Page 53 of A Deception of Courts

I thought the drink would’ve helped my racing mind, but it only made the anxieties worse.

And I had not had a decent night’s sleep since the prison break. Not with the invading dreams that greeted me every time my eyes closed. I hoped tonight would be different with all the alcohol that danced through my veins.

Although the idea of dreaming displeased me, I couldn’t survive to see Jesibel there again.

“Here.” Duncan offered me my mug of ale, which I gladly took from him. I inhaled the scent of buttery honey mixed with the sharper undertones of clove. I gulped down the remains of mine, relishing in the numbing sensation that filled my throat and spread like wildfire through my insides. All the while, Duncan continued to watch me with the same look of concern he always seemed to relate to me.

“Don’t look at me like that,” I said, lips glistening with ale.

Duncan took his thumb and swept a dribble which escaped the corner of my mouth. He traced it over my lower lip. The sticky residue only lasted a moment before he dipped in close and pressed his lips to it.

He exhaled into the kiss and I pushed in closer, deepening it until my body hummed with want for him. The empty mug was forgotten as my hands ran down the length of his arms, fingers rising and falling over mounds of muscle.

I recognised that my touch caused the dark hairs across his forearm to stand. My fingers traced softly until I reached his wrist and they tangled in metal. As soon as I touched the thin iron chain wrapped around Duncan’s wrist, I felt the drawing pull of my innate power fall away from me.

My stomach jolted up into my throat. I tore my hand away as though lightning had struck it. Which would have been a better feeling than the draining power of iron.

“You are giving me a look that I’d rather you didn’t,” Duncan said, lips bruised pink from our kiss. His dark eyes glanced down at the cause of my reaction. He winced as he recognised the iron bracelet. “I don’t want for you to worry about me, Robin.”

“Well, I do.” Ice cracked in my bones, fuelled by my anger. I recognised the emotion for what it was and didn’t hide away as the feeling devoured me. “But if you wish to lighten the load on my mind, then do yourself a favour and face the powers you have been given. Hiding behind iron is not the answer.”

A deep sadness glazed across Duncan’s eyes, darkening them to pools of almost-black. He glanced down at his wrist again, wincing to himself. The iron bracelet stood out as something that didn’t belong. And it didn’t. I wished to tear it from him and allow him to face his truth. His new truth.

“I don’t trust the person the iron keeps contained. This power isn’t a gift. It was forced upon me. What it stands for, what I am… it ties me to Aldrick, and that sickens me.”

“How can you say that when you don’t allow yourself to even know this new version of yourself?” I asked, watching my question sink deep into him. “What you did in Lockinge, it is the type of power that will come in handy in the days to follow. No, you didn’t ask for it, but what better excuse than to turn it against the man who changed you?”

My hands shook with the desire to touch Duncan again. I shifted across the short distance that had grown between us and eradicated it completely.

“I’m not ready, Robin.”

“Trust me, that’s a feeling I know all too well,” I said, taking his hands and gripping them as though he hung from the edge of a cliff, and I was all he had to hold to keep him from falling away from me. “Listen to me, Duncan. I want you to hear properly what I’m about to say to you.”

The scar down the side of his face flexed as his expression hardened into something of focus. He lifted his eyes to mine. They alone had the power to send a powerful buzz of lightning through my blood.

“You have my full attention always, darling.”

“Good. Then you’ll have no excuse to disregard my words again.” I cupped his face in my hands, feeling the sticky warmth of his skin. His cheeks mushed slightly beneath my palms, but I didn’t stop.

“Duncan, I understand you have been through a transformation you never wanted. I know what it means to you. This feeling is only something else we have shared. But not all change is full of fear and dread. I had to learn that the hard way. The blood that brought you back from death, that gave you another chance, is mine. I’m in your heart, just as you are in mine. Always and in ways that no one else can understand. Not anyone in this realm nor those that wait beyond the veil of time. The power does not link you to Aldrick, it knots you tome.”

Slowly, the mask of steel that Duncan had erected crumbled. His brows softened, his forehead folding with lines. His beautifully carved lips parted. A strand of his chestnut-brown hair fell over his eye as he shifted in his seat. I reached up and brushed it away, tucking it neatly behind his curved ear.

“With everything I’ve done in my life, I can say confidently that I don’t deserve you. But I am selfish enough to admit I’d never let you go either.”

“Be selfish all you want.” I leaned in. “I’m not going anywhere.”

There were many things I loved about Duncan. Namely how close he made me feel to my own parents. I’d not told it to him before, happily keeping this feeling as my own little secret, but I coveted the ties of our story to theirs. Hunter and fey; two odds falling for one another. One day I’d tell him the importance of our differences. Of course, he knew about my father and mother, but not the echo of how his physical presence was such a daily reminder.

How he made me feel was like ripples across a lake when a stone was thrown onto its calm surface – Duncan was the stone.

“Is this the perfect moment for me to carry you to bed?” Duncan whispered, breath tickling my face.

“Take the bracelet off,” I replied. “Then I’m all yours.”

Duncan spluttered, exuding a deep chuckle that warmed my skin from the chill of the Icethorn Court that invaded our tent greedily. “Is danger one of your kinks, Darling?”

“If I feared you, then yes. But I’m not scared of you, Duncan. Not before and certainly not now.”

---