by Anya Bast
“Don’t stop,” she murmured. “Danu, please, don’t stop.”
He let out a harsh breath that touched her shoulder and made her shiver. Then he grasped the side of her panties and yanked them down to her knees.
He unzipped his jeans, forced her thighs apart, and pushed his cock hard and deep into her sex, rocking her up against the wall. His hand stole between her thighs from the front, bunching her skirts up. Finding her clit, he stroked it over and over as he levered his body up and down, thrusting inside her. He took her like an animal up against the wall, forcing an orgasm from her body.
When she came she had to bite her knuckles against her cries, not wanting to draw attention. He came deep inside her with a groan and her name spilling from his lips.
He replaced her panties, lowered her skirts, and turned her toward him. His fingers were hard as he guided her face up toward his. “You’re mine, Aislinn. Never forget that. I will wait for you, but don’t expect me to be patient or well mannered while I do it.”
Then he turned and walked away.
AISLINN, you must give us the Book of Bindings.
Aislinn came awake with a shudder and the sensation of icy fingertips tracing down her spine. The breathy, ominous voice still echoed in her head, laced with a malice that clung to her. It compelled her to want to give the book up to the speaker.
For the briefest of moments, that was all she wanted in the whole world.
Irrational. Her lip curled.
The glow of the fireplace filled the room, the wood snapping and popping. The apartment was otherwise quiet and she felt no presence, alive or otherwise, in the room. No soul that she could perceive.
It had been a dream and she’d caught only the tail end of it. Yet it hadn’t been an ordinary dream. This one had been filled with malice and maybe even threaded with . . . magick. She frowned. Was that possible?
Of course that was a dumb question to ask, when she’d called up an army of the unforgiven dead to fight the Shadow King on her behalf. Judging from that, anything was possible.
She shivered and slipped from between the red silk sheets and sapphire blue comforter. Everything in her new bedroom was in contrasting jewel tones, while the elegant living room was in shades of gray—from dark to dove to nearly white.
Her nightgown stuck to her body, clammy from the dream, so she went to the fireplace opposite her bed to warm herself and chase away the last of the nightmare. It wasn’t very cold outside, but she far preferred the light of a fire at night if she could get it, so she’d had Hinkley order fires for her every evening. She knelt on the heap of pillows on the floor before the hearth and reached her hands out toward the flames.
Those flames reminded her of Gabriel. And reaching out to him so he could warm her was exactly what she desired. She wanted him and he would come to her if she asked.
Because he loved her.
The words still made her shiver when she remembered how he’d said them, how he’d annihilated any doubt she’d had in her mind about what he felt for her. Kendal had told her that he’d loved her, too—but not like that, not with emotion infusing every syllable, not with that look in his eyes. And Kendal’s words had never made her feel the way Gabriel’s did—soft, hot, vulnerable, and achy . . . and so filled up, so complete.
Like anything could happen to her but everything would be okay. Like his love provided her with a shield, made her bulletproof.
He’d told her he needed her. And she needed him. Especially right now.
Every instinct she had screamed at her that she shouldn’t be alone tonight. Every fiber of her body yelled for Gabriel’s presence. She’d wasted enough time on her fears; now it was time to embrace the man who’d told her he loved her so vehemently and truthfully.
If she got hurt in the end, then she did. That human saying was true—it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. Even if letting Gabriel break her heart would slice her open emotionally from chin to gut. It was worth it to her to take a gamble.
What she felt for him was worth the risk.
The phone sat on the table near the hearth. She took it from its cradle and dialed his number.
“Gabriel?” she said when he picked up and sleepily murmured hello. Then all of a sudden her words left her and she couldn’t say anything more without dissolving into pathetic tears.
The soft rush of his breath filled the quiet space that separated them. “I’ll be right there.”
Moments later he was at her door. She opened it and immediately said, “I love you, too.” The words were spoken loud and clear and there was no taking them back once she’d uttered them. For better or for worse, they were true.
