“What’s that sound?” asked Aenor. I crossed to the room’s oak walls and pressed my hand against the wood—freezing now. Ice spread through the tree’s veins. They were killing it.
“The witches have found us,” said Aenor. “I can hear their music. They’re surrounding us.”
Alarm bells tolled in my mind. I didn’t want them to destroy my home.
Anger simmered. “I’m going to kill them all now, once and for all. I’m going to sever their heads from their bodies and carve out their dreadful hearts.” And then I would send them all to the Winter Witch, that repugnant canker. She’d spawned all these monsters in the first place.
I drew Lightbringer, and celestial flames flickered across its blade. “Wait in here.”
“Uh, no,” said Aenor. “You’re still injured. I’m not.”
“Fine.” I couldn’t think of a more perfect way to pass the time on earth than ripping apart the repulsive bodies of winter witches with my mate. Pity our fun together would be ending soon.
Pity, too, that my mate was biding her time before betraying me completely.
31
Aenor
I stood behind Salem as he pressed his palm against the oak. As the opening widened, I summoned my magic until strength imbued my limbs. Were these witches after me because of Salem, or did they try to kill anyone? I had no idea. All I knew was that they wanted me dead right now, and my sense of self-preservation filled me with a quiet violence.
As soon as I stepped out of the little tree cottage, the cold air hit me. The instant one of the witches lunged for me, I was slamming my fist into her head so hard that I thought I shattered her skull. Not many of them left now, just a small handful. I fought them with my bare hands, my feet, strength pounding through my blood.
Even with his broken wing, Salem was fighting with precision. And with one final arc of his blade, he severed the head of the last witch. Her body fell, writhing, to the forest floor.
I bit my lip, wondering if I could run fast enough to get to the castle before Salem. He was injured, after all, and I hadn’t healed him yet.
But how would I even get in there? Hello, guards, I’d like to conspire with someone you imprisoned for treason.
Salem’s eyes were on me, flickering from burned orange to a dusky blue. “Aenor,” he murmured, his voice wrapping around me like a smoky caress, “I would love to know why it is that you keep looking at the castle.”
My pulse sped up. If he learned the truth, my death would be more brutal than those he’d delivered to the witches. “Just looking out for more attackers. Like you said, the worst people thrived in this place, and there could be more monsters.”
His powerful magic rolled off him like a warning.
I turned away from him, marching through the forest toward the castle. What I needed, before I healed him, was a way to get my message to the Merrow. Send me the godsdamn sea glass. If I could hear the Merrow’s magic through the sea, I could communicate through water. I’d try a different, more direct message this time.
Hadn’t Salem said that rivers and streams ran through the island?
I closed my eyes, trying to tune in to the feel of water, listening for its burbling sound. After a few moments, I felt a tug on my middle, pulling me east. I opened my eyes again, catching sight of a stream in the distance.
There we go.
I turned back to Salem, who was staring at me closely. “Do I need to force you to heal me?”
I ignored him for a moment. He’d said the water system ran into a moat, hadn’t he? And the moat sometimes flooded the dungeon. That was my way to get a message to the Merrow.
“Let’s not lose track of the Merrow. I want to run to the stream over there to see if I can still hear his music before we move on. And I have to pee.”
“Aren’t you eager to help?”
“I want to end this as fast as I can, so I can move on and never see you again.” Lie.
“Oh, but I was thinking of keeping you around.” An amused smile curled his sensual lips. “Where else can I find such delicious, naked loathing?”
He prowled closer, his gait languid. “You know, I love nothing more than seducing a woman who hates me. There is no greater pleasure than the moans of a woman who has given in to temptation despite her better judgment.” He winced. His mangled wings were apparently ruining his seduction ability.
Still, against my own better judgment, I felt heat tingling over my skin. “Like I said. You have weird hobbies.”
He moved closer to me, his magic whispering over my body, and his eyes twinkled. “Perhaps, Aenor, I’ll keep you with me, under my control for a while longer. I know you’ve imagined it already—me stripping your clothes off, teasing your beautiful body and making you come until you forget your own name.”
My mind flashed back to that insane fantasy I’d had on the boat, the one where I was bending over before him, wild with desire. Heat rose in my body, making my chest flush, and I clenched my jaw. “I’ll have you know I’ve thought of no such thing.”
And all of a sudden I was talking like a Victorian duchess.
His lips quirked. “Your nostrils flare when you lie. Did you know that?”
With the intensity of his eyes, I felt completely exposed before him. He had a magnetic pull I couldn’t ignore. In fact, I had taken a step closer, compelled by the urge to press myself against him.
He reached for my waist, and I didn’t pull away. Slowly, he stroked the back of his fingertips down my side. His touch left a trail of hot tingles in its wake, and my breath hitched.
He leaned down, his breath warming the curve of my throat. “I’d lick every inch of you until all that hatred dissolved from your mind, and the whole world would fall away. Everything except for the feel of my tongue on your body.” His deep voice reverberated over my body, making my pulse race. “I’ll make you shudder with pleasure, Aenor.”
My breath was coming fast, and his heat warmed my body. His abs and chest muscles had gone taut, like he wanted satiation also.
Focus, Aenor. Focus. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to step away from him. I started to catch my breath. I knew my skin had flushed, and that Salem could tell what effect he was having on me.
“But you revolt me,” I said.
He cocked his head. “Nostrils flaring, again.”
As I took another step back from him, my blood started to cool a little. I forced those heated visions out of my mind. “Just tell me the layout so I can find the Merrow. We don’t know he’s in the castle.” Lie. “How do the waterways connect?”
He crossed his arms, his gaze wary. “There’s a moat around the base of the rocky hill, and a portcullis that leads directly into a watery tunnel, and then into the prison. Unless the Merrow is in the dungeon, he’s unlikely to be connected to the water, I suppose. In any case, it will be guarded, and I have a better route in through the tower.”
Okay. I just needed a little privacy.
“I have to pee,” I declared again.
“And is that so important that you’re unwilling to heal me and my broken wing?”
I swallowed. “My magic is all burned out. I can’t heal you until I recharge.”