Sent To A Fantasy World and Now All the Men Want Me #6

Chapter One

The Adventure Continues, Post-Cliffhanger

“I usually get a warning before that happens.” I wiped at my now messy cheek.

Fane leaned against the counter with such a disgusted look on his face you’d think I was mixing horse shit in the bowl instead of muffin batter. “You’re certain you’ve done this before?”

“Only about a thousand times. Give or take a few hundred,” I answered.

A deep ache spread through my chest as I thought of my men.

Days without them felt like years. And now, Lake was gone too.

Roughly an hour had passed since he’d left with the party of warriors to find our men and bring them to the Shadow Realm.

To distract myself from the billion and one worries rolling through my head, I’d gone to the kitchen to bake something. My sanity depended on it.

“When do you think Lake and the others will be back?” I asked.

“Not for several hours.” Fane lost some of his surliness as he looked at me. Grass-green eyes were paired with lavender-colored hair, and black horns curved back from his head. “Once passing through the barrier to the outside world, they must then travel deeper into the forest, avoiding detection.”

“During a thunderstorm no less,” I added, glancing toward the rain-splattered windowpane. Thunder rumbled on cue, as though taunting me. “Lovely.”

“A little rain never hurt anyone.” Fane returned his attention to the batter. “You should be more concerned about the slop in that bowl. Do you truly expect anyone to eat it?”

“Just you wait.” I wagged the spoon at him, accidentally flinging specks of batter in the process. “Once this slop is baked into delicious muffins, you’ll be begging me to teach you the recipe.”

He scoffed. “I find that unlikely.”

Fane was such a grouch. Not the first one I’d encountered as a magnet for stubborn, grumpy men, but I’d win him over eventually. One way or another.

I distributed batter into the muffin tin and popped it in the oven. A fire rune glowed from inside the appliance. This world didn’t have electricity like the one I’d come from. Instead, magical runes and elemental crystals powered everything.

“Are you truly a member of the royal family?” Fane asked.

I nodded. “My dad was a prince.”

His brows shot upward. “I’m surprised you have your head.”

No clarification needed. Lord Onyx, before knowing whose blood ran through my veins, had said he hated the entire royal bloodline. Our families had waged war on each other for centuries.

“That makes two of us,” I said with a nervous laugh. “Seems I can’t go anywhere without someone wanting to either kill or capture me. Prince Cedric. The mercenaries from Nocturne. Considering the bounty on my head, pretty much all the knights and guards in Bremloc too.”

“The bounty?” Fane’s thin black tail drooped behind him. “Ah, right. They believe you poisoned the king.”

“Yep.” Something dull sliced across my heartstrings, painful but not sharp enough to cut through. “Mercenaries aside, everyone in Bremloc thinks I’m an evil mastermind who tried to kill the king. I can never go back.”

“For what it’s worth…” He cracked the faintest of smiles. “I’m happy you’re not dead.”

“Thanks.” I returned the smile, oddly touched.

Since meeting Fane, he’d seemed wary of me. He saw humans much like how humans saw demons, impulsively violent and wicked to their core. We were making progress. Tossing aside preconceived notions and letting our actions speak for themselves.

“I’ll make us some tea.” Fane retrieved a kettle and filled it with water. “I’m sure milord will want a cup soon.”

“How long have you worked for Lord Onyx?”

“Fifteen or so years.” Softness touched Fane’s green eyes.

“I started as a simple servant, mainly tending to the hearths and assisting in the kitchen. One evening, after finishing my duties for the day, I found him slumped in his reading chair and offered to bring him tea. I’ve been his attendant ever since.

A position I carry with the utmost pride. ”

“Slumped? Was he sick?”

He shook his head. “Milord was so engrossed in his novel that he lost track of time. Forgot to eat. I’ve since ensured he never skips a meal.”

“That sounds familiar,” I said, thinking of my Briar. He often got lost in his work and forgot to eat and take care of himself too.

Once the muffins were ready, I pulled them from the oven and set them on the counter to cool.

The air in the room stirred. Hummed with electricity, as though the lightning streaking across the stormy sky beyond the window had found its way through the glass.

“I hope I’m not intruding,” a smooth voice said from the doorway.

“Of course not, milord.” Fane bowed. “I was preparing your afternoon tea.”

“Later,” Lord Onyx gently told him before his red eyes shifted to me. “Might we have a word? In private.”

“Oh. Um.” Heat washed over my face and body. “Sure.”

