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I clutched Demon to my chest, hissing when he nipped my arm.
“I usually prefer brunettes”—the Fae stepped toward me, reaching for my hair—“but I can wrap blonde hair around my fists just as easily.”
I ducked under his arm and quickly spun around as he grappled the air and stumbled forward, nearly face-planting into that now empty bowl of what I realized wasn’t cacao and cava, but cacao and something else. “Sirenshade,” I said breathlessly, backing up a step when the Fae turned on me like a cat cornering a mouse. “I-I mixed it up with cava. I’m always getting those plants confused.”
He stopped his advance, looking like he’d hit an invisible wall. “Sirenshade?”
I yelped when Demon nipped me again, this time breaking skin. I shifted him in my arms, nearly doubling over when he kicked my stomach. “It turns men into horny dragons’ asses.” I only carried it with me because Thorin said he couldn’t entertain his lady friends without it.
He frowned down at his crotch. “That explains the raging boner.”
“I’m sorry.” I set Demon down, wincing when he went for my leg again. “This is all Radnor’s fault for rushing me to wake you. I told him you needed rest.”
“What I need is a warm and willing cunt.”
I winced at his crude words. He was certainly persistent. “You’ll get neither from me.”
“Why not?” He pouted like a toddler on the verge of a tantrum. And to think I’d once thought him handsome.
I shook Demon off my foot. “I don’t need a reason.”
“Where I come from, women line up at my bedchamber.” He waved toward the dark copse of trees behind us, as if his harem was waiting for him there.
“Good for you.” This Fae was so pathetic it was comical. “You can sate your lust when you return home.”
“Don’t you think I’m handsome?”
It was hard to take him seriously while my rabbit was humping my leg. “That’s beside the point.” I shook Demon off again. He went straight for meagain.
“So youdothink I’m handsome?”
“Damn, that Sirenshade is potent.” I picked up Demon and held him tightly to my chest so that he couldn’t hump or kick, but he could still bite.
“You should feel honored to sleep with me.”
Holy troll turds! These two horny males! “What I feel right now is repulsed.”
“Why? I’m a ten and you’re a seven at best.”
My gaze shot to him, and for a moment, that squirming rabbit in my arms was forgotten. That temperamental dragon no longer a concern. The pain from Thorin’s betrayal muted as I gaped at my tormentor. He was right. I was a seven at best. I’d always felt uncomfortable in my own skin, as if I’d somehow been stuck in the wrong body. I was too small, too pale, too plain. Sometimes when I looked at my reflection, I barely recognized the woman with the mousy features staring back at me, my hair a golden wheat that grew so wild, the only way to tame it was to keep it in a thick single braid down my back, which only emphasized my dull gray eyes. Thorin’s friends had always thought I was a child, though he’d told me I was already twenty-three winters. And now this hairy gnome wart confirmed what I’d known all along.
I didn’t think, just acted on the rage that built inside me, flooding my veins with scorching magic that flew out of my fingertips and struck his chest.
He flew backward, landing against that slab of stone, the audible crack of his skull splitting the air.
“Merlin’s balls!”
I rushed toward him, dropping Demon at his feet while I reached for Helian’s head, cringing when I pulled my hands away and they were coated with blood. I tensed when I heard the swoosh of wings in the distance. I quickly pulled Helian back to his bed of grass and willed my magic to flow through my fingers and heal that gash while also chanting a sleeping spell. By the time I finished, a rosy tint had returned to his cheeks as he still slept. I quickly cleaned my bloody hands on the inside of my skirts as I sat back on my heels. That’s when I noticed Demon humping Helian’s leg. I snatched up my rabbit and murmured a sleeping spell while petting his ears. He quickly fell limp in my arms, and I placed him on the grass.
Radnor landed with athud.Wings pinned behind his back, he approached us on his two hind legs. He sniffed his rider, then turned to me with a snarl, smoke pouring from his snout. “He’s not awake?”
“He’s alive. He’s healed,” I snapped back, brushing trembling hands down my skirts. “What else do you want from me? He was a piece of coal last night.” I held his gaze for longer than I thought possible, ignoring the tremors in my bladder. “Powerful healing requires rest.”
He snorted, hitting me with rings of smoke. “Sounds like you need rest, too, cranky witch.”
I fanned my face, swearing. “I do.”
“Your rodent has other ideas.” He nodded toward Demon, who’d somehow woken up and was humping Helian’s leg again, albeit much slower, kind of like a drunkard at a brothel.
