Page 11 of Kiss of Smoke

I wokeup to a feeling of dread. Lying there with my eyes closed, breathing softly, I tried to pinpoint what it was.

Everything was too quiet.

Even in Thornwood, there was usually an omnipresent hum in the air, the sound of the city in the background. Now it was gone.

At the same time, I realized I wasn’t alone in the room. The mattress in front of me was dipping, and I was in danger of sliding into it.

I cracked an eyelid and found a head of wild dark blond hair lying on top of crossed arms.

“Gwyn?”

My voice was raspy and dry. Gwyn raised his head, blinking sleep out of his eyes, and handed me a glass of water from the nightstand. “Good morning, sleeping beauty.”

I chugged the water, which only put a small dent in my thirst. “How long have I been sleeping?”

“Over a day.” He took the empty glass from me, placing it back on the table without looking. There were faint dark circles under his eyes. “Your face is healed.”

Gwyn reached out and touched me, running his fingers from my forehead to my cheek, and finally to my lower lip.

There was no pain, not so much as a twinge. I reached up as well and felt smooth skin where a cut had been a day ago.

I didn’t feel great, but I felt…serviceable. That was about as good as it was going to get.

“It’s so quiet,” I said, taking Gwyn’s hand and twining my fingers through his. I even kept my tone pitched low, as though talking too loud would shatter the fragile feeling in the air, or draw too much attention to us. “What happened while I was out?”

He looked down at our hands, where he was running his thumb over my knuckles repeatedly. “Titania has rendered the Unveiled Accords null and void, and the Garda are evacuating the humans remaining in Avilion before the Veil comes back down. Once we’re closed off again, it’s open season on any human remaining in the city.”

For a long moment, I struggled to breathe.

Open season?

The Veil was purely Fae magic. It had been swept away once the queens had signed the Accords with humans, but once it came down again, enveloping Avilion, the only way for a human to get into the Fae realms would be through the ancient methods: dancing in a circle of mushrooms at midnight, finding a door in the forest during a full moon…and getting out would be just as difficult.

Anyone left behind would be as good as dead.

“Gwyn…” I swallowed a hard lump in my throat. “You’re not going hunting when the Veil is back…are you?”

He looked up and gave me a crooked smile. “No." Then he touched a small pin on his shirt I hadn’t noticed before…a small Left Hand. “Goodfellow fucking deputized me, if you can believe it.”

“Honestly, I almost can’t.”

Gwyn sighed. “He’s going to make a respectable Fae out of me. What a shame.”

I snorted, which hurt my sinuses, but it felt good to have something to laugh about, even if it was just for a moment. “Yeah, that’s never going to happen. But…what about the Wild Hunt? They own your soul, you can’t just leave them. Besides, doesn’t being with them…make you happy?”

Gwyn fiddled with the pin for another moment, then looked away with a soft exhalation. “Well, Bananas, I’ve been thinking.”

“Don’t hurt yourself.”

His lips split into a grin, then it faded. That wasn’t good.

Gwyn, despite his nature and vocation, was more likely to smile than not. Whatever it was, it was clearly eating at him.

“What is it?” I squeezed his hand tighter.

He looked up into my eyes. “I’m leaving the Hunt. Titania traded a willing Fae for my place.”

I just stared at him. Gwyn, no longer a Hunter?

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