Under the Lies

by A. K. Koonce

  “Why’s it different to see her with him than it is to see her with myself, all pressed against each other, sweaty, bloody, thrusting slow as we cling to each other breathlessly? His bright eyes get this disturbingly lustful look in them, and I’m still not sure if he’s talking about sex or murder.

  “Because with you—” There’s this gnawing emotion that keeps cutting deeper and deeper into my chest every time I look over at them and he’s still huddled close and talking to her. “I don’t know. It just fucking is. It’s different because you’re an outcast assassin, and I’m a pathetic spy, and I never went to fucking college let alone was granted authority or sovereignty. Fuck. I need a drink.” I push my hand down my face so slowly I wish I could wipe away all those words I just spewed to him.

  “How about you skip the drink and just talk to her?” Kais says, stepping between myself and the man who clearly was about to give me the worst suggestion I could have asked for.

  The tattoos licking up his neck lead to a stern jawline and even sterner features. He’s slightly smaller than I am, but I always feel young and stupid in his eyes.

  He doesn’t look at me like that right now. He looks at me genuinely. He’s always been my friend, but he’s never…really been my friend.

  This is the first time he’s given me real advice, and it feels unsteady.

  “Go,” he says again with a smile tensing his lips.

  I’m just about to say I can’t, when I look up and find Madison walking away from Constantine. Her boots are soundless across the shining tile in comparison to the endless stream of laughter and cackling Konstance is doing.

  So I follow after her.

  Down the short hall, I stalk after her like a total fucking creep.

  Should I announce myself? Scare the living shit out of her even more by calling out to her? She pushes open the big French doors, and I no longer have to worry about it as I trail after her out into the cool evening air.

  Her shoulders sag the moment she’s alone, and I pause to watch the way the wind flicks at her long red hair.

  God, I love her hair. It’s thick and sexy and makes my fingers tense into my palm at the very idea of fisting it in my hand.

  “It’s a nice night,” I comment vaguely.

  She jerks away from the quiet sound of my voice, and her big eyes peer over at me as if she’s weighing whether to murder me or punch me in my dick.

  “You scared the shit out of me. Have you been creeping there the entire time?”

  Great.

  “No. Well yeah, but you haven’t been out here long.”

  Her lips tense into a slow smile, and she faces me, letting her back settle against the shadowy side of the castle wall as she studies me intently.

  I’ve never been a nervous man until I locked eyes with Madison Torrent.

  And suddenly I don’t know what to say or what to do with my hands. Fuck, I’ve had hands my entire life and I’ve never been so fucking self-conscious of the grubby paws before.

  “I saw you creeping on me and the King in the throne room too,” she whispers, that smile pulling wider across her pretty face.

  “Just observing.” I take a step toward her and then another and then another.

  Maybe my overthinking mind doesn’t know what to do with Madison, but my body fucking does.

  Within seconds, I’m close enough to touch her, but I linger there, my chest barely brushing hers while I look down on the most angelic face smirking up at me.

  “Observing, creeping, tomato, Toledo.”

  Now I’m smirking at her ridiculous words. “You say the strangest things sometimes,” I tell her, my palms wrapping slowly around her small hips.

  “I say the strangest things?” Her head rears back from me until her hair brushes along the brick wall, but I’m drawn into the space she just made, eating up the distance between our mouths.

  I nod quietly, my gaze flicking between the curve of her lips and the shine of her big pale green eyes.

  “You say the strangest things.” She lifts her eyebrows challengingly.

  She wants a challenge?

  Fine.

  “Like I love you?”

  She laughs for a moment, like it’s the most comical thing I’ve ever said, but I’ve never been more serious. And she soon realizes that as the amusement fades from her eyes. Her lips.

  She swallows hard.

  It’s dark with only the light from inside slipping out to hint at the two of us hiding away here in the backyard with the floral scent of so many flowers surrounding us.

  “You love me?” she whispers on a half breath.

