Page 11 of Fae Unleashed
Cerri grunted into the floor. That wasn’t very helpful, but I didn’t say that. If I did, she would spring up off the floor and remind me how unhelpful I’d been in that fight. While I’d arrived in time, Faust had gotten the drop on her because I hadn’t been there to stop him in time.
My princess didn’t bring that up, though. Instead, she said:
“I’m fine. I’m more worried about you.”
My heart clenched. The beast in me purred with joy. I pushed it back, but that did little to change the flutter in my chest.
“Why would you say that?” I stayed where I was with the kitchen island between us. It was safer that way.
Cerri rolled over and sat up. The way she studied me made me think she was looking for answers that she knew I wouldn’t say out loud. In the end, she shook her head.
“Don’t worry about it. Faust didn’t do anything I wasn’t already used to.” She touched her cheek and the faint purple bruises disappeared. With a sigh she continued, “I wish I’d known how to do that when Alvin cut me open.”
Once more, I wanted to go kill a dead man.
I had to change the subject before my beast’s anger got the better of me. “Are you ready to meet Lady Ostara tomorrow?”
Cerri’s face brightened with anticipation.
5
CERRI
Inever expected to find myself in Taliesin’s home, much less his grand walk-in closet. I gaped at the expansive room and the swaths of fabric roiling out of the shelves. How did a man who worked at a deli afford all this?
The answer was that Tal worked at the deli forfun. Rhoan explained just how long Tal had been alive. In that time, Tal had amassed a fortune stable enough to live off of for the rest of his immortal life. I was reminded of Vi’s vampire friend, Luca.
When I arrived on Tal’s doorstep in an oversized t-shirt and bike shorts, he’d clicked his tongue in disappointment before yanking me inside. Rhoan had struggled to keep up when Tal dragged me up to the walk-in closet. The noble fae warned that Lady Ostara wouldn’t take us seriously if we showed up in mortal clothes, let alone such frumpy mortal attire.
I’d almost pouted. My dreams had kept me up all night, and the shirt was comfortable. It also hid the fact that I didn’t look like most other Seelie fae, with my big breasts and the cursed tattoo spreading over my shoulder.
However, trying on dress after dress was enough to distract me from the lingering dreams still haunting me. I wasn’t dying in my dreams anymore, proving that Beryl had run out of alternate versions of me to kill. I hated to tell Addie that there was no point in fixing my timelines anymore.
I was the only one left.
And that was only part of why my dreams were haunting. Every time I fell asleep, I found myself in the halls of the Seelie castle. The evidence of the spreading blight on my arcana was reflected all across the castle. Gentle fountains turned into gargoyles. The red stain on the garden had spread. It’d nearly consumed every green thing in the realm.
For now, I could take joy in the gauzy layers of fabric. Silk slid across my skin and made my breath hitch. The experience was almost sensual. All the while, I could feel Rhoan’s gaze on me. For the first time, he couldn’t take his eyes off me, and I was reveling in the attention.
Tal picked out a sage green gown that ran dangerously low in the front. The draped fabric barely contained my new breasts. If I could stop snacking when I was stressed, then they would go back to normal. However, my stress seemed unending.
My body had changed irrevocably in the past months. It wasn’t just the scars. I wore them with pride now. The fae could look upon them and understand what they’d forced me to endure. The shape of my body worried me, though.
“Do…do I look toomortal?” I met Rhoan’s gaze in the mirror before me.
His lips parted. The slight tilt of his head told me that he wanted to shake it. There was a reverence on his face that I wanted to see more often. That was how one should look at their queen. That was howRhoanshould look atme.
Tal cut in. “I will admit that Lady Ostara has some very rigid ideas of how a fae should look, and you don’t quite fit those at the moment. That’s where the dress comes in. We’re trying to…cover up the parts that don’t quite fit.”
I grabbed the flimsy bits of fabric covering my chest and pulled them closed. “If that was the case then why did you pick something cut down to my belly button?”
Tal gave me a flat, unimpressed look.
“You are not the princess we hoped for,” Feri said. “However, we’re doing what we can with what we have.”
“Don’t give me that!” I held my breasts flat to my chest.
He waved a hand. “Let them hang out. Show Ostara that you have something she’ll never have. She could only get them if she glamoured them onto her flat chest.”
