I’d know.
No, something else happened. And patience is not my strongest emotion.
“You’re staring,” Finnian says.
“You’re covered in blood.”
“Valid observation.”
“Whose?”
“People who deserved it.” A pause. “Mostly.”
“Mostly.” Kieran, from behind us. Dry enough to start a fire.
“I’m workshopping my moral flexibility. It’s a process.”
Orion snorts. “Scholar killed people and now he’s got jokes.”
“I’ve always had jokes. You simply lack the education to appreciate them.”
“Big words from a man who tripped over a root a month ago.”
“That root moved.”
“The root did not move.” Kieran.
“Roots move in this forest all the time.” Finnian.
“Not that one.” Kieran again.
The banter wraps around me like a blanket made of bickering. I let it. Their voices layering over each other the way they do when no one’s performing for an audience. Just the four of us in a Dark Forest and the sound of men who would die for each other pretending they wouldn’t.
Steam hits my face before I see the water. Sulfur and minerals and something floral that belongs to the Wild Court. The spring sits tucked into a rock formation, natural stone worn smooth by centuries of water. Big enough for a group.
Which is honestly absolutely perfect.
“Ladies first.” Orion grins.
I cross my arms. “You just want a strip tease.”
“I am but a Fae.” Orion holds up his hands with a crooked smirk. “A very horny Fae man, now turn around.”
I don’t move. Honestly I want to poke him a little. I want to get out this weird aggression still lingering inside of me. I want to fight him. And my god, I want him to chase me down and rip my clothes off. I don’t want to strip.
“Ash, I have literally carried you naked?—”
I pinch the bridge of my nose because I have no patience to explain what I need right now. Now like it’s that hard.
I just want them to steal my name from my breath and make me see stars.
“Turn. Around.”
I turn away from them and strip.
As I touch a toes to the surface, watching it ripple, I see the reflection looking back at me. At the woman who is now me.
The Fae looking back at me has flowers growing out of her collarbones. Kind of. More like a living tattoo that can detach from my skin. Flowers that, twenty minutes ago, dissolved a man’s body into the earth. Very poisonous flowers.
