Page 43 of Wingless Crow: Part 1

“No.” She shook her head. “As far as I know, he’s the only one in the entire kingdom. I’ve never heard of any other highborn without wings.”

“Of course you haven’t.” Libelle pursed her lips. “Because they don’t exist.”

But Voron did. I wondered how.

“Is that why he doesn’t party?” I asked.

“Gods know why.” Libelle made a face. “He doesn’t party, doesn’t dance, doesn’t fuck—”

“At all?”

How had Voron managed to avoid sex in this place where the very air seemed to be permeated with lust? I knew for a fact that he got aroused. Blood rushed to my face at the memory of the bulge in his pants he’d sported after “inspecting” me.

“Well, maybe he doesn’tfuck,” Dove argued. “But he’s not as cold and stoic as he wants us to believe.”

“What do you mean?” I asked quickly.

Maybe it was wrong to pry for intimate details on Voron’s life behind his back, but I soaked up every word about this man, dying to learn more about him.

Dove shifted closer, just as eager to share the gossip. “Susale, one of the ladies-in-waiting, was bragging just last week that she sucked him off after the ball a month ago, and that he returned the favor by going down on her that very night. She said he was great at that, too.”

Libelle giggled. “So great that Susale has been batting her eyelashes at him ever since. Except that he’s paid her no attention, going back to his austere, boring ways.”

“Weird.” Dove shook her head, sending her curls into a bounce. “It’s like he’s taken a hag’s vow.”

“Whatvow?” I asked, trying to keep up.

“Hags don’t care about sex,” she explained. “Just like Voron doesn’t.”

“There are no male hags, Dove. He couldn’t have taken the vow,” Libelle corrected. “Unless he isn’t male? But then, Susale would’ve told the entire court if he weren’t.” She furrowed her forehead, rubbing her chin in thought. “Unless Susale lied about the whole thing, of course.”

Dove propped her hands on her shapely hips. “If she lied, she wouldn’t be so eager to get her mouth wrapped around his cock again, would she?”

The blatant way in which Dove expressed herself clashed with her angelic look of white locks, full lips, and huge violet eyes. But it weirdly suited her at the same time, too.

“Personally, I now think nothing happened between them,” Libelle insisted. “Voron is so cold, his insides must be frozen. And his cock, if he has one, has probably long turned into an icicle.”

I remembered the way Voron had looked at me, both with my clothes on and off. It had not been cold or disinterested. It had, however, been the look of a man who kept his desires in a firm grip of control.

A flapping of wings announced yet another arrival. I ducked as a large, black bird flew over my head from behind.

“Speak of the Lord of Under, and he’ll appear,” Libelle muttered under her breath.

ChapterEleven

SPARROW

At the sight of the black bird, Dove unfurled her wings of pristine white. “We’d better go. I’ve no desire to run into the High General right now. We’ll see you at the king’s dinner tomorrow, Sparrow.”

A dinner? It was the first time I’d heard about that. I didn’t get an invitation. But maybe as the “king’s favorite” I didn’t need one to attend?

“Sure,” I said, wishing I could fly away with them. The prospect of running into Voron unnerved me for reasons I didn’t care to analyze.

As the women took off, the black bird made a wide circle overhead, then landed on the back of the nearby stone bench.

“And what areyoudoing here?” I asked the bird.

“The same thing you are,” the familiar deep voice sounded behind me. “Getting some fresh air.”

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