Page 43 of Nocte
Want to.
For now, I’ll stay back. I watch her scurry in and out of her little hiding place. I watch her wait for me.
I don’t go to her. Not yet.
I let her squirm. I keep to the shadows and let the hours tick by. Until I can’t.
After nightfall, when the other fae have scattered, I corner her. When she’s returning some book to a shelf like it’s the most important thing in the world. I press into her and feel that slender body shiver.
With no fear, however. She’s so damn ready for me. The second I reach for her, she lurches into my touch, but keeps her face averted from me, as if that makes it less sinful. Shameful. I hook my hand through her hair and grip her skull. Then I force her to look at me.
She isn’t quivering like a timid little virgin in those stories she likes to read. She meets my gaze dead on. She’s ready for any corruption I could deliver.
That makes her braver than I ever was.
It makes me hate her all the more.
“Have you thought about me, little fae?” I ask her.Me,not the dare I’ve proposed to her. Not her obsession with the other realm. Me—my fingers inside her. My cock, eager to claim her.
She shakes her head. Little liar. It is difficult to ignore the clarity in her gaze, however. She probably believes it. If she tells herself that lie enough times it makes it true. She hasn’t thought of me.
But I’ve thought of her. All the things I will do to her. The ways in which I will make her scream. Beg. Whimper. I’m going to have her by the time this is all said and done.
But then I will have you,Cassius murmurs, always listening in.
The moment I kiss her again, he falls silent. Poof. He’s gone. There is just her and her skin and her fingers scratching at my chest. She pushes me off and I let her win. I let her think she’s in control of this game.
All the better to turn the tables on her later and shatter any hope that she could ever defeat me.
“Tell me,” she gasps. I blink. It’s not a denial. Not a plea to stop. She merely wants her payment upfront. “Tell me more about the realm?—”
“And what good will that do?” I counter. “You’ll never see it.”
She will never leave this place until the day of the ceremony. Then her corpse will never leave the Citadel.
However, she refuses to follow fate’s plan. She bares her teeth defiantly. For a split second, she reminds me of Cassiopeia. Where is she, my sister? My companion? The only one who knows my pain and shares my hate?
Don’t think of her,Cassius murmurs.She is a traitor.
Was she? I can’t remember. He won’t let me remember.
“I want to,” the fae says, her voice soft, but a broken note gives her fear away. She knows she never will. She hopes in spite of everything—the dank, dark reality around her. How pathetic it is. How sickly sweet.
I should laugh in her face.
“How will you?” I ask. “Can you fly, little fae?”
I’ve seen her smooth back marred by a tapestry of scars; I know she can’t. Her wince confirms that she knows it too. Her limitations are many. After all, she is an abominable creature. She shouldn’t exist. No power, no specialization distinguishes her.
However, when she presses her hand against my chest...
Fuck. It’s magnetic. Even Cassius’ fingers don’t hold the same sway. Her hands are so fucking delicate I could break them. I snatch for her wrist and grip it tight. But my eyes are on hers, and I don’t look away.
I can’t.
“You come in here unnoticed,” she murmurs, her voice deadly soft. She knows her words are sinful—so she whispers them as if that makes the rebellion less so. Still, I’m listening. I’m leaning toward her, silly little fae. Damn, I strain to catch every word.
Corruption is fun, but having her hope to dangle on a string? That is an entirely new game.