nothing would stop this woman, not her changeling childhood or an Unseelie curse.
I envied her. I let my new title hold me back from a court that I should have felt welcomed in.
“Cerri,” I began. “Are you sure about this? I don’t mind helping from behind the scenes…Things could go a lot smoother if we don’t push this issue…I’m not sure if we should rock the boa—”
She spun and glared at me with a look so sharp I could have sworn I started bleeding. Instead of fighting a queen, I bit my tongue and let her pull me into the party. She didn’t go to the dance floor, like I expected. Instead, we cut through the crowd standing around the snack table.
I stood, helplessly, in the center of a group of fae as Cerri dipped a tortilla chip into her buffalo chicken dip. She held her palm under the chip and brought it to my lips. My cheeks warmed with mild embarrassment, but I could play it off like the heat of all the bodies in the room had me a bit too warm.
What I couldn’t play off was the sensation brewing deep in my core as Cerri fed me. I savored the feeling of her fingers brushing against my lips when I took the chip from her. She grinned, and my stomach flipped wildly before the taste of buffalo sauce and cheese overwhelmed my senses.
“Look at how gentle he was with her,” one fae whispered.
“I wish a man would be that soft with me,” a dryad replied.
Cerri’s lips split into a proud grin. She’d known what she was doing all along. I chewed and swallowed the chip.
“Another,” I growled softly.
Cerri cupped my chin as she fed me this time. It was intimate and full of trust, a performance that I was in on this time. It didn’t take long for the fae to close the distance around me. Their comfort settled back in, and I became just another man in the crowd.
All right, I was more than just another man in the crowd. The women treated me with a bit of reverential respect after seeing the way I treated Cerri. They went back to their own men and smacked their shoulders before waving to me.
I could almost hear them askingwhy can’t you be more like him?
When I noticed blue lights lingering near the doorways, I waved the Sluagh in. The dancing stage lights mingled with the Sluagh’s spirit bodies and reflected sparkling orbs onto the floor. The crowd treated them much the same as they treated me in the beginning. There was a moment of hesitation, but as the night went on their cold shoulder melted into a warm greeting.
Cerri put both hands on my chest and bounced on her heels. “It’s a success!”
I wrapped my arm around her lower back. “It would seem so.”
And that was where we jinxed ourselves.
Immediately, wine-red smoke billowed out of nowhere. It hit the laser lights and dimmed them until the room went nearly pitch black. A cruel laugh echoed through the hall.
I tensed and pulled Cerri to my chest.
From the cloud stepped out a figure that I recognized all too well. Beryl used a glamour to make herself taller than everyone by at least two feet. She didn’t skimp on the inhuman details, either. Her arms had too many joints and her fingers were far too spindly. The hem of her dress writhed along the floor like squirming tentacles as she drifted towards us.
