He blinks and I almost smirk in triumph at the slight furrow that steals his brows, but the look is gone and replaced by his cool amusement by the time I have blinked.
“You were calling for me,” he coos softly.
I rear back. “LikefuckI was!”
My voice is loud in the quiet tent, and I shrink into myself, glancing around as if I am being caught doing something I shouldn’t be. As if the High Lord’s presence in our tent weremyfault.
“And yet you were.” The confused kink in his brows is back, and he tilts his head to study me. “I felt you.” He raises a finger and taps it against the center of my chest, just above the valley between my breasts. I hold my breath as my heart beats rapidly beneath his finger. “Right here.”
I almost laugh at the absurdness of it, but I settle for an amused grin instead.
“Perhaps you were dreaming ofme, Lord Draekoh,” I croon. “Perhaps it was yourself calling for me that brought you here.”
I lift my head until we are nose to nose. His eyes widen as my breath tickles his cheek. I gasp as a hand darts to the back of my head and holds me firmly in place, his fingers tangling in my unruly hair. His hold is tight and fuck it all to hell if my pussy doesn’t clench in anticipation. My stupid heart stutters as he lowers his face infinitely yet impossibly closer, our noses but a breath away. A lock of moonlight hair falls from behind his ear and caresses my steadily heating cheek.
“No,” he growls, abruptly letting me go. My head flops, boneless, back to the pillow, and my teeth snap together. Fuckingouch! “It was unquestionablyyouwho summoned me.”
I snort and push myself to a seated position. He ’s pissed me right the fuck off now and I don’t care who I wake.
“First, that fuckinghurt, you prick!” I snarl. “Second, I don’t know what you’re going on about! I didn’t call or summon you, or whatever else you want to call it. You being here? That’s all you. What, you can’t handle the fact that you are completely enamored by ahuman? Grow a backbone and admit it.” I raise my voice. “And by the way, you aresonot supposed to be here.”
I smirk as my voice echoes through the tent, but my grin dies as I realize everyone else is still blissfully and obliviously asleep. How the fuck is everyone still asleep right now?
Draekoh practically purrs, “They won’t wake, Little Bird. I have enclosed us in… how do you say in human terms? A bubble of oblivion. If anyone were to wake outside of the bubble, they would see you fast asleep and not a hint of me. Not that any of these women will wake. Most are too high on the fruit of the fae. The rest are either exhausted or lulled into slumber by my powers. It’s just the two of us, my pretty bird.”
He reaches for a loose strand of my hair that floats unerringly in a nonexistent breeze, but I snatch it out of his reach and tuck it behind my ear. The move only causes the humor in his wicked eyes to grow.
“Fine,” I growl, wanting this encounter to be over with already. “Let’s just say I did call you here, which, to be clear, I didnot. You’ve come, you’ve seen me, and you’ve flaunted your stupid fae powers for me. Can you go now? Apparently, I have a big day ahead of me.”
Draekoh snorts as I mention his powers, as if I were the one entertaining him.
“I haveflauntedbut a whisper of my powers,” he hums. “And you seem reluctant to admit your summoning of me. Fine. However insistent you were in your pleas. But you are correct. You have such a big day ahead of you, Little Bird. And I can’t wait to find you and claim you as mine in front of both Light and Dark courts. I am quite eager to show off the feisty little bird I will capture on the morrow. And I find myself famished for the blood of those who have dared to claim you. I will obliterate those who put themselves forth to have you. I’ll rip their heads off their shoulders and make cocktails in their hollow skulls. I’ll bathe in their blood and claim their powers as my own. I will make a dress from the hair on their heads, and you will wear it to every Court event until it fades to dust.”
His eyes darken with every word while my stomach tightens, turns, and sinks. This male is fucking insane. Anya was right to be cautious of him.There was no doubt in my mind that this unseemly infatuation he has with me was going to be my downfall. I was going to die at Lord Draekoh’s hands. And there was nothing I could do to stop it.
He blinks, and his anger evaporates like it was never truly there in the first place.
“Until tomorrow, Little Bird.”
He disappears. Literally. One minute he’s staring into my very soul as I try not to flinch away from him, the next he’s gone with a breath of wind. I blink. Did he just fucking teleport? Or were the fae so fast they could run faster than the human eye could follow? Gods, the questions just kept on coming.
I glance around me, but everyone is still fast asleep. A jaw-cracking yawn breaks through me, and I fall back onto my pillow and close my eyes. I’m certain I’ll be up for hours yet, this insomnia of mine a fickle fiend, but as soon as my head hits the pillow, the pull of sleep takes hold and pulls me under before I can even think about overthinking my encounter with the High Lord.
Chapter Twelve
Anya wakes us early, and despite my hours of tossing and turning before my encounter with Lord Draekoh, I feel well rested.Impossiblywell rested. I wonder vaguely if the High Lord’s powers had anything to do with it.
“Quickly, now,” Anya ushers us to our feet. “You need to eat as much as you can before—” she cuts herself off, blushing. “Before today’s trials,” she finishes.
She turns and hurries to the tables and loads two plates to the brim with pastries, fruits (ignoring the faerie fruit), stacks of bacon, some toast, and a good scoop of what I can only assume is scrambled eggs. I briefly wonder at the type of eggs used, but quickly dismiss the thought. If it wasn’t chicken eggs, Ireallydidn’t want to know. We head back to our little area and dig in. We aren’t the only ones awake, but many still sleep, and those who are awake are slow and unhurried. Anya fiddles nervously, and I want to reach out, grab hold of her hand, and comfort her. Stupid really, as it was us she was worrying about. So I keep my hands to myself and keep stuffing my face until I’m a bloated and gluttonous balloon.
“So good,” Akari moans. She hasn’t quite managed to clear her own plate, but she’s had a good go at it. I eye a piece of bacon she has left on her discarded plate, and despite my own swollen stomach, I snatch it off her plate and nibble on it.
“You can say that again,” I say between chews. “Please tell me meals are always like this in Faezgard, Anya.”
“In the Royal Courts, yes. Everywhere else? It depends on your owner.”
I simmer at her words. Owner. No one was going to fuckingownme. Especially not a fucking Lord of Faerie.
