Page 67 of Wrath of the Fae Queen
“A little too much, I think.” I nestle back into his chest, closing my eyes.
“There is no such thing.” He threads his hand through my hair and pulls my face up to him. “When it comes to me and you, there is no such thing as demanding too much pleasure. It is one of the ways I take care of you.”
We lie there, bound up together and relishing the closeness of our bodies with small caressing touches. By the Soul Ripper, I have missed him.
“Can we just stay here, naked and having incredible sex for the rest of our lives?” I ask. “We don’t need to go back out there and fight an uprising or win a throne, right?”
“Mm-hmm,” he replies, grazing his fingers over my nipple. “Don’t tempt me.”
All of a sudden I jolt up as though bitten. I lean over him, resting my hands on his pectorals and peering into his face as excitement thrums through me. “Aldrin. I know what our next two moves will be!”
“I hope you mean our next two sex positions.” The look he gives me has my stomach dropping with anticipation.
I shake my head to clear my thoughts. “This is important. Titania has been starving the people of Spring for her own profit and hiding exorbitant amounts of food in warehouses that she is slowly selling at a premium. I believe she will flood the city with it when things get truly dire to make herself appear the hero. I have the warehouse locations, and you are going to capture them with your dark army of assassins.”
His eyebrows raise. “Am I now?”
“Yes.” My smile grows wicked. “Then you are going to return to the capital with the Spring Court’s hidden armies and hand out all that food to the people.Youwill be more than a hero. You will be a messiah returned from the dead to save them. And I have a plan for how we will find the troops.”
Aldrin leans up on an elbow and kisses me hard. “Gods, I love your brilliant mind.”
Iwalk through the palace corridors with purpose, a single target in mind. My heart hammers painfully in anticipation of what I must do and my mind whirls with all the ways it could go wrong.
I wish I could approach this danger in stout armor.
Instead, I’ve been forced into a flimsy, mostly transparent gown.
Torin erupts from his chambers at the same time every morning, almost missing his command briefing with the palace guards.Right on cue, he stumbles out now, looking groggy and hungover. He probably spent most of the night drinking, pillaging and murdering with his Truth Templars.
I walk straight past him, slamming into his shoulder as he steps into my path. “Rough night, Torin? You look like shit,” I toss over my shoulder without bothering to glance back at him.
He grabs my wrist and pulls me toward him. I allow it, pretending to trip over my own feet.
“What did you just say to me?” His lips twist in a sneer.
“I’ve been wondering: what exactly is your role here in the palace, other than being a mommy’s boy?” I take a strand of his long hair and curl it around my finger, getting close to his face so he knows his usual intimidation tactic of sexual violence is useless.“You’re not a senator, or the Captain of the Guard. You’re not the Commander of the Armies or official second to the High Chancellor. Everyone knows dear Mommy listens to Florian and not you. Do you even have a voice here? Does anyone listen when you have an opinion?”
Torin rears back as if slapped. My words clearly trigger something deep within him. His arm flies out and I brace for the impact of a punch. I even craft cushions of air around myself to deflect the blow. He has too little magic to detect others’ wields. But instead, he wraps his big hand in my hair and drags me off my feet by it. Pain explodes across my skull and tears spring to my eyes as I try to scramble along with him.
Fuck, Keira. Kill him now. We can find some other asshole to manipulate,Aldrin growls in my head.I will gladly do it myself.
My power of decomposition stirs within my gut, wanting to break free. I slap his grasp away from me.
Trust. Me,I gasp through the sting.
Within a flash, Torin holds me over the top of a stone staircase, my body at such an angle that he is the only thing keeping me from tumbling down it. My magic snaps out, creating a web of air below me, ready to catch my body if he lets go.
Torin spews venom. “One more defiant word from you, and I will toss your fragile human body down these stairs. I wonder if you would look so pretty in this slutty gown with your neck broken.”
“Does this make you feel like a big, strong fae man? Overpowering a defenseless woman?” I look at him with mockpity. “I bet these moments are rare for you, considering you have no magic. You’re usually the weakling in a crowd, aren’t you?”
“I FUCKING HAVE MA—” He stops as his bright blue eyes narrow on me. “What game are you playing?” He shakes me over the void for emphasis. “Actually, I don’t care. Know one thing: I will break you, Queen of Nothing. You are the one who is voiceless and powerless here. I will grind you down to a quivering mess, because I am sick of your constant rebellions against myself and my mother. Perhaps if I kill you now, I can save us both a bit of inconvenience. She will find another toy; she always does. I heard you have two very pretty sisters.”
Torin uses cruelty to gain power over people. I wonder if that dynamic is all he has been shown by his mother.
A red flush creeps up his neck and the pinched planes of his face tell me he is seriously considering dropping me. His fingers around my arm loosen, letting me slip backward a span as they slide to my elbow, setting me at an even more precarious position. Cold sweat breaks out across my body and my eyes widen. He is going to force me to reveal myself. I will have to kill him if I do. It would be a waste of an easily manipulable resource.
Satisfaction blooms across his features. He believes I fear for my life. He lets me slip even further before catching my arm a second time, a morbid fascination in his icy blue eyes.
