Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Arguing voices drift through the air. I scowl in annoyance and nestle closer to the warm, muscular body next to me while exhaustion tries to pull me back to sleep. A familiar scent, like night mist and embers, fills my lungs with every breath. It feels so natural. So—
I jerk upright.
Morning sunlight streams in through the cave opening and illuminates the dark gray stone around me.
That sense of familiar comfort is immediately replaced by panic.
Mabona’s tits, I must have passed out. I was up all night, using my magic to take away Draven’s pain. But my own body must have given in to exhaustion eventually.
Blinking against the sudden light, I snap my gaze to the warm, muscular body that I was nestled against just moments ago.
Draven is still lying on his back, his chest rising and falling with a steady rhythm. The slashes across his chest and the holes in his side have stopped bleeding. But they’re still awfully deep. Even with his rapid healing pace, one night wouldn’t be enough to fix something like this.
My gaze flits up to the source of the arguing voices that woke me up.
Orion is sitting on the ground, inspecting the slash across his thigh, which looks to have mostly healed.
I glance down at the arrow wound in my side to find it almost fully healed as well before I return my gaze to Orion.
Only a step away from him, Isera is shoving her legs into her pants.
The black leather rustles and creaks with her angry movements.
“I don’t know why you’re so upset,” Orion is saying, a sly smile curving his wicked mouth. “You’re the one who was cuddling me.”
Isera shoots him a glare so cold that it almost gives the entire cave frostbite. “I was not cuddling you.”
“You had your arms around me.”
She yanks her pants up. “I was trying to push you off.”
“You were also lying with your cheek against my chest.”
“Because when I had my back against you, that tiny little dagger you keep in your underwear was poking me in the back.”
Orion’s mouth drops open, and incredulity pulses across his face. “Tiny little dagger?”
While buttoning her pants, she gives him a taunting look of challenge. “Yes.”
He shoots to his feet. And then winces when it makes his not fully healed wound stretch. He shakes his leg slightly as if to make the pain disperse.
Still only in his underwear, he draws himself up to his full height.
It’s the first time I’ve seen the Unseelie King in this state of undress, and I have to admit, it surprises me how toned his body is.
In contrast to the almost slightly feminine beauty of his face, his body is made up entirely of lean muscles.
It makes him look lethal. And he towers over Isera as he advances on her.
“You take that back,” he demands, prowling closer.
Isera, who had bent down to pick up her shirt, is forced to abandon that mission and instead scramble back to avoid being mowed down by him. She has barely managed to stand up straight again when her back hits the cave wall.
Orion places one hand on the wall next to her head and leans closer, his eyes glinting dangerously. “You know full well that there is nothing tiny about it.”
With an arrogant expression on her features, Isera tilts her chin up to lock eyes with him. A wicked smile spreads across her lips. “Did I hurt your feelings, pretty boy?”
He clenches his hand. “Take it back.”
“Fine. It was slightly above average size.”
“You—”
She snickers and shakes her head. “So insecure.”
With his hand still on the wall, he lifts his other and traces his fingers over her throat while he rakes gleaming eyes down her shirtless chest. Then he locks eyes with her again and flashes her a lethal smile.
“I excel at toying with people until they’re on their knees begging for mercy.
Are you sure you want to start playing this game with me, little viper? ”
“Start playing?” She arches an eyebrow at him and matches his dangerous smile with a villainous one of her own. “We’ve been playing for months already.” Lifting her hand, she gives his chin a condescending push upwards. “Keep up, pretty boy.”
Then she ducks under his arm and saunters back to where her shirt is waiting. Orion just remains standing there for another few seconds, his hand still on the wall, as if he can’t believe that she just outplayed him like that.
Then he sucks in a sharp breath between his teeth. “Her?” With a groan, he throws his hands up in exasperation. “Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me!”
“Would you keep it down?” Draven suddenly growls. “Some of us are still busy trying not to die.”
I gasp. Whipping my head back down, I find Draven blinking his eyes open and then squinting against the bright morning sunlight. Relief washes over me like a warm summer wave.
He coughs, scowls, and then sweeps his gaze over his surroundings. “We crashed?”
It’s half statement, half question, so I answer, “Yes. Last night.”
His attention shifts to me. For one perfect second, he is looking at me like he used to.