He crossed the threshold and embraced her, lifting her up and burying his nose in her hair. He kicked the door closed with his foot. “I won’t hurt you, Aislinn. All I want is to love you,” he murmured into the curve of her shoulder.
She shivered against him and let out a long, shaky breath of relief.
She retreated into the darkened apartment, back to the firelit bedroom. He followed her to the bed. The glow of the fire licked at only half his face. “Is that why you called me here? To tell me that?” he asked.
She pressed herself against the length of his body and breathed in the delicious scent of him, that quintessential combination of his cologne, soap, and the added ingredient of man that was uniquely his. “I woke up and wanted you with me. The need to see you and touch you was nearly overwhelming, like an empty space inside me I needed to fill.”
He took her hand and kissed her palm softly and slowly. The action warmed her more than the fire ever could and chased away the last clinging vestiges of the nightmare. “That’s what I’ve felt every single night since you pushed me away.”
She ducked her head. “You betrayed me once. And Kendal—”
“I get it, but I’m not Kendal.” There was a note of anger in his voice. “I’m a lot of things, especially before I fell in love with you. You were right to be cautious about me at first, but I’m not Kendal.”
“I know that.”
He pressed her down onto the mattress and covered her body with his. His knee slipped between her thighs. “I know I don’t have the best track record with women, but you’ve got me, Aislinn, body and soul. I’ve never felt this way for anyone before. It has nothing to do with your station as Shadow Queen. If anything, I wish I could take that weight from you. I just love you, every part of you, any way I can get you.” He kissed her forehead, then trailed down slowly to kiss her eyelids, the tip of her nose, and her lips as he murmured, “Every hope you have, every fear, every inch of you from the top of your head to your toes, and every inch of your soul besides.”
She relaxed into the blankets and the mattress, feeling bolstered by the support and strength that Gabriel gave her. A little of the tension of her new position eased. “I gave you my heart long ago, back when I thought it was the dumbest thing for me to do.”
“You can’t control who you fall in love with, it just happens. I promise to take care of your heart.”
“And I will take care of yours.”
“You already have. You made it come to life again.” He paused, looking toward the fire. “There are things you should know about me, Aislinn. Things I should have told you a long time ago, but the circumstances never gave me an opportunity.”
She sat up a little. “What?”
“Right after Piefferburg was created, times were hard. Many fae—most fae—were suffering from Watt syndrome and the other effects of the Great Sweep. I was young at the time and after my mother died, I was alone. I had no money, no way to feed myself.” He swallowed and waited a heartbeat before continuing. “But I was attractive and I was half incubus.”
Her throat went dry as she made the logical leap. Danu, no. The horrors he must have endured as a child and the humiliations. Her heart ached for him, for the boy he’d been and all he’d had to go through to survive.
“I—”
She leaned forward, enveloped him in her arms, and kissed him. “I understand,” she murmured against his lips. “You did what you had to do. I love you, Gabriel. I love you no matter what. I only wish I could turn back time and make things different for you.”
He kissed her. “It was a long time ago. I healed the worst of those wounds years ago, but you just stitched up the last of them.”
She ducked her head and smiled into his shoulder, his words warming her through.
“Why did you wake up? It’s early in the morning.”
The dream came rushing back to her, stealing her warmth and making her smile fade. “I had a dream, Gabriel, like no dream I’ve ever had before. It compelled me to give up the Book of Bindings, but to whom I’m not sure. It was menacing and almost seemed laced with some kind of malevolent magick.” She glanced up at him. “That’s impossible, isn’t it? I’ve never heard of such a thing before.”
Quiet reigned for several moments, his body rigid against hers. “We’ll ask Ronan and Niall about it in the morning. If anyone will know, they will.”
She kissed his collarbone, wanting to relax the alert stiffness in his body, wanting to lose herself in him and forget the dream.
