“Like most of Mister Scarlett’s accomplishments, that is meaningless, since I am not a man at all,” Devil replied casually.
“Well, Idoknow that to be true,” I laughed derisively. “Real men possess, at the very least, a spine or a cock, and I’ve seen no evidence of either on you.”
That elicited the loudest response yet, from the rest of the clearing and from Devil himself, who threw his head back and barked a laugh. But when he pinned his gaze on me again, it was near-feral. His tongue flicked across his lips and he drank my face in with that hungry gaze I found so incredibly off-putting. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he actually enjoyed it when I insulted him.
He moved in close enough so only I could hear him and murmured, “Whatever evidence Your Highness requires, I shall happily provide. I am, after all,every inchyour servant.”
“I doubt anyinchof your cobbled-together, defective form can stiffen without a knife pressed against your throat,” I sneered in reply. Devil laughed again, then lifted one of my hands and draped it over his shoulder, held my other up, and pulled me close to him by my waist.
“Play on, Aliena!” he called again, without taking his eyes off me. “To celebrate May’s stirring victory in our battle of witless insults.” The persistent, airy buzz of faerie wine had settled back into me now, and I hardly even cared when Devil began to spin me around the clearing to the tune of a new, slower song.
“You really are horrible,” I told him. “A true gentleman would ask first.”
“May I have this dance, princess?”
“No,” I snapped, though I did not try to pull away from him.
“But I thought you wished to spite me.”
“It is my fondest desire, yes.”
“May,” he said in mock-seriousness, “your reluctance to dance has cut me to the quick. You cannot continue treating me this way. Dance with me willingly, or not at all.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “In that case, you should know it is the song which offends me, and not you. I would not have agreed to dance to a love song.”
“Well, then you shall be pleased to hear that this is no love song.”
I listened for a moment, but realized Aliena was singing in the fay language. I could not understand a single word. “What sort of song is it, then?”
Devil leaned in close, his hot breath sliding beneath the collar of my dress as he translated the lyrics.
“In joyfulness or dread,
on the grass or in the bed,
by the rope or by the vine,
‘til every inch of you is mine…”
Searing bolts of heat cut straight through me, bringing with them a deluge of the unholiest feelings I’d ever experienced. Whether it was the wine, or my new magyk, or the words he’d whispered in my ear, I couldn’t be sure. But everything about him suddenly set me on fire, from the slightly crooked curve of his mouth, to the way his hand gripped my waist. For the first time, I noticed his scent. Not just the faint tang of magyk that hung around him, but the smell of his body itself—copper and earth, edged with the musk of woodsmoke. I inhaled reflexively. My fingers slid through the mess of red-gold curls on the side of his neck, and I became hyper-aware of the taught muscles shifting beneath my arm. Far too late, I wondered if fay senses were capable of detecting arousal, because his breath hitched and his brow furrowed.
Somehow, I knew that if he finished the next verse of the song, I would be done for. So I closed my eyes, wrenched my body out of his grip, and walked away.
Chapter thirty-one
Right & Wrong
Thankfully, Devil did nottry to chase after me, and I sank into the grass at Arachne’s feet, hands trembling.
“Tsk tsk,” said the spider woman. “Too much wine and ye cannae even finish a dance. Certainly no credit to your father. Immune to faerie wine, I swear that man was.” I tried to focus on her strange face in order to distract from the hornet’s nest of feelings Devil had kicked wide open inside me.
“Did he like living here?” I asked.
“What wasn’t to like?” Arachne said with a shrug. “A peaceful, abundant forest and a beautiful, adoring faerie wife.”
“So…why did he leave?”
Bitterness flooded me, knocking aside the indulgent feeling of desire from only minutes before. It was an empty, cold sensation, and I suddenly wanted to be near Devil’s warmth again. He was sitting on the opposite side of the clearing with Jon and Larch now, another cup of wine in hand, but his eyes were pinned on me, like always.
