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“Of course he did. You know, I can do that now.” I patted the raven tattoo on my neck. “Coupled with illusions, I’m afraid I’m more impressive than our king.”
Halvar laughed. Kari shoved me in the center of the chest, grinning.
“We’ll see you at the dawn then?” Halvar held out one arm, his free hand locked in his wife’s grip.
“At the dawn.” I clasped his forearm and nodded. “Be sure to warn me if Elise has plans to cut me to pieces for keeping such secrets.”
Kari clicked her tongue. “If the way she nearly took your wife’s head the other day is a clue, no one can protect you.”
Kari wrapped her arm around Halvar’s waist, and along with Niklas, Junie, and Ash, they slipped into Hodag’s burrow. A dozen blood fae guards went with them as guides to wherever Valen placed his new isle.
I waited until they had disappeared completely before I let my shoulders slump forward. The Court of Blood was quiet, though I doubted many folk slept. A tremble of unease hung low and potent behind the gates. There was a clear shift beginning. Battles brewing. It seemed even the trees and creatures knew it.
Branches had grown lush with thick leaves as large as my head. Bark seemed darker, trunks thicker. A natural shield had surrounded our gates, silent and powerful, as though the land were fighting back in its own way.
My blood had been on a constant overheat since waking. I’d fought battles before, but this felt different.
Davorin was not like King Calder in Etta. He wasn’t a piss-streak like Niall Grym. This bastard was those fools’ beginning. He was their fuel, their darkness. He had the greater prize to lose—every realm, every gift of the gods, every magic.
An enemy with a world to lose was the most dangerous foe of all.
I needed to speak to Saga and tell her what I could remember from my journey with Wraith. The more she knew, the more she remembered, the more we stood a chance.
Alas, my grand plans to be a rational man fled into the oblivion of my mind the instant I opened the door to the bed chamber. Saga had a hip propped on the windowsill, one single tallow candle emitting just enough of a glow to accentuate those full curves. She sipped something from a wooden cup, and the woman was naked.
Utterly, beautifully naked.
At the sounds of the door lock clicking, she turned over her shoulder. A wry grin lifted her cheeks. “Good my husband remembered he had a wife and stopped chatting.”
“Your husband does not remember his name at the moment.” I kicked off my boots. “Tell me why you’re pressing those perfect breasts to the window for anyone to see? Those belong to me, or must I remind you?”
Saga had the audacity to turn back to the window, sipping her drink as though nothing bothered her in the slightest. “No one is awake.”
“True. Other than countless blood fae guards with the title of watcher. I wonder why that is? Couldn’t be because they are trained towatchfor things.”
Saga snickered and placed the cup on the windowsill. “I suppose if you take issue with this, you’ll need to come over and do something about it.”
Damn the hells.
Three long strides and I had her spun around, chest to chest, her bare back pressed to the cold, bubbled glass. “Be careful what you wish for, my tempting menace.”
Saga had time to gather a short breath before I kissed her. My palms held the sides of her head, tilting her mouth at the perfect angle. I could taste all of her, and by the hells I tried. As though I wanted to melt into her skin with every reach of my tongue.
My hands claimed her waist, sliding up the divots of her ribs, toward the beautiful fiends who’d started this entire debate, but Saga stopped me by taking hold of my wrists.
“Now, you’ve gone too far,” I said in a rasp.
She chuckled and danced us around, until it was my back toward the window. “I plan to go further,” she said against my lips. “But I set up this game, so you’ll play by my rules.”
Saga unfastened my belt. Blood abandoned my head and took refuge in a new area at the barest touch of her fingers over the laces of my trousers. Couldn’t be helped. With every touch, this woman had my body behaving like an inexperienced fae boy who’d seen a woman’s skin for the first time.
Once Saga dealt with my trousers, she bit her teeth into her bottom lip nervously.
“You’ve got my ass against the pane where anyone might see, yet you look ready to hide under the covers,” I said.
“I’m not bold, but . . .” She drifted her fingertips over the curves of my hip bones until she caressed the top of my length. “I want to be. After what we’ve been through, I always want to be bold. I don’t want to risk regrets.”
This was a game I could play until the Otherworld called me home.
