“I'm going to drop you if you keep being so disrespectful.”
“Disres—” I sputtered. “Are you fucking kidding me?!” I screeched up at him. “You left me lying on my pallet covered in cum last night, but this morning, you act as if nothing happened, and now you call me disrespectful?”
“This is exactly what I was talking about,” he snapped. “If you can't do your job because I've distracted you, then we can't be lovers.”
“I think it was the other way around and that's why you're so pissy.”
“Yes, it was!” he roared. “And now, I'm trying to focus, but all you can think about is my dick.”
“That is not all I'm thinking about! I'm also thinking about your mouth!”
Dalsharan let out a surprised shriek of laughter.
“Look, I have no problem with doing my job. I heard everything you've said to me,” I went serious. “Keep to walls where my body heat will be covered by the cold coming off the stones, watch out for the feeding troughs—that was disturbing, by the way, and don't touch any of their treasure. Oh, and don't wear the Coyote Stone amulet. I got it.”
“Okay. Good,” he said, sounding mollified.
“And I can think about how fucking amazing you are without failing my mission,” I added.
“How amazing I am?”
“Don't fish for compliments,” I chided him.
He laughed again.
“But could you just tell me one thing?”
“What's that?” the Hawk Lord asked warily.
“Have you fucking decided yet?!”
Dal started laughing again, boisterously, but he stopped abruptly when we hit bad weather. The clouds darkened around us and thunder boomed in the distance. I gripped his bird ankles.
“Don't worry, I've got you,” he said. “We have to land anyway. The stronghold is just over that hill.”
“What hill?” I peered into the gloom just as rain started to fall.
I squinted against the stinging drops. The Fae have magic that works with nature and the natures of their beasts. Weather is not an issue for them. That being said, they can't access their other magic when they're in their beast bodies. So, Dal couldn't shield us. Not that the water bothered him much, it just rolled off his feathers, but I was getting wet.
The Hawk Lord set me down on a rocky knoll, then landed beside me and stretched a wing over my head. “This way.” His massive claws tore into the wet earth as he led me down the hill and up the side of another. The giant hawk settled into a squat and tucked me in against his side to shield me. I snickered.
“What?” Dal lowered his head to peer at me with one eye.
“I feel like a baby bird. Please don't vomit anything into my mouth.”
“The baby bird thing was cute but then you took it too far.”
I snorted. “In case you haven't realized it yet, I always take things too far. It's kind of my specialty.”
“Yes, I have noticed that.” He smacked me gently with his wing. “Now, take out the farseer and start watching the guards.”
I fished out the farseer and focused on the fortress several yards away. “There are five groups of—”
“I'm in hawk form, Ravyn. I can see them.”
“Oh, right. Okay.”
With the weather darkening the landscape, we weren't worried about being spotted, and I didn't have to wait for nightfall before heading in. As soon as I got the rotation of the guards down, I stuck in my earpiece, pulled on my gloves, unfolded my grappling hook, and headed off.
“Corporal!”
I stopped and looked back at him. The Hawk Lord had shifted back to his fae body and stood there naked, a barrier of air around him, turning the rain into a shimmering outline.
He slipped in his earpiece and said, “I'll be listening.”
“Put some fucking clothes on. I really don't want you saving me bare-ass naked.”
“If I have to save you, I'll do it in my hawk form. I want to be ready to shift immediately.”
“So, you're just going to stand in the rain naked?”
“For the sake of the blessed Moon!” Dal snarled. “No one is out here. Now, stop ruining a dramatic moment and get your ass in that fortress.”
I chuckled and headed for the stronghold, rain soaking my clothes. But it had been worth it to rile up the Hawk Lord. And to get another look at his naked body. That image had gone straight in the spank bank where it would earn monthly interest.
After scaling the wall and dodging guards, I slipped into the keep, just as I had the last one. But I made one fatal mistake. I remembered everything that Dal told me; that wasn't the problem. I simply hadn't thought of what wet weather would do to my boots. As I followed the pulse of another soul stone, I didn't notice the tracks I was leaving, or that they were distinctly not Farungal footprints.
Still, I made it into the treasure room and snatched the Coyote Soul without a problem. It wasn't until I was leaving and nearly to the main door that I realized something was wrong. The place was eerily quiet, even the walls seemed to be holding their breath, and as I retraced my steps, I saw them—my boot prints.
“Fuck,” I whispered as I scanned the entry hall warily.
“What?” Dal asked.
“I left tracks,” I whispered.
“Get out of there now!”
“That's what I'm doing, but I don't see anyone around—like no one—and it's really fucking quiet in here.”
“I don't see anyone outside either,” Dal's voice took on a wary tone. “The last rotation was done ten minutes ago.”
Ten minutes. Was that enough time to surround a human and kill him? Oh, yes. I sprinted for the door. I was nearly there when someone barreled into me. I cried out as a clawed hand closed around my throat, then started to squeeze.
“Ravyn!”
All I could do was make strangled sounds.
“A human,” the Farungal who held me declared in delight.
“I'm on my way!” Dalsharan shouted.
I was lifted by my throat as I clawed at scaly black skin, gasping for breath.
“Put him down before you kill him. Humans are so fragile,” another one said—this one had breasts.
Oh, fuck, the females were the worst.
The male lowered me to my feet and eased up on his grip, but didn't release me. He was about to reply when something big and covered in feathers slammed through the front doors. The Hawk Lord screeched, the sound going into a pitch that hurt Farungal ears. They cried out and cringed. I was suddenly released and I scrambled away. Dal used his beak like a spear as his wings swept out, knocking Farungal to the floor. I ran for him.