Page 64 of The Savage Queen

“You should be more cautious.”

“It’s more fun this way.” He smiled, a rogue of shadows already backing toward the window, his hand outstretched. Slender fingers coiled in fae designs Aisling had memorized what felt like a lifetime ago. His shirt was unlaced and rolled up to his elbows, while his axes remained strapped against his back. Hair damp and curling around his ears.

Aisling hesitated for only a moment, finally placing her hand in his, skin burning from a magic entirely different from her own. The taste of something forbidden staining her tongue and whetting her appetite.

He moved through a mirror, gently pulling Aisling after him. They both plunged through the passage, finding themselves atop one of Oighir’s rooftops.

Fjallnorr’s breath was cruel and unforgiving, biting Aisling’s skin and freezing her veins. More formidable than it’d been within the embrace of the woodland or aboard theStarling.

Lir glanced at her sidelong, pausing at the trembling of her shoulders. If Aisling were mortal, the weather would’ve been intolerable, but now, her fae blood burned from within, enough to keep her alive. Still the cold bit, taking advantage of what mortal flesh still remained.

Lir’s fingers twitched at his sides and a cloak of giant orchid petals bloomed, draping around Aisling’s shoulders and warming her instantly. The inside of the petals velvet smooth and soft.

Aisling avoided Lir’s eyes, adjusting the petals instead, as she followed him onward.

Atop Castle Oighir, it felt as though they were balancing on the tip of a summit, dancing with the wind. Their hair floating as though submerged in water, breathed to life by the dark gale.

“If it were possible, Oighir seems even larger from here,” Aisling said, avoiding Lir’s eyes even as they studied her in her periphery.

Lir didn’t respond.

Instead, he led her from rooftop to rooftop, leaping from one to the other, using the statues of roaring bears to prevent a plummet toward an inevitable death below. Aisling’s stomach fluttered, her knees weak, as she glared at the drop. The ice slick and ruthless beneath her slippers.

So, Lir grew tufts of grass and rubbery buds with each of his footsteps, melting the snow lying beneath to assist Aisling and prevent her from slipping.

They traversed a labyrinth of slumbering turrets, towers, flying buttresses, and bridges, slanted roofs, and statues atop Oighir’s glacial walls, twinkling beneath a blanket of stars.

Lir leapt atop one of the castle’s various gabled roofs, catching Aisling’s waist as she jumped behind him. Hands lingering even as he found a place to rest, leaning his back against a bell-tower and glaring down at the world far below. Arms crossed.

Monk’s moss, roaming roses, and ivy spread from the fae king and grew new life atop the castle despite winter’s oppressive chill. As though the forest were a droplet, dripped by the Forge where the fae king stood and rippled outward.

Aisling approached, feeling the same as the first night she’d met him. As though she were running straight for the edge of a crag, bracing for the inevitable plummet. The cord between them straightening, pulling, aching with either pain or pleasure. Aisling could no longer tell the difference.

“From the top of Annwyn’s eldest ash, one can collect the stars from the night sky. Or, at the least, that’s how it felt as a child when I’d first learned to fly and Crann Bethadh’s tallest branch was the furthest I’d dare venture.”

Aisling considered the realm of jewels overhead. As though thousands of spiders had spun their webs with threads of moonlight, dappled in gems of dew and smiling at all those who dared to change their stars.

“I can’t imagine you afraid of anything, even as a child.”

“Fear is natural, Aisling. It’s the wisdom of a fox torn between fleeing from the hunter or leaping from the brambles for the hare.”

Aisling breathed a laugh. “Is this the wisdom that compelled you to betray the peace our union symbolized? To pursue the curse breaker? To prevent Danu from ever usurping you, dare as she might?”

Lir faced her. His attention spellbinding. Making wild her heart till she prayed he couldn’t glean its thrashing. The edge of his lips and the tips of his fangs mesmerizing.

“So Fionn spilled more than just his motivations. Or his affections.”

“Aye, your brother made certain he tore apart any and all veils that might lead me back to you. A work the Lady admired, considering she too warns me to keep my distance from you.”

Lir’s eyes glittered.

“You wouldn’t be so attracted to me if I were more transparent,ellwyn.”

Fire seeped beneath Aisling’s cheeks, so she bit her tongue, resisting the sort of cunning warfare Aisling was aware the fae king preferred—knew knocked her off balance.

“I despise you,” she said, eyes prickling with heat. The emotion bubbling to the surface and muddling her voice now that they were at long last alone, hidden, safe, and outside the realm of dreams for the first time since she’d run from him.

“Never,” she continued, “never will you or any other leave me to rot in the dark again.”

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