Page 139 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

“It wasn’t his fault,” I say too quickly.

Caryan’s gaze snaps back up to me, his pupils flaring. “It wasn’t? He shouldn’t have left the clearing.”

I startle at the sudden change in his tone. Darkness teems around him, his wings are suddenly night-kissed.

“It was my idea. I needed a break and snuck away.” My wordscome breathlessly. Panic of a different kind is stealing my thoughts. The image of David; pushing itself into my mind.

“I tasked him with the solemn duty of watching and guarding you. He knows better than to let you out of his sight, especially now.”

“But he didn’t do anything. It was I who left him. And he just… followed me. I know it was foolish to run, and I shouldn’t have done it. I won’t do it again, I promise.”

“Won’t you run again?” He tilts his head then, stepping up to me, his wings a monstrous wall behind him. Nothing could have prepared me for his tone, vicious and scraping as he leans down to me. “I wonder—how does it feel? To eventually obey to my word to protect him?”

Something in me recoils at the sudden anger and bitterness, all tangled up in his voice. My heart restlessly flutters in my chest as I look back up at him.

“Why don’t you tell me how you want me to feel?” I whisper very quietly.

It’s the intensity of his gaze that triggers me. Changes me. Makes me aware again of how he just looked at me in that dress. Is looking at me right now.

We are all alone here.

I want to run from him. To hide.

Another part of me, though…

All I can suddenly think of is the way he looked at me last night.

The way he just kissed that woman. How she resembled me. And what… what would have happened if hehadbeen my hunter?

Briefly, I’m afraid of my own mind. Of the way he can read my thoughts, sense the reaction of my body.

His eyes darken, shadows in them guttering in answer.

I quickly look back down to the ground. For the length of a heartbeat, there’s only thrumming silence.

Again, he holds out his hand to me. This time, I take it and he pulls me up to him.

“Hold on tight,” is all he says.

Then his strong arms wrap around me, clasping me against his hard body. Reflexively, I do the same, hugging his torso when he spreads his wings wide and shoots up in the air.

The world blurs, my senses swim with the rush, my panic, the height. Caryan’s sudden closeness. His scent, invading me. The feeling of his hard, powerful body against mine… the land beneath us so small, so foreign, so insignificant.

Harmless. A star-strewn paradise.

I might be hiding my face in his neck. He might have tightened his grip on me ever so slightly.

A moment later, there’s the feel of soft grass under my feet. I instinctively step away from Caryan, not daring to look at him. Too afraid that he can read my confusion all over me.

It’s Riven’s voice that makes me turn. Then my gaze falls onto four fauns kneeling on the lawn, their heads bowed, their hands tied behind their backs by Caryan’s magic. A shiver rakes through me. One of them is the chef. He must be one of the fauns who grabbed me. I didn’t look at their faces.

My heart lodges in my throat as I spot too clearly in their aura what they expect to happen next.

“Take her to your rooms, Riven,” Caryan orders, his voice cold again.

The chef raises his head then, his blue eyes shimmering bright like the day sky. “It was a grievous error, my sire. We never intended any harm. It was just merrymaking. It is equinox and part of the tradition, after all. Please, let us atone.”

I just stare as Riven gently takes my arm to steer me away.

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