Page 73 of A Court of Sugar and Spice
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Lir and I cover about half the distance to the bridge before we find an enormous tree, nearly the size of a small, one-room cottage. Veins of glittering blue slither along its purple bark. There are several of its kind in the vicinity, but this tree split long ago, near the roots, and then seamed itself back together and kept growing. As a result, there’s a large hollow in its trunk.
Leaving our packs outside, the Prince and I climb into the space after he has checked it for crawling poisonous things. His movements are noticeably stiffer, wood grain beginning to show on his skin.
“Aren’t you glad I suggested a little blood session now?” I slide deeper into the hollow.
“I’d have thought of it before the crossing,” he says.
“Of course, Your Illustriousness. You always think of everything.” But teasing him isn’t as satisfying now that he has stripped his heart bare before me, revealed his doubts and his insecurity. I’d thought him aloof, supercilious, and stubborn. And I suppose I also thought him calm, confident, and perfectly capable of reclaiming his throne. He played that role well.
Maybe that’s why he acts so haughty. To disguise the fact that inside, he is wretchedly uncertain.
The tree hollow is an oval shape, and while there’s enough room for both of us to stand, it’s a bit awkward and the toes of our boots are jammed against each other.
“You should eat that candy now,” he says, low. “The one to disguise your scent. We’re already dangerously close to a horde of Unseelie, and once the smell of your blood hits the air, they’ll come for us.”
I reach outside the tree and fumble in Fin’s satchel until I find the precious spelled candy. It’s white with a green stripe down the center, thick and chewy. It tastes like peppermint and white chocolate.
“Can you still smell me?” I ask, settling back into the dark hollow.
Lir leans closer, inhaling along the side of my cheek. He presses his face into my hair, and my pulse quickens.
“No,” he says. “I can’t smell you at all.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“Hm.” His nose is still buried in my hair.
“Lir.” I press my hand to the back of his neck, pulling his face down to my shoulder. “Bite me.”
He resists, pulling back and looking into my eyes. “You have to stop that,” he says hoarsely.
“Inviting you to bite me?”
“Saying my name that way. It’s too informal. Too—intimate.”
“More intimate than you watching me touch myself?” I whisper. “More intimate than you coming all over me?”
The night is cracked with cold, but in the close air of the hollow, his breath is mine, and my heat is his, and desire swirls, fragrant and heavy, between both of us.
“Stop,” he says desperately. “Stop this.”
“Why, Lir? Why are you so afraid to admit that you want me? From what I’ve heard, plenty of Fae sleep with humans. There’s nothing forbidden about it.”
“But I don’t merelywantto sleep with you!” he bursts out. “Gods, I thought when you hid your scent I would get some relief but—it never ends, this battle I must fight when I’m around you. Remember when I said you smell like food and sex?”
“Yes…”
“To me you smell like more.”
My heart is fluttering, my pulse racing as if I’m wobbling on the edge of the Ravine itself, about to plummet into depths I don’t understand.
“Your scent,” he says. “It’s like nothing else I’ve ever encountered. It’s—it’s mine. It’smyscent. That’s the only way I can describe it. It’s not the way I smell, but it belongs to me, it’s—tailored to me, designed to be the one fragrance I can’t resist. That’s how I heard my father describe it when he found his Chosen. My mother.”
I freeze, hardly breathing.
“The royal Fae may encounter multiple potential mates with such a scent in their lifetime, or none at all,” he continues, his voice tight. “It is not a fated pairing, no forceful hand of destiny—but the scent draws two beings together. And if they should find love, they may become each other’s Chosen. It is a bond no others in Faerie experience, only the reigning ruler and their selected mate. And that bond brings with it a more exquisite pleasure, a more abiding loyalty, and a more fulfilling love than most Fae or humans will ever know.”
