“Maybe our source was just mistaken.” I lifted a shoulder, fighting the urge to sneeze. This land was not for me. I much preferred Fergus’s territory. Even Lyndoruun seemed more my speed. There was just way too much pollen constantly in the air here.
“And you still can’t tell me who your source is?” Ada asked. Liam and Audrey shook their heads, and I felt a rush of relief over the fact that Ada didn’t seem to push them for more. She trusted my friends; I trusted her.
“Hmm.” Ada pressed her lips together in thought. She wasn’t dressed in a formal gown this time; she wore what looked like a fancy matching pale green lounge set. Her blonde hair was thrown up in a top knot on her head, and I had a feeling that she dressed this way when she was “off the clock,” so to speak. “Perhaps I can—” A distressed masculine shout halted whatever she was about to suggest, and all four of us turned toward the castle half a football field away.
There was a short but heavy silence, and then a crash through a window. Several fae guards emerged from their posts around the courtyard and started to charge the castle.
“What is happening?—”
“Stay with the human, Audrey,” Ada’s tone hardened, her transparent wings struck out of her body in what looked like a defensive position, before she hovered in the air. “Liam, you’re with me.” Without another word, Liam summoned his personal sword with his fae magic again, before clapping a palm on Audrey’s shoulder.
Then the two fae were gone, and Audrey and I were left alone.
“When I tell you to run…” Audrey slid her hazel eyes over to me, right when the last of the suns light became swallowed by the night sky. “You run.” I nodded, not needing to be told twice. A twig snapped nearby, and arrows ended up in the chests of the nearest fae guards who stuck around in the courtyard. Their large bodies dropped.
“They must be stunning them with a poisonous herb on the arrows,” Audrey murmured, “That’s the only reason they’d drop immediately.” Right, I remembered how unaffected Drustan was when I stabbed him in the kidney. Made sense that a thin arrow in the chest wouldn’t be that big of a deal to the average Hyvenmerian. We still didn’t know whotheywere, though.
A twig snapped in the distance, and soon three figures were storming out of the Dahl family castle. Audrey braced herself before jogging after them. She didn’t tell me to run, so I awkwardly followed her a moment later.
“Stop!” Audrey demanded with a grasp of her hand. The foliage of Ada’s garden responded, erupting from the earth and twirling around the three figures. Two of them became suspended in the air, and I almost tripped over myself when I recognized the faces of Sergei and Leon grunting around their environmental restraints.
The third figure, though, sliced through the foliage with a blade before throwing it at Audrey. The blade struck through Audrey’s shoulder, making her shout and stumble to her knees. The foliage released Sergei and Leon, and soon all three started approaching.
When Hush stepped into the moonlight, revealing that she was the one who struck Audrey with the knife, I panicked.
Hush was a double agent, I reminded myself; she was playing a role right now.
“Halfling,” Leon spat, shouldering a bag with a sneer.
Audrey turned over her injured shoulder, which she grasped with her good hand, meeting my eyes.
“Run. Hide,” she ordered.
She was right. I was probably mostly useless here. I turned on my heel, not loving the fact that I heard footsteps coming after me. When I glanced over my shoulder, I widened my eyes in fear when I saw Hush following me.
“Fuck me,” I gasped, turning a corner and running into a wall.
Nope, not a wall, a person. A person whose spicy scent I recognized all too well.
“Only if you ask nicely,” Drustan purred, clasping his hands on my biceps to keep me from stumbling away from him.
“Your highness,” Hush’s voice cooed behind me. I threw her the most annoyed look I could create over my shoulder, before being pulled into Drustan’s body again.
“What errand has my father sent you on this time?” Drustan asked Hush. I tried to force my thoughts into another direction, locking my eyes on a flowery plant next to us.Flowers, flowers, flowers, Audrey, flowers.
“That I cannot say until we return to the king himself, I’m afraid,” Hush replied. “Are we taking the human with us?”
“No,” I replied at the same time Drustan said, “Maybe.” I kicked him, getting his shin with my sneaker. Instead of reacting in pain, he tucked a hand underneath my chin and tilted my face up toward him.
“Will you come with me now, my song?” he asked with a warm, seductive tone. I frowned at the endearment and tried to shake my head out of his grasp, but he held strong. I could already feel his sinndra start to take effect. My body was struggling less and less against him. Warming up to his body heat. Molding against his dark leather militia outfit, so similarto what the other sirens wore. His scent made me instinctively inhale several lungsful of it, and I started to panic in his hold.
“Are you and your unit ready to leave?” Drustan asked Hush, keeping his eyes on me. I shouted in irritation before finally leaning up toward him. Surprise coated Drustan’s expression as I latched my mouth to his.
It wasn’t a kiss; it was an attack. Both of my arms were pinned against myself. My mouth was all I had to use. I bit my teeth into the skin of his bottom lip as hard as I could, ignoring how the taste of him sent my core buzzing with want. I just needed to hurt him, not become subdued with his weaponized sinndra.
Drustan groaned, leaning into my bite, pressing me against his front.
His erection against my hip made my thighs clench, and I hated myself.
