by Olivia Hart
Others found homes in the plants while several stood like sentries in front of the door. Large and imposing, a stone gargoyle stood opposite a lion on either side of the door. Rose smiled at them and ran her fingers over them.
The door swung open without the hint of a creak. The home’s caretaker was meticulous in his duties, and he was paid well for it. The last thing I wanted to do when I came here for a moment of peace from the Courts was to find chores.
I opened the pantry and pulled a few small bags out. Travel rations. Nothing to be excited about, but it would do until tomorrow when we went to town. I set them on the wooden table of the one-room cottage as Rose closed the door and latched it.
We were in the Dark Realm, the half of the Immortal Realm that the Dark Court ruled over, and so more than half the hours of the day were dark. Only a thin period was truly lit by the sun, and even that seemed dim compared to the Light Realm.
The darkness was at its peak at this point. Even the moons didn’t truly illuminate the world. It was the point in the night when only the darkest of beings felt completely comfortable. The rest would take a nap or even sleep during this period.
“Food’s on the table. Eat what you want, and I’ll eat what’s left. We’ll get breakfast in town, so don’t worry about saving anything.”
She nodded, and I saw her glance at the bed. The single bed that was meant for me and no one else. I sighed. No one else had ever slept in that bed. If I had been hungry, I would have taken my companion for the night somewhere else. Her bed or an inn.
“So, who’s going to sleep on the floor, Sebastian?” she asked, putting more than a little emphasis on my name.
“I’m sleeping in my bed. I already saved your life twice now. I’ve already met my chivalry quota for the week. You can sleep on the floor or next to me in my bed, but I must warn you that I snore. And probably drool.”
She sneered at me. “The floor will be fine as long as you don’t have rats. The bed probably has bed bugs anyway.”
I ignored her jab since I was getting what I wanted and obviously didn’t have bed bugs. Whatever those were.
Rose sat down at the table and began to open the bags. I lit an oil lamp and let it burn low, a soft light in the room. No need to make my eyes hurt just for her benefit.
I sat down across from her as she pulled pieces of dried meat from one of the pouches and put them in her mouth. “These are really good,” she said between bites. A part of me wanted to snarl at her as she ate more than half of the meat. This was one meal for me. All of it.
She moved to the bag of dried fruit and began to shovel it into her mouth like an animal. I had to grit my teeth as I watched her. How could someone eat like that? She wasn’t some vagrant who hadn’t eaten in days. The more I looked at her, the more I doubted that she could ever be a Queen. Just by watching her move and talk, her lack of respect and poise annoyed me.
I stood up, unable to stand watching her eat. Going to the cabinet, I pulled a bottle of wine out. I poured myself a glass of the deep red liquid, and then I glanced at Rose who was eyeing me and the bottle.
Snarling, I got another glass from the cabinet. Great. She’s going to eat all my food, and now she’s going to drink all my wine. She’ll probably slurp it like a mug of ale.
I handed her the glass, and she took a sip before I’d even sat down. “This is really good. What kind is it?”
“Are you really asking about the type of Fae wine you’re drinking? Would you know the difference between a Bhaldraithe and a Talún?”
I smirked when she shook her head. “I guess that since you can’t really go back to the Mortal Realm, you should start learning these things. It’s a Talún. Not my favorite, but it’s local to the region.”
“It tastes like a darker blush, but it’s more… intense? Like the flavors are stronger without any of the chemical tastes.”
“They’re grown in the Immortal Realm, so magic is infused in their very essence. That’s the intensity you’re tasting.”
I took a sip of my wine as I leaned back in the chair and let out a deep breath, feeling the stress of the day lighten just a little bit. I still needed to get Rose to a safe place before I returned to the Courts to deal with Seraphina, but at least we’d survived the day. More than that, I needed to figure out how exactly I was supposed to deal with her. I’d gone against her commands, but those commands had gone against the morals of the Dark Court.
Against my own morals.
