“Look at me,” she said, cradling his face. “Please.”
Garin craned his head back. His dark eyes, bleary in fear and hunger, were rimmed in red, like the edge of sunset without the promise of tomorrow. He kept his mouth shut around his fangs as his gaze slowly floated from the hearth, to her.
Stroking his jaw and dragging her fingers through the blood, Lilac planted a kiss at the corner of his mouth. “It’s going to be okay,” she said, wishing it desperately to be true. As she spoke, she swept her leg, then her arm off to the right, where he’d dropped the dagger. The scalpel might’ve been there, too; either would do. “We’re going to walk out of here, and Bastion and Myrddin are going to help you. We will figure it out, whatever this is. Together.”
Her heart dropped. There was no shape of a blade, no brush of cold metal against her skin—any weapon to have on hand, just in case. Casmir’s warning and offering of the stake played in her mind as she shifted, moving her foot around to feel further.
Garin abruptly stood.
They were walking; he was carrying her away from the hearth. Away frombothweapons. Securing her legs around him, Garin began to shake his head, his frown pitiful as he pressed his lips into her hair.
No. This wasn’t supposed to happen. She jolted when her back hit a wall.
“You told them where you were going, didn’t you?” he asked, his brows knotting in desperation. She inhaled sharply as he placed himself against her again, one arm supporting her under her thighs, his other hand against the wood beside her head as he pressed her into the closet door. Aromas of summer night and woodsmoke invaded her senses, causing her to slip between fear and ecstasy.
She opened her mouth to answer, but the sound came out garbled as he sheathed himself into her. He thrustedhard, rattling the door frame behind her. Again. Then again. Andagain.
Garin bent his lips to finally kiss her, and there was nothing urgent or rushed about it. His mouth was lazy, intentional. Possessing. When his tongue swept and teased hers, Lilac came almost immediately, tasting the salt and iron that drenched him.
He broke away. “Please tell me you told them.”
“Told who what?”
“Your guard,” he panted. “Your protectors.”
Coming down from the waves of pleasure cresting over her body, she tried not to think about the increasing probability of her dying in this room at the hands of a vampire who was very clearly spiraling out of control—because why would he ask her that? Why would she mention to anyone at home she intended to travel to The Fenfoss Inn and possibly disclose its location?
But as the beginning of a cold smile ghosted his mouth, she realized his inquiry was rhetorical. “Does anyone besides my imbecile brother and his friends, anyone whoshouldknow your whereabouts, know where their precious queen is tonight?”
“What would that matter when you were the one who sent me away?” She challenged his mocking gaze. “I could be anywhere tonight. With anyone. What would it matter if anyone knew? What would you do if there were dozens of my guards waiting outside this very brothel? That wouldn’t stop you, would it?”
His thrusting slowed. He eyed the warmth trickling down her throat, noticing the bite wounds he hadn’t healed. He moved to put his mouth on her, but she pulled back as far as she could in his arms.
“What is it you want to do?” she asked, carefully trailing her fingers across his bloodstained lips. “Take me far away from here?”
Garin’s forehead creased, his throat bobbing. Gently, he unsheathed himself from her, continuing to cradle her.
Lilac only continued. “Hide me in your Mine? Would you fuck me in that cage of yours?” Her body began pulsing again at the teasing of her own words, hoping to keep him agreeable. “Protect me? Would you make me yours there?”
“Stop.” He grimaced. “You’re right. What would your family and their guard know of protection when their leader is in my arms, instead of where she belongs—safe at her castle? Even more reason for you to marry a more powerful king.”
His last comment was the end of that. Lilac pushed off the closet door, righting herself against him. She accidentally must’ve opened the other side, as something—clothes, or perhaps bags of rye or cotton, based on the muffled thumps upon the floor—tumbled out. She didn’t know. Didn’t care.
Sensing her discomfort and instant change in mood, Garin stepped away from the wall. He didn’t stop her as she untangled herself from him and snaked her legs out from his grasp.
“Lilac.” His voice was tight.
“No,” she said, her irritation growing as his words registered. She set herself on the floor. “Do you believe a ring on my finger, hundreds if not thousands of soldiers at my gate, would stop you from finding me?”
“I would not need to if it was I who wants you to marry.”
“Yet you seem to think those defenses are enough to deter an entire kingdom.”
Garin only laughed. “There is no comparison between François and myself. A king who wants your kingdom will spare his own men and resources to have it. It is only me, and I only want you.” He dipped his head to her. “And I am no gracious king or benevolent emperor, Lilac. There is no limit to what I would sacrifice.”
This admission was all she needed. “And that is how you ended up here, is it not? You dragged yourself to Rennes because you knew that you would tear an entire castle apart to find me in your thirst and turmoil. You might have started a war yourself.” She took everything he had thrown at her at the inn as her own ammunition now. “You weren’t sure what you’d end updoing if you set so much as a foot west, so here you are. Cowering in the corner of a brothel.”
It was evident his own reasoning being proved unsound displeased him. Garin held his tongue, though she could tell by his shallow breathing and glare that his words would not be kind.
