Page 16 of Dark Hunter's Touch
“And fairy princesses too.” She looked away from him. “It wasn’t me that led him to the queen—but it could have been. Itwould have beenanother like him if I’d stayed. Because the queen asked me to bring more hungering, craving souls like his to the court for her pleasure. But I… I couldn’t. Iwon’t.”
“And if the man wanted a fairy princess?” He flexed his arm, tightening his grip on her.
“Yes, some fae take human lovers, but this man wasn’t just enthralled. He was…empty. The queen had taken everything from him.”
“She killed him.” Vaile kept his voice matter-of-fact.
Olette shook her head. “All that remained was a husk, but he lived, if you want to call it that. She was still working with her glass knives and burning steel when I arrived, and she spoke aloudas she took the man apart. She was saying,And this is his heart, which we will call love, because we save the cock for other uses.”
Vaile winced. “What use is that? No, I don’t want to know.”
“The chancellor keeps a dozen stolen smart phones, and he was so thrilled to show me pictures of what they had done to enhance the queen’s power. They had taken the man’s spleen to render down for anger, a lung for laughter, his leg for fear because the chancellor said cowards run.” She tucked herself tighter against him. “That is when I knew I would run. I looked into the man’s eye—they had plucked out one, and all I can think is the eyes are the window to the soul, and they took his soul—and I saw he knew what he had lost. That man was losing himself, as the faehave already lost themselves. As I will lose myself again and become the nothing I feared.”
“Olette—”
She surged up to kiss him, hard. “When you say my name, I think maybe it is possible I could be more, with you. But I won’t risk you.” She kissed him again.
When she lifted her head, he smoothed back her hair. “Skin to skin, we can’t lie, you said. I see there is something more in you. You have something they don’t. You feel something they can’t. Or won’t. That is why they want you back.”
“That is why I am doomed.” She tried for a wry smile and failed.
“Olette…”
“You made me happy. You don’t have to save me too.” She stroked her fingertip across his lower lip when he would have argued more. “Till tomorrow.”
She opened her wings over them, and a delicate swirl of her aphrodisiac drifted around them. He closed his eyes at the rush of pleasure, not just at her touch but at her happiness.
And he awoke to a tickle against his lashes, light as a fairy’s kiss. He smiled slowly and opened his eyes.
Above him, the morning sky gleamed pale gray between the coils of ivy that framed his resting place. The soft mist sifting down between the leaves—too fine to register on his skin, just heavy enough to remind him of fairies and kissing—had wakened him.
Where was the damn roof?
And where was Olette?
***
Vaile prowled the boundary of the tiny island. Shallow creeks encircled the area, just as she had said, but the cottage where they had spent the night was mostly a crumbled ruin. The hole over the bed that had let in the rain was one of many, and the bed itself was a pile of pine boughs and damned ivy.
All an illusion—and not one she had cast since she said she wasn’t that powerful. No, he had seen only what he wanted to see.
He cursed low under his breath, little more than a growl. What else had been a lie? Her story of running away from her heartless brethren, of wanting only tofeel? What about her breathless cry as he had sunk into her?
He scratched at a tender spot on his shoulder. It was probably just a rash from the pine needles. Maybe she had never dug her nails into him while she whispered his name.
A glint of gold lured him to the picnic table where they had stood, watching the wisps. Time and rot had eaten through the boards of the tabletop to reveal the cracked concrete patio slab underneath.
At least the chocolate had been real.
He devoured the rest of the bar and crushed the foil into the pocket of his jeans—her jeans. The scent of her was also real, lingering deep in his skin, rare and precious.
A faint imprint of slender bare feet led through the moss across the bridge. The cherry blossoms lay undisturbed—pink and still in the spiral where they had fallen when their sustaining breeze vanished. There, the footprints disappeared.
Olette had disappeared.
He spun the ring on his forefinger. Set in the brushed steel band, the blue stone he had kept turned toward his palm looked dull under the sullen sky. He breathed in the fragrance of her again, his pulse accelerating at the memories, false though they might be.
From the depths of the rare blue amber, a cat’s eye gleam sent a ray of light across the smooth surface. He pointed, aligning his fingertip with the arrowing glint of light. That way.
