Thirty-Two

EVE

Feyanna changed the instant Ellis struggled with his magick.

I'd seen what it could do. I'd witnessed firsthand the terror and devastation. I couldn't help but worry for just an instant. My worry took a back seat to Feyanna's sudden shift in demeanor.

Her expression froze and shifted, flickering through different emotions so quickly that it was hard to catalog and acknowledge. She'd annoyed me all day as she'd stumbled through the woods, sniffing and making more noise than an entire regiment.

But when Ellis's grip on his magick wavered, the frightened fae girl melted away to reveal a hard face set in stone as she grabbed Ellis's other hand.

I don't know what she did or said, but Ellis's eyes closed.

He opened them.

And he controlled his magick.

Feyanna's confident exterior shrank away as she shot me a nervous glance.

My eyes narrowed at her, not trusting what I'd just seen.

She was hiding something.

Flames flew from Ellis's fingers and into the ring I'd built, catching the dry tinder and small twigs swiftly. Hurriedly I dropped his wrist and snatched at the bigger logs and tossed them on. In no time at all, we had a happy little fire.

It was still raining, but it had lessened to a dreary, drizzling mist.

Ellis slumped down against a tree with his hands flat on the ground. It was as though he were trying to push them into the dirt.

Grabbing two of the plucked chickens, I put out my hand. "Knife."

He raised a dark eyebrow at me.

I raised one back. "I know you snatched one from her dead body before we left the city. Don't pretend you didn't."

Feyanna made a small huffing sound of amusement. As always, I ignored her.

"Here." He placed it hilt first in my hand, the wood smooth and soft from years of work. This was a knife used by working hands and working people.

A brief pang ached in my heart for the kind healer who'd helped me.

"Thanks." I gripped the knife and glanced down at the chickens, trying desperately to remember exactly what I'd seen the cook do back at my manor. It had to be easy. We ate chicken all the time!

"Do you know what to do?" Ellis asked lightly, the second eyebrow rising to join the first.

"It … can't be that hard. The feathers are already gone. We just need to cut it up, put it on a stick, and cook it. Anything too nasty can be burned away."

Ellis's nose wrinkled as I tried to bluster my way through an explanation. He turned away to find some appropriate sticks.

Feyanna sidled up next to me and put her hand out for the chicken and the knife. My pulse raced in my veins, warning bells going off in my head. A princess wouldn't know how to prepare meat for a meal. She had hordes of servants for that. I handed them over anyway, half convinced she'd prove herself to be someone she wasn't or, at the very least, give me something to laugh at as she tried.

She stared hard at the knife in her left hand and the chicken in her right. Her eyes closed, and she smashed them together.

Before I could let out a squawk, she pulled her hands apart and perfectly cut pieces of meat fell into the folds of her dress. In her hands she held all the bones and nasty remnants.

"La i ja fa?" she asked faintly.

Ellis peered into her lap. "I believe so. Eve, would you do the honors?" He gestured with his head toward the cut meat and the small pile of sticks he'd procured.

I sighed and speared it, arranging it over the fire to cook. Ellis helped Feyanna up, then moved to my side to stoke the fire. She dropped the discarded bits on the ground next to her.

Silence descended between our small trio, but not in the forest. Juices trickled down from the cooking meat, hissing and spitting as moisture hit the hot stones around the fireplace.

It smelled too good. We would have to eat it all, and quickly.

Feyanna sat across the fire from us, golden eyes glowing in the darkness. The same odd, intrusive thought came out of nowhere: Be kind to Feyanna. She is sad. She needs your help.

"Do you think we are too hard on her?" Ellis said softly against my ear, leaning into my shoulder.

I'd felt the urge to go easy on her all day; I had enough common sense to squash it. It didn't matter that she was scared and alone. She was still present when her sister had raped Ellis, and hadn't done anything to stop it.

Feyanna was not our friend.

"No. This is how people become stronger; they struggle. Let her struggle for once in her life," I said.

Golden eyes raised across the fire to meet mine, a brief flash of challenge flitting across the flames to me.

No, not possible. I was imagining things, seeing challenges and hardships where there weren't any. How long now have I been in a constant state of anxiety and alert? I couldn't remember the last time I'd relaxed.

