Page 3 of Witch Queen

“Wanna talk about it?”

Nikolai stiffened a little. “Talk about what?”

Mae pursed her lips. “Stop trying to pretend nothing’s wrong. I know something’s eating at you.” Her expression sobered. “Considering everything you and I have been through, it’s hardly surprising.”

Nikolai clenched his jaw. “It’s not your problem to fix.”

Mae furrowed her brow. “I think you’ll find that it is. You are my consort, after all.”

Nikolai’s breath caught. With everything that had happened in the past few weeks, he kept forgetting the most staggering development of all. Mae had officially chosen him to stand by her side.

That realization warmed his belly and sent heat coiling through his veins.

“Oh.” Nikolai arched an eyebrow, his tone dropping an octave as he twisted to face her. “So, does being your consort mean I have zero privacy now?”

Mae blinked at his gravelly voice. The color that bled into her cheeks and the way her breathing accelerated told Nikolai she wasn’t immune to the attraction sparking between them.

“You are mine.” She caressed his jawline boldly before dancing her fingers down the column of his throat and his chest, her eyes bright with resolve. “Your mind. Your heart. Your body. Your soul. I will claim your everything, sorcerer.”

Nikolai’s pulse spiked.Shit.

He moved, his arms closing tightly around the woman who had bewitched him, his mouth descending upon hers. She responded with a fierceness that made his blood sing, her hands rising to clasp his nape and her body pressing against his like she couldn’t bear the distance between them.

The moan that left her throat ignited the fire smoldering inside him. He skimmed his hands down her back to her butt.

A blast of incubus energy rolled across the rooftop, startling them.

“I knew it!” Vlad Vissarion snarled from where he stood framed in the doorway, his tiger familiar at his side.

Nikolai and Mae reluctantly disentangled themselves.

Vlad glared accusingly at the witch. “I told you to fetch him for dinner, not violate his lips! And you!” The incubus’s slit-like gaze switched to Nikolai. “How about you do me the decency of not making out with her on my property?!”

“Technically, we’re not onyourproperty at the moment,” Nikolai pointed out.

“Really?” Mae said out the corner of her mouth. “You want to go there?”

“I own the damn building, shit-for-brains,” Vlad ground out.

Nikolai smiled. “You mean theBlack Devilsown it.”

“Wow,” Mae mumbled.

The incubus’s eyes flashed crimson. “She may have chosen you as her consort, but that doesn’t mean I can’t kick your ass, sorcerer boy.”

Nikolai lowered his brows. “I’d like to see you try.”

“Enough.” Mae sighed. “Let’s go in and eat. Tarang looks like he’s about to faint from the lack of calories.”

The familiar had rolled onto his back and was doing his best starved tiger impression. He yowled in agreement.

Nikolai and Vlad grumbled under their breath and followed her down the stairs and into the incubus’s glitzy penthouse. Unease twisted Nikolai’s stomach as he observed the casual way Mae and Vlad set the dining table.

He’d reluctantly agreed to move into the incubus’s apartment after he and Mae had left her family home in Flushing. After all, no one could deny her wish to keep Brimstone and Tarang together. The tiger had proven to be a source of comfort to the demon fox following Hellreaver’s destruction.

Still, Nikolai couldn’t completely quell his misgivings about their circumstances. Nor could he deny the ugly truth that had been gnawing at him since they’d showed up at Vlad’s place.

If I’m being honest with myself, he deserves the role of Mae’s consort more than I do. They both have demonic blood running through their veins. Whereas I am the son of her enemy and the man who betrayed her.

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