Ava smiled. “That’s how I ended up kissing Threesome Steve the night we met Torin. He bought me a margarita pitcher.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I don’t think that’s quite what you’re going for here, though, is it? Because that was creepier.”
“Good point.”
Torin pressed a finger to his lips, frowning. “Can we go back a moment to what you just said, Ava?”
Ava waved a hand. “The past is the past, and we are here to have fun. That is what the Unseelie do, right? We will dance and drink and love each other until our dying breath.”
The word dying rang in my thoughts for a bit too long, but I inhaled and took in the faces of my beautiful friends. A fragrant wind slipped over us .
Nightmares still plagued me—the feel of the cold gnawing at my skin and the certainty that I would die. The dragon’s roar and the scorching heat of its fire.
Sometimes, I still felt haunted by the memory of frozen ghosts twisting outside my windows.
But I was here now, arm in arm among the people I loved. With them around me, winter had started to recede again, the terror thawing—just as it had in Faerie.
Thank you so much for reading the Frost and Nectar series. If you want to read a free standalone fae book, you can download it here. Or, read on for an excerpt from our other fae portal series, Agent of Enchantment.
EXCERPT FROM AGENT OF ENCHANTMENT
The fae lay on the ancient flagstones, candlelight dancing over his handsome features.
I had power over him now, and it intoxicated me. I was beyond taking things slow, beyond being careful. I was a fugitive, at the end of the line. I had very little to lose.
Standing below the towering stone arches of the ancient London church, I stared at him. Candlelight wavered around the nave, and high above me, thick shadows danced over the peaked vaults like malicious spirits. I took a deep breath, the battle over.
At least, I thought it was over.
As I drew closer, he seemed to rally, his lips curling into a grimace. With a roar, he leapt to his feet, charging me in a blur of movement. He moved impossibly fast, and yet to my eyes time seemed to slow down. His powerful arms swung like heavy pendulums, as if he were moving through a sea of honey .
Reflexes took over as I slid aside and let his fist pass me. Then, with both hands, I grabbed his wrist. Dipping my hips, I used his momentum to send him flying into a stone pillar. The crunch of his bones echoed off the vaulted ceiling, and dusty stone rained down on us.
The asshole had wanted to keep me in a cage, to torture me for fun. He wasn’t going to see my merciful side.
With a dark smile curling my lips, I stalked toward him. A trickle of blood ran down his forehead, and he glared at me with his good eye. He snarled, a bestial sound—a predator, unused to being prey. As I came within reach, he tried to punch me in the stomach.
I slapped his hand away, then backhanded him across the face. His head snapped right, and he fell to the floor. I picked him up by the collar and hurled him at a row of pews. When he crashed into them, his body splintered the wood.
And yet he kept going, dragging himself up again, breath rasping.
This time I charged fast, intent on beating seven shades of shit out of him, but he was reaching for his boot. A knife? No. I recognized the familiar shape of a Glock 17, rising to point at my chest. My heart thundered. Shit shit shit. I dove, but not in time.
A gunshot echoed off the stone. Pain ripped through my side. Gasping, I fell back, clutching at my waist, my hands covered in blood.
He stood slowly, training the gun on me as I stumbled back, pain splintering my gut. The custom iron bullet seared me from within, and I fell to my knees.
Already the poison was spreading through my body, dizzying me. Quenching my magic. I gritted my teeth, mentally whispering my mantra. Be prepared to kill everyone you meet. Right about now, that wasn’t working out so well for me.
His pale eyes flashing with fury, he pulled the trigger again, but it only clicked dully. The gun was empty. A small mercy.
“Well.” He smiled wryly, walking toward me. “I guess I could always kill you the old-fashioned way.”
I crawled away from him, gripping my gut, trying to block out the searing agony. “I should have known it was you. A fascination with power. Obsession with fear. You worship chaos…” Shivers wracked my body as the blood seeped through my fingers. “I profiled you all along.”
“Mmm. Yet look where you are now, mongrel,” he growled, eyes gleaming.
“Yeah, well…” I looked down at my blood-stained fingers. “I like to know that I got things right.”