Page 44 of A Court of Hearts and Hunger
“He did that to you?” I gasp.
“He did many things. Until my older brother discovered us living in a tower deep within the Noxwood. My brother didn’t know I existed until that day. He took me away from my father, and I came to live with him in a town near Mallaithe. That was many years ago.”
“This is the brother Drosselmeyer stole?”
He nods. “My brother was full-blooded Unseelie. I look Unseelie, with this face, but he always suspected my mother was Seelie. The good kind of faerie, some would say.”
“I know what Seelie means.” I reach for him then, placing my open hand against his chest.
He pulls away, as if that simple touch is too much to bear. As if it means more than the act of pleasuring me with his mouth.
“You’re trying to confuse me,” he growls. “With your questions, and your touches, and your fucking scent—” He pulls on his gloves with stiff, angry jerks. “I won’t be toyed with, or diverted from my purpose. Lie down again so I can take your blood. And then you’ll piss into that jar before I return you to your cell.”
I obey him, inwardly berating myself. Touching him was a step too far.
Once again, I have gained ground with one of my captors, only to lose it. It’s like trying to climb out of a pit in the rain, while the walls turn into a muddy slick around me.
While the Rabbit takes blood from my arm, I distract myself by focusing on the new sensation between my legs, inside my body. It’s a warm kind of glow, a pleasant reminder of the repeated thrills I achieved on the Rabbit’s tongue before I went to sleep.
Between that and the dream siphoning, we shared something deeply intimate, whether he likes it or not. And if he maims, tortures, and kills me, at least I’ve experienced those beautiful sensations in my lifetime.
13
“I thought this kingdom would be dark and gloomy,” I tell Fin. When I glance back, the tunnel entrance has already closed behind us—a slope of earth studded with mushrooms the size of my fist.
“Why should it be dark, sugar?” asks Fin lightly. “The same sun shines on Seelie and Unseelie alike.”
“True. It’s prettier than I thought it would be.” I gaze up at the leaves, like thin sheets of translucent ruby glass with aqua veins. The trunks of the trees are bone-white, with corrugated bark that leaks blue fluid in various spots.
“That sap is exceedingly sweet, but it will steal your memories and give them to the tree,” Fin warns. “Don’t touch or taste it. And don’t step on those vines—they’ll snatch you up and squeeze you into a pulp.” He points to several glittering purple vines snaking through the blue-tinted grass.
“Why does everything beautiful have to be so dangerous?” I step over a vine, then shy away from the copiously leaking trunk of a tree.
“Danger is what makes beauty worth having, precious.” With a whir of his wings, he flies over a cluster of vines.
I narrow my eyes at him. “It’s not fair that you can fly. And if I’m Unseelie now, shouldn’t I have some sort of—oddity? A lizard tail, or dragonfly wings?”
“Do youwanta lizard tail?” He quirks an eyebrow.
“No! It’s an example,” I say primly.
“You’re not Unseelie, love, you’re of Seelie blood with Unseelie leanings.”
“If you think that’s best,” I say doubtfully.
“It is. That cover story will excuse any compassionate moments or slip-ups you may have.”
“Because I’m still learning to be wicked.”
“Precisely.”
“Maybe I need a teacher,” I muse. “Someone to show me how to do the most wicked, vile, debauched things.” I tap my lip with a finger. “Who could possibly educate me in that way?”
Fin dips in front of me, his feet skimming the grass, his wings a frenzied storm at his back. His golden eyes burn into mine. “Now is a terrible time to try seducing me, sweetness,” he says thickly. “We have a lot of ground to cover before nightfall.”
Of course he’s right. But I saw how he reacted to my new Fae glamour. He must be uncomfortable in those tight black pants of his.
“What if you came in my mouth really quickly?” I murmur, reaching for him.
