Page 52 of King of Death

I’d done a pretty terrible job of that up until now, I realised with sharp jolt through my chest. In fact, all I’d done since coming into Lonan’s life was cause him pain.

“You’re right.” My voice was hoarse, but I tried to mask it with my overly cheerful tone. “I’m not surprised they want to come here. Look at it. It’s beautiful.”

I smiled over at Lonan and he smiled back, but it looked a little wan, like he was already flagging under the hot summer morning sun. With a pang of panic, I quickly raised our linked hands to kiss his knuckles. “Anyway, today is our day. They can wait. We’ll find somewhere in the shade to have our breakfast, and then I’m going to teach you how to use a bow.” I gently bumped his shoulder with mine. “Gonna be weird teaching you how to use a weapon this time.”

He let out his husky chuckle. Such a rare sound. I soaked it in greedily and vowed to myself that I would do whatever it took to hear it many more times over the course of the day.

“I don’t know how you can do that.” I chuckled, watching in disbelief as Lonan bit directly into a chunk of honeycomb, thick rivulets of amber dripping down his long fingers.

“Why?” Black eyes met mine. “The texture?”

“No, the sweetness!” I laughed, popping a cherry tomato into my mouth. “It would make my teeth hurt.”

He shrugged, leaning back against the thick trunk of the old oak we were sitting beneath. “I like it.”

“I guessed,” I said dryly, then nodded at his glistening fingers when he set the honeycomb back down in its glass dish. “Now you’re going to be sticky all day.”

A dark brow rose as he sucked the honey off his thumb. My belly tightened at the sight, and I watched avidly as he licked up a drip that had reached the heel of his hand.

I glanced around quickly. A couple of guards had accompanied us out to the kingswood, but they were keeping a respectful distance so we could have some privacy. I’d almost lost my temper when I noticed one of them—a muscular woman with brown skin and bright green eyes—watching Lonan as they handed the wicker baskets over to us. I was constantly scanning faces when Lonan was around to make sure no one was sneering at him or glaring in disgust.

But this guard hadn’t been sneering or scowling. She’d even given him a tiny smile when he glanced at her, so I’d managed to calm down before I overreacted.

She and the other guard were just visible a distance away, casually talking as they stood in the shade under a tree. Still close enough to keep an eye on us though, so I willed my cock not to get too excited as I shifted closer to Lonan and reached out to grasp his wrist, making sure my back blocked him from view.

His dark eyes flared as I sucked a honey-coated finger into my mouth, and his voice was a little breathless when he murmured, “I thought you said it was too sweet.”

I popped his finger free and grinned. “But you’re the opposite of sweet, so it balances out,” I teased before sucking another finger clean.

Lonan’s eyes flickered over my shoulder to the guards. He pulled his finger free, but only to grip my chin with a sticky hand and tug me closer. I laughed against his mouth as he kissed me firmly, his tongue tasting of beeswax and honey.

“Don’t you dare get honey in my hair.”

His lips twitched. “And what will you do, Luad, if I do?”

Grinning, I got to my feet and held out a hand to help him up. “Maybe I will become an evil tyrant,” I joked, then glanced back at the guards to see them looking at us. “Just going to the stream,” I called so they wouldn’t come over.

We’d stopped by a stream to eat our lunch so we could wash our hands, having spent the morning practising archery. Lonan’s aim was already improving, but I’d seen him growing frustrated every time he missed the targets we’d brought with us. I kind of had an unfair advantage anyway because of my branch arm—I knew without a doubt that it had allowed me to learn quicker and aim steadier.

Kneeling on the mossy bank, I scrubbed the stickiness off my chin while Lonan crouched beside me and washed his hands. He swiped a wet hand over his face and through his hair, making the black strands gleam like an oil slick in the bright afternoon sun dappling through the tree leaves. I watched him from the corner of my eye, my lower belly swooping with the urge to pounce on him.

When was the last time I’d actually savoured the fact that I got to be so intimate with him? Sometimes, it felt like years had passed since that first week we’d been here together—those few days when we’d stayed hidden away in our room, completely consumed with each other. Before I’d even begun to comprehend the task ahead of me. Before the repercussions of everything that had happened had truly sunk in.

I remembered the pure relief of those few days. Having Lonan with me, knowing we were both safe, no longer needing to hide from bloodthirsty monarchs or jealous siblings or searching guards. Just the two of us. Just two young men in love—nothing more. Not kings or princes. Not seelie or unseelie. Not fae or mortal or something in between.

Those few days felt like the only time that we’d been allowed to simply be together.

I already missed them desperately. But that yearning was quickly followed by a sharp, overwhelming sense of terror. I’d been king for such a short time. This was only the beginning. I had years of this ahead of me. Decades. Centuries.

Would it always be this hard? Would I always feel this strange sense of disjointedness inside me, of wrongness, like the power that had transferred from the Brid was its own entity trying to take over, trying to swallow up everything that was left of me?

I was waiting for it to settle. Waiting for my emotions to stop feeling so wild. Waiting for my temper to stop flaring so murderously hot over the smallest thing, and for the obsessive thoughts about what the noble Folk or Balor or the Carlin or the staff in the palace were doing to stop spinning around and around in my head every time I had a spare moment to think.

They were starting up again now, I realised with a pang of fear. I’d been able to clear my mind for a while, to enjoy my morning with Lonan, but now all I could think about was that group of solitary Folk waiting to come onto seelie land. Where Lonan was.

What if they were unseelie spies? What if Balor had found a way to sneak onto seelie land and they were merely a distraction? There had to be something. What were the odds of them requesting a temporary invitation now, the morning after Morrin had told me about all the suspicious things happening in the woods?

My heart rate was rising, and I realised I was just staring blankly into the trickling water of the stream when Lonan raked my hair back from my face with a gentle hand.

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