  My forehead rests against hers as my heart pounds like it can’t get close enough to her.

  And then I nod, my words suddenly stuck in my throat as I stare down into the most awestruck green eyes.

  I want to kiss her. I want to tangle my tongue with hers just so I won’t have to hear what she isn’t saying to me right now. But it’s she who brushes her soft lips against mine. She doesn’t speak. She just kisses me so gently.

  She doesn’t say it back.

  A single kiss has never felt so rejecting.

  Seconds pass with just her slow drawn out affection trailing across my lips, along the thick stubble across my jaw, against my neck, and finally my ear.

  Warm breaths tease along my skin.

  And then she speaks.

  “I love you too,” she says, her palms cradling against my scruffy jaw line like what she just said has destructive impact and I’m fragile enough to break beneath her words.

  And I am.

  She’s broken me for anyone else.

  I’ll never be whole again, because she owns more pieces of my tattered heart than I do.

  My lips slam to hers so hard it hurts. The moment our lips touch, she’s no longer chastely kissing me, her tongue thrusts against mine, stroking me and kissing me like I’ve always wanted her to.

  She pulls away just to drag her teeth sharply along my neck, kissing and sucking her way down, and I can’t even remember how to breathe when she slowly shifts lower.

  “Fuck,” I growl out, her palms pushing my shirt aside for her hot mouth to trail slow kisses down every one of my abs.

  My cock hasn’t ever been so fucking hard.

  I blink and try to focus on where the hell I am and what the hell we were doing before this.

  The party! The battle. Stuff.

  “Cupcake, there’s an entire room full of people who really like you and respect you just a few yards away from here.” My words come out, but I don’t think she hears them as she unsnaps my jeans and shoves them down in one quick move.

  And then my dick’s out. And there’s no room for logic once your dick’s out.

  She responds to my words of warning by slipping her tongue between her plump lips and sliding it heavily across the head of my cock.

  I groan in response, my back stiffening hard to keep me from thrusting into her mouth all at once.

  Silky locks meet my fingertips, and I push my big palm across her scalp as I watch her with focused interest, her deep eyes flashing up to me as she parts her lips and guides my tip against her soft mouth. Heat envelops me, and she slides herself down every single inch of my shaft until I can’t watch her sexy fucking movements any longer.

  Faster she strokes me, my head tipping back, my fingers fisting in her hair as I guide her and fuck her all at the same time. A tightness becomes taut and greedy within me, pulsing and throbbing for a release.

  And then she pulls back from me, cool air washing across my cock as she stands abruptly and pulls her shirt right off. I watch her in a daze as she makes quick work of her jeans and kicks them off all at once with her boots.

  Gone is the innocent girl who needed me to help her grind against my dick all that time ago.

  And I fucking love every part of her.

  When her fingers latch onto the waist of her black panties, my hands clasp firmly over hers. I slow her down, halt her in a single
instant with the touch of my palm against her skin.

  “If I’m going to fuck you, it’s not going to be rushed, Cupcake.” My tone draws out like gravel kicking up along my words.

  Her lips part to speak, but then I’m kissing a worshipping path down her skin just like she did me moments ago. Except, I might be…slightly better at teasing.

  Just the brush of my beard makes her squirm beneath my lips. My teeth drag across her stomach, biting just enough that she gasps into the darkness. My palms ghost down her sides, along her hips, across her ass, and then I grip her there hard and pull her pussy to me, lapping languid strokes across the thin fabric of her panties. Long fingers grip my hair, and she holds me to her as I suck hard against the top of her sex until she squirms in my hold.

  “Lighton. Please.” She moans the plea out in such a way that it’s like foreplay all on its own for my throbbing cock.

  I shake my head at her slowly.

  My tongue slides a low path along her panties and the apex of her thigh, slipping down until her heat is against my mouth, but still I don’t give her what she wants. Frantic hands push against her sexy panties, but I hold them firmly in place, massaging her over the wetness of the fabric between us.