He lowered his head, the fire snapping and crackling in the background. His lips brushed hers and she pressed upward for a firmer contact. He covered her mouth with his and kissed her deeply, his tongue stealing within to brush up against her tongue.
She moaned against his lips and moved her body, shifting her thighs so she could wrap her legs around his waist. His hand slipped from her waist, over her hip, to her rear, where he cupped one cheek and ground himself against her.
Then they leisurely undressed each other, revealing silken skin to the gentle, fire-warmed air. Sighs escaping them became moans of pleasure and then soft entreaties for more. Finally he slipped between her thighs and then deep within her, becoming one with her, and they showed each other with their bodies that the words they’d just spoken were true.
GABRIEL awoke naked and tangled in the silken sheets of Aislinn’s bed. It was the only place he wanted to be. The remnants of the fire no longer warmed the room and early morning sunlight peeked in from around the edges of the heavy sapphire-colored curtains covering the window that overlooked Piefferburg Square.
Contentment filled him as he rolled over. Aislinn’s scent from her pillow filled his nose. Finally, she was his.
All the stars seemed aligned suddenly. All was right with the world.
He reached for her, the memory of how her body had felt the previous night still fresh in his mind—her soft skin and the velvet clasp of her sex around his cock, her hot mouth and the mesh of her tongue with his. His name falling from her lips mingling with the sweet sound of her orgasms.
His hand slid against the opposite side of the bed, brushing the cool sheets. Aislinn had already gotten up.
Gabriel raised his head and glanced at the now-dead fire in the fireplace and the bright, multicolored furniture in the room. Aislinn wasn’t anywhere within eyesight. The kitchen or bathroom maybe? He sat up, letting the slick sheets fall to his waist, and pushed a hand through his long, tangled hair. The whole apartment felt empty.
“Aislinn?” he called, but got no answer.
Now alarmed, he tossed the blankets back and rose from the bed. He searched the apartment, not finding her. When he returned to the bedroom, that was when he spotted the piece of gray paper stuck to the fireplace mantel.
He ripped it off and read it.
Give us the book and you get your queen back.
Tell the masses and she dies.
The Grand Temple in the Goblin Town. Five p.m.
He’d been here when they’d taken her. He’d been right next to her and it had happened anyway. Now she was in danger—again—and he’d done nothing to prevent it.
Gabriel crushed the note in his hand, heart pounding, and got dressed.
TWENTY-FIVE
RONAN drummed his fingers on the table in Aislinn’s living room and Gabriel knew he was concerned. He’d known Ronan Quinn a long time, since long before he’d defected from the Black Tower for the Rose in pursuit of Bella. The look on Ronan’s face, combined with the drumming fingers, meant it was bad.
Gabriel clenched his jaw. Rage had begun to burn low in his belly when he’d found the note and it wouldn’t be extinguished until he had her back in his arms. “Just tell us, Ronan,” he ground out.
Bella shifted next to Melia. Both women glanced up at him at his tone.
Ronan sighed. “There’s only one thing it could be if there really was some kind of magick in that dream that disturbed Aislinn.”
“The Phaendir.” That came from Melia, who uttered it matter-of-factly.
Ronan gave a curt nod.
Gabriel paced back and forth in front of the couch. “They want the book, of course, and they know Aislinn has it hidden. I wonder if they’re pulling the same shit with the Summer Queen to get the piece of the bosca fadbh.”
“They’ve been after the book for a long time, Gabriel. They don’t like that we have it within the borders of Piefferburg,” Melia answered. “The piece is valuable, too, but it’s worthless without the Book of Bindings. That book holds the key to everything. If they can get that and destroy it, well, then the fae are shit out of luck.”
“They’re afraid because we have two of the four necessary pieces,” murmured Bella. “They’re worried we might actually manage to break the warding.”
Melia spoke vehemently. “Maybe they’re right to be concerned.” She pressed her lips into a firm line. “They can’t have the book, Gabriel. No matter what. This is bigger than Aislinn’s life. You know she would agree.”
