Page 29 of Fae Unleashed
She whirled on me and pointed her finger in my face. “Don’t act like you’re innocent.”
I gaped at her. “What did I do?”
Though…I knew that teasing her in the kitchen hadn’t been the best idea. My beast had gotten the better of me. Watching her work had ignited a flame in me that burned so hot I’d been unable to resist the pull towards her. My own curse hadn’t even been a thought in the back of my mind when I’d sidled up to her.
Her reaction hadn’t helped. I’d heard the hitch in her breath and felt the air move as she arched towards me. My beast could tell that she wanted me as badly as I wanted her. The way she’d writhed in the grass at Vi’s place while I watched…that’d nearly broken me that day.
I had to be better, so I bowed my head and promised my princess that I would do better for her. The way she watched me with piercing eyes made me wonder if I’d made the wrong promise. Of course, I had.
Cerri wanted more than I could give her.
I didn’t dare tell her and distract her from the task she had already. She had to defeat Beryl and save the Seelie Court once and for all. If I added to the weight already on her shoulders, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself. Any more responsibility, and a normal person would crumple under it all.
I wouldn’t do that to Cerri.
We would have to wait. Once everything was done and the dust had settled, then I would embrace my feelings. Hopefully, I would get one good night with her before my curse took me.
Knowing Faust, the bastard probably wove this curse to break me before I could even tell Cerri anything.
12
CERRI
The apartment was blessedly silent for the first time in twenty-four hours. Rhoan had taken the redcaps, a kind of warrior fae that dipped their silly little hats in the blood of their enemies. He was training them to do perimeter checks. They were being put to work right away. Meanwhile, Tal had taken the dryads back to his place. He said he wanted to dress them like Seelie.
Exhausted from sleeping on the roof until morning light, I waved a hand and let him do what he wanted. I trusted him to keep them safe, and if he said anything untoward, the Dryads would tell me so I could scold him later.
For now, I gave nothing and no one any thought. I collapsed onto my couch—which still needed to be deep cleaned. I pulled a blanket over my body and let sleep claim me almost immediately.
Strange how I found myself in the same place every time I dreamed.
The stone walls of the Seelie Castle appeared once again. I could feel the stone beneath my fingertips. Just the rough scrape of it against my skin made me breathe a sigh of relief as if I’d found a safe place to retreat to.
The vines and flowers curling across the ceilings and over the windows still had the same tinge of crimson at the tips of their leaves and petals. Where once the castle had been barren under Beryl's grasp, my arcana now spread new growth. It was like I’d left my touch on everything. The sight brought a smile to my face even though they were stained from my spreading curse. The blood-red on everything meant that I’d left my touch on the domain.
The red wasn’t the same wine-red as Beryl’s power. She pulled the life out of everything with her arcana. Though this blood-red meant that the Unseelie blight was progressing, it was red from the blood I’d spilled to make it mine.
This was allme.
Beryl might have had ahold of my ancestral castle, but I was slowly pulling it out of her grasp.
Glancing outside, I peered down at the hedges still holding the Seelie in the choking cages. Someday, I would save them. I would set them free and go on my way to have my own happily ever after.
Instead of going down to them, I climbed higher in the castle until I reached my fae parents’ bedroom and felt along the wall for the latch to the secret stairwell. At the top of the stairs sat the alchemist laboratory that the castle had wanted me to find last time we’d been here.
I’d been trying to decode the second journal that I’d found here. It hadn’t been written by my parents. My fae father’s journal said that an ancestor had written the book. She’d been powerful, so strong that many had considered her a goddess.
Who was she? Why did she write her secrets in code? I didn’t understand what the book could have been hiding. If I figured out how to read it, would I discover how to break the blight on my arcana without love’s kiss? Would I find Beryl’s weakness and know how to defeat her without a war?
I stood in the middle of the room and peered at the big cauldron on the table before me. I hadn’t noticed the fine details along the cauldron’s rim last time. Though…I knew that this was nothing more than a dream. If I hadn’t noticed these details last time, then how could they be real here in this dream?
Everything here felt too real. I desperately wanted to believe that I’d found a way to return home…
Fingers on the edge of the cauldron, I paused. Home? Where had that thought come from? I’d lived here as a child, but my memories had been locked away. The castle had opened the door up to the alchemist laboratory last time I’d visited. How could I have known where to find the secret latch?
My mind swirled with too many thoughts. Memories tried to push against my consciousness, but they were still locked behind a wall of darkness. The doors in my mind were deadbolted, and I couldn’t break them open no matter how hard I tried.
I tightened my grip on the iron cauldron. It settled me. I let out a breath and sucked in a new one. Instead of thinking too hard on what was, I focused on what I could see in the moment.