That didn’t matter when Seraphina was Queen of both Courts though. I glanced at Rose and asked the question that had stopped me. Could she fill the empty seat? Was that why Seraphina had put the contract out on her, or was it simply because she knew that I’d never kill someone who had even the slightest chance of filling the seat?
I sighed. There was no way to tell. Not unless I brought her to the Dark Court and allowed them to test her. And I couldn’t do that until I dealt with Seraphina. The last thing I needed right now was to waltz into Court with my mark beside me. It might save her, but it would doom me.
Rose was staring at me and sipping her wine as I thought about our predicament when, out of nowhere, she dropped her glass with a crash and began screaming. Her arms reached behind her, trying to get something in the center of her back. I jumped up from my seat and leaped over the table to see what she was clawing at.
“It hurts!” she screamed as she turned so that I could see. When she turned around, I couldn’t see anything.
“My skin. It’s like something is cutting me open. Make it stop!” she groaned. In an instant, an obsidian dagger appeared in my hand, and I ran it under her shirt, slicing the thin fabric in two and revealing her spine. The dagger faded to mist as I released it and pulled the shirt off her.
Two large bumps had formed near the spine and just below the shoulder blade. Something writhed underneath the skin, and a bit of black smoke seemed to rise from them.
I sighed as Rose continued to try to scratch at the bumps. “Stop,” I commanded, and she turned to look at me. Pain wracked her face, and I gritted my teeth. This shouldn’t have happened yet.
“What is it?” she groaned.
“You got your fanfare is all.” I settled down in the chair next to hers and realized that I’d spilled the wine in my glass.
“What do you mean!” Her voice was pitiful, and I began to feel a little sorry for her.
“It’s your wings. You claimed your power, and now they’re trying to grow. You asked about fanfare, and this is it.”
She continued to try to claw at her back, her hands getting nowhere near the two bumps. “God, I hate this fucking place.” She grimaced and finally gave up, putting her hands on the table as tears welled in her eyes. I could feel the pain and frustration running through her.
“I was human until two days ago. I don’t know anything, and all you do is get annoyed when I try to understand things. I’m sorry that I didn’t grow up in fucking fairyland, but I didn’t even know it was a place until you brought me here. I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t ask for you to do anything. All I want is to be able to go back home and live out my miserable life.”
Helplessness flowed from her, my empathy letting me feel exactly what she was feeling. I took a deep breath as I realized that I had been more than a little callous. I wouldn’t have known how to function in her world either.
“I’m sorry, Rose. This is part of the process of claiming your power. All gifts require sacrifice for the Fae. This pain is the sacrifice.”
“Yeah, well I didn’t know.” Tears began to run as she gritted her teeth.
“I should have told you that this was what would happen. Now that it’s happening, there are a few options. They’ll eventually burn their way out of your back, but that will be about two weeks of agony. Or, I can cut them out with my knife like I was cutting out an arrow. That’s a night of rest and thirty minutes where you think you’re going to die. Unless…”
I didn’t want to say it. For anyone
else, I would have taken them into their dreamworld and locked them there in fantasies until the worst of it was over, but for some reason, I couldn’t push that on her.
“Unless what?” she demanded as she winced again.
I let out a long breath and made a decision. “Unless you let me use magic on you. Unless you let me seduce you in a dreamscape while I let your wings out. For all intents and purposes, you’ll barely notice the pain, and as soon as your wings are free, you’ll heal.”
“It’s the right decision, logically, but you’re… inexperienced.”
I turned around, unable to look at her as she realized what that meant. I glanced down at the spilled wine. I picked up the bottle and took a long slow drink directly from it.
“What are you?” she whispered.
It would eventually come out. I’d known it would, but I hadn’t wanted it to. How stupidly mortal that sounded.
“I’m half fairy and half incubus. I feed on sexual energy both in dreams and in the physical.”
“And… you’ll feed on me?”
