I swirled the dregs of cider in my wooden cup, then grinned at her. “How much do you think he can teach me in nine days?”
“I’m not sure,” Aliena chuckled, “but I can’t wait to find out.”
For the rest of the night, her words danced around in the back of my mind. Even though banishing the Rot should have been my priority, I wanted to be able to use my magyk in other ways that might be helpful too. Since Antenor’s attack, and our brush with the Unseelie fay, my feelings of helplessness had only increased, and I hated it. I hated that I couldn’t protect the people I cared about, despite carrying such a powerful weapon inside me. By the time supper was over, and Ceres brought out an enormous bowl of sweet cream topped with forest berries, I knew what I needed to do. Now, I just had to convince Devil.
While everyone else laughed and sang and shouted at each other after dessert, I pulled out a tiny tendril of shadow and attempted to sharpen it into a point like I’d seen Oberon do. But the several minutes I spent attempting to spear a large hunk of leftover pie crust were wasted. Every time my shadows hit something solid, they went straight through. Even though I’d avoided the faerie wine Jon produced for everyone to drink, a surge of violent anger overtook me and I flicked the pie crust off the table. Devil, who had been sitting with his arm around the back of my chair, talking quietly with Larch, leaned his head toward me.
“What offense has the innocent crust caused you, my princess?”
“It is my magyk that offends,” I huffed. “It will not obey me.”
“Hmm,” he mused, angling his body so our legs pressed together, “perhaps it wants something of you before doing your bidding.”
“What does that mean?”
“Our giftsdohave minds of their own, May. They are not mere tools or servants, but extensions of the Arden, of the Huntress, and of ourselves. Sometimes, gifts can demand things of their wielder too, just like your healing gift saps your physical strength.”
I held up my hands and let out a few more tendrils. “What could my Shadowspinning…want?”
“Would you like me to help you find out?” Devil asked, his breath brushing against my neck in a way that made me shiver.
“Yes.” I turned my head and watched his expression change when our eyes met—awed, as if he still could not believe I was real. “If Oberon will not teach me how to turn this power into a weapon, then you must. I refuse to be defenseless in the face of another attack.”
“As you wish, Mayhem.” He tilted his head to kiss the top of my shoulder, then ran his fingers along my arm to cup my hand. When I let out a soft cloud of shadows, he released a dozen pinpricks of light to adorn it. They twisted and danced together in the air, like smoke and sparks coming off a bonfire.
“Your sky and my stars…” he murmured.
I did not reply, just intertwined my fingers with his and squeezed gently.
When the moon hovered directly overhead, Larch declared that it was finally bedtime for Myrtle and Vale, so he and Ceres gathered them up to begin walking home. Aliena and Will washed plates in the creek and I dried them with a clean rag, while Devil and Jon moved the table back into the cottage. When all our clean-up was finished, I looked around for Devil and noticed him waiting for me alone at the edge of the clearing.
“Come home with me,” he said once we were standing face-to-face.
“To what end?” I asked, searching his face for the answer I knew he wouldn’t say.
“So your kiss might be the first thing I taste when I wake up.” He cupped my face in one hand as he said it, and I very nearly gave in right then and there.
“And absolutely no other reason?” I asked instead.
“None whatsoever. On my honor.”
“Hardly a promise, given how little honor you possess.”
Devil’s grin just widened. “I am as close to a liar as a faerie can be, and feel no remorse for it. You must brand me a lost cause—irredeemable—and pass judgement on me yourself.”
“Hmm…” I moved closer and leaned against him, threading our fingers together. “In order to offset your duplicity, you must tell me something painfully,terriblytrue.”
He brushed a finger along my cheek, then leaned in to kiss the sensitive skin beneath my ear. “I love you,” he whispered. “That is the only truth I have ever known, or ever will know.”
“No,” I breathed. “It must be something new, something you have never told anyone else before. Not even me.”
His rumble of a laugh tickled my neck, making me squirm. “Very well. I love you, May, and so I would die a thousand deaths to see you safe and happy…but I would also suffer an eternity of torments to spend just one night in your arms. I would fetter myself in iron to feel you move against me while you sleep, and tear the skin off my bones to hear you—”
I went up on my toes and silenced him with a deep kiss, encircling his neck with my arms. He lifted me off the ground with one arm as his fingers tangled into my hair, but I broke contact before either of us could get carried away. He slowly lowered me back onto my feet, keeping his arms around my waist, and I swept some of the copper curls out of his eyes.
“Must you be so dramatic with your words all the time? This isn’t a storybook, you know.”
“Isn’t it?” he asked. “Well, perhaps you make it feel like one…”
