The doors open before I can reply, and light footsteps click on the stone floor. “Adrian.”
My mother’s voice is strong, though not entirely clear, and I push to my feet and embrace her. My eyes burn as she stifles a sob. I have been too selfish. Too mired in my own pain to acknowledge hers. “I am sorry for hiding away, Mother. I am sorry…for everything.”
“You did nothing wrong, my son. After what he did to you…” Her words are slow, and her cheeks flush as I step back to look at her.
“You are well?”
“I am now.” She smiles as she turns her gaze on Kat. Ducking around me, she sits next to my human and gently embraces her. “I’m Noelle. Adrian’s mother.”
“You…?” Kat looks between the two of us. “You’re so young.”
“Adrian’s father…he kept me this way. I’m human—like you—but Fae magic is very powerful.” The light in her eyes dims when she mentions my father, and she reaches for my hand. “Adrian, your uncle told me what you will need to do, and I must warn you.”
“About?”
“Your father knew one of the descendants of the mages who created the Phoenix. The warlock…I met him only once. Not long before you were taken. He scared me more than your father did. If he is at all involved now…keep your guard up. Please. And return safely.”
“I will try, Mother. I promise.”
Back at my hovel, I lay Kat in my bed, open one of Lash’s bottles, and press it into her hand. “You must rest a bit before we travel to your world.”
Almost as soon as she finishes the draught, she closes her eyes and falls asleep. I sit with her for a few moments, holding her hand, feeling our connection strengthen with every touch, every stolen moment of closeness.
In less than a day, this human has become my entire world. She is smart, funny, and braver than I am by far. I will not lose her.
Joran calls my name, and I tear myself away from Kat to meet him outside.
“What is it? We must go to the human realm in a few hours. Kat needs rest.”
“My liege, I want to go with you. To protect you.” Joran drops to one knee and thumps his fist against his heart. He wears a full set of battle leathers, blades strapped to his thighs.
“No. It is too dangerous. We do not know where the rest of the Phoenix is. Only that it is somewhere called Dublin.”
“That is exactly why I should be with you. My liege, you were born to rule all of the Fae. I was born to serve your family. My place is by your side. Always.” Joran rises and leans against the wall of my hovel. “Do you remember when we were young? Before your father...”
“Let his power corrupt him?”
Joran snorts. “That is putting it mildly.”
“I remember. We trained together. Or so our mentor thought. Mostly, we tried to find ways to steal candy from the kitchens.”
It feels odd to smile at the memory, but I cannot deny the pull on my lips. I had many happy times in Faery before my father dragged me from this realm, bound, bleeding, and in agony, and trapped me deep underground in the human world.
“True. But when we worked together, no one could best us.” Joran runs a hand through his short brown hair. He always eschewed the Fae custom of long locks. “If I join you, we will be stronger, and together, we can save your mate.”
I draw in a sharp breath. “Mate?”
Joran chuckles. “Do not try to deny it, my liege. I can see it in the way you look at her. And she can hear you speak. What else but the mate bond could do that?”
“I cannot lose her. When I am with Kat, I do not feel so broken.”
The admission shocks me as much as Joran, but now that I have said the words, the weight of their truth settles over me. I want Kat to spend eternity with me. Or I will spend a human lifetime at her side, and then find a way to pass into the afterlife with her.
“Then let me help, my liege.”
I narrow my gaze at him. “On one condition. You stop with this ‘my liege’ shit.”
“Very well. Adrian.”
“We leave at nightfall.”
He holds up his hand, and I clasp it hard. “We will not fail.”
I hope to the ancients he is right.
Chapter Six
Kat
I must be dreaming. I’m warm. Floating safe and secure, and the most amazing scent surrounds me. Best of all…I feel cared for. Loved, even.
But then I try to move my arm, and I can’t. My eyes fly open and my heart thuds against my chest.
“Shhh, Kat. You are safe here.”
“It’s getting worse,” I whisper. “My left leg is tingling.”