“I would. I won’t lie to you, Rose,” I didn’t turn around to face her, not wanting to see the horror on her face. “I also won’t force this on you. I should, but I won’t. It has to be your decision.”
Chapter 10
Rose
Another wave of pain raced through my body, and I whimpered. God, it hurt. Excruciating, white-hot pain that sent my back into spasms. I would never be able to survive two weeks of this.
I didn’t want Sebastian digging around in my back, but I would die before those two weeks were up. The tears were already flowing steadily, and my nails dug into the table as a fresh bit of misery ran through me.
“Which hurts less?” I asked through clenched teeth.
“The dreamscape will be painless,” he said softly as he stood up and removed his cloak.
“Then do it. Whatever you have to do. Fix me.” Another wave of pain coursed through me, and I shut my eyes as I tried not to scream.
When I opened my eyes, Sebastian was standing in front of me, staring at me. Those blue eyes that had slowly begun turning more and more misty seemed to pull me into them, and gray mists filled my vision.
I felt myself falling, but for some reason, I didn’t try to catch myself. The mists whispered to me. Peace. Calm. Rest.
And then they seemed to burn away, leaving me in a room that had to be part of a palace. Ebony posts rose up around the bed that seemed like a cloud made solid. I sank into it, and every muscle in my body relaxed.
The light was dim, barely illuminating anything else. Candles burned in black and gold sconces on the walls, the light flickering so that shadows danced everywhere I turned.
The scent of lavender and lilac filled the room like a scented candle was burning somewhere nearby, but underneath it, I smelled something different, something that no candle could put off. I inhaled, and it felt like I was stepping out the front door on a fall morning, fresh dew on the grass. The air still. Such a strange scent.
I was pulled away from my thoughts as I looked down at my body. Instead of wearing the sleep clothes I’d been taken in, I was covered in a silk nightgown, so elegant and expensive I would never have worn it. Deep blue, it shimmered in the light, and the shadows danced on top of me.
I felt strange like I’d been given a drug at a doctor’s office.
Then Sebastian stepped from the shadows, wearing only his pants. His eyes were made of pure mist now. Not even a flicker of blue. He took a step towards the bed and seemed to materialize above me, appearing from a puff of mist. This time, the mists didn’t dissipate. It hovered around me as he rested his weight on one elbow and ran his fingers over my cheek.
I took a gasping breath as he finally touched me. Somehow, I knew that this was the true Sebastian. This place of mists and luxurious beds was his home, and everything else was just where he existed.
Lightning seemed to flow from his fingers, igniting my body wherever he touched with warmth and something more. My body seemed to pulse in time with his magic touch as I stared into those mist-filled eyes.
I inhaled his scent. Not the way he smelled, but his magical scent. I understood what he had been trying to explain before now. It engulfed me. It couldn’t be described. Not truly. Like the dew on a fall morning. It was so strong, I could almost taste it.
It overwhelmed my senses, and I seemed to lose track of where I was. A luxurious bed filled with mist? The silvered floor of a moonlit forest? A boat on the open ocean, rocking to the peaceful waves of a gentle sea? It didn’t matter. Only he mattered. His body on top of mine. His eyes gazing into mine.
His hand running down my neck.
He craned his neck down, and for the first time in my life, I felt lips on mine. Lips of passion. Lips of need. Lips of hunger. They spoke to me. Breathing their desires into me. A fire exploded inside me, and I wrapped my arms around him, feeling his bare skin for the first time.
Hard muscles hidden under the flesh rippled as he shifted. His lips left mine and found the crook of my neck. Passion and need flowed through me as I’d never known possible.
My breathing came out in little gasps as he kissed his way down my neck. His hand moved to my nightgown, and it seemed impossibly thin. His grazing touch seemed to move right through the fabric, igniting my skin.
I ran my fingers over his back, exploring his skin in ways I’d never done before. His lips found the top of my nightgown, and the pulsing inside me grew even stronger. God, everything inside me wanted this. My mind. My body. My very soul craved his touch and everything he could give me.