Gabriel turned on Melia with a growl in his throat. Nothing was more important than Aislinn’s life, nothing. Yet once he parsed through his gut response, he knew she was right. The majority of the inhabitants of Piefferburg yearned for freedom and they deserved it. Aislinn would agree and she would gladly die to give it to them.
But he wouldn’t let her die to obtain it. Not for any price.
He stared at Melia as these thoughts crowded his head and he worked on an answer to his quandary. She shrank back into the cushions at the look on his face. “We won’t give them the Book of Bindings,” Gabriel said finally, “but fuck if we’re letting them have Aislinn, either.”
“On that we can all agree,” said Bella. “I’m not willing to sacrifice Aislinn’s life, either, Gabriel.”
“We’ll have to be careful of everyone we bring into the planning, even the rest of the host. Even my brother,” said Ronan. “It’s difficult for the Phaendir to enlist help this side of the borders, but it’s not impossible. When they twist any fae to their side, they do it with the threat of death over their heads—theirs or someone they love.”
“Yes.” Gabriel remembered Carina. She’d done what she’d done to protect her husband, Drem, and died when she’d failed to please the Phaendir. She probably would’ve been killed even if she’d been successful in her mission. “No one outside our circle can know anything about our plans.”
Ronan nodded. “Agreed.”
“Melia and Bella, can you cover for the queen today?” They were Aislinn’s court aides and were trained to take on issues when the queen was indisposed.
Bella nodded. “As far as the Black will know, Aislinn is ill.”
“Then I’ll get everyone else together and we’ll start laying our plans. We’re bringing Aislinn home tonight.”
THEY hadn’t bothered with a gag.
They didn’t need to. All they had to do was clamp charmed iron handcuffs around her wrists and that prevented her from filling her mouth with the words and magick that would bring the goblin army to her defense. Her arms were wrenched behind her back, twisted viciously. It had hurt at first, but the pain had faded to numbness and now she couldn’t feel them at all.
Why they’d plopped her down right in the heart of Goblin Town remained a mystery
to her. All she had to do was free her wrists, which would free her tongue and her magick, call for aid, and the Phaendir that held her would be hors d’oeuvres. There had to be a reason they’d selected this location, but try as hard as she could, she was unable to untangle the mystery.
Maybe they were just that arrogant. She supposed perhaps they had a right to feel that way. After all, they had successfully imprisoned all the fae races for over 350 years.
And it would take a miracle for her to get these cuffs off.
Still dressed in her thin nightgown and still barefoot, she sat in the pulpit of the Grand Temple at the foot of a huge carved jade statue of the goblins’ primary goddess, Orna. She watched the black-robed figures of the Phaendir—they hadn’t introduced themselves, but she had no doubt that was who they were—walk the premises. They’d taken over the building and closed it up. Who knew what they’d done with the goblin priests and their attendants?
All the windows of the temple were shut, the shutters drawn, all the doors locked. They’d even snuffed the candles on the tables lining the sides of the temple that the goblins came to light when they prayed to their gods—much different deities than the rest of the fae worshipped.
The minor deities were honored with statues that writhed and shifted on pedestals all along the edges of the temple, bespelled to modify and transform continually. The gritty sound of ever-shifting stone was the only filler for the silence. The only light that penetrated the murk in the temple came through the pale red-tinted glass panels near the top of the arched ceilings.
Daylight shifted lazily as the sun moved across the sky and Aislinn mostly spent her time watching dust motes dance through the air, when she wasn’t stabbing looks to kill at the Phaendir or planning ways to defeat or escape them without her magick.
Twice now they’d caught her trying to escape out the back of the temple. So now she’d been assigned one solitary druid to guard her, while they’d stationed more at the doors of the building that led out into the alleys of Goblin Town. They hadn’t hit her, hadn’t hurt her except for twisting her arms behind her back to get the cuffs on. They never spoke to her. They were silent, strong wraiths, united and unswerving in their purpose.
