Page 106 of Craved By a Wolf

“Incu… bus.” The fae frowned and then relaxed. “Incubus. I met. Fae.”

She glanced at Kin and whispered out of the corner of her mouth, “I don’t think he speaks much English. He’s clearly local though. He might know of a portal. Maybe he might know the modern fae tongue?”

Kin gave her a look. “Go right ahead, lass. As you so gleefully pointed out before, I don’t speak it.”

She grimaced when she remembered how well that conversation had gone and wished she hadn’t brought it up. She didn’t want him remembering the terrible things she said or how she had acted back then. She had been hoping for a fresh start with him, one where they were both more honest about their feelings and less caustic towards each other.

“My fae isn’t great… not when it comes to conversational fae anyway… and I really don’t want there to be any misunderstandings between us. A spell would make this easier, but that’s not going to happen.” She slid a worried look at the unseelie, who was already looking impatient, his black eyebrows knitted in a frown. Was she offending him by speaking English so much? Maybe he thought she was doing it so he wouldn’t understand her and was plotting against him. “But then, it’s risky for us to keep speaking English.”

Like, very risky.

The fae lowered his hands and his eyes brightened as he flexed his fingers.

“Um,” she said and tried to think of what to say as she switched to the modern fae tongue. “Do you know of incubi?”

The male arched an eyebrow and responded in stilted English. “Succubi? No. Incubus.”

He pointed to his markings and then raised his right arm before him, with his forearm across his chest, and trailed a finger along his underarm and over his biceps and shoulder.

“Incubus.” He uttered that word in the fae tongue and nodded.

She nodded too and responded in the same language. “Incubus. I meant incubi.”

She blew out her breath and glanced at Kin, who was looking worried now. She wasn’t sure she could pull this off either.

“I wish Fenix was here,” she muttered in English. “He speaks fluent fae.”

“Fenix.” The unseelie perked up, his silver eyes bright with interest. “Fenix of the Incubi.”

It couldn’t be possible.

“You know him?” She grimaced when he looked confused and repeated it in the fae tongue, hoping she got it right.

He nodded. “Fenix of the incubi. Bears my brand.”

“Bears your brand?” Her eyes widened and she gripped Kin’s arm as she looked up at him and switched to English. “He does. Fenix has a brand. On his arm.”

She looked at the fae and pointed to the area on her right forearm where she had seen the mark on Fenix.

He nodded vigorously this time.

She couldn’t believe it. Of all the dark fae to run into, they had found one who might be willing to help them. Things were looking up. All she needed to do was convince him to help them and they could be home before she knew it and she could be out of this awful dress and could find a witch to remove her cuffs.

“Fenix.” She patted her chest. “My friend.”

“Friend,” he repeated in English and gracefully touched his own chest. “Archangel.”

“Archangel are seriously not anyone’s friends,” she whispered to Kin and he grunted in agreement. “Why would he think they are?”

Kin didn’t get a chance to answer that question because she realised she had gotten it all wrong.

“You met him there?” she said in English and then tried again in broken fae when the male only frowned at her.

When he still looked puzzled, she scowled at the silver cuffs around her wrists.

“This would be so much easier with my magic. One translation spell and I’d be able to talk to him without fear of saying something that might upset him.” She cast a look up at Kin when he turned to face her and loved the soft look in his eyes as he gazed down at her, his brow furrowing. She knew that look. He wished he could free her of the cuffs. She would get free soon enough.

“Magic,” the fae muttered. His black eyebrows knitted hard as his silver eyes pierced her. “Witch.”

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