He whispered, “Tell me what you want, Rose.”
“Please,” I moaned. “Please don’t stop.”
I looked down as he gripped the top of the nightgown and, without any effort, he split the gown down the middle, tearing it all the way to my waist. His lips left a trail of soft kisses towards my breast as his hands wrapped around me. He pulled my body upward, forcing me towards those lips that were desperate for me.
And I felt lightning inside me, flickering bits of desperate need. I needed more than this. More than kisses. More than his touch. There was something more, but I didn’t know what it was.
His fingers dug into my back hard enough to hurt, but it was nothing compared to the pleasure that raced through me. I moaned as he showed me how strong he was, and I dug my nails into his back hard enough to draw blood, but he smiled down at me.
A flicker of light behind the mists in his eyes told me something was changing, but I was consumed by the pulsing need flowing through my body. I arched my back and pressed my breasts towards him.
His strong arms pulled me upward as he moved into a kneeling position, pulling me with him. I stared at him as I wrapped my legs around his waist. His hardness pressed against me through his pants, and I groaned.
That was what I needed. That was the more that I craved. He stared into my eyes as he pulled my nightgown down around me, ripping the straps off it as though they were nothing.
He pulled me to him, my naked breasts pressed against his chest as he pressed his lips against mine. I could feel his hunger again. More pressing. More desperate. He was going to consume me. Every ounce of my being.
And I didn’t want to stop him.
As long as he didn’t stop kissing me. As long as his hands never stopped running over my naked skin.
His hands moved down lower. My nightgown was still wrapped around my waist, and he ran his hands down to my butt and pulled me against him, against that hardness.
God, it was ecstasy. The world could explode, and I wouldn’t turn away from his kiss. The mists began to swirl around us, and it was like he was touching me everywhere, igniting every inch of my body with a fire that only he could soothe.
His hands edged lower, and he brushed that part of me that had never been touched, and everything else paled in comparison to the lightning that begged to be released inside me.
One hand moved to my back while th
e other pressed against that throbbing, desperate spot, and he broke away from the kiss, holding my gaze in his. With a single finger, he pushed through my resistance, finding the spot inside me that had craved his touch since the beginning. The more.
And I exploded with a scream. A flood of pure bliss raced through me, and as he withdrew his finger, I saw that his eyes were a soft blue again.
His arms wrapped around me, and he held me tight to his chest as the waves of pleasure slowly calmed inside me. Something had changed inside me at that moment, but I didn’t know what it was.
My body was naked from the waist up, and I should have been ashamed as the mists cleared, but I wasn’t. The steady rise and fall of Sebastian’s chest began to lull me to sleep as I snuggled tighter to him, pressing my head into his shoulder. At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to feel him.
Chapter 11
Rose
I woke slowly. I’d had no dreams other than that very inappropriate and strange one with Sebastian. My body ached, and yet it felt so much more alive than it had yesterday.
As I opened my eyes, I realized that I was curled up on Sebastian’s shoulder, and I jerked away from him. He was already awake, and he gave me a half-grin. “Strange dreams, Tinkerbell?” he asked.
“Tinkerbell? You can’t steal a nickname. It’s against the rules of nicknames.” I yawned and sat up. It took me a second before I saw that Sebastian’s gaze had drifted lower than my face, and I realized that I was topless. Quickly covering myself with the blanket, I felt my cheeks warm intensely.
“What did you do?” I exclaimed. “Did you… did that dream really happen? Did you put… your finger…?”
Sebastian laughed and got out of bed wearing only those leather pants that showed off the pieces of him I hadn’t experienced in the dream. God, after that dream, I had so many thoughts about what he could do with that body, and a part of me wanted to see what lay under that leather. “No, Tinkerbell, I certainly didn’t put my finger anywhere. It was a dream. That’s all.”
