Page 55 of The Barbaric Fae's Soul

“I can accept that.” He caught my hand and lifted it to his lips, brushing a kiss to my knuckles. “I know I can’t kiss you, or taste you, but can I still touch you freely?”

“Of course. I love it when you touch me.”

He brushed his lips against my knuckles again.

The door beneath ours opened. “Dakota?” Summer called out.

“Yeah?”

“There’s a klynna headed this way. Everyone’s ready to fly with you.”

Shit.

Aev’s expression grew solemn.

Though neither of us wanted to face another of the damned monsters, or risk our lives again, we both stood, and went hand-in-hand.

Fourteen

“Lead the way,”Rosalie said with a grin, as I slipped onto Presely’s back. Rosalie was sitting on Devv’s back already—he was the phoenix on the new unseelie council, so he was the old phoenix general. The fae man was tall and tan, with long golden brown hair that he kept up in a bun most of the time, but he was currently in his beast form. Though he was burning freely, his flames didn’t bother her, since she was a hellhound.

Blue was on Oren’s back, and though she looked nervous, she didn’t grip him too tightly.

“Right now they’re only watching, trying to feel the same connection you do,” Summer explained to me, from where she stood with Remmo. Her back was to his chest, and he was eyeing the sky, his expression neutral. “The guys will be watching Presley, making sure to stay out of her way, so don’t worry about them. Just stay alive and kick klynna ass.”

My lips curved upward. “The goal is toavoida fight.”

She flashed me a quick, tense grin. “I guess.”

I knew she was making a joke to try to relieve some stress from the situation, and I appreciated that.

I leaned forward, wrapping my arms around Presley’s fiery, feathery neck as the klynna roared. This one was louder than the last one; even its roar shook the ground beneath us.

“Here goes nothing,” Rosalie muttered, before Presley launched into the sky.

My heartbeat picked up as we soared toward the monstrous creature. The underside of its scaled belly was every shade of blue I’d ever imagined, and then some.

There hadn’t been time to process what I was about to do—that I was going to have to repeat everything that had happened earlier. But I couldn’t let myself embrace that fear. Not while we were soaring toward the beast in the sky.

I controlled my breathing as Presley flew a quick loop around the creature, catching its attention.

Its head jerked toward us, and when its massive jaws parted, ice filled its mouth so fast it was forced open even wider.

Its furious eyes collided with mine, and as our energy collided, I yelled out a fast, “Please leave, and tell the others to stop hunting us!”

The creature roared, shooting fire toward us before it soared upward, and then away. Presley had to spiral sideways to dodge the fire, but managed to do so without getting burned.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad!” Rosalie yelled, from a few yards away.

“Could’ve been worse,” I called back.

The next one probablywouldbe worse.

I didn’t think the creature would really listen to me when it came to telling its friends not to come after us, but figured it was worth a shot.

And I hoped we’d bought ourselves a few hours or so, though it hadn’t been all that long since the last one appeared.

We all landed, and the fliers shifted back while Rosalie questioned me about how I’d done what I’d done. Blue seemed uncharacteristically quiet, though I supposed that having Oren stand so close to her might’ve been messing with her mind, considering what they were and what they weren’t.

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