Page 126 of The Fox Heir

I think I’m going to be sick.

“Do we have a deal?” Nalina shifts her sword to one hand and holds the other out toward him to shake.

“No! You don’t!” I shove Nalina with all my strength. She barely budges. “Nalina, listen to me. You don’t know what you’re doing.” My voice is desperate, and I hate it. But right now, I have nothing to bargain with, no way out of this madness. I turn to Moribund, tugging on my chains with all my strength. “I scorched your lair, you filthy creature! Just think of what I’ll do next if you don’t let me go.”

“She’s in irons.” Nalina says evenly. She tugs my chains so hard, I nearly fall to the ground. “She has no power.”

Moribund considers us for a moment, his lips pursed in a thoughtful expression. His eyes keep drifting over my long auburn hair. In one swift movement, the fae leans forward, grabs Nalina’s wrist, and licks the length of her palm. Nalina’s eyes widen with shock at the touch of the fae’s tongue. For a brief moment, I see revulsion behind her eyes, but she recovers quickly.

Moribund releases her. “Now go, so I can play with my little fox bug first.” He steps forward, pressing his body up against me. I can’t breathe from the smell of him. His skin tremors along mine like a thousand eager fingertips. His hard length presses into my thigh, pulsing.

Nalina passes my chains to the fae.

“You can’t do this!” My voice breaks and I scream at Nalina, all of my anger coming out in a snarl. I tug and pull at the chains with all my strength, but the ancient fae is far stronger than he looks. He grins at me with hunger in his black eyes.

Nalina turns to leave, then pauses. “One last thing.”

Moribund steps back to glare at her. A low growl rumbles from his throat, all childishness gone from his voice. “I will help your silly castle when I’m through.”

Nalina nods but walks back toward me. In one swift movement, she grabs my long hair in one hand and slices her sword clean through it. I’m so shocked all I can do is stare at the long auburn strands hanging from her fist.

Moribund screams. It’s so piercing, I flinch.

Nalina grins and tosses the hair at his feet.

Moribund scrambles to the ground, trying to pick up each strand. He holds my cut hair to his chest. “You defiled my gift!”

Nalina shakes her head. “Not a gift. A trade. A deal.”

Moribund’s nostrils flare, and his black eyes pin her with a murderous glare.

It’s Nalina’s turn to grin. “I said you could have her hair. I never said you could take her body or her life.”

Moribund growls. His lips flare over sharp teeth, like a rabid dog ready to bite. “You tricked me.”

“A deal is a deal.”

“How dare you try to fool the great Moribund!” Spittle flies from his mouth in his rage.

Nalina simply shrugs. “If you allowed your lust to cloud your judgment, that’s no concern of mine.”

Moribund glares between Nalina and me, back and forth, before shoving strands of my long auburn hair beneath his loincloth. “Filthy, stinking bugs …”

Then, in a blink, he disappears.

Nalina and I stand in the darkness for several long moments. My heart is hammering, and my knees are weak.

“Is he gone?” she whispers. It’s the first indication I’ve seen that she was really, truly afraid.

“Yes.” My voice cracks on the word.

She nods once, then digs into the ankle of her boot. She withdraws an iron key and holds it out to me. Her hand is trembling.

I hold up my shackles. Nalina twists the key in the lock, and the iron clatters to the ground at our feet. We both stand there for a long, tense moment. As if remembering something, she takes my silver moth knife out from her belt and hands it to me.

“I imagine you want to kill me about now.”

I nod and take the knife, gripping it so tightly my knuckles feel ready to split open. “I understand why you did it.”