Page 35 of Crown and Dragon

“I don’t love how much we are clueless about in here.”

Marius growled in the way that meant he agreed.

“Do you realize you have five different growls in your vocabulary?”

He made no response except to shake his head and exhale.

“One tells the recipient to back off. Immediately.” Tahlia pressed a hand to her chest. “I love that one.”

“You do?”

“It’s delightfully scary.”

“You are very strange, my gorgeous mate.”

Tahlia couldn’t fight a smile. “Another of your growls indicates frustration with the situation at hand. Most would curse and swear in place of that growl.”

“How much longer is this incredibly informative lesson going to last? We need to focus, little salty.”

“Growl number three is for me.”

“Oh, yes? How so?”

She stepped closer and ran a hand up his thigh. He stopped, looked over his shoulder at her, and growled as the torchlight flickered in his eyes. Her body grew as hot as the flames lighting the labyrinth.

“Yes, that one.”

He started walking again, shaking her off. “It’s impressive that we can feel lusty at this dire moment.”

“Well, you know what they say about newlyweds.”

He frowned, eyeing her. “No, what do they say? Is this a human saying?”

“Oh, no, I don’t think so,” she said. “I don’t remember where I heard it.”

“Eh, why don’t you walk beside me? I don’t like you out of my sight like this.”

“All right.” She came up next to him and he lifted her hand. He sniffed her knuckles. “What is it? Oh, the blood. From the guard. I didn’t get it all off.”

His steps slowed, and he stared at her blood-stained hand, his gaze distant.

“Marius, what’s wrong?”

Chapter 16

Marius

Amemory of his sister flashed through his mind. She was screaming as a human cut her down outside their home. The human pirate slashed at her again and again and…

No, that wasn’t a memory.

It was how Marius had imagined her death all these years. She had been killed in that way, so the report said. But he hadn’t witnessed the crime. If he’d been there, he would have defended his sister and it would have been the human’s head on the ground instead of hers.

“Marius?”

He blinked the vibrant imagining away to see Tahlia’s eyes. Well, they weren’t her eyes, exactly. The Witch’s potion remained in place, rounding her irises. This was Tahlia’s human face, her human eyes. This was what Tahlia was without the half of her blood that was Fae.

His stomach rolled and he turned away, gasping. Gods, what was wrong with him? What did that have to do with anything? Why was he having pseudo-flashbacks?

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