Her gaze settled on his lips, and she leaned in slowly.
His eyes glowed brighter, his expression turning victorious.
She leaned in, her lips hovering before his as she said softly, “Not on your life.”
She withdrew, and her lips split into a wide grin as she watched him process that she had only been toying with him.
His nostrils flared.
She crossed her arms. “Honestly. I’m a daughter of high nobility. You think ordering me around would make memoreinterested?”
He looked taken aback but seemed to respect the line she had drawn.
She lightly shook her head, a small smile upon her lips.
He took her hand and slowly brought it to his lips. He kissed each of her fingers and kissed the back of her hand in a manner that bordered on obscene. He gently turned her wrist over, and she gasped as his canines pierced her skin.
The wrist was more painful than the neck, but, gods, was she rewarded. She floated, her whole body thrumming with pleasure from whatever was in his bite. Her worries and anxiety from the letters from home vanished from her thoughts. And she leaned into whatever spell he placed on her. A rush of affection for the demon in front of her encompassed her senses, and her eyes closed in bliss.
But then he stopped.
Just when she was about to demand he finish what he started, he withdrew.
He swiped her blood off his lower lip. “Until next time,Elizabeth.”
Chapter 17
Awakening
Elizabeth gripped the reins as she mounted Draugr, jaw set with determination.
Draugr walked around the paddock without incident, but when she urged him to trot by gently kneeing his sides, every step nearly threw her from the saddle. The stallion obeyed—barely—while making his displeasure known with each bone-rattling stride. He seemed determined to make the ride as bumpy and unpleasant as possible.
A squirrel darted across the field, and Draugr reared, hooves flailing in the air, before crashing down with such force that she was nearly unseated. Elizabeth was forced to lean forward in the saddle, clinging to his mane until he settled.
“I think that’s enough for today,” she muttered, dismounting.
Overhead, the clouds were dispersing, leaving behind a wide-open sky. The sunlight looked alien and made the forest and fields’ colours seem brighter and more vivid. The sun warmed her back as she led Draugr back inside.
Grudgingly, she fed him an apple, and he snorted hot breath in her face, ears perked forward with what looked suspiciously like smugness. What an evil creature. Perhaps he deserved to be given away or put down for his poor temperament.
But the day wasn’t entirely lost.
Sunlight streamed in through the stable door—the first sunny day she had seen here. Despite Draugr’s antics, the weather lifted her mood, and she saddled up Buttercup and set off, eager for a ride in the sunshine.
She led Buttercup up a game trail she found and into the foothills of a mountain. They walked as far as they could up the narrow trail, then, struck by a sudden desire to make it to the top, she dismounted and led Buttercup on foot.
The trail brought them to a glacier lake, high up in the mountains. The air grew crisp and chilly. Her cotton dress was ill-suited for the temperature, and goosebumps pebbled her skin. Rubbing her arms a little, she hitched Buttercup to a tee and went to explore.
She approached the water’s edge and was filled with a sense of wonder. The lake was filled with vibrant turquoise water. The colour was so vivid that it didn’teven look real. The lake was surrounded by pine trees that cast a green hue over it, and in the distance, mountains were capped with snow, even in the height of summer.
On a whim, she stuck her hand in the water and snatched her fingers back, yelping. The water was cold as ice.
She walked along the rocky shore and found a large boulder to sit on.
A disturbance at the far end of the turquoise water caught her attention. Small shapes with fluttering wings skimmed about the surface of the water. Elizabeth spotted three figures leaping over the waves. At first, she thought they were hummingbirds, but when she looked closer, they were tiny, humanoid creatures with wings. They were blue, hardly bigger than a hand, with wings that shimmered like starlight.
One flew upwards, corkscrewing in the air, before plunging back into the icy water.
