She said that last bit glaring at me.
What? When have I ever lied?
Okay, there was that time…and those other times, and there were all those sort of half-truth “you’ll figure-it-out” hints I gave her that must’ve driven her insane…
Maybe a little bit of fae nature had rubbed off on me.
“He wasn’t lying,” I piped up. I was nearly at the hallway now. The smell swirled in my head. Rich, roasted meat, dripping with sweet fat and fragrant herbs…not a drop of honey tainting its meaty essence…my mouth watered.
A hand fell on my shoulder. “What are you looking at?”
I turned at the sound of that voice, the only thing in the world more intoxicating than food.
Maeve.
Her lips pursed with concern, but her eyes flamed with lust. The tug of her magic rolled over me, drawing me in, daring me to close the distance between us. I stepped closer, our bodies mere inches apart, the gap between us sizzling with unspoken spells.
My hand flew to her cheek and when our skin touched, lightning danced in my veins, shooting straight through my body into my dick. I bent my head, zeroing in on that gorgeous mouth of hers, the lightning consuming us as our lips touched?—
“You,” a voice behind us spat.
Maeve and I flew apart. I whirled around. In the doorway of the room stood a stout, dour-looking woman with greying hair and a serial-killer malevolence in her eyes. Both her hands were covered in oversized quilted mittens. In one mittened hand she clutched a metal dish containing a bone of the most delicious-smelling meat I’d ever encountered. Saliva pooled on my tongue and my body swooned with hunger.
In the other hand she held aloft an enormous butcher’s knife.
“Dora?” Arnold asked, surprise in his voice. “What are you doing here? Your shift finished hours ago.”
“It’s right I came back. You all were lying around, sleeping in the middle of the day when there’s so much to do. You’ve made a mess of this room and is thatsaltall over the floor? You need me to take care of you.Shewon’t do it.” The woman they called Dora jabbed the knife in Maeve’s direction. “Look at her, seducing some other hapless boy in your very own home.”
‘Hapless boy’, am I?
Instinctively I moved in front of Maeve, shielding her with my own body. I didn’t really think this woman was going to attack. I’d lived my whole life with fae who relished the causingof pain, and Dora with her frilly apron and frail skin didn’t really fit the stereotype. But she was pissed at Maeve for some reason. And she did have that knife.
“Dora, could you put down the knife? You’re scaring Maeve,” Corbin said in his authoritative voice, that voice he must use whenever he wanted people to follow his instructions.
Dora’s eyes fixed on Maeve. “Spoiled little slut. Too busy fornicating to take care of these boys. She’s turning you all into rotten sinners. You were so distracted by her you nearly burned the roast.”
“It’s fine, Dora,” Rowan stood up from his chair, his soft voice barely audible from across the hall. It was the first time I’d heard the black guy speak. “I’ll take care of the roast now. You can head on home, and we’ll see you tomorrow.”
“You won’t be seeing me tomorrow.” Dora raised the knife above her head, her face twisting. “You are all sinners, and you won’t be seeing me ever again.”
I tried to probe her mind, tried to see into her thoughts and figure out who she was and what the hell she was doing in the castle. But something blocked me. It was like hitting a wall in her mind. I only ever hit that wall when another fae was already compelling a person. Their presence blocked me from entering.
Another fae…a flicker of unease probed my mind. I remembered what Daigh had said, that he would send a compelled human into the castle to kill the witches before they woke up. He probably didn’t know they were already awake, or maybe he didn’t care.
“Five on one,” I whispered to the woman in fae-tongue, knowing that the fae inside her mind would be able to see and hear me. “This isn’t going to end well for you.”
The woman raised the blade, her eyes glinting with malice as she spoke back in the language only fae spoke. “If I die here, it will be in service to my king. And I’ll be bringing at least one ofyou with me. Perhaps it will be you,traitor,” she hissed at me, then turned to the others and spoke in English. “Time to die,witches.”
CHAPTER TWO
MAEVE
Dora lunged at Blake, the knife held high and her face red with rage.
No.
I didn’t have time to think, to weigh up distance and timing the way Arthur had taught me. I saw that blade slice through the air as Dora propelled herself across the room and I hurled myself into its path.
