“For the love of the Goddess, put those things away, D.” He glared at his cousin until he vanished his daggers to wherever they’d come from. “Did you just threaten Talis?”
He shrugged. “It wasn’t a threat.”
I snorted. I liked Dathal too. Liked that Axel had someone as fierce as Dathal looking out for him.
“Don’t you have to get back to Nick, anyway?” Axel shot a pointed look at the door, and Dathal raised his hands, laughing. “Fine. I’ll leave you two alone.”
Axel saw him out, then came back into the kitchen, a look in his eyes that I’d started to recognise. “Are you hungry?” He gestured to the half-made meal on the worktop. “Or can you wait?”
I was actually starving, but with the way Axel’s gaze trailed down my body, there was only one answer to that question. “I can wait.”
His smile turned filthy and he sauntered towards me. “Or maybe I can give you something else to eat.” He grabbed the bulge in his joggers and I barked out a laugh. “Oh, you think that’s funny?”
“I do.”
He came closer and trailed a finger from my mouth, over my chin, and down the column of my throat. “So you don’t want to suck my cock?” He went to walk away, so I growled, grabbed his arm, and then bent down enough to hoist him over my shoulder. “Fuck’s sake, Talis,” he said, laughing against my back as I left the kitchen and headed up stairs.
I dropped him on the bed, rid him of his clothes, and sucked his cock until he came. Then I finished myself off all over his stomach.
We spent the next few days doing a variation on that. Only stopping for food and the odd walk in the forest to get some fresh air.
I’d never been happier.
Which, of course, was when Lady Sarhin decided to pay us a visit.
AXEL
“Lady Sarhin.”
“Axel.”
The back of my neck bristled. Her voice sounded… off. Whatever she’d come here to say, it wasn’t necessarily something we wanted to know.
“Talis,” she said when she entered the living room and saw him sat there. “How lovely to see you here.”
She seemed genuinely pleased to see him, so maybe it wasn’t bad news after all.
“I take it things are going well between the two of you?” She glanced at me for clarification.
“Yes,” I replied but offered nothing more. Anxiety flooded my veins. Talis must’ve sensed it because he reached for my hand, tugging me to sit down beside him. “Have the high court sent you?”
He pressed his thigh against mine in silent support.
“Not exactly.” Lady Sarhin wasn’t one to mince her words, but she seemed reluctant to have this conversation. “They have passed judgment on Gren Melhak. He’s being transported to the fae prison atAnyath, where he will serve out a sentence of thirty years for the acquirement and distribution of Blue Alhuirn and another ten for the manipulation by magical means of a fellow fae. I thought you’d like to know.”
“I see.” I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “Has he said anything about Zh’alek? Does he know he’s dead?”
Lady Sarhin’s lip curled in obvious distaste. “He has been informed of Zh’alek’s death. He found it rather amusing when he learnt that he’d come here to see you.”
Amusing?
“But no,” she continued. “He declined to answer any of our questions regarding Zh’alek.”
“When is he being transported?” I asked. I didn’t need Melhak to confirm he’d known Zh’alek when he’d tried to kill me. Zh’alek had told me enough, and I believed him. And he didn’t have the same hold over me. Maybe because I’d never seen him back then. But that said, I’d be happier when he was locked away.
“I’ll be making the arrangements as soon as I return.”
I nodded.