Adrian sits up and pulls me to him. I can feel his fear, but also, his strength. His determination. “We will go soon. Joran—one of my oldest friends—will be joining us. Can you tell me about where you were when you left the human realm?”
“Dublin.” I don’t want to remember. It feels like a lifetime ago. A dream. Or…maybe a nightmare. “My boss sent me to Dublin to find the Phoenix. He said he needed it as inspiration for his new video game.”
“Video game? I do not know these words.” Adrian presses his lips to my neck, and I shiver. He’s solid muscle, interrupted only by his scars, and I want him in a way I’ve never wanted anyone before.
I tilt my head to give him better access and sigh. “It’s…something humans do for fun. As a diversion. He runs one of the most successful companies in the world. The game has more than ten million players, and he told me the Phoenix would be his inspiration for the next release. I never understood why he had to have it in his possession. Why couldn’t he just use the picture he found on the internet?”
Adrian guides me onto my back and strokes my cheek. “You do not like this man.”
“No. There’s always been something…weird about him.” I think back to when Miles sent me on this cursed trip, and how giddy he was to have located the Phoenix. “He kept saying he could finally have as many worlds as he wanted. And it just made no sense. He’s the lead game designer. He can create hundreds of separate worlds within the game. He doesn’t need the Phoenix for that.”
Adrian stiffens, and his full lips press into a hard line. “He said ‘as many worlds as he wanted’?”
“Yes.” I need Adrian to touch me again. Not to think about Miles and his stupid megalomaniac tendencies. But my scarred Fae flops onto his back and runs a hand through his long black hair.
“Kat, I do not think he wanted the Phoenix for a game. I believe he wanted it so he could travel between realms. You are right that his name is too much of a coincidence. If he is the warlock my mother spoke of…there is no telling what he will do to get it back.”
The worry and tension between us grows with each beat of my heart until Adrian pulls me on top of him and holds me tightly.
“I will not let anyone harm you, my sweet one. But we must soon go. I need to find this…Osterman…and put an end to him.”
“Adrian?” I brush my lips to his, and heat pools in my belly. The rest of me is growing colder by the hour, but wherever we touch, it’s like I’m on fire. “When we get back to my, err, realm…if you can get this stupid thing off of me, you’re…” My voice cracks, and I swallow hard over the lump that’s suddenly too big for my throat. “You’re going to leave me and return here.”
He doesn’t move or speak—that I can hear—for several long moments until finally, he nods. “This is my home. The last time I ventured into the human realm, I was…” Even though he can’t say the words, I know. That’s where he was tortured. That’s where he lost the ability to speak. “I cannot stay. And you… You have a life there.”
My eyes start to burn. Any life I have back home…it won’t include him. And I don’t know how I’ll leave him.
“I know, sweet one. But we have…this moment.”
Adrian cups the back of my neck and pulls my lips to his. And this time, his kiss isn’t gentle. Or sweet. A lifetime of passion passes between us, and my nipples ache under his borrowed tunic. Hi
s hand slips under the dark blue material and finds one of the tight nubs. The pinch sends a mix of pleasure and pain shooting from my breast to my clit, and I cry out and arch my back against him.
“Adrian…” My voice is husky and full of desire, and he gets to his knees, straddling me, and rips the tunic down the middle to expose my body to his hungry gaze.
“You are beautiful, Kat. So very beautiful.”
Dipping his head, he laves his tongue around my other nipple, and my God…it’s like he knows exactly what I need. His hands skim down my sides until he grabs my hips, and then he’s between my parted legs, his face unbelievably close to my mound.
We shouldn’t. Not when I have to leave him so soon. But I want this like I’ve never wanted anything else in my entire life.
“Kat, will you let me taste you?” Adrian peers up at me, hope in his clear blue eyes.
“Please,” I beg.
A light flutter of his tongue through my folds sends me flying, and I need more. So much more. A rough sound comes from Adrian’s throat, and it seems to shock him, but with his next breath, he presses his nose to the dark curls over my mound and tastes me again. He takes his time, making lazy circles around my clit, and then, a finger slips inside of me.
