I tipped over the edge again, and the exhale that left me was completely involuntary. In the midst of the crashing waves, I heard Laurie coming, too. His hips pressed against my ass and stayed there, his body jerking.
We returned to Earth together. I became aware of my breathing first, then Laurie’s, the air leaving our lungs hard and fast. Slowly, he eased out of me and released his iron grip. I sank to my knees as if I had turned into liquid.
While Laurie took off his condom and left the bed, presumably in search of a waste basket, I lowered myself back onto my stomach, feeling drowsy and serene. My eyes fluttered shut. The mattress dipped as Laurie rejoined me. His scent floated past an instant before he began tracing sinuous patterns across my back, sparks trailing in the wake of his fingers.
“Lyari stopped by earlier, but you were asleep,” he murmured.
My eyes snapped open, and the happy glow around my mind started to fade. “Shit. I do need to talk to her. There should be plenty of time for that, right? Since we’re not exactly leaving today.”
Actually, what was the plan? Did Laurie think I would stay at the Unseelie Court indefinitely? I sat up and angled my body toward him, frowning in thought. Even if I were willing to hide forever, which I wasn’t, I ached to see my family. The last interaction I’d had with any of them was during the scrying spell, when Belanor’s drugs were ravaging my body and making everything a blur.
I raised my gaze to Laurie’s, on the verge of asking all the questions hovering on my tongue. “It is strange, being with me here?” he asked suddenly.
At first, I frowned with miscomprehension. Understanding struck me a moment later. Here meant at the Unseelie Court, where so many of my chapters with Collith had been written. And there we were, two of his exes, laying naked in sheets still rumpled from what we’d done on them.
“No,” I said, looking around the room as if seeing it for the first time. Whoever chose the decorations had either been from India or inspired by the culture, because there were marks of it everywhere. Madhubani art, dhokra lamps, and pots made of terracotta. A toran hung over the door.
Finished with my perusal of the space, I refocused on Laurie. “Have you been to India?”
I wasn’t sure why I let myself ask the question—this wasn’t a date, and there were way more important topics to cover. But Laurie didn’t react, anyway.
At some point, while studying our surroundings, I’d shifted onto my side. The bedsheet was draped over my hips, but the rest of me was still naked. Laurie didn’t bother to hide the fact that he was staring. Instead, he took his time, his gaze starting at my stomach, then making its way upward. The intensity in his eyes reignited that heat inside me, but I was still sore from our last round.
“That’s not going to work,” I said. The small hitch in my voice betrayed me. I cleared my throat and continued, “You knew I was going to ask eventually. What’s the plan to get us out of this? Because I’d rather face Belanor’s entire inner circle than spend one more night here.”
Before I could deter him, Laurie slid his hands under my body, rolled me under him, and pressed his pulsing erection into the space between my legs. See what you do to me? that thrust said.
I realized I was smiling. “You didn’t answer me,” I reminded him.
“Sorry, what was the question?” He shook his head. “India, right. Yes, I’ve been there many times. It’s... hot.”
He’d gotten distracted again. I laughed, tipping my head back to rest against the bed. I felt my long hair drape off the edge. “How shocking. And that wasn’t the question I was talking about, Laurelis Dondarte. Stop dodging.”
“Very well. If I must.” Laurie looked at me as if he were memorizing every detail, every moment. “I have a confession to make, Fortuna.”
His tone, along with his use of my name, made my smile fade. I searched his eyes. “Okay.”
Laurie didn’t take a breath, but the pause he took felt like one. He pressed a kiss to my stomach and rested his cheek against it. Then the faerie lifted his head and said, “I didn’t bring you to the Unseelie Court entirely because it was the only option.”
“Then why…” I trailed off as realization hit me. Of course, I thought. Why else would Laurie be drawn here? What else did Laurie care about, besides me and his inner circle? I sat up slowly, sliding my body out from his. He instantly leaned away, giving me the space I wanted. “You want to save Collith.”
All this time, I hadn’t let myself say his name again, though it always hovered at the back of my mind like a ghost in an old, creaky house. Even as I fucked his ex. Even as I smiled. Even as I laughed.
“We’re the only family he has left, Fortuna.”
Though Laurie kept his voice low, it felt like he’d shouted the words at me. I pulled out of my freefall with a mental snap, already shaking my head. “No. No fucking way. He can rot down there, for all I care.”
Laurie shifted so he sat facing me, his arm resting atop one bent knee. He studied my expression, and when he spoke again, his voice was unexpectedly soft. “They’re torturing him, Fortuna.”
Good. I opened my mouth to say it out loud, but something stopped me. I pursed my lips and shook my head again.
Laurie smiled. There was nothing light-hearted or sympathetic about that smile, and I couldn’t ignore the sense that I’d disappointed him, somehow. The thought felt like a splinter in my finger. Annoying. Relentless. Out of all the terrible choices I’d made, this was the one he was actually going to judge me for? Laurie?
“What’s that saying? She has fire in her soul and spite in her heart?” he murmured. I flinched as if he’d struck me, and suddenly I didn’t want to be naked anymore.
“I think the verse is ‘grace in her heart.’ But you’re funny. No, really, I’ll be laughing the entire way home. See you around, Laurie.” I tossed the sheet aside and swung my legs to the floor, ignoring the chill that raced over my bare skin.
“It’s not just about the torture. Do you know what happens to a faerie without a Court?” he demanded, remaining where he was.
“Do you know what happens when you piss off a Nightmare?” I snarled back, patting the floor in search of my nightgown. Nightmares might have better eyesight than the average human, but when a room didn’t have windows, we lost whatever advantage we had.
Laurie ignored this. His voice penetrated the thin nightgown as I yanked it over my head. “Collith’s bond with them was broken when he died. He should’ve had the Tongue redo the spell the same morning he was resurrected, but he didn’t. Every day he spends down in that cell is a day he loses more of himself. You know how goblins are made, yes? He’s been punished enough, Fortuna. Not only did he surrender during the coup, when he could’ve obliterated every living thing in that room, but he didn’t run, either. He stayed and let them seize him. He’s trying to atone for his wrongs, and he’s killing himself in the process. Do you truly think Collith deserves to die?”
I stood in the middle of the room, staring at Laurie without really seeing him. I was thinking of Naevys now. Remembering the plea she’d made just before she died. Have faith in him.
No. I started toward the door. I didn’t know where I was going, only that I had to leave.