“May…” he groaned, voice full of warning.
I pulled my mouth from his just enough to smile and say, “Ohhh, so itisn’ta knife against your throat, then…”
The hand that had been holding him upright against the bedrail dropped to my waist, pulling me into him, and then we were falling. I hit the mattress first and he threw one arm out so as not to crush me, but the lack of contact sent me into a spiral. Seizing the front of his shirt, I dropped my legs open and let him sink on top of me.
“Is this the wine or the magyk?” he asked with his lips half-pressed against my neck and one hand roaming up my thigh.
“Both,” I gasped as his hips ground into mine.
“Then…then I should stop…”
“Don’t you dare!” My fingers tightened in his hair and dug into the corded muscle of his shoulders. But when he moved down from my neck, I lost all sense of time and place, all sense of myself, and apparently…all sense of him too.
As his teeth sunk into the top of my breast, I moaned Will’s name, and everything froze. It took me several seconds to push through my haze and fully realize what I’d done, but Devil was already staggering away from the bed. My walls of shadow crumbled around us, his stars flickered out one-by-one, and the too-bright moonlight streamed in.
“Devil,” I whispered, nearly choking on his name. “I didn’t mean–”
He just stumbled toward the archway and muttered, “No…no…it was more than—I shouldn’t have…”
Before I could do anything but lift my hand, he was gone over the edge of the balcony. The only sign of him having ever been there was a lone firefly, drifting lazily in and out of the woodbine above my head. A soft sound came from the stairs outside my room, forestalling my breakdown and I got up to investigate on shaking legs. I found Sir Toby out on the landing, all three of his noses pressed anxiously to the bottom of my door.
“Oh, you are a godsend, aren’t you?” I whispered, stepping back and ushering the hound inside. He leapt onto my bed and sniffed around for a few moments, then let out a loud huff and dropped onto his belly. I fell beside him, scrubbing my hands over my face and groaning.
“Am I the biggest fool in all the world, or just the Arden?” I asked, but he only moved his closest head to rest on my hip and gazed up at me with six droopy eyes. “What, can’t you speak like Lord Balthazar?”
Sir Toby just whined.
“That’s alright,” I sighed, “I think I’ve had my fill of men talking anyway.”
Chapter thirty-two
Tea & Travels
The moment sunlight hitmy eyes, I was flooded with regret for every decision I had ever made, but most keenly, the decision to drink so much faerie wine. Clearly, my half-human body could not handle the substance. Sifting through the clutter of my enhanced emotions, I checked to see if that regret extended to kissing Devil. It most assuredly did, and I wondered if he was feeling the same way. Doubtful, I decided, since he did not seem to possess an ounce of decency. Listening to me moan another man’s name in his ear was going to be the least of his worries when I saw him next.
He was drunk too, said the tiny voice at the back of my mind,and you kissed him first.I shook it away and ran my hand over Sir Toby’s soft flank. Between the splitting headache and gut-wrenching shame, getting out of bed seemed nearly impossible, so I let myself drift in and out of sleep again until Ceres appeared at my door with a breakfast tray. If she knew, or even suspected, where I’d been, she said nothing, even when I pushed the blankets back to reveal that I was clearly wearing the same dress as the day before. Humming quietly to herself, she got my fire going and filled the kettle, then produced a large, dark rain cloud for me to bathe under.
“Lord Oberon will be absent the next few days,” she finally said in a subdued voice. “He asked me to send his apologies, and would also like for you to continue having a few lessons with Simeon in the library. Besides that, you are free to go about the Arden as you please, he said, so long as you…do not return to the Hollow…”
“Of course,” I muttered, picking at the biscuits on my breakfast plate. Ceres cleared her throat and I looked up to see her twisting the corner of her sky-blue apron.
“I know you were there last night,” she whispered. “In the Hollow. You didn’t happen to…see my son and grandchildren, did you?”
In my muddled state, it took me a few moments to realize. “Larch?” I asked. “Larch is your son? Myrtle and Vale’s father?”
Ceres nodded, her big, brown eyes glassy with tears.
“Yes, they were there last night, but…surely you see them often, don’t you?”
“The Hollow is quite far for me,” she mumbled, “without the gift to travel quickly, and Larch certainly can’t bring the children here.”
“Because of Titania…”
Ceres nodded again, and a bitter flame flared to life in my belly.
“How can she keep her own people trapped that way?” I cried. “They’re just children, for goodness sake!”
“Oh, I didn’t mean to…” Ceres trailed off, shaking her head. “I only wanted to make sure they’re doing well.”
