Page 24 of Horns & Heart
“I—so I didn’t kill anyone?”
I had to make sure.I wanted it to be true so badly.The guilt had been eating at me.It had lived and fed and grown in my heart, and grown even stronger for the fact that I couldn’t tell anyone about it.
Vergis shrugged rather than absolving me outright, his midnight dark horns gleaming.“You gave whoever is behind this access to a lot of sacrificial power.It’s possible they’d have taken every human they needed for their spell if your wish had been different.I can’t be sure.”
Inkiri drew me with him to the mattress pile.The carpets had been covered with a large tablecloth, and I could see three more mugs sitting there beside the one Fellisse had been drinking from.Tables were a no, then.That was a good thing.I was pretty sure I’d lost most of my table manners over the past two years.
Inkiri sat on my right, while Lissir folded his legs under himself on my left.Inkiri got all touchy-feely and started clicking at me as soon as he put his arm around me.These clicks were about an octave below what I was used to by now.
“Used to” was relative, of course, since the blue guy trying to be my mate had only come into my life, sword flashing, yesterday.All we’d had, if you looked at the facts, was an awkward one-night stand.
Still, I found myself leaning against him.There was something undeniably comforting about knowing he was here with me.Stroking my back gently and giving me comfort in his own way.
I swallowed tightly.“Can we bring them back?”
I rolled the jar of fine black ash between my palms.I wasn’t sure why I even asked again.Maybe because now, I really believed in magic.
Vergis snorted.“No.I told you that.”
“But you said… I don’t understand half of what you said.If it was my wish, can’t I bring them back?Wish them back?”
He cocked his head.“No.Magic is uncompromising.And you wishing for anything won’t make a difference either way.They were never your sacrifices, and the spell was never yours.All you were was a gateway through which someone else got access to all that power.”
Lissir had been eyeing me and Inkiri all this time, but he looked up at that.“Wait.When we first came here, we didn’t think we would find humans who could do magic.But now what you’re saying is that someone from the human side used Rory to sacrifice all those humans.You think they did it to meld the worlds.Is that it?”
Vergis crossed his arms.“Maybe.It’s a theory.We should go to the Hill of Tara, check out the Stone of Destiny.”
Lissir stood and rounded on Vergis.“I’ve been watching you for a while.You’re not speaking your thoughts, Vergis.”
“I do not want Rory to travel right now,” Inkiri said.“He’s so frail.”He followed that up by clicking at me; more a low rumble than the normal, soothing clicks.
Nokim came in with a tray of food and drinks and handed me what looked exactly like what I’d asked for.I put the ash jar on the floor and took the mug he offered, then sipped.I tasted honey and almond milk—something I hadn’t had in so long.I didn’t want to give this up again, but I still felt guilty.
I held the mug in both hands, letting the warmth of it sink into my palms.“I survived monsters on my own out there, but…”
I stared at the coffee in my mug.It was always the little things that got you, the things you took for granted until they were ripped away from you.What if I could wake up every morning and find coffee like this waiting for me?And food too?What if I could sleep like I had slept last night, deeply and without waking from imagined sounds, minus Vergis bursting into the bedroom?
Inkiri looked at me.“Rory?—"
“I think you’re right.I am frail.Maybe I shouldn’t travel.”I turned cabbage red as I sold myself into domestic mate-dom, but why in the fuck wouldn’t I?Inkiri was pretty chill for a horned monster, and if he didn’t start flipping his moods on a coin toss, this was actually going to be fine.I could learn to be happy with him and his weird cock.His rough tongue wasn’t bad at all.
I suddenly felt determined, like back when I’d seen the cute cat socks and decided to go get them.Yes, I would let this monster ravish me and let his buddy make me coffee every morning after, and I would ignore how he and his friends didn’t understand human anatomy.
I was already looking forward to the ravishing.As it turned out, I was a goddamn closeted pillow queen and former virgin, and I just had to be honest with myself about these things, embrace them.I should maybe tell Inkiri as well since he was going to have to do all the heavy lifting.Or deep thrusting.I wasn’t sure how that part was going to work out yet, but work it would.
I didn’t want to talk about magic ever again, I never wanted to see black ash from here on out, and I was going to swear to them all that I was way too frail to go back to the Stone of Destiny.I’d learn to faint on cue to drive the point home if that was what it took.
Yes, I would totally swipe right on a monster and use all my manly wiles on him to get my happily ever after.
I looked up at Inkiri.“Please don’t make me go?”I was maybe overacting, but they’d only ever cast me to be a fucking tree, so what did I know.
Inkiri pulled me closer and ran his tongue over the side of my throat before he said, “Of course not, Sadir.Nothing you don’t want.”
Being mated wasn’t so bad after all.