“Yes! Oh, God. Adrian! More!”
He adds another finger, then starts pumping them in and out of me in time with his tongue. It’s not enough. I want him inside me, but the tension in my body builds with each thrust, each raspy growl.
I feel like I’m racing towards the edge of a high precipice, and only Adrian can save me from crashing onto the rocks below.
“Come for me, my Kat. I need to taste your pleasure.”
With another hard pump of his fingers, he scores his teeth over my clit, then sucks, hard, and my entire body implodes. My vision goes white, and I think I scream as wave upon wave of pleasure crashes against me, Adrian holding me through the crest and keeping me safe until I’m no longer flying, but floating, safe in his arms.
Adrian
I should never have kissed her. But now…my need grows with every beat of my heart. My cock aches, and a small drop of my arousal glistens on the tip as I get to my knees next to her. She still trembles, but as I let my gaze rove over her body, I see the most miraculous thing. The poison in her veins has faded. Not enough, but the black trails do not appear so angry as they were.
The urge to claim her, to fill her and give her my seed is overwhelming, but if I do, I will never be able to let her go.
With a shudder, Kat reaches up and traces one of the scars on my chest. “I need you, Adrian. Inside me.”
“No.” The single word escapes as a whisper, and almost immediately, my throat seizes and I start to cough. Stumbling off the bed, I beeline for Lash’s collection of tonics. My hands shake as I yank the stopper free and down the entire contents in two swallows. As always, within seconds, agony overtakes me.
My knees hit the stone floor, sending sparks up my legs, and Kat yelps as she scrambles off the bed and tries to help me. But with the use of only one arm, she can do little but steady me as I crawl.
“Adrian, what’s wrong?” Her voice is not steady, and tears tumble down her cheeks. “Please, answer me.”
I manage to get one arm atop the soft mattress, then another, and she helps me get my legs back up onto the bed and pulls the blankets over us. My body is wracked by violent tremors and I start to sweat. It’s…almost black, centuries of iron escaping and burning my skin.
Unable to cry out, I open my mouth in a silent scream, desperate for this torture to end.
“Talk to me, Adrian,” Kat says softly as she presses her forehead to mine. Our closeness strengthens our bond, and I try to picture what I need. The words won’t come. Not even in my mind. “Okay. I…I think I know what to do.”
On unsteady legs, she totters towards the sink, pumps the handle, and starts a stream of warm water. The ruined tunic is balled in her hand, and she wets it thoroughly, then kneels next to me and wipes the burning iron-infused perspiration from my skin.
The horrible agony starts to subside, and after she rinses the tunic twice more, the final time to gently wipe it over my cheeks, forehead, and lips, I take a steady breath.
“I will…be all right,” I manage as I cup my hand over hers. “This is a side effect of Lash’s healing tonics.”
“What the hell side effect does that?” She gestures to the stained tunic. “It’s…rusty!”
With her nestled against me, I tell her of iron’s effect on the Fae. How it poisons us, how it can kill us, and then…how I was bound in it for two centuries and forced to live off of scant drops of iron-infused water for the entirety of the time I was in chains. By the time I am through, her tears have soaked the pillow, as have mine, but it feels so damn good to tell her.
“That’s why you don’t want to go back to…my world,” she says quietly.
“Yes.”
“Then don’t.” Sitting up, she rests her good hand on my chest—right over my heart. “Adrian, I’m serious. Stay here where it’s safe. I can go with Joran. We’ll find the Phoenix, get this thing off of me, and then…he can bring the Phoenix back to you.”
“No! I am not letting you do this alone.” It is more than that. Joran is capable of protecting Kat. He is one of the strongest fighters in the realm, and one of the most honorable. But I am not ready to say goodbye to her.
