Page 29 of The Unseelie Wish

“To put it mildly, I suspect you are right.” Bayodan frowned.

Cruinn turned Alex’s head toward them with a gentle touch of translucent fingers. Before Alex could say anything, they kissed her. The touch of their lips was shockingly soft, if strangely cool. She was too stunned to move.

When they retreated, they smiled. “We will see you again soon, pretty witch.”

With that, they both disappeared in a swirl of smoke, leaving Alex touching her lips in confusion.

Pumpkin was watching her from the back of a nearby chair. She shrugged. “Fae.”

And as if she had summoned the devil himself, the music in the air shifted. No longer forlorn, introspective strings, there was a rumble of a pipe organ that turned it into a dirge.

Hands settled on her shoulders. They tightened. When breath pooled against her cheek, she shivered. Lips hovered there, grazing her ear.

“Did you miss me?”

Oh, shit.

CHAPTER NINE

Alex’s heart was somehow both in the pit of her stomach and also lodged in her throat at the same time. How it managed that, she had no idea. She staggered away from Izael, whirling to face him. Fear sent her heart pounding, the tempo in the world around her rising to match.

Izael swept his teal hair back with one hand, the grin that split his features looked like what would happen if a starving wolf decided that causing pain was immense fun. He was watching her with a deranged, hungry expression—but one that was also lit up in exhilaration. “Not happy to see me, my songbird?” He took a step toward her, and she took a step back. Tutting, he folded one hand behind his back. “I suppose you wouldn’t be. You did leave in such a rush.”

“Izael, wait.” Was he going to hurt her? Puck made it sound like that wasn’t the plan anymore—but a psychotic, angry fae was stalking toward her, and she really didn’t want to take that chance. “Just wait a second.”

“I have been waiting for seven days!” His words were almost a hiss through gritted and bared teeth. “Or have you forgotten?”

Flinching away at his anger, she was stunned. She hadn’t expected him to be angry—she’d never seen him like this. And she really didn’t like it, least of all because it was pointed at her. “Look, you have to understand. You were threatening to torture me!”

The laugh that left him was quiet. For a moment, he smiled, his anger fleeing as quickly as it had arrived. He placed his hand on his chest, fingers splayed. His words were barely more than a whisper. “I gave you my heart. Was that not enough to buy your trust?”

That felt like a punch to the face. She turned her back on him to cross the living room. It wasn’t smart, turning her back on a rabid wild animal, but she needed to not see his face for a second. “I’m sorry if I hurt you, but I?—”

The impact of the wall in front of her was so sudden it stunned her for a second. He held her cheek to the wall with a hand fisted in her hair, his fiendish expression only inches away. He must have softened the impact.

“Hurt me? Hurt me?” He laughed, leaning in to scrape his teeth along the skin of her jaw. “Oh, my dear, sweet, delicious songbird. You haven’t the foggiest idea what you’re talking about.”

A shiver ran down her spine at the touch of his teeth. Her head was reeling from his nearness.

Letting out a quiet moan, he pressed his hips tighter to her body. “Can you guess how you’re going to make it up to me? Hmmm? I’ll give you three chances…”

When his hips relented only to dig into her again, she couldn’t help the noise that left her. It wasn’t one of protest. Damn it! “Slow down. We need to talk.”

“Talk? Let me think about it. Hmmmmm…” He tapped his chin thoughtfully. “No.”

The world dropped out from under her. She screamed as everything went end-over-end. He’d opened a portal underneath her. When she landed on solid ground, she couldn’t tell which end was up for two seconds.

Two precious seconds she didn’t have.

Izael grabbed her by her shoulders and rolled her onto her back against the floor of his home. The tree branches overhead were silhouettes against the moon that was always just a little too large.

Izael straddled her waist, easily pinning her down. When she went to punch him, he snatched her wrists and pinned them to the ground beside her head. Those glowing, sea-green, snake-slitted eyes were almost glinting in excitement. “Welcome home, songbird.”

“Get off me.” She glared up at him.

“No.”

“I’ll make you.” She took hold of the music around her, which had been a frantic concerto for the entirety of their tiff so far.