Then his mind, or rather the unnatural flame of hatred in his chest, catches up and a jolt goes through him.
He tries to sit up, as if to scramble away from me.
But pain flashes across his features the moment he tries to move, and he collapses back down on the rough stone floor.
“Careful,” I snap at him. “Or your wounds are going to start bleeding again.”
He huffs and tries to glare at me, but it’s ruined by another jolt of surprise when his gaze slips down my body. Drawing his eyebrows down, he grinds out, “Put your fucking shirt back on. I don’t want to have to look at your naked body right next to me.”
“I would.” I shoot him a stare full of challenge. “But my shirt is currently protecting your cock.”
He snaps his gaze down to his crotch. Stunned silence echoes between us as he stares at the ripped-up shirt that is currently tied both around his wounds to help stop the bleeding, and around his hips to save him from having to lie here completely naked for all to see.
For a moment, I can’t read his expression at all.
Then he rubs a hand over his face and sighs, “Fuck.”
Dropping his hand, he tries to sit up again, but it just ends with him sucking in a sharp breath between his teeth and then collapsing back onto the ground.
Still on my knees next to him, I try to keep my expression neutral since I know that if I push for an idea too hard, he is going to reject it just out of pure spite.
“I can give you my magic,” I say in a casual tone. “So that you will heal.”
His gaze snaps back to me. “I don’t want anything from you.”
Grinding my teeth, I suppress the sudden urge to strangle him. It’s starting to get increasingly annoying to try to have a conversation with him when that wildfire of hatred in his chest constantly defaults to arguing with every single thing I say.
“When is Grey coming back?” Draven asks, turning towards Orion instead.
The Unseelie King, who is halfway through getting dressed, pauses with his shirt in his hand and meets Draven’s gaze. “I instructed him to open three portals during the night, and if we weren’t there, his orders were to return to our court.”
“So he’s not coming back then?”
“That’s what I said.”
“It wouldn’t even matter,” I interrupt. “Because we wouldn’t have been able to get all the way back to the edge of that forest with you in this condition.” I lock hard eyes on him. “You need to heal.”
He clenches his jaw as he glares back at me. But he apparently can’t think of any logical arguments to refuse, because in the end, he just forces out an annoyed breath. “Fine.”
“Tell me what to do.”
“You’re not wearing iron, so I can’t just take it from you. You need to give it to me willingly.”
“And how do I do that?”
“From what I’ve read, you’re supposed to open the gates to your flow of magic and release your grip on it or something.”
“What does that even mean?”
“How should I know?” he snaps, scowling up at me. “I’m not fae.”
“Fine.” I sigh and flick my wrist. “Open the gates and release my grip on it. And then what?”
“Then you breathe it into me while you…” He trails off and looks away.
“While I kiss you,” I finish for him.
His angry gaze snaps back to mine. “Having your lips close to mine will suffice.”
“We’ll be outside,” Isera suddenly announces.
“No, we won’t,” Orion says, and gives her an incredulous look, as if he wouldn’t miss prime entertainment like this for the world.
She slides ruthless eyes to him. “When we crashed, your crown flew off your head. I left it out there in the dirt.”
His hands shoot up to his head, and his eyes grow wide when he realizes that the crown is indeed not there. Revenge flickers in his eyes as he holds her stare. “The things I will do to you…”
But he stalks out of the cave to retrieve his precious crown anyway. Isera lets out a smug chuckle and then follows him, leaving me and Draven alone.
Nervousness suddenly flutters through my stomach like butterflies. I clear my throat a bit awkwardly before turning back to Draven.
“So…” I begin.
“Just get it over with,” he grumbles.
Swallowing, I give him a nod and then push up from my place next to him. Alarm pulses across his face when I instead swing my leg over his body so that I’m straddling him.
“What are you doing?” he presses out.
“Getting into a position where I can place my lips over yours.” I arch an expectant brow. “Since you can’t even sit up, this is the only way.”
Well, it’s not actually the only way. But I have ulterior motives.
He scowls, as if he can see right through me, but all he says is, “Just do it already.”
Bracing my palms on the cold stone ground on either side of his head, I lean down over him and slant my lips over his.
A sharp breath escapes his lips.
And there is another tug on our mate bond.