“Don’t be ridiculous,” I tell her. “I would never survive an annus. How would I eat?”
She rolls her eyes and swings her thumb over her shoulder at the crocodile. “He wants to know if you can send him back to the ocean.”
I raise a brow at Mr. Tick. “Couldn’t find your offensive fairy?”
He emits a low growl. “I found her fine, but vengeance isn’t all it’s promised to be.”
“It never is,” Gwyneth advises.
“Why do you want to go back?” He seemed pretty adamant that he should be on land, not in water.
“Down there, I am someone. I have respect, riches, and admiration. I have an empire, friends, and property. Here, I am nothing and have nothing.”
My chest tightens for him. I can understand the pain of being a nobody, as it’s what I have been most of my life until I came here and got caught in the knights’ tangled web. Now, I would fight to stay here.
“I don’t know how to send you back. I’m sorry.”
Mr. Tick sighs. “Could you at least try? I feel flat, dull, and lifeless here.”
“Nobody but us can go inside our chambers,” Nash says. “We spelled it that way, and I’m not willing to widen the net.”
“Let’s meet in the library,” Gwyneth declares. “There’s more space, more knowledge, and few folks actually grace the room.”
“With the trident?” Mr. Tick asks.
“Sure,” I answer.
“No,” the knights counter.
I fold my arms. “My trident, my rules. It’s not like anyone can even hold it. So what’s your worry?”
Nash’s nostrils flare as he narrows his eyes. “Fine.”
Gwyneth leads Mr. Tick, Hart, Theo, and Malachi to the library, while Nash accompanies me to their chambers. Well, he leads the way, given I still have zero sense of direction in the warrens that connect the rooms in this castle.
Something tugs in my chest as we get closer. The sword, I believe, is calling to me. A stark reminder of my duty and how I am bound to it.
Nash never lets go of my hand as he storms ahead. He throws open the door to their chambers, tugs me inside, and slams it closed before pushing me against it and pinning my arms above my head with one hand. He runs his nose from my ear down along my jaw and ghosts his lips over mine, making them tingle.
“Tell me what Hart did,” he growls low.
I blink. Hart? I don’t think he did anything... oh. Oh shit. I swallow against the tight knot in my throat. “He tasted me, much like you had the previous sundown.” Albeit, Hart was less gentle.
“Did he lay you down on a bed and kiss you sweetly?” Nash murmurs as his teeth scrape across the delicate flesh of my throat. He hovers around the pulse, which thunders against his lips.
“No, he stripped me bare and made me stand.”
“Then?”
“Then I did the same to him.”
Nash sucks in a breath and pushes his knee between my legs. His thigh puts pressure on the place I need him the most. “Did you bring him to orgasm, Daphne?”
“Yes,” I reply as he grinds his thigh in a slow circle, making my eyes roll in the back of my head.
“Did you swallow him down?” he growls.
Heat flashes down my spine. “Yes.”