All because of the fae.

My resolve hardened as I glared across the fire at Feyanna. She blinked, her gaze lowering to the fire.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

She shifted uneasily, then stood.

"Let's get some rest, perhaps?" Ellis suggested, lying down by the fire and reaching for a cloak to toss over us.

He curled an arm around my waist as we laid down. His chest was warm and comforting against my back. It was tempting to relax against him. But that wasn't what I focused on.

Instead, I watched Feyanna as her cloaked figure shuffled into the woods, gathering the scraps from our meal into a scrap of cloth and tying them to hang off a tree branch so the remains didn't attract animals during the night.

Without being told to.

My eyes narrowed, the niggling sense that something wasn't quite right refused to go away. I snuggled against Ellis and went to sleep, determined to keep a closer eye on her.

I woke up in the middle of the night as thunder crashed overhead. Ellis jerked against me, lightning briefly illuminating the woods and the tree we leaned against as though it was daylight.

Feyanna was nowhere to be found.

Ellis swore and made to stand, but I pushed him back down against the tree. The sky opened up on us, but, thankfully, it was only rain, and not hail.

Hot rain.

My hand braced against the tree, or tried to. It sank down into the bark, revealing a large hollow in the middle of the tree.

"Come on!" I yelled over the rain, tugging Ellis behind me into the relative shelter of the tree's hollow. It was tight, but we could both fit and get out of the weather. I climbed onto his lap to make the best use of the space we could.

"What about Feyanna? Shouldn't we—" Ellis shut up as I crashed my mouth to his, desperate to chase away my guilt and feel something other than fear.

His hands came around and grabbed my waist, squeezing hard enough to leave bruises. An odd pain ached in my chest, but I ignored it. Alihandro's mark flared hot against my skin, but I ignored that as well. My hips dug into Ellis's, grinding and begging. Silver eyes caught mine in a heated gaze for only a split second before his lips crashed onto mine.

Yes. Yes.

Delicious heat shot through my body, my arousal thick enough that I could ignore the weird pain of the mark. In a way, the pain made Ellis's caresses and kisses all the more sweeter.

Ellis hardened quickly under me, groaning as I rubbed against his length. Unable to wait, I pushed his breeches down his waist and took him in my hands.

"Gods," he hissed, though it was arguable that his exclamation was just as much from my freezing hands as it was his cock being touched. His warmth against my palms felt glorious either way. I made a circle with my thumb and fingers, sliding one hand up and down his base.

His hips jerked against me, and he bit down on my lip. With one hand he grabbed what was left of my haphazard braid, twisting it around my neck and yanking hard.

Oh. My. Gods.

His remaining hand shoved my dress up around my waist and I lifted my hips, wiggling until his cock lined up with my slit. I rubbed against his length, his breath coming out in ragged gasps as he felt how wet and slick I was.

Without warning, I sank down onto him, clenching my inner muscles around him.

"Gods!"

He pulled harder on my braid, the pressure on my neck bleeding into the pain from Alihandro's mark. Mixing with pleasure as I rode Ellis, I approached the edge of my pleasure faster than I ever had before. Maybe it was the desperation of the situation, or the pain and danger of being out in the elements, or my neck in such a precarious position.

I came hard, my inner muscles spasming and bearing down on Ellis's cock.

He panted, hands gripping my neck and hips as he went ramrod still, letting me ride out the wave of my orgasm. The moment I went limp and sagged against him, he surged inside of me.

Gripping my hips like a lifeline, he drove himself in and out of me with a ferocious need that took my breath away. Still woozy and high off my own release, all I could do was bury my hands in his thick, dark hair and hang on for the ride as my muscles were lax against him.

"I can't wait to fuck you naked in my bed wearing nothing but my crown," he rasped against my ear. The imagery had me hot and bothered all over again, my hips once more rising to meet his.

"Just so you know, it's you. It's always been you," Ellis groaned, pumping in and out of me.

I tensed against him, half of me unwilling to be vulnerable enough knowing how he felt about Viana and the other half desperate to believe him.

