“Lucky me.”
I turned to head back to my room, when Gina’s voice stopped me. “Aenor? Thanks.”
A smile curled my lips as I crossed into my filthy room.
Chapter 5
Deep into the night, I lay on a plastic bag on the floor in my stinking bedroom.
The mattresses couldn’t be salvaged, and it had come to this—sleeping on rubbish bags on the floor, feeling the cold damp, even through the bin liners.
I still wore the giant discount underwear. We had no dry blankets, so Gina and I had just covered ourselves in more underwear for warmth.
Unsurprisingly, I was having a hard time falling asleep in these conditions. I lay awake for hours, listening to the crinkling of the plastic beneath me every time I rolled over. I was just about getting used to the smell.
It must have been around three a.m. when I finally drifted off, and I dreamt of the seaside by Cornwall. Starlight glimmered over the ocean and glinted off the frothing sea like pearls. I wore a gown, sheer as the sea-foam itself.
A man rose from the waves—the divine face of the man I’d killed. He moved, fluid as the water, and seawater flowed down his powerful body in glistening rivulets. Ancient fae runes glowed on his chest with the light of the gods. I licked my lips, and I crossed to him—
A hand around my throat woke me from my dream, and my heart froze.
I couldn’t see much in here. I had a Betty Boop nightlight plugged in, but my intruder was in the shadows. All I knew was that a powerful body pressed against me—one hand around my throat, the other pinning my wrists to the ground with a viselike grip.
“Don’t move.” A deep, quiet command from a voice I recognized. One I’d heard earlier today. The crowned assassin I’d killed. Except now he sounded kind of like an animal.
My pulse pounded out of control as I struggled under his grip. How was this possible? He was dead.
He pressed in closer, sniffing my throat, like some kind of beast. His muscled body pressed against me.
He moved back a little into the golden glow of my nightlight.
It was the fae I’d killed earlier, but death had changed him. His crown now glowed with golden light, and it had grown longer, more spiky. His eyes gleamed with gold instead of blue—a pale gold, a sharp contrast to his black eyelashes and straight, dark eyebrows.
His canines had elongated. He no longer wore a shirt, and strangest of all, his tattoos moved across his skin, writhing like golden snakes on his muscles. The effect was disturbing—terrifying and oddly beautiful at the same time. In fact, beautiful as he was, his whole appearance scared the bejesus out of me. It was like a vision of divine wrath no mortal was supposed to behold. A pit opened in my stomach, and I felt like I was falling.
My enemy’s fingers were crushing my wrists where he held me down. His lip curled, and the look in his eyes was wild—so different from the cool, composed man I’d met earlier.
Gina.
What had he done to her?
“Where’s Gina?” I tugged at my wrists, getting nowhere.
His hand tightened just a little around my neck—a warning. I stilled my movements and went quiet.
His breath warmed the shell of my ear. “You killed me.” The dark power in his voice rushed over my skin. “With iron. Fucking… shot me.” Animal rage imbued his words.
I tried to get my knee into his groin, but the weight of his body pressed me down.
Son of a gun. How did he even get in here? No—scratch that. How was he alive? What the hells was he, some sort of god?
I racked my brain to think of how to get out of this one. Most of the time, I’d use an attack spell—harnessing what little sea magic I had. But a powerful sea fae like him would simply absorb it. Gina was kind of right—my magic wasn’t amazing.
My enemy loosened his grip on my neck a little, and I gasped for air. “You were here to kill me. Self-defense. Don’t get your panties in a bunch about it.”
“No.” One simple word, as if that alone were a sufficient refutation of my point.
Another deep breath. “Your friend said surrender or die. You said you would make me suffer. I killed you in self-defense.”
“Vile creature. You should have surrendered.”
“I didn’t want to surrender.” My mind was still reeling from this situation. “How are you alive? I don’t understand. And where—”
“You fucking shot us in cold blood.” His voice had a deep, powerful timbre that slid along my skin and made my breath catch. “A black hole in my heart. I will punish you.”
Anger started to simmer. Surrender or die—like that was a reasonable choice? He was only proving my deepest belief—most men were garbage.
God of the deep, give me power.
Fury rippled through my body, giving me strength. Lightning-fast, I thrust my hips upward, gripping him by the back of his hair. With all the strength I could muster, I pulled him off me, and he slammed down on the wet ground next to where I’d been sleeping. In the next second, I was on top of him, straddling his taut waist. I punched him hard in the face, and the impact of the strike stung my knuckles.
I caught my breath, waiting to see if he’d react. In the glow of the nightlight, I could see that he looked strangely comfortable with me straddling him. He didn’t look the least bit bothered by my attack.
“What do you want?” I asked. “You came to find me. Why?”
A burst of magic radiated out from his body, skimming over my exposed skin, making me shiver. I felt something twining around my hands and arms—thorny ropes that bound my wrists together behind my back. I nearly toppled over, but I held onto him with my thighs. The jerk was using his magic to tie me up, the tendrils of magic scratching at my skin.
“Gina!” My blood was roaring in my ears now. “Gina!”
The intruder sat up, then pressed a finger against my lips. “The human sleeps.”
“What are you?”
“I’m the Ankou, and I need to use you.”
If wild beasts could talk, this is what they’d sound like.
And yet… the word Ankou was like a distant bell ringing in the hollows of my mind. It was a calling of sorts. Something to do with gods or death. I hadn’t heard it since I was a child.
Now, we were inches from each other, my bare legs still wrapped around him.
“You’re going to use me?” The phrase was… disturbing.
“To find what I need. To track something.”
This dude was deranged, and I was sitting in his lap, tied up in my underwear. I hated feeling this vulnerable.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “I can’t help you track anything. I don’t have any powerful magic. I hardly have any magic except the Morgen song. Not good for tracking. So can you buzz off now?” I nearly used saltier language, but I managed to gain control.
“I don’t believe I have the wrong person, Aenor Dahut, disgraced princess from the House of Meriadoc.” A shiver rippled over my skin. He knew my full name. “I know exactly who you are.”
“And what is it you think I can help you find?”
“That’s not your concern right now. You just need to do as I tell you to.”
I quirked an eyebrow at him. “I’m not inclined to do as I’m told, given that you showed up at my home, threatened to kill me, flooded us, and then tied me up in the dark. Wearing only underwear. Perv.”