Page 58 of Straw and Gold
I thought he loved me.
He’d never said it, but I thought I knew…
“What are you doing?” His voice snapped my attention back to him, and I was startled to find myself backing up to the large windows near his bed. I blinked a few times, shaking my head and my wings stretched further.
The room was suddenly too hot—too small and heavy with the weight of the truth in the distance between us; I was not going to keep my husband.
“Morella—” he began.
“I need air,” I gulped, breathing hard and reaching behind me for the window latch.
“Do not leave,” he called, crossing the room in great, hurried strides, but I couldn’t let him get to me. I couldn’t let him reach me or—Goddess forbid—touchme only for me to fall apart and beg—beg for him to love me like I loved him.
I shook my head some more, managing the latch and the window flew open, blowing the curtains out into the night. “I just need some…air.”
“Stop!” he yelled, his hand reaching for me just as I shifted and flew out the window, nothing more than a dim blur of golden feathers on the wind.
CHAPTER 28
Killian
She toldme she loved me.
And I hadn’t said a Goddessdamn meaningful thing in return.
If Céad was coming to kill me in six weeks, I fucking deserved it.
CHAPTER 29
Morella
I flew for miles.
I didn’t know where I was going, or what I’d do when I got there, but I flew. I realized at least an hour had passed when the moon was full in the sky above me. Tired, I soared on the wind toward the lights of the town ahead of me. I’d managed to keep my thoughts blurred and my mind clear of the heartbreak, but as I landed in an alleyway and shifted back to Ravenfae, everything came crashing down.
I fell to my knees in a dirty puddle, shivering and barefoot—a mess of a queen, desperately trying to hold in broken sobs amidst the voices coming from the bustling tavern across the cobbled road.
I didn’t know which town I’d landed in or how I was going to find a place to rest until my strength returned. I had no money, no proof I was Queen of the Citrine Cliffs, and only just enough Céaduah to possibly get me through a conversation.
I recognized the language as I tried to pull my pathetic self together and gather the courage to ask for help at the tavern. I picked myself up, brushing off what filth I could and took a deep breath. I didn’t know what I’d do after the night was over, but finding a place to rest was forced to the forefront of my mind.
It’s why I didn’t notice the men.
Three Changelingfae stepped out from a dark alcove I hadn’t seen when I’d landed. They blocked my way out of the alley and one of them stepped forward. “Nah rud be brèagha a ayn?”
I shivered hard, understanding most of what he’d said.
Aren’t you a pretty little thing?
I braced my feet, knowing I didn’t have the strength to shift again and fly away.
“Che ehch fay ar fobh, eun brèagha.”
No need to leave, pretty bird.
His voice slurred and his friends laughed, staggering in their drunken stupors towards me. I took it as an opening, unfurling my wings and jumping into the air, stumbling in the lack of space in the alleyway, but managing to fly over their heads. Their hands reached for me, but missed and I tumbled back to the ground, falling slightly to my knees before I could pick myself back up and run.
I didn’t see the fourth as he grabbed hold of my wing and pulled me down to the ground. “Be eun brèagha.”
