Page 49 of Beneath a Shattered Sky
“Which one would you like me to kill first?” I ask her.
“Lord Lorcan,” Eugen grates out. “You’d defend the blade prince and his cousin?”
Sighing, I release Rose and stride up to him and flick him on the nose. “No, Genie, but I do take issue with a bunch of gruntsdisobeyingDanu Incarnate when she gives them a direct order.”
Without any further warning, I stab a blade up through the underside of his jaw.
Blood arcs, but no one moves to save him as I use another to separate his head from his body. Good.
I borrow my cap from Rose for just long enough to top it up before returning it to its proper place on her head.
“Right, who’s second in command?” Jaro asks, sounding tired. “Let’s go, before this riverbank is swarmed with Fomorians at nightfall.”
A soldier steps forward, the hesitation on his dark features half-hidden by his helmet. “This way. There is a route along the treetops that will enable us to cross the forest unseen.”
Grinning, because Rose is going to love traversing the canopy, I cartwheel ahead of him, looking over my shoulder to watch as our pretty mate finally notices just how large the trees are. Here on the bank of the river, they’re smaller, but still too large to wrap your arms around. Barely a handful of minutes’ walk into the forest, and the trunks become larger and larger. Their sheer size makes it impossible to see more than a handful of yards in any direction.
And as always, the leaves fall in a constant rain of fiery reds, oranges, and yellows. Purposefully, I somersault back into a huge pile then blink out before the nasty critters hidden in the sheltered darkness can sink their eager little teeth into me.
“Don’t,” Bree warns, when Rose looks about to follow in my footsteps. “Just… trust me. Don’t.”
Spoilsport. I would never have let anything take a bite out of Rose. That’s my job.
A symbol grown into the gnarly pattern of the bark snags my attention. One only a fae from Autumn would know to look for.
Casually, I lean against it, grinning when a rope ladder drops down, startling her.
“Underlings first.” I wave the soldiers up with a bow.
If they think they’re going to watch Rose’s delicious ass climb up into the canopy, they’re sorely mistaken.
They oblige, and Drystan heads up the ladder after them, but before Rose can follow, Jaro grabs the lower rungs and holds them steady, making it easier for her.
She mounts the rungs, but Bree steps behind her and starts climbing before I can.
No fair.
Pouting, I blink between them, blowing a raspberry down at the cheeky seelie before looking up and grinning at the pure perfection.
So round and biteable, with just the perfect amount of jiggle.
Would she be mad if I blinked away with her clothes so I can appreciate her properly? Wait. Then I’d have to stab the grunts Cressidick sent for seeing her naked… Oh well.
All too soon, the decision is made for me as she passes the lowest layer of branches in the canopy and reaches the walkway grown into the trees that winds through the forest in all directions. The meandering path is just wide enough for our party to travel across in single file. It follows the length of the branches above, suspended at strategic points by lengths of rope.
It’s the crudest of paths—nothing on the sleek, enchanted walkways of Illidwen, or even the cobbled streets of my own minor court—but Rose still gapes at it with wonder as we’re led along. The wobbling motion that the bridges make worries her enough that she clings to the vine rails, though I’d never let her fall.
The soldiers lead us south, away from the water, and soon we reach a particularly tall section of the path, overlooking the rest of the forest as it glows in the red rays of the dying sun. Bathed in blood. Bathed in rot.
“It’s beautiful,” she whispers.
I blink behind her before I can stop myself, using the tight space as an excuse for pressing the hard line of my cock against the cleft of her ass.
“Illidwen has a better view,” I admit. “But there’s something to be said for the knowledge that I could fuck you here and only the valravne would hear you scream.”
Her breath whooshes out of her on a slight gasp, and I still as her tiny hand wraps between us, gripping my length hesitantly through the leather.
A hundred buried instincts rush to the fore, begging me to take her now. Show them all who she belongs to. Let the others watch. Let them see how she screams and writhes as I wrap my hand around her pretty neck and fuck her juicy cunt until?—
