Page 147 of Flirting with Darkness

My mouth went dry and my stupid heart didn’t understand the difference between this now and the way he’d grabbed me earlier, hammering just as heavily, making my skin all hot and tight.

He arched an eyebrow. “Whywouldn’tI want a pretty human bound to me by a bargain?” With a last flash of that damned smirk, he was gone, and I could take a full breath again. He lay on his side of the tent, back to me.

And now his earlier words echoed in my mind, taking on a whole new meaning.We’re to be married; you have nothing more that I want.He didn’t want to be married to me, as I’d assumed, but by being my husband, he owned me, a pretty piece of meat. That’s what the law said in Albion—was it the same here?

I stayed there, head spinning, for a long while before sliding my knife back into its sheath and collapsing against the rug, blanket around my shoulders. I couldn’t even summon the energy to pull the pillow under my head—every part of me was too heavy, too fucking tired.

My first day in faerie and I’d faced werewolves and the biggest man I’d ever seen… And now I was married to him and owed him something of his choosing in a bargain. Things were going great.

Just. Fucking. Great.

8

CEDARS & MIST

The next day, we walked in silence. Well,hedid. I tried to start conversation a couple of times, but he only replied with that noncommittal “Hmm” sound he so enjoyed.

I peered at his neck, trying to catch a glimpse of the red burn. How bad was it? But his eyes flicked to mine and narrowed. He pulled up his collar and picked up the pace.

As the morning wore on, the sun soon disappeared behind thick, flat, grey cloud and more snow fell. I pulled up my hood and marched on, warm and dry. Faolán grumbled and yanked on the hood from his coat, but as the wind built, his chin tucked deeper into his collar and the wool of his hood flapped more and more heavily as it grew sodden.

By the time the heather gave way to forest, he was muttering curses under his breath every five minutes. Not exactly the kind of talkative I was hoping for, but if it was the closest he got, I’d take it.

Rather than oaks like I’d encountered yesterday, we passed under cedars, their boughs arcing high overhead, threaded with mist. With no low branches, I would’ve had a tough time sleeping up one of these. Maybe, whatever his motives, there was something to be said for my husband-protector.

“Husband.” I scoffed to myself, shaking my head.

“Hmm?” The dark opening of his hood half-turned towards me. It was the first time he’d acknowledged my existence in hours.

“Nothing.” I shrugged. “But I need to, uh, relieve myself.”

He grunted and gestured towards the forest.

As I picked through the gloomy undergrowth, his words reached me: “Don’t go too far.”

“Aw, it’s almost like you care,” I called back with a laugh.

A couple of minutes off the path, I found a suitable spot, out of sight. Once I’d peed and pulled up my trousers, I looked back the way I’d come.

Except…

I squinted at the cedars, their dark trunks pointing straight to the sky, their even darker needles blotting out the snow clouds. Trunk after trunk, fern after fern—it all looked the same.

Wasthat the way I’d come? Or—I turned left—wasthatthe way?

I searched the mud for footprints, the moss-covered roots for places I’d scuffed as I’d stepped over them. Nothing.

I couldn’t be too far from Faolán—I’d only walked for a couple of minutes. If I picked a direction and walked, I’d soon hit the path or realise I’d gone the wrong way, then I could try again. If all else failed, I would call for him.

A minute in and nothing looked familiar. Or, rather, all of it looked familiar, because it all looked the bloody same, but there was no sign of the path. I counted out another thirty seconds and kept going. Still nothing.

Shouting might attract the wrong attention, so I just said softly, “Faolán?”

Nothing.

Fine, next direction. I turned around, retraced my steps—or whatseemedlike my steps—and tried again.

After a minute, I spotted something through the trees, but it wasn’t a hulking great fae, it was… Greyer than the mist, more solid too…

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