Page 2 of The Stones for It
A wild cackle left his lips as we free-fell through the branches. Their punishing thwacks smacked against his back as he pulled me close and sheltered me in his arms.
We cleared the canopy in a blink, and the open air gulped us down.
Neiron grinned like a maniac beneath me. The ground surged up behind him, and my jaw finally unclamped to release a scream.
“Neiron!” I frantically beat his chest, urging him to save us.
Before another screech could free itself, the kitsune snorted, shooting me a lopsided smirk.
The bastard finally threw his wings open. Gravity lost its grip as we were yanked up and flipped over. Neiron’s fluffy feathers buffeted the air, slowing our death drop into a casual descent as he held me tight.
“You’re so cute when you’re scared,” he cooed, nuzzling the top of my head.
My heart pounded so loud, I couldn’t tell if the rushing in my ears was my own blood or Neiron’s powerful wingbeats.
Within seconds, my feet touched the ground with a crunch of leaf litter.
The world continued its dizzying sway, but I caught his bright, beaming grin.
And punched him right in his fluffing face.
Chapter two
Kelsea
My fist connected, knuckles thudding against Neiron’s solid jaw.
The kitsune king stumbled aside with a dramatic whimper, pressing a hand to his furred cheek. His lower lip trembled, violet eyes glistening in the light of a nearby orb.
Guilt nipped at my middle, mirroring the pinch in my bottom lip as it found its way between my teeth. I’d pulled the punch, and human strength was nowhere near comparable to most fae, let alone a royal like Neiron, but I was also a trained soldier.
Maybe I’d sunk more of my frustration into the hit than I’d expected.
His auburn wings rustled as his shoulders quaked, and then a booming laugh erupted from deep within his broad chest. The kicked-puppy look dissolved in an instant.
Any remorse I’d had fizzled out right along with it.
“You’re psychotic, you know that, right?”
“Oh, such flattery,” he gushed, fanning himself with a clawed hand. “I’ve snagged myself the sweetest mate in all the realms.”
I rolled my eyes at his antics, but couldn’t help the smile threatening my features. “Who said you’d snagged me, pally? I was trained to fight your kind, not fraternise.”
His lower lip plumped in a pouty expression. “But you do it so well.”
For a foxy fae, he’d really nailed puppy-dog eyes.
The smile I’d been holding back finally broke through.
A rustling noise shattered the moment. Neiron’s expression dropped from playful to serious in a blink, and we spun to face the potential threat as one.
An enraged screech split the dim forest.
I drew my foxfire dagger from the pearly scale sheath on my thigh and braced.
A familiar spiky squirrel burst from a nearby bush.
The creature landed a few paces from us, looking ridiculously small on the thick roots protruding from an ancient tree.
