It would make Fallon’s forgiveness all the more beautiful when it came, knowing what we were able to overcome when we were together.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said as I pulled the key to my room from my pocket. The space behind my bedroom door was too quiet as I stepped up to it, pausing to listen for any activity. Fallon had seemed to settle, the sounds of her rage no longer heard from the hallway. I inserted the key and turned it, waiting for Fallon to react to the sound of my return. It seemed to echo through the halls, bouncing off the stone in the otherwise silent space. “Better let me go first,” I said, motioning Eryx back.
He raised his hands, backing to the other side of the hall as if he greatly feared the woman that waited for me on the other side.
I couldn’t even say I blamed him.
With a deep breath, I steeled myself for whatever attack may wait on the other side. Pushing the door open quickly in case she might be waiting just on the other side, I winced when the door bounced off the wall as it flung open fully without obstruction.
Fallon stood before the daybed, her chest heaving with exertion. Her fingers bled, the tips rubbed raw and scraped, and my gaze dropped to them immediately. The scent of her blood flooded my nostrils, stealing over my senses and bringing temptation to the surface. She may not have been my mate, her skin solely marked with the color of the Shadow Court, inky trails of darkness winding up her arms to indicate that her mate was likely a human, but that didn’t stop my desire.
“Fallon…” I said, my voice trailing off. I was proud of the concern that laced the tone, at the worry over her injuries and what she might have done to herself in my absence, and how it superseded the violence simmering in my blood for her one-day mate, whom I would murder the moment she spoke of him.
She screamed, turning and grabbing the heavy vase from the bedside table. I barely had time to duck before she hauled off, twisting her entire body with the force of her throw. It soared over my head, crashing against the opposite wall in the hallway just beside Eryx’s shoulder. The God turned to look in shock at the impression it had made on the stone, his face twisting into a scowl as I followed his stare. Confusion knitted my brow as I considered the strength required to damagethe porous surface. The vase had been crystalline, meaning it should have merely shattered on impact.
Instead…
I swallowed, spinning as Eryx’s eyes widened when he turned back to face me. I shifted to Fallon, the blur of her form launching at me in anger. I caught her up in my arms when she was airborne, ducking my head as she extended those bloodied fingertips from her clenched palms and aimed for my eyes. “Fallon!” I shouted, wrenching her hands off me as I twisted her in my grip. I spun her in midair, forcing her to face away from me as she struggled. It was like trying to contain a summer storm, her skin warm to the touch as if her anger heated her very blood.
It felt like trying to hold on to the sun itself.
“I willnotbe locked away like I’m your property!” she spat, weaponizing the words I’d given her in frustration. While I didn’t mean them in the truest sense of the word, I also did not intend to share her or allow her choices to bring herself harm.
Did that not equate her to something I owned, jealously hoarding and protecting her for myself like treasure?
“Would you just listen to me?” I asked, keeping my voice gentle as I wrestled her to the bed. She thrashed against it, fighting me every step of the way. She rose up onto her hands and knees, attempting to crack my nose with the back of her head. I shifted to the side in time to avoid the worst of the blow, tucking her head into the crook of my neck and pinning her with a hand to the front of her throat. She snarled, twisting, her teeth bared. “You will belong to me, but I will be yours in turn, Sunfire. All I ask is that you give us the time we need to get there,” I said, the snarl dropping off her face for a moment of confusion as she studied me. Taking advantage of her moment of stillness, I twisted her to the bed on her back, straddling her hips and pinning her arms above her head. “Eryx!”
The God came into the room at my summons, Fallon’s eyes widening as she took in the other man. “I’m not interested in a three-way today. Try again later,” she gritted out, bucking her hips as if she could dislodge me.
My own growl rose up in my throat, vibrating in my chest as Eryx grinned, looking back and forth between the two of us. “You will not touch him today. You will not touch him tomorrow. You will not touch himever,” I said, leaning toward Fallon’s face and issuing the order. “I do not fucking share.”
The little monster tipped her head to the side, smiling up at meas if she’d found my weak point and planned to use it to her every advantage. She shifted slightly, making me tense as I prepared for a fight. Instead, she raised a leg behind me, bending it at the knee and stroking her bare foot down Eryx’s hip. The God’s eyes protruded as he stifled a laugh, his deep chuckle unable to be contained as he touched the arch of her foot with a single teasing finger meant to drive me to rage.
He let his laugh loose when I reached behind me to slap his hand away, warning flashing in my eyes. “Oh, Ilikeher,” he said, earning a pleased smile from the woman I felt certain would be the end of me.
I wrapped my hand around the front of her throat, drawing her attention back to me forcefully. I nodded to the God, who stepped up beside her, staring down at Fallon in apology.
“Do it now,” I ordered, anxious to be out of this court and away from temptation. The more men tempted Fallon, the more likely I would be to commit murder and be stuck paying penance in the Shadow Court.
“Sorry, love,” Eryx said, reaching into his pocket and grasping an entire handful of sand. Fallon’s eyes flashed wide, her mouth opening with a scream as the dust fell onto her face. She silenced immediately, blinking back the grit in her eyes as the dust settled, making itself at home in her body as the fight in her limbs went limp.
“Don’t fight it,” I said, leaning forward to touch my forehead to hers. I was all too aware of the way Eryx watched the interaction, measuring the tenderness as Fallon’s sleepy eyes filled with fear. “Let me keep you safe,” I said, releasing my hold on her throat and hands now that her body was lost to the tiredness that no one could resist. Her head tipped to the side as if she couldn’t hold it up anymore, her eyes drifting closed slowly as I petted her raven hair gently.
I’d do whatever it took to keep my word to her, to protect her from even herself.
Getting her out of this place of horrors had to be my priority, not the friends she would leave behind.
“You breathe a word of what you learned today, to anyone, and you will find the water you drink poisoned. Make no mistake,” I warned Eryx, shifting Fallon into position so that I could carry her out.
He smiled, nodding his assent. “Wouldn’tdreamof it,” he said, a smirk playing at his mouth.
Fuck.
TWELVEETAN
I carried Fallon’s sleeping form out the front doors of Tar Mesa, ignoring the hushed whispers of the other courts as they watched us depart. I wished I could say it would bother me that they weren’t being permitted to leave alongside us, that I knew exactly what they thought of me as I fled the scene with Mab’s daughter in my arms.
As soon as news reached them of our impending nuptials, which would be completed the moment we arrived in Vallania, the capital of the Summer Court, they would think I’d been aware of Mab’s plans to execute Rheaghan. They’d call me a Kingslayer, a man who betrayed all sense of honor in his pursuit of power. It wouldn’t matter that it hadn’t been my intention.