  When I lick back and forth across her center, she rocks her hips in time with the hard press of my tongue, her lips parting with the sexiest fucking sound I’ve ever heard trembling into the cool night air.

  And suddenly I wish her fucking panties weren’t concealing the feel of her pussy against my mouth.

  I tear them down around her ankles in a flash of a second, and then I seal my mouth against every part of her sex, devouring her wetness, her sweetness, and her shaking orgasm as it comes crashing through her. She clings to my shoulders as her legs tremble, but when I stand, I take care of her completely, picking her right up and wrapping her weak body around me.

  We’re not done. Not even close.

  Long legs cling to my hips, and when I’m eye level with her, she kisses me hard. I focus on the way she kisses me, the controlling strokes of her tongue that mirror the controlling strokes of my cock against her wetness. I grind firmly along her folds, her hips angling just right every time I get close to her center. But I pull right back and do it all over again.

  Until she’s whimpering against my smirk.

  I bite her lower lip, and she bites right back in a push and pull of sensual wanting desire.

  I want her more than I want the fucking air in my lungs.

  Then I give into that needy want.

  In one fluid move, I slam into her all at once, and she stills against me, her spine stiffening as she makes a tortured pleasureful sound into the crook of my neck, panting there like she’s filled with pain, even as she rocks her hips against mine. I hold her in the shadows of the building, but she’s very much in charge of our every move. Her arms are securely around my shoulders, and she lifts all the way up before sliding all the way back down my shaft. Over and over and over again, she keeps that slow riding pace, rocking her lips, her chest, her hips, her slick, hot pussy all against me until I’m groaning into her just as much as she is into me.

  My nails sink in hard into the curve of her ass, and it’s the one thing that makes her quicken. She rides me harder, fucks me like this is the first and last time I’ll ever hold her so deeply that I can feel every pulse of her orgasm as it trembles around my shaft. Sharp teeth sink into my shoulder, her body and her arms tightening around me so firmly that I come hard just from the feel of her total release.

  The tension in her body lowers. Her hold on me becomes a caress, her mouth kissing sweetly over the spot she just bit moments ago. A slow smile parts my lips when she lifts her sated eyes to mine and clings to me like I’m the only person in this entire fucked up realm that can support her right now.

  “I love you, Lighton,” she says on a breathy whisper. “Don’t ever doubt for a single second that I don’t completely love every single part of you.” Another slow press of her lips against mine has me nodding my head to her.

  “I love you too, Cupcake.”

  And now we’re both smirking.

  We have to. We have to smile and remind each other of our feelings.

  Because tomorrow, tomorrow is filled with too much uncertainty.

  Fourteen

  Madison

  “No,” Cat’s bright eyes are wide and watchful like she just ate a gallon of catnip instead of listening to me tell her about finally admitting my feelings to Lighton.

  We talk quietly as we decide on swords in the weapons room of the castle.

  Honestly, there’s a ton of them. All shining, all blades, all looking exactly the same.

  I grab one at random, but she takes her time stroking the hilts and picking a few up as if she’s testing their weight in her small hand.

  “I told him I loved him,” I whisper again.

  “No, no, not the love part. Tell me the part where he fucked you against the wall.” Her smile is wide and shining.

  I swear she’s all smutty thoughts and sweet smiles.

  “Lower your voice,” I hiss.

  Our closest friends, the King and a small army of Rebel Hearts are waiting and plotting last minute details in the hall just outside the open door.

  “Oh, please. I hope they hear me.” Her long lashes flutter as she rolls her pretty eyes. “You know Brody led me away for a private moment earlier too.” She pretends to be ridiculously interested in a fan that flutters out into slicing knives. It’s a weapon I’ve never seen before, but the way she’s avoiding my gaze tells me she couldn’t care less about the pretty little blades.

  “What happened?” I ask on a gentle tone.

