Chapter 25
B ack in the bedroom, high on faerie fruit, I wrap my arms around myself, stroking the flesh just below my shoulders. The door jangles, and I freeze.
The scent of lavender and bergamot fills the room. Dae closes the door behind him and leans against the opposite wall, hiding his hands in his pockets. He crosses his legs, his usually sharp, playful eyes are glazed over. His lips part slightly, and he stands impossibly still.
“What do you want?” I finally ask, hugging myself against the spring chill.
Dae takes a step towards me, invading my space. I flinch back. “Tell me something, Elly.”
“What?”
“Just… something. Tell me something that’s mine. That I can keep for myself. A secret no one else knows. Something just between me and you.”
“Dae, go to sleep.” I sigh, the pomegranate blurring my vision. At least he isn’t punishing me for trying to destroy his painting or for Obi. Not that he’s really the punishing type.
“Please.”
“It’s late. I’m tired. Just go away.” The words are all there, but the drugs are making me pliant.
Strong legs quickly stalk towards me, covering the distance in the room in seconds before pressing my body against the back wall. Long fingers gently graze down the sides of my face, and I shiver. Honey and secrets lace his breath and the hair on my arms and neck rise. I wonder what the thick, hard part of him pushing into my hips tastes like. Biting my lip hard, I try to shake the creeping thoughts out of my muddled brain.
“Please. I want something that’s yours. Tell me a secret.” His whispered words stir my hair as he runs a finger down my throat. Digging my nails into my palms to stop them shaking, I rest my head against the wall and gaze up at him.
I feel jealous of the clothes he wears. Jealous of the lavender leaves swirling around his hands. Jealous of Kaya, of Shiva.
I arch my back, pressing my hips against his firm body, and his nostrils flare as he shakes. He leans forward, his forehead drawing in close to mine.
No. God, what’s wrong with me?
With lifted hands, I shove against his chest, hard. His back hits the floor as his eyes lift to make contact with mine, lips pulling back into a snarl.
For a moment, a very small, fleeting moment, my shoulders tighten as genuine fear spikes through me.
“I said no.” I press myself hard against the wall as he leaps up from the ground and plants his legs wide. “Now, go to bed or get out. Or give me another room.”
Dae’s gaze darts down to my shaking hands, then back up at my face, a frantic shine flooding his eyes.
Tapping fingers beat frantically against his leg as he takes a slow, deliberate step forward. Recoiling, I turn my face away. All the air is sucked from the room, the deep spring chill pressing in firmly against my skin. I close my eyes against the all-consuming rage tearing through my childhood friend.
Dark, cold eyes. Snarling lips. Bared teeth. His horns cast a shadow across the room.
The surrounding air vibrates, turning light and free. The room opens up as the ever-present cloying smell of lavender is replaced with a nostalgic breeze—freshly mown grass and birthday cakes. Vibrating air compresses