“Relax, Rez. I don’t mean to scare you. It’s nothing like that,” he whispers. “I just wanted to let you know, the Queen Harpy might be deformed the next time you see her.” A slight smile rests on his face.
Say what? Deformed?
“Huh?”
“Instead of transferring the last bit of taint into the Earth when I could, I sent it to Emer’s face when she thought we were going to kiss,” he confesses.
I don’t know what to focus on first. The fact that he’s telling me that they were close enough that the Queen Harpy thought they were about to kiss, or the fact she’s now deformed, well, possibly deformed.
Fuck it. He’s here with me, in my arms, kissing me, and the Queen Harpy lost. I’m dropping it and sleeping next to my man. That’s all that matters.
“Thank you for telling me, and if I haven’t said it today, I love you,” I whisper against his chin.
“I love you too.” He kisses me deeply before holding me tighter. “Now let’s try to get some sleep.”
You don’t have to tell me twice.
CHAPTER 43
The Peppered Night Stalker
Rez
Ijerk awake, eyes wide open as I try to adjust to the darkness while I lie as still as possible.What the fuck just woke me up?
‘I did,’the voice in my head snarls.‘Get up.’
‘Why? What’s going on?’I ask, carefully crawling out of the sleeping bag and trying not to make any noise.
‘We need to hunt the hunter,’she growls, her voice deadly.
‘Ever think that you’re just over-reacting?’I ask, still following her lead since she’s never led me astray before.
‘Never. Now head north into the trees,’she orders me.
‘Away from camp?’
‘Yes!’she hisses, but I respond by rolling my eyes.
I might as well follow her lead because she’ll never shut up if I don’t. I step back away from the fire to blend into the darkness and move lightly on the balls of my feet. Even though I’m sure I’m moving as softly as possible, I probably still sound like an elephant traipsing around a living room filled with bells.
As I move, my eyes pick up something slinking behind a tree against the moonlight.
‘That’s the hunter,’the voice points out.‘Render her powerless,’she urges.
Powerless? How in the Hell do I accomplish that?
‘You will know.’
Yep, and I’m a fairy godmother. I shift around to put eyes on this so-called hunter and find nothing behind the tree.Fuck, where did it go?
‘Listen,’the voice snaps at me.
Damnit, I really wish I knew her name. Fuck it, she is now called Bitch until she gives me her name. Maybe I’ll annoy it out of her.
Another voice whispers on the edge of my mind though, and I pause to focus on it instead.
‘...she can take what’s mine. In her dreams…’The voice tapers off as if it moves out of range, and I inch around the tree, trying to stay in the dark and on the balls of my feet, to minimize my movement.
