Page 46 of A Sword of Ice
She took a step closer and watched his body coil tightly like he was ready to pounce.
“We got off on the wrong foot,” she whispered.
His brows rose, and she took a moment to study his features. She’d gotten a glimpse earlier when he’d grabbed her wrists, then she’d gotten a taste of his mouth. Now she stared at themale.Everything about him was virile and strong. From his scent down to his size, to the tiny silver scars across his flushing, freckled skin. His jawline was square and scruff with a reddish-orange beard that barely concealed the smirk or the white flash of canines beneath. His nose was crooked, as if it had been repeatedly broken and hadn’t quite healed in the right direction, and his lips… The bottom one was bigger than the top, and she could remember the rough feel of them against her own mouth.
A part of her wanted to feel them again.
But not then.
“Is that what you call kneeing me in the dick?”
Iona snorted out choked laughter and shrugged. “You had it coming.”
He grunted but said nothing. Not that they were given the chance to chat anymore when Clay poked his head back inside. “You lovebirds done yet?” he demanded, but there was humor in his tone and his eyes danced inquiringly. “I want to leave this shitty place.”
“You and me both, little lord,” Iona teased, earning a scowl from Clay and a barking laugh from Julius.
Yeah, she thought. Mana had definitely answered her prayers.
25
An Empty Cage
Iona slipped the key into her familiar’s enclosure and pushed the door open a fraction. Her back was pressed to the wall, as it had been most of the journey towards the zoo, as she slid discreetly between whatever shadows the daylight gave her—rather,them—to remain hidden from soldiers and humans.
Not that the human citizens of Porir would ever give them up. At least, that had been before the soldiers had come through. Here, the humans were just as impoverished as the Fae, most all of them living in equally frightful conditions. It was the human soldiers and employers they’d had to worry about. Men like fucking Petey, who she was lucky not to have run into as they slipped their way into the zoo, dodging patrolling soldiers and other workers that she’d once considered almost-friends.
“Stay here.” She gestured at the others aligned along the wall behind her. They’d taken a back entrance, darting between bins of garbage and supply closets to stay hidden. Taking a breath, she pushed the door open further and stepped inside the enclosure.
Only to find it empty.
“What the fuck?!” Her feet slipped against the ground as she ran into the glass dome, dropping to her knees at the edge of the pool. Her pants soaked through with cold water, but the pool was still. There was nothing beneath the surface.
Her eyes rose up to look across the glass. There was no one in front of it waiting to catch a glimpse at the rare sight of a polar bear.
The emptiness echoed around her, pounding loudly through her ears like white noise. Her heart was beating in tune to the rapid pulsing of her fingers against her thighs. Her breaths grew shallow and for a moment, she wasn’t in the enclosure but on an empty beach with bodies littered at her feet, the silence so loud, it made her choke on her own need to scream.
A lot of people defined loneliness as beingalone.They didn’t know the darker side of it. The side where you were surrounded by bodies devoid of souls, where the loudest sound was the splash of waves against a shore and how even that sounded too quiet in a world where you were used to the noise. Surrounded by death, she’d felt utterly alone, and in a single moment of weakness had begged to Mana, a prayer breaking her lips.
Take me, too.
Those same words echoed through her mind just then, a slippery, fervent thought before she felt a warm hand grip her wrist and she was pulled right back to the moment. Back to silence and a missing familiar, but with a strong palm encircling her skin, thumb stroking against her pulse in calming movements.
She twisted her neck up and met the worried green stare of Julius.
“Iona?” Her name was a tentative taste on his lips.
“He’s gone.” Her own voice broke and she despised the weakness in it. So she took a breath and pushed herself to her feet, regretting that doing so made his hand slip away from her wrist at all. She squared her shoulders. “My familiar is gone,” she repeated much more firmly.
Panic started to rise and she wanted to shove it right back down, but it clawed up her throat, leaving her feeling abandoned. Her fingers traced the pattern of her old ceiling against her pants as she tried to force herself to focus.
She recalled the day Petey had attacked her. It felt like so long ago now, but it had only been three days ago. The way her familiar had rushed to protect her and his menacing, parting words.
“You’ll pay for that. Both of you.”
Panic was replaced with rage almost instantaneously.
“Fucking Petey,” she growled out. Her canines burst against her gums as they elongated, snapping in her fury.
