“Is this really your concern right now?”
“Your kingdom will be fine. Just find yourself a proper Seelie wife. I’m sure you’ll manage.” I wished my tone hadn’t sounded quite so acidic. “But you still owe me. ”
His arm was tight around me, and I could feel the pounding of his pulse through his clothes. “You know, I really shouldn’t be anywhere near you.”
“Then maybe you should let me go,” I said evenly.
“It would seem that I have to.”
2
TORIN
Insanely, I didn’t want to let her go. Even in the gloom of the cave, I could see the gentle curves of her copper horns. She was an ancient enemy of the Seelie, fiendish horns and all—the evidence was right before my eyes—and I’d followed her to the Court of Sorrows.
The only bright spot in this situation was that I’d felt the weight of Queen Mab’s curse lift. The moment I’d pulled myself from the portal, breathing in the air of the Unseelie realm, the curse had released its icy grip on my chest. It was a strange sort of certainty, a weightlessness I’d never known before.
Why was the curse gone? I had no idea. But without it weighing me down, I could give in to my desires…I could touch Ava. I could kiss her deeply and pull the hem of her dress all the way up to her waist. It was in the nature of the fae to give in to lust, to seek pleasure above all else —
Except that the person occupying my every waking thought was a demon.
Had she lured me here? I didn’t know. The moment I’d seen a stranger following her—an armed Unseelie with horns and wings—I’d had to keep her safe.
“I can’t stay here, Ava,” I whispered. “I have a small amount of magic left, I think. I might be able to open a portal.”
If Queen Mab captured me, I’d be quite literally flayed alive. She’d find a way to draw out a painful and humiliating death for me. And yet, somehow, my attention was transfixed on the Unseelie before me. She stared up at me in the shadowy cave with big green eyes.
“Any idea how to get us out?” she asked.
Us. ”I might have enough magic left to create a portal. But you can’t come with me back to Faerie, Ava.” Here, the curse had lifted. But at home? I’d simply kill her the moment she came near.
Her eyes narrowed, then she fluttered her long, black eyelashes. “You’ll really deprive me of Moria’s charming company?”
“Whatever our deal might have been, your kind can never again set foot in Faerie.”
A war was raging between my mind and body, but I knew I couldn’t take her with me for two very important reasons. One, I’d nearly killed her. Thoughtlessly, instinctively, I’d reached out for her when she turned away from me. The icy curse had snapped out of my body, and winter had started to claim her. Two, she was a demon, and a demon had cursed our land with brutal frost and long winters. My subjects would rip her to shreds; they’d destroy the kingdom before letting an Unseelie wear the crown. Who could blame them? We’d suffered for centuries.
It didn’t stop my body from craving this particular demon. She was somehow more alluring in her current form—wild, ruthless, and seductive at the same time. My pulse raced at her nearness. Just a moment ago, I’d felt her heart beating against my body through the thin, damp material of her dress. A caress that would have been deadly back in Faerie…
My gaze moved to her perfect mouth, full and slightly parted. I wanted to taste the lips of a demon, to make her moan with pleasure. Fuck.
A low, rhythmic sound rattled outside, interrupting my mental battle. The noise sent a chill racing up my spine.
“It’s the spider,” Ava whispered.
I picked up a rock and stepped out of the cave’s mouth. Six dark eyes gleamed in the dusk as the spider crawled slowly down the trunk of the huge tree, fangs dripping with venom. My blood pounded in my skull. I didn’t want this thing anywhere near Ava.
As the spider leapt, I darted forward and smashed the rock hard against its head. The spider fell to the ground, and blood coated my hands and body. I dropped the rock. Midnight blue ichor spattered my white shirt, and I pulled it off. I crossed to the river and discarded my shirt, then cleaned my bloody hands in the cool currents.
I scanned the dark wood for movement. Apart from the wind rushing through the leaves and a strange birdsong, I couldn’t sense a thing.
When I stepped back into the cave, Ava frowned at my chest. “Did the spider steal your shirt?”
“Most women wouldn’t complain.”