Page 31 of The Belle and the Blackbird

The concern in his expression was short-lived. He reached forward and cupped her chin between his thumb and forefinger, then turned her face in silent inspection. Whatever he saw caused him to release her. “What didn’t you tell me that night?”

“Tyr—”

“Ana,talkto me.” His smooth, controlled anger melted away, and all she heard and felt in its place was sadness. “Iknowsomething is wrong. Iknowyou’re in trouble. And, Guardians help me, I should just walk away and forget you, but I’ve tried, and I can’t. I should take you at your word, but Ican’t.I know you. I know you better than you wanted me to, in spite of all your efforts to hide your world and all your troubles.” He slapped a palm against his chest. His voice broke. “If anyone knows how to disappear, it’s me. If anyone knows the temptation of closing out the world, it’s me. But...” His hand fell away and he hung his head, the resulting silence heavy. His mouth parted in anguished surrender.

It was foolish, and she knew it even as she reached for him, but the moment she kissed him, none of it mattered. Nothing mattered more than his warmth, so intoxicating and perfect that no fire could replicate it.

Tyreste moaned in frustration, fighting it only briefly before he had her in his arms, lifting her up onto the broken disk.

Ana unhooked her cloak and let it tumble down around her. Together they scratched at the thick layers of her gown, clawing it upward in a bunch at her waist. She couldn’t free him from his trousers fast enough, panting, kissing, and licking his face with every frantic tug.

Tyreste’s cry was loud when he entered her. He cradled her face in one hand, restoring the broken kiss, and braced against the stone supports on the well for purchase as he moved in sharp, hungered plunges, stretching her to fit him. Ana threw her head back as a voice inside of her screamed to stop, to run away before she was so weakened by love and yearning that all the hurt and the pain would be for nothing, and she’d lose him in a way not even magic could reverse.

With his forehead anchored to hers, Tyreste locked her gaze. His mouth hung with breathless huffs, and she matched his choice of language as his generous thrusts woke her up, ounce by ounce, inch by inch, the entire surface of her flesh humming with rebellion.

“Ana.” He whispered her name through a fissured grunt, which became an extended moan as he tightened and then shuddered against her, filling her and making her whole once more.

Still trembling, Tyreste ran his hands down her face in fraught passes, as though piecing together a memory. Her heart broke with every swipe of his palms... every recovered breath promising reality. He was laughing and crying, his expression shifting second to second, and she’d never seen a more accurate depiction of how she felt inside, all the time.

Ana had never asked the world to be fair, but she could not fathom how deeplyunfairit had been to her.

Bloated tears pooled in her eyes and spilled before she could angle her face away.

He made a choking sound and followed her face with his. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you, Anastazja. No trouble I’d stand down from. No evil I wouldn’t face head-on.”

She kissed both sides of his mouth and leaped off the well, tugging her dress down in a clumsy dance as she staggered away. “And that’s the problem, Tyreste. I can’t let you do that. Not ever.”

In her misery, Ana did something she’d never done before.

She shifted right in front of him and flew away.

Long after she’d gone, Tyr saw Ana morph into a majestic orange-and-yellow bird and fly away.Shiftinto abirdandfly away.

It wasn’t that he didn’t know she could, but she’d always kept that part of herself shadowed from him.I like to have some mystery between us,she’d said, and anytime their conversations had veered too close to what her life was like beyond his walls, she’d diverted him with giggles, kisses, and poorly disguised angst.

He stumbled back toward the tavern in a daze. He made it halfway before he realized he’d forgotten the kegs and had to turn around.

When he finally returned, he found Adeline flitting about the tavern floor, clearing tables and signing to the handful of patrons. They smiled and signed the few things they’d learned over the years—thank you, please, and very good.

Enjoying yourself? He shook his head.

Addy grinned and skipped behind the bar to hoist the broken keg off the shelf. He started lugging the two he’d retrieved into the back, but she shook her head hard enough to pull his attention again, then flicked a nod toward the corner.

Nessa was sitting alone, her face splotched with pink and hands tapping the table in nervous beats. He looked back at his sister, who shrugged and set the keg down long enough to sign,I can fill the kegs. Go talk to her.

Do you know how heavy they are when they’re full?

Was I not born in a tavern?

He locked her gaze with a playful glare that she matched with narrowed eyes. With a laugh, she grabbed the two kegs from him and disappeared into the back.

Tyr had been so caught in the exchange with his sister, his shock over the encounter with Ana had momentarily subsided. His groin ached from the unexpected interlude he couldn’t forget if he tried. The perfume of her permeated his flesh, delivering painful reminders with every breath in.

He turned his effort toward boxing those emotions on his way to the corner table. Among them was guilt, for it seemed Nessa had taken a fancy to him. He liked her, more than made sense coming off of a broken heart, but offering her anything more ardent felt beyond his present capabilities. It wasn’t her fault she didn’t stir the fire in him that Ana did. He had a history of desiring the very things determined to destroy him.

Walking too close to the flames had almost been the death of him once. If he refused the lessons offered, he deserved to burn.

Nessa was...

---