The last time he and I were alone together, he’d pushed me up against the kitchen counter and spoke low in my ear, sending my pulse into overdrive. It was the moment I realized the truth. That he was one of my fated mates.

Well, I was like ninety-nine percent sure anyway. The clues added up. My body reacted when he was near, heating and tingling. With anticipation. With the desire to be closer. And there was also the scent that came with him; like cedar and woodsmoke.

“Come with me,” he said before turning and leaving the kitchen.

I sprang into step and caught up to him once we passed through the doorway. “Where are we going?”

He didn’t speak as we moved along the corridor, but I caught a curve to his lips.

The strong, silent types were nothing new for me. Maddox had been that way in the beginning. He still was sometimes, depending on his mood. But Onyx was different. His silence seemed to stem from an impish curiosity, as though intentionally dragging out the anticipation to gage my reaction.

“Here we are,” he finally said, leading me through a set of double doors.

Multiple senses were triggered at once. Sights, smells, and the shift in temperature—a touch warmer than the cooler air of the corridor.

Though the sky was overcast, light spilled in through the dome glass ceiling and wall of windows.

The gray hues of the rainy day emphasized the vibrant colors of the surrounding plants and flowers; bursts of green, purple, red, and yellow leaves.

“A greenhouse?” I asked.

“Yes.” Onyx veered to the left, guiding me along with him down a stone path lined with various florae and small trees. Water trickled from nearby. “I find it peaceful here.”

“Then you shouldn’t have brought me,” I said with an upward hitch in my breathing. “I’m loud and clumsy.”

“Oh?”

“Yep.” I sharply nodded. “I also have this condition where I ramble when I’m nervous or overly excited.

My mouth goes on and on, flapping about pointless things.

Sometimes, my thoughts fire off too fast for my mouth to follow and, instead of giving them time to form cohesively, I rattle them off as they come. ”

“Like you are now?”

“Uh.” I chewed my bottom lip. “Yeah, basically.”

“You said you do it when nervous or excited.” His red eyes lowered to my mouth, then trailed back up my face. “Which are you now?”

I swallowed the sudden tightness in my throat. “A bit of both, I think.”

“Fair enough.” A smile touched his lips. “Though I wonder which is strongest.” With long, deft fingers, he reached for my wrist and gently pulled me closer, bringing our bodies flush.

The warmth of his body caused mine to tingle. He had the potential to either burn me up or turn me to ash.

“Your heart’s beating so quickly,” he said. He ghosted his fingers over my jaw, leaving behind a tickle of cool air. “Like a hummingbird’s wings.”

Any response stuck in my throat. My thoughts jumbled, as though the nervous tugs in my belly had shot upward and wrapped around the gears that made it work, bringing them to a screeching halt. Being around him did strange things to me. One shared look and I unraveled like an Evan-shaped bow.

“Demon got your tongue?” Amusement glinted in his eyes. They reminded me of rubies basked in firelight, a rich crimson with notes of amber.

“Something like that.” My voice shook, much like the rest of me.

As we stood on the path, surrounded by the prettiest flowers, a sizzling sensation rippled through my veins. One that shot to the tips of my fingers, as though reaching for him.

Did he feel it too?

Thunder boomed like a canon blast, rattling the walls. The sound attacked my nervous system, as it always did. With a cry, I slapped both hands over my ears and pinched my eyes closed.

A soft touch landed on my wrist.

I opened my eyes to see Onyx staring at me with a gentleness that took me by surprise nearly as much as the thunder had.

“You fear storms?” he asked.

Nodding, I lowered my hands. “It’s silly, I know.”

“I don’t find it silly.” He withdrew, putting a gap between our bodies. “We all have something that we fear.”

“Even you?” The question came before I could stop it.

His red eyes tightened at the edges. “Even me.”

I wanted to probe further and learn what that fear was, but thankfully, I kept my mouth shut. He barely knew me. The last thing he’d do was tell me something that could potentially be used against him someday.

“Sit with me.” Onyx motioned to a bench ahead of us that was housed between fig trees and a stream—the source of the trickling water.

A few steps later, I plopped down and sat rigidly as he joined me on the bench. The space between our bodies hummed. I wasn’t sure which was greater: the urge to close that gap or the one that wanted me to run far away, screaming as I went.

“Gloomy morning we’re having, huh?” I stared up at the glass dome, mainly to have a reason to look away from him. “All rainy and stuff.”

“I like storms,” he softly said. “It’s proof that beauty can be found among the chaos.”

I looked at him, and my belly flopped when our eyes met. He’d been staring at me. “What made you want to bring me here?”