Page 94 of Beyond the Faerie Gate

To a redcap, I suppose learning your mate has the capacity for untapped slaughter and bloodshed would be a turn on. But the visual was just unnecessary.

“We’ll protect her,” Jaro insists. “We can tell Florian and the high priestess. But keep it quiet until she’s confident.”

“Kitarni already suspected something like this, or she wouldn’t have pulled me into it.” How much the dryad knows remains to be seen. “The Hunt will know.”

It can’t be helped, but at least they all know how to keep their mouths shut. If we’re lucky, I might even be able to convince Annis to speak with Rose.

“Shit. I hadn’t thought about that,” Jaro mutters.

Bree is frowning. “The Hunt? Wait…”

“We’re only three days away from Samhain.” I glower at my own boots. “She’ll be summoned to ride with us. Normally, the Nicnevin is simply there for ceremony, and for them it’s a pleasant ride through the night sky. But if Rhoswyn can see the dead, she’ll give herself away.”

Bree is looking between us. “If she can’t ride, how is she supposed to join the Hunt?” he demands. “You haven’t told her about it, have you? Goddess, she already feels inadequate—”

“She does?” Jaro grimaces. “I thought I reassured her…”

Bree snorts, but the sound has no humour. “You don’t know anything about females, do you?”

“I’m a knight,” Jaro retorts. “I know how to protect them. Unfortunately, training didn’t leave much time for wooing.”

“Tight ass,” Lorcan grumbles, plucking his hat from his head and forcibly flattening it down into a flat cap with his fist. “It’s a good thing she has me to make up for your lack of experience. I took her on a date.”

Jaro bristles. “One where she woke up surrounded by dead bodies.”

The redcap only smirks, blinking so he’s crouched on the table, in front of the angry shifter. “It was a good date.”

“Enough.” My control is frayed already and snapping at them is yet another sign that I’m on edge.

Damn it. The fire is roaring—spilling over the grate—and I didn’t even notice. I snuff it out with a thought and add another tally to my mental list of tiny slips of my power I’ve experienced.

Fifteen today alone.

Winter Court fae don’t snap. They don’t pace. They certainly don’t lose control. Yet here I am doing all three.

I freeze in place and force my body down into a chair, resting my elbows on the table as I rub my temples, trying to remove the ever-present headache that’s settled behind my eyes.

Not that it will work.

I need to teach Rose to mask her aura before it will go away.

But it never seems to be the right time.

“Tomorrow, we’ll explain the situation to Kitarni, then we can broach this with the Nicnevin as a group.” It feels good to have a plan. “I will explain about the Hunt and clear up any… issues that arise, and then I will teach her to ride.”

“And tonight?” Bree challenges. “What if she’s triggered and uses her power?”

Jaro shakes his head. “Do you really think Rose is the type to get angry and start frying people to a crisp using the power of her long dead grandmother? She’s gentle. Innocent. Siabetha was an outlier. It’s unlikely that sort of thing will happen again.

“Shiny.” Lorcan falls backwards, blinking as he does so so that he lands, reclining, on the top of a pillar to our left. “Rose is so shiny.”

Not for the first time, I wonder if he, like me, can read her aura. The veil of pure light surrounds her like a cloak and makes looking at her difficult. I doubt he does, or he’d be like me—unable to look at her for more than a few seconds at a time. I sigh in disappointment, because if it wasn’t just me, I’d consider teaching her to shield more of a priority.

I’ll just have to endure until she’s secure on her throne.

“While we’re here,” Jaro begins, his voice taking on a dangerously dark tone. “I think we need to discuss the liberties the redcap is taking with her.”

Lorcan raises a single white brow. “Oh, you’d prefer her fever hit without her knowing what a kiss feels like? You want to break her open on your cock for the first time while your instincts are riding you so hard that you hurt her without meaning to? Wow.” He blinks innocently. “You’re kind of sadistic for a seelie.”

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