Page 22 of Dark Sun (Wicked Lovely 6)

Heat flushed Aislinn’s face.Exams!Her decision to take political science, history, and business classes was a source of awkwardness in the court, but Aislinn responded to outside schedules—and time in the mortal world. Unlike Leslie, Aislinn was slow at pursuing her studies, but shewasruling a court of impulse driven faeries at the same time. Leslie has pushed the faeries she loved away to take time to figure out what she wanted.

“What a mess I make of my life,” Aislinn whispered. “I can’t make it to my classes half the time, and I’m not sure what I’m to do about my murderous uncle. I thought the faery queen business was to befun?”

“Melodramatic much?” Seth teased, dismissing her stress yet again.

“Murderous. Uncle,” Aislinn repeated.

“Is the world ending?” Seth finally came into the room. “Tonight? Tomorrow?”

“No, but—”

“Have you already faced Winter? War?Death?” Seth sat on the earthen floor and pulled her into his lap. “Successfully?”

“Yes, but—”

“Life is change, Ash.” Seth brushed her hair back, as if petting her. “Seasons. People. Lives evolve. We all will change, and with centuries before us . . . change can be exciting.”

“He wants my throne. Urian. He wants to take it,” Aislinn said. Birds swept into the room, as if her upset was a thing they could chase away with wings and song. “My throne. My court.”

“Then you can demonstrate your power by way of the Hunt,” Seth said lightly.

He kissed her neck—and she melted. For everything that was wrong between them, this part they had figured it pretty well. And as much as it pained her to admit, maybe part of the problem was that she wanted more of this.

“Scary, sexy, faery lady . . .” Seth murmured between kisses.

“I am,” Aislinn reminded him, thinking of the way she felt when Bananach—the embodiment of War—was at her mercy. “I will kill for this court.”

“I know. It’s why you won’t lose the throne,” Seth said, words whispering across her throat. “But let’s talk about the things we can do while we wait on the Hunt.”

Aislinn laughed. Her panic, her sorrows, everything that felt like it would crush her was easier to cope with when Seth was lowering her to soil and flowers. Something about sex made her feel more powerful, more invincible. If she had her way, not a single day would pass without sex.

He made quick work of her jeans and blouse.

“Naked in the greenhouse, Ash?” he teased as he stripped. “Again?”

“I don’t know how it keeps happening. I start out wearing clothes, and it’s like they vanish when you get near me . . .”

“Thank goodness.” He tugged her panties off before setting about to removing any stress she’d once had.

When he paused, looking up at her from between her thighs, he said, “Eternity, Ash. That’s what we have now.”

The thought of forever like this seemed like exactly what she wanted. Happy, in love, and writhing in a greenhouse filled with proof that the Summer Court was strong again.

Aislinn pulled Seth upward, so he was on top of her and inside her. Sometimes it was very,verygood to be queen.

ChapterEleven

Katherine

Katherine spent the next week or two thinking back to the meeting with Urian—and wondering why meeting him had made the changes in her escalate. She felt like there was a whispering demand rising in her. She had to roam, go, meet people. She’d heard her own father’s angry words trying to explain that very need to her mother. It was part of what he was, part of what she was becoming, and it had come over her suddenly.

Since meeting Urian.

Katherine knew why it had sparked in her. Her faery aspects were becoming increasingly obvious, and she was hiding in her room as much as she could. Studying. Reading. Staring at the faery who had taken up position outside her current home like a beautiful, wild guard dog.

And ignoring him.

Thatworld, the world of the fey was hers too, but she couldn’t break her mother’s heart—or risk being captured by the faeries who tormented halflings.

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