The evil fairy.She had that right, and she barely knew the half of it. I wasn’t really sure I wanted to see Daigh again.
A sliver of hope worked its way into my chest.Liah.Maybe I’d be able to get Daigh to talk about her. Even though she was trying to destroy all humans, I still wanted to know she was okay. At the church, Liah could have shot me right through the chest, but she hesitated. She told Daigh it was so that Maeve wouldn’t hate him, but that seemed weak reasoning to me considering Maeve had already made her feelings about Daigh clear.
Maybe she lied. Maybe there was still a way I could reach Liah.
The group split up. Rowan went to the kitchen for his nighttime tea ritual. Aline trailed after him, holding up the hem of Rowan’s jeans so they wouldn’t slide down her narrow hips. Flynn and Corbin both gave Maeve long, lingering kisses. Arthur came over and held his arms out. “You want a lift up to bed?”
She shook her head, squeezing my knee, her fingers sliding along my thigh and springing my cock to life. “Not tonight. It’s weird while Aline is here, you know.”
“Sure.” He wrapped his arms around her, pressing his lips to the top of her head. “Sweet dreams, Einstein.”
Arthur’s words sent a shiver through Maeve’s body, but her face said it wasn’t one of pleasure. Of course, the dream. She’d been having it more and more often.
A sickening thought occured to me as I watched her slink up the stairs. What if she’d snuck in a nap while I was busy being a guerilla artist? What if she’d seen whose body was on the sixth stake, and she knew I’d been hiding it from her? What if that’s why she’d been keeping me close by her tonight?
I sprinted up the stairs after Maeve.
“Hey Princess,” I whispered in her ear. “You fancy some company tonight?”
She smiled. “I was hoping you’d be keen, but fair warning – I’m probably just going to fall asleep in your armpit.”
I lifted my arm to display my pit proudly. “Consider it yours.”
We climbed to the first floor together, my heart racing. In her bathroom under the curving staircase up to her bedroom, Maeve handed a bulk pack of toothbrushes. “Choose one,” she insisted, elbowing me as she spat her own paste in the sink. “I want you guys to have what you need in here.”
I took a black one and pulled it to my lips. Maeve watched me smear the paste across my teeth, rubbing it in the with brush the way Flynn had taught me. “That’s way too much pressure. Try in circles, like this.” She demonstrated and I copied. “Atta boy. Now you don’t have that fae magic keeping you young and handsome, you want to keep this up twice a day, or you’ll end up at the dentist. And if you think Daigh’s torture was bad, wait until you need a root canal.”
I rubbed my chin, where a few days of stubble had grown in. “At least I haven’t slit my throat shaving yet. There were a few hairy moments there, haha.”
“Urgh, that’s a horrible pun. You’ve been spending too much time with Flynn.” Maeve ran her hand along my jaw, her touch searing my skin. “I like it like this. It makes look dangerous.”
“Iamdangerous.”
She flicked my ear. “Of course you are, cutie. Just don’t go full-on beard. I don’t think Arthur could handle the competition.”
After we finished our teeth, we climbed the stairs to her bedroom. I inspected the stack of science books on Maeve’s desk while she tossed her clothes off and settled into her bed. She rubbed her eyes. “I keep having the dream,” she said. “The oneyou showed me, with Briarwood in ruins and the burned bodies and the six stakes.”
“I know.” I pulled off my own clothes and slid in beside her, copping a look at her naked body, sinuous and languid, ripe for picking.
“You know?”
“When you have it, Princess, so do I.”
“Shit, I’m sorry.” Maeve lifted her neck so I could slide my arm behind her head. Her warm body relaxed against mine. “I don’t want you to have to live through that nightmare ever again.”
“I’m not afraid of a dream.”
“I am. I’m afraid it’s really some kind of premonition, even though I don’t believe in premonitions. I’m afraid that I’m looking at the deaths of five people I love most in the world, and I can’t do anything to stop them. I’m afraid that I can’t see the sixth body on the stakes. Have you seen it?” Her eyes narrowed. “Can you tell me who it is?”
The five people I love most in the world.My heart pounded.Did she… include me in that list?
Should I tell her?Maeve had made it clear she didn’t want any secrets. I was pretty sure this counted as a secret. By keeping it I was disobeying her direct orders.
The sixth stake flashed in front of my eyes, and I set my resolve.She’s strong, but she’s not strong enough for this. It will break her. Arthur and Corbin will protect her body. I have to protect her mind.
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. Either you’re right and it’s not a premonition, or it is a premonition, in which case there’s no way we can change it.”
She stroked my cheek. “Do you think it’s some kind of fae magic planted by Daigh?”
