Page 8 of Fae Unleashed
“You don’t have to forgive anyone to be a better person,” Vi offered. “Get back at them by sleeping with their appointed knight. I can see the way you two look at each other. The sex would beso good.”
I scoffed. “We’ve kissed already. Now he won’t even look at me. I don’t know what I did to piss him off, but I can tell that’s completely off the table.”
“What a stick in the mud.” Vi pushed herself off the counter and set about making another drink. “Why wouldn’t he want to sleep with you? You’re totally hot and absolutely voluptuous. Your tits really came in this year.”
Embarrassed, I crossed my arms over my chest. My boobs had gotten bigger because I’d been stress-eating a lot more. Thankfully, a lot of that new weight went to my boobs and not elsewhere, but I couldn’t help being a little self-conscious with all the new looks I’d been getting from it.
Not even those could make Rhoan look at me the way I wanted him to. While I understood that he’d taken a vow when he became a knight, the court and the nobles that he’d knelt for were long gone. Surely, he didn’t have to keep this vow if he didn’t want to.
Right?
If he really wanted to, he could find an excuse to eschew this vow and give me the affection I desired. Though, I knew this was a greedy part of my mind speaking. I had no reason to force him to break a vow he took so seriously. I didn’t want to ask him to do something that he might regret someday. It would create contempt and resentment, which no one needed right now.
Sighing, I put my chin in my hands and glowered at the floor.
Vi laughed at me, but the sound died on her lips when she looked up when the bell over the door chimed. Rhoan rushed through the café. At first, I thought nothing of it. He’d finally found me and was coming to my side, like he’d promised at the beginning.
Then I noticed the blood dripping down his temple. I jumped out of my seat and reached for him. I stared blankly at my hand when it came away with blood, like I hadn’t expected it to be real.
Rhoan wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me in. “We need to go. I’m being hunted.”
My heart jumped with excitement. He clutched me tight and turned us towards the exit.
Hadn’t I just explained how Rhoan refused to get this close to me?
He would touch my arm or take my hand, but he’d been avoiding holding me like this for a while now.
Even though every part of my body wanted to stay exactly where I was, I put my hands against his chest and shoved away.
The glamoured illusion fell. A man with smoky white hair grinned at me. The sclera of his eyes flashed black for a heartbeat before flooding white again. He straightened and adjusted the black silk tie around his neck.
“Uh, no,” Vi said with a snap of her fingers.
The black silk tie vanished in a flash of carefully concentrated heat. Faust, the assassin who’d tried to kill us back in the Seelie Castle, looked down at his now-empty hands and laughed.
“Well, that’s quite the surprise,” he exclaimed a little too jovially.
I didn’t like Faust’s confidence in the face of Vi’s power. That meant the resulting fight between the two would bring the building down around our heads, and I couldn’t risk that. I’d already come close to wrecking Audra’s café once today.
“Did Beryl get tired of waiting for her curse to take over?” I asked as I pulled on the blighted arcana inside me.
It answered without question. Though my power had changed, it was still my own. The ground beneath me roiled and roots pushed against the foundation of the building.
Not here, I reminded myself.
“Save it for later, Vi!” I jumped forward, grabbed Faust’s wrist, and threw my weight towards the front door.
I heard Vi’s cry of dismay right before Faust and I tumbled through the in-between and crash landed in my apartment. Why my apartment? I wasn’t sure. It was the only place I could think to take him.
Delphine shouted in surprise. She jumped over the arm of the couch, grabbed my arm, and yanked me away from Faust, who had straightened himself already. Faust looked around curiously, taking in his new surroundings.
“I’m glad you’re here,” I whispered to Del.
That had to be the first and last time I would ever say such a thing. She threw me a disgusted glare as if to sayhow could you do this to me?
“You shot me three times! I think this is more than fair.” I jerked my arm away from her grasp.
Faust, however, was unperturbed. He casually strolled over to the nearest chair and took a seat. He seemed all too comfortable with one knee carefully balanced over the other.