"Even Viana was just a substitute: a longing for what I didn't think I could have, which was the brave girl from my dreams, a girl with a golden heart and nerves of iron."

Oh gods, I wanted so badly to believe him.

He thrust hard, and I cried out.

"I thought I was dreaming that night on the balcony. Years of dreaming of your voice and your touch, and there you were."

Thrust.

"Always on the edge of my dream, then suddenly offering yourself to me."

Thrust.

"I thought I'd finally died and gone to heaven."

Thrust.

"Ellis!" I gasped, an odd feeling like I had to go to the bathroom, and yet followed immediately by an intense release. Fresh wetness spurted from inside of me, and Ellis bore down, groaning as he felt the rush of fluid flow from me. Something deep and carnal uncurled in my chest at the same time sudden pain flared in my neck.

"Fuck!"

He came hard, his cock throbbing against my inner walls. I tried to squirm away, embarrassed I'd … leaked all over him. He held me tightly to him, not letting me go anywhere.

"We're messy—" I began.

"I'm a mess without you," he fired back, slipping one hand down between my thighs to replace his cock, coating his fingers in my juices. He lifted them to his mouth and sucked it off, his silver and green eyes pinned to mine. "Delicious."

The odd ache in my chest and the pain in my neck faded, so I let it go and didn't mention it. It was hard to worry about anything with the lingering lethargy of my own orgasm and the warmth and security of Ellis's arms.

And yet …

"We need to find Feyanna," he reluctantly offered.

I made a grunt of acknowledgement against his chest, but neither of us made a move to do anything about it. We sat in a dirty, hollowed out tree, in fucked up weather in the fae realm, but I felt safe and protected. I didn't want to move.

"Eve."

He rained little kisses down my neck and shoulder. Not exactly the best way to encourage me to move.

"Mmm," I protested.

SMACK.

The hit to my bum caught me unawares in the most delightfully shocking way. I jolted up and Ellis smirked, taking advantage of my movement off his lap to stand. He led me, grumbling, out of the tree. Dawn was just cresting over the horizon, but at least the rain had stopped. It would have been hell dealing with rain and the morning cold of the fae realm.

"Where do you think she got off to?" Ellis asked me.

I didn't know, and didn't particularly care, but I knew he did. Annoyingly. "If she's run back home to tattle on us—"

"Te vola! Ja da la nour!"

Ellis's head turned a split second before Feyanna spoke, scaring the shit out of me as I flinched backward. Fae hearing for the win, again.

Feyanna stood proudly (if not bashfully) before us, holding out a bunch of mushrooms in her hands.

I raised an eyebrow at Ellis. He put a hand behind his head.

"She … uh … says she found food."

I eyed her and her mushrooms skeptically. What if one of them killed me? Did she even know what the hell she was doing? What did a pampered princess know about foraging?

As if sensing my wariness, she gave me a playful look and stuffed three in her mouth, chewing enthusiastically.

"I'll stick with the bread we have left, and leave the wild fae shit until I absolutely must eat it," I said.

Ellis took a handful of mushrooms from Feyanna and paused, glancing at them. In one motion, he shoved them in his mouth and swallowed, barely chewing. The choice cost him, his eyes watering as he worked hard to swallow the dry mushrooms. I grabbed the waterskin at my waist and offered it.

He made a sound of gratitude in his throat, swallowing heavily and wiping his mouth with his hand.

Feyanna had two mushrooms left. She ate one, then held the other out to me.

For one moment, I considered eating it. Ellis and her had proven they weren't poisonous, or at least not to fae or Ellis's half-human side. And they would pair well on top of the bread if I washed it down with some water.

Golden eyes sparked with emotion as I reached out for it.

Her hands closed around it in a panicked motion, and she stuffed the last one in her own mouth.

I glared.

Bitch.

Sensing the rising tension, Ellis drew me back to his side. "We have a few hours before dawn. We might as well get some sleep."

He repeated that in the fae language to Feyanna, who nodded and settled against a small bed of moss, curling up on the wet ground like she'd been doing it her whole life.

It irritated me how effortless she made everything look.

Ellis pulled me into his chest as he settled at the base of our tree. I would try to get some more sleep while I still could.