Page 115 of Fated or Knot

I closed my eyes to shut out how bright the world was. What I wouldn’t do for a glass of water to float up here, as my tongue was practically stuck to the roof of my mouth. As we waited, Fal occasionally checked in with me. All I could make back were noises.

He also tried to coax Jani out of the circle of wind. “I’m fine up here, Prince! This is fun. Besides, if she falls, I’ll catch her,” she said cheerfully.

Someone give this house moth a raise.

Eventually, there was a knock on the door. “I got it,” announced a different mothkin. I peeked through my eyelids to see Kauz enter the room with princely dignity. He sagged the moment the door was closed behind him.

“You’re going to the nearest bed after you help us,” Fal said to him rather than a hello.

“Mine, preferably.” The dream warden sounded exhausted. He tilted his face up and chuckled as he took in my predicament.

“Too much fae fruit wine,” Fal explained.

“I noticed,” Kauz said mildly. His color had mostly returned, except his eyes seemed stark white outside of his dream. Dark bruises bloomed under his gaze, making it look like he hadn’t slept in weeks.

Tanith squinted over at him. “Wait, what do you mean?”

Kauz motioned for her and Fal to lean in, murmuring too quietly for the words to drift up to me. They spared me the occasional glance before the dark elf nodded and went rummaging out of my line of sight.

“Sweetheart, look at me,” Kauz said, and I did, cracking a little smile. He may have been in rough shape, but he was awake. “You have self-control lessons for your magic in your immediate future.”

I nodded and tried to lick my dry lips to reply. That was about the time motion caught my eye. Fal stood a safe distance away, one of his arms cocked like he’d thrown something. A glass hit the ceiling a few yards from my head, just barely missing getting caught in my magic. The sudden shattering sound had me yelping and flinching away from it.

The startle ended my uncontrolled spell, and I fell, clawing at the air. I was already landing in Fal’s arms by the time my sluggish mind processed that I might’ve wanted to flap my wings. He brushed a bit of icing off one while I made an embarrassed mewl.

“I’m going to take care of you,” he murmured. “But I hope you know you’re never living this down,mo stór.”

33

LARK

Fal relocated me to a bathroom, presumably in his suites. He gave me a glass vial full of murky, greenish-gray liquid rather than some water. “This’ll fix you right up,” he promised.

I trusted him and drank it, then re-regretted all of my decisions last night as the potion hit my stomach, churned it, and turned it inside out. I threw up into his toilet—another wonderful human invention—while he held my hair back. Shockingly, I did feel a lot better once I was done, though I yearned for the ground to swallow me whole as this morning focused into better clarity in my mind.

“I take it you had a fantastic nixie night,” Fal said once it was done, not even teasing.

I was studying the white tiles in his bathroom. “Yes, it was great. This wasn’t,” I mumbled, my voice little more than a dry croak.

He knelt next to me. “You have to be careful with fae fruit wine. Those hallucinations hit before you realize you’ve drank too much, and you start wondering how you never noticed you have twelve fingers.” He turned his hands over, pretending toadmire them. I watched him out of the corner of my eye and cracked a shy smile.

“The walls were breathing,” I ventured.

He chuckled. “Then you drankwaytoo much wine. Were you trying to keep up with Siora?”

“She was pouring.”

“Of course she was.” He shook his head with a playful tisk. “This isn’t how I thought you’d first arrive in my bed, but I’m going to put you there to rest for a while. Thalas can train your magic once that hangover fades.”

“Thank you,” I sighed.

He had a sizable bed, too. It had a dark canopy supported by four posts, the fabric already drawn to block out most of the sunlight from a nearby window. He helped me rehydrate first from a couple glasses of water left on his bedside while I sat on the edge of his comforter. I glanced over my shoulder and then gave him a curious look. Kauz was asleep on the other side of the bed.

“I ordered him to go back to sleep. It’s a pack lead thing,” Fal explained quietly.

My eyes widened. “You can do that?”

“I only use it if it’s necessary. He dragged himself in here behind you but was in no shape to be awake. He’ll either wake up spitting mad and give me nightmares for a week or forget his anger in about five minutes.” He shrugged, unconcerned either way.

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