  She shrugs her shoulders carelessly, but the look in her eyes is anything but.

  “He said, Kitten”—her voice deepens so strangely on that word that I take a step back out of fear that she might be possessed again, but then she continues in the mocking tone—“Kitten, I just want you to know, with everything happening, with the rebels rising, with the Kingdoms lashing out at one another, with everything, I”—she levels me with an annoyed look before her brooding voice goes high and child-like—“I-I just want you to know. I—you—you’re important to me. You know?” Her eyes narrow into slits like she’s angry, but I see the tremble of her lip. “Important. I’m important to him.” She swallows hard and looks away once again.

  Oh, Cat.

  Fucking Brody.

  He loves her. He was apparently an actor on Broadway but doesn’t know the words in his heart since no one’s telling him his lines.

  All she wants is to know he loves her.

  And his rambling just goes to show that he has no damn idea how to say that.

  “Cat.” I touch her small shoulder, and she spins on me with a sickle type blade that I’m pretty sure only the Grim Reaper and the seventeenth century colonial Americans used.

  “I like this one.” She beams maniacally.

  Annnnnd we’re done.

  “Good.” I nod carefully with my hands raised ever so slightly.

  Brody’s dick better pray she intends to use that thing against our enemies…

  Kais and Alixx lead dozens of Wanderlust men through Dismay Forest. We’re far later than dusk now. I can blame Konstance’s party all I want, but I might have taken advantage of the extra time with Lighton too. It’s deep into the night now, and I can’t help but wonder if the Elders and their crazy night life ever sleep.

  I guess we’re about to find out.

  Kais halts at the edge of the thick tree line. When he turns, his bright eyes meet mine first before he addresses the Rebel Hearts surrounding me.

  “The Elders are more disoriented in the evening. They won’t be as alert,” Kais explains, and everyone’s silent as he instructs us. “We’re not here to slaughter.” His head turns slowly until he eyes Alixx so hard the assassin lifts his hand as if his heart has been fatally wounded by the very suggestion. “We’re here to arrest. Take captives and forc
e them to see it our way. We aren’t killers, but we’re not victims anymore either.”

  He turns away, and Alixx is muttering after him. “What on earth are these weapons for then?” he asks as he tosses a heavy sword into a shadowy tangle of thorns like it’s totally useless now, as if he doesn’t have several knives tucked away in several pockets of his fine suit.

  Kais never acknowledges his friend’s whining complaint though. With every steady step he leads, it just pounds harder and harder through my heart.

  Now’s our time.

  This is the moment that determines our future.

  Our fate.

  My fate.

  Towering peaks of Liddell’s castle slice into the starry sky. It looms ahead in the distance, and we draw closer and closer and closer.

  Until the burning scent of smoke assaults my senses. Dark wisps slash into our sight. First one, then another and another and another.

  Surprisingly, Constantine is the first to react. He strikes out at the wind itself in a slashing arch of his shining sword. Alixx leaps into the skies above with harsh strokes of his big leathery wings and a few winged men follow after him.

  Then I see them.

  Smoke men crash into us with thrashing violence that shoves me to the ground. They press in on me, but I’m ready. My sword lifts with a lashing move into the swirling darkness. I bring it down hard, but it doesn’t stop the man above me from crushing his weight into my chest.

  Magic. Magic is what I need.

  With barely an ounce of force, my power thrusts out of me, colliding with the shadow man and shoving him away with little effort.

  And when I stand on shaking legs, actual Elders are flocking in on confident strides. The residents of this Kingdom are powerless, but they don’t look it right now. Not with the glinting blaze in their eyes. It shines like raw power, a silver spark that feels all too magical, and then I note why.

  A dark brown fur is wrapped around their shoulders in a royal sort of way. Course dark hair is tied around them, and at first the odd garment seems strange on the many men and women ambushing my people.

  But then I remember Liddell’s promise. The magic of the slaughtered creatures will never go wasted.