Page 85 of Joy Guardian
I nodded without hesitation. I’d do anything to save him, but it was more than that. Deep inside, I felt compassion for these people. I couldn't imagine how they went through life without feeling even a drop of happiness.
Shadow fae were so much stronger than my kind, healthier too. They lived to be at least five hundred years old. Yet they couldn’t feel even the simple pleasure of eating a sweet, juicy pear.
“If you want it to stop, just let me know,” Kurai said quietly, adjusting the daggers in their sheaths at his belt.
“I’ll be fine.” I turned a little to grant Gefred a better access to my arm.
The odd sensation of having so many different minds invade my senses filled me with unease. But Kurai’s gentle fingers caressed my neck. His lips pressed to the crown of my head inthat familiar cherished gesture that calmed me. Tenderness trickled along my skin in soft, warm shivers.
Cuddling against Kurai’s wide chest, I brought the pear to my lips and took that first, most amazing bite. The juice filled my mouth, coating my tongue with fragrant sweetness.
I moaned from the pure pleasure of it. Hunger took over. And I devoured the entire pear, bite after bite.
“Mmmm,” I moaned again, tossing the short stem away—all that was left from the pear.
“It must be a very good pear.” Kurai chuckled softly at all my moaning.
I looked up at him with a happy grin. “The best one ever.”
“Fuuuck me…” Gefred drawled, echoed by the groans and moans of the others.
“I’ll never say I hate fruit again,” Sakin declared.
I turned to face them.
“The pear was good. But it’s not just the pear that’s important. It’s where I am too. And who I’m with.” I hugged Kurai’s arms that he kept wrapped around me. “It’s him. Kurai is the main source of my happiness.” The warm feeling in my chest reflected in the eyes of the people connected to me. “If you steal me from him, my joy will be gone, and you’ll never feel any of it ever again,” I said firmly. “Happiness can’t be forced. It needs to be shared freely. That’s why we can’t be anyone’s property, do you understand? Making us unhappy won’t give you anything.”
I glared at Gefred since he happened to be the closest.
He winced.
“And now she’s getting angry,” he muttered, promptly retracting his tendrils.
The others quickly followed, sensing the shift in my emotions.
“That’s nothing compared to what you’ll find in me if you try to abuse any of us,” I warned.
With a last tender squeeze, Kurai released me from his embrace.
“Take whatever you want from the camp. Leave the humans alone,” he told his people.
“But what will we do? Where can we go?” Shyanne asked. “The assholes who took us will be back sooner or later. There’re more of them, you know? We need to get out of here.”
For a human in Alveari, freedom was a flitting thing. If set free in the desert, neither of them would make it far before being captured again, and that was only if they didn’t get eaten or starve to death before.
“You’ll have to come with us,” I said.
Kurai didn’t object, but his brow furrowed in a frown of concentration. He was on the run from the law. And now, he found himself suddenly responsible for the survival of not one but four humans who couldn’t make it a day in the desert without water, when he didn’t even have his tendrils to support any of us.
While the male fae returned to their looting of the camp, Malis paused on her way to the tents to ask, “Are you all going to return to Teekse with us? Because I don’t think we can feed you all as often as humans like to be fed.”
I took Kurai’s hand before he had a chance to answer.
“I think we should go to Teneris,” I said.
“Why Teneris?” Kurai stared at me in surprise. But the three humans nodded with relief.
“I was told it’s currently the safest place for a human to be,” I replied.
