Page 19 of Crownless King

ChapterSix

SPARROW

It took me a long time to fall asleep that night. I tossed and turned, kicking the sheets off, then pulling them back up to my ears.

The events of that day haunted me. The moment I closed my eyes, the images of Voron rose in my mind. The phantom sensations of his hard length in my hands and of his tongue between my legs sent shivers of pleasure through my body, but my mind remained troubled by it all.

I didn’t regret not returning to the human world. I just wished I understood the fae world better. More than anything, I longed to understand the man who was quickly becoming the entire world to me.

It rained that night. A real deluge with a storm. But I felt too lazy to get up and close the window in my bedroom. Eventually, I drifted asleep to the splashing sound of raindrops hitting the windowsill.

A deafening explosion of thunder woke me up. Then, the door to my bedroom creaked open. Groggy with sleep, I peeled my eyes open just as Voron sneaked into my room and quietly closed the door behind him.

“Voron?” I rubbed my eyes, utterly confused. “What are you doing here?”

He climbed onto my bed as if it was his own but stayed on top of the sheet I used for cover. It was so hot, even one thin sheet felt too much.

“Why don’t you lock your door?” He sounded grumpy, as if it wasmyfault that he ended up in my bed.

“Why don’t you stay on the other side of it, whether it’s locked or not?” I snapped.

“I wish I could.”

Wrapping me in the top sheet, he rolled me to him, then tossed his arm and a leg over me as if I were his body pillow.

“What the—” I tried to protest against being swaddled like that and even managed to free my arms from the sheet.

“Shhh.” He disarmed me with a gentle kiss in my hair. “Let me stay. Please. Just for tonight.”

He inhaled deeply, tucking me into his chest. His body relaxed against mine, his breathing evened out, as if all he needed to find peace in life was to have me next to him.

“Did you have a bad dream or something?” I asked, with my nose pressed to his naked chest. All he was wearing was a pair of thin linen pants.

“Something like that…”

His breathing deepened. He seemed asleep before I even could come up with another question.

* * *

When I woke up the next morning, Voron was gone. His scent still lingered on my pillow, mingling with the fresh after-rain air from the outside. But he was no longer in my bed. If it wasn’t for his scent and the dent in the pillow formed by his head, I could’ve believed his coming to my room last night was nothing but a dream.

“Voron went for a ride with Alcon,” Brebie informed me at breakfast.

He’d just come home after a grueling ten-day horseback trip that by his own admission, he didn’t enjoy. And he’d left again, already?

“A ride where?” I asked.

“Just around the estate.” She twirled her hand in the air vaguely.

“When will they be back?”

“He wasn’t sure. Probably after dinner, unless they decide to spend the night in the village. Oh.” Her voice lifted like it always did before delivering something she considered good news. “They took the scarf you made to give it to the barber’s kids. I told him to get you some more yarn, too.”

“Thanks.”

I couldn’t help the feeling that Voron was running from me. He’d searched out my company on a stormy night, but he was going to all lengths to avoid facing me in the daylight. Something kept him coming to me, over and over. But he fought it every time.

Maybe he was right, and itwasa war he was waging. Only I wasn’t sure who or what his enemy was, because it certainly wasn’t me. I’d told him we were on the same side.

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