Chapters (63)
The hairs at the back of my neck lift, and goosebumps prickle my arms.
The others back away, hands tucked behind their backs once more, casting wary glances my way until it’s only the leader and me standing at the well, him clutching the box of biscuits to his chest as if he’s a dragon guarding treasure.
The feral noise stops, and the others take to their mounts.
After a beat, the leader turns back to where I wait. His endlessly dark eyes lower to mine, and my heart starts to race the same way it did the week before when I thought he saw me from across the square.
Something stirs deep within me. Not in my heart, but in my soul. A flash. A spark.
Heat spreads through my veins.
My tongue darts over suddenly dry lips. His eyes sharpen like blades as he tracks the movement.
What would it be like to kiss this man?
The errant thought is enough to make me stumble back.
His gaze drops to the biscuits and then he twists to look at his unicorn. I wait for him to thank me, to say anything at all just so that I can hear his voice.
I bet it would be deep.
I bet it would rumble like that throaty growl.
I’m left wanting as he turns on his heel and stalks back to his mount, the muscles of his back shifting and rippling with each step. I watch with my heart in my throat as he shoves his boot into the stirrup and throws his long leg over the beastly unicorn, my biscuits still clutched in one hand as he grips the reins with the other.
With a click of his tongue, the animal beneath him springs to life, whipping its horned head toward the road leading out of town where the other Unseelie have all but disappeared. He and the others ride away, the wheels of their carts creaking as they vanish on the horizon.
I wait for the spark to die, but it burns the whole way home.
12
Everett
“Distractions are deadly.”
Surviving the Unseelie Lands, Author Unknown
She came back.
Those words pulse like a second heartbeat through my body.
Why did she come back?
And why did she give me a gift?
“Come on, Ever. Give me one,” Maddox whines the moment he climbs out of the saddle and ties his mount to the post.
If he tries to stick his grubby hand in my box one more fucking time, I will cut it clean off.
“The ignorant Seelie clearly does not understand the implications of what she has done,” Gryff points out, tying his reins next to Maddox’s, his own beast snorting and shaking its massive head, just as surly as its owner.