“Adrian…”
“End of discussion.” I pull her down so she molds herself against me. I need a few more minutes of closeness with my beautiful human before I must bring her back to her home, and the memory of the iron burning through my system is still too fresh. “Rest with me for just a bit longer, my sweet Kat. Then, we will do what must be done.”
She sighs and settles in my arms. “You’re a king to your very core, aren’t you?”
Perhaps I am.
Chapter Seven
Kat
As exhausted as I am, I don’t let myself fall asleep. Instead, I listen for Adrian’s breathing to change. He’ll be angry with me, but I can’t let him go back to the one place he’s most terrified of. I heard Joran earlier—when Adrian thought I was asleep—and I suspect he’s still close.
After I find a fresh tunic in Adrian’s small chest of drawers, I try to maneuver my arm into the sleeve, but it’s so damn hard when I can’t lift it without extreme pain.
My boots are only slightly easier, and I’m exhausted and practically crying by the time I’ve covered myself. I grab the last bottle of the fortifying drink from Adrian’s counter before I sneak out the door and practically run right into Joran.
He’s shorter than Adrian, with dark brown eyes and rough-chopped brown hair that falls just below his pointed ears.
“And where do you think you’re going?” he asks.
“To find you.” I straighten my shoulders—as best I can—and meet his gaze. “Take me back to the human realm. Adrian…” I glance back inside at my Fae’s sleeping form. He’s at peace now in a way I haven’t seen before. “He told me what happened the last time he was among humans. He can’t go back.”
Joran is quiet for so long, I think he’s going to refuse me, but eventually, he takes a deep breath and nods. “You are very brave, human.”
“Try terrified. This,” I gesture to my dead arm, “is getting worse. If I don’t get the Phoenix tail off me soon, I’m afraid it’ll kill me. If that happens…we’ll never find out what Miles wants with the Phoenix in the first place. And call me Kat.”
I fill him in on my boss’s desire to possess the statue. “I’ve been gone for what? A day and a half? That’s enough time for Miles to get to Dublin and find the remains of the Phoenix.”
Joran curses under his breath. “Then we must go. Now. Come with me. The veil is thinnest where you arrived.”
I don’t want to go to the edge of that cliff again. Ever. But it’s the only way. I lean heavily on Joran’s arm and he helps me around the back of Adrian’s small home and to
the edge of the rocky outcropping. The setting sun paints the horizon in purples and pinks and blues, and it’s so beautiful, it takes my breath away.
“Are you ready, Kat?” Joran asks as he takes my good hand and wraps an arm around my waist. “This will be…disorienting. My gifts work with fire, not air like Adrian’s, so I may not be able to control our arrival as well as he could.”
Great.
He’s not wrong. Whatever magic carries us from one realm to the next seems to pick us up, slam us into some sort of tilt-a-whirl, then set us back down in the dead of night in Dublin. My eyes roll back in my head, and I collapse into Joran’s arms.
“Kat!” He slaps my cheek, and I try to focus, but he keeps moving. Or...multiplying. Eventually, I stop fighting and close my eyes. I have to tell him where to go.
“Cloch Anam.”
Adrian
Fuck. She’s gone. I can feel it. My human. My mate. She is no longer in this realm.
“Joran! Where the fuck are you?”
He does not answer me, and I swear by the ancient gods, I am going to beat the life out of him when I find him.
I dress quickly, finding less pain in my limbs, but much more in my heart. If I cannot see Kat once more, if I cannot tell her how much I…fuck. How much I believe I have come to love her in this short time we’ve spent together, my life will be worth less than it is now. And that certainly is not much.
Throwing open my door, I find Lash about to knock.
“Get out of my way. I must get to the human realm. Now.”
I start to push past him, but he grabs my arm and stops me. “Wait, my liege. You will need…these.” Lash passes me a set of battle leathers, a belt with twin daggers made from the strongest metal in Faery, and a small pouch with a glass bottle and rubber stopper. “Be very careful with that, my King. It will destroy the Phoenix forever. But it will also kill whatever—whoever—it touches.”
“There is no other way?”
Tempted By Fae Page 14