Page 4 of Vicious Fates and Vast Futures
Her pleasure was what I needed and I let go. Let go and fall into an orgasm of an intensity that only Adi seems to bring out of me. My eyes close as I cry out loudly. Time seems to pause for a few heartbeats and the only thing I’m aware of is her skin against mine. Slowly, my muscles relax and my eyes open to meet her indulgent gaze.
My arms are wrapped around my gentle mate as she pulls out of me and rolls to the side. My hands go to fiddle with the straps, to help her remove it, but she swats me away and pulls a blanketover us, pressing against me. We lay in silence, floating in that incredible almost-dozing state for a good long while.
I blink as I feel her stir against me. “So what were you and Bryn arguing about?” I ask.
She snorts, annoyed, but it just makes me smile harder. I’ll wait her out. I let my hand trace up and over her hip.
Finally, she sighs, meeting my eyes. “Before we came to the unseelie sithen for the Courts Gathering, we toured Ossy’s FEC. FEC1.”
I nod. She has mentioned this to me before.
“Well, the queen of one of their two courts, the Light Alf Queen Gitta, requested my assistance if I were to hear of any issues within her court.” Another sigh slips out of her. “Turns out, I know of a rather large one.”
“And you want to tell her, but Bryn thinks that the traitor will know you’re the leak.” I finish the unspoken implication to be sure I understand her.
“Yes.”
“So...?” I prompt.
“So, I’m telling the queen. I gave her my word.”
I frown, thinking. “Does informing the alf queen of her traitor endanger you or our aims? If so, fuck that. We need to protect ourselves first and foremost.”
Adi grimaces before answering. “It probably does endanger us.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Then you shouldnottell her, birdie.”
Adi’s eyes go distant as she thinks. I run my fingers gently up and down her marked arm.
Eventually, she sighs yet again, as though disliking the conclusion she is coming around to.
“What did the Morrigan say?” I venture. “Do what is right, not what is good?”
She nods silently, lying relaxed in the circle of my arms. I can tell she is continuing to weigh her decision, so I stay still, stroking her without comment.
Suddenly, she sits up and paces to the call mirror I have hanging. She tugs the heavy fabric off of it, revealing a small oval mirror surrounded by a gilt wood edge. She grabs the crystal hanging on a copper chain between her breasts and holds it as she silently presses her palm to the mirror.
As the mirror clears, I see a yellow alf, her gauzy dress drifting lazily in the air currents created by her big fuzzy moth wings. She hovers, appearing as if on the other side of my mirror. The alf raises her dandelion-colored eyebrows. “Priestess. Can I help you?” she asks in a snide tone.
“Why yes, Maja, you can,” Adi says with an evil purr in her voice. “You see, my guards have onlyjusttalked me out of ratting you out to Queen Gitta on account of the promise I made her.”
The alf’s skin darkens to a shade of ochre in her anger. “That would not impress the other EA leaders, Priestess.”
Adi grins like a cat that ate the canary. “Turns out, I don’t give a fuck.”
Maja scowls. “Would your captain not care?”
The magic laying dormant inside my powerful mate jumps to the surface, making her luminescent. “Idon’t have a captain.Imake my own decisions. And I require your cooperation in return for my silence to your queen.”
The little Fae hisses in fury. “Cooperation with what?”
“You aremyspy now. I need your eyes and ears in your court and in your chapter of the EA.”
Maja crosses her doll-sized arms over her chest and glares. “And if I don’t agree?”
“I’m sure Queen Gitta would be overcome with rage should she learn that her trusted handmaiden is a leader of a rebel group trying to overthrow her.”
The insinuation hangs heavy between them for a moment. Maja finally nods tightly, wrath radiating from the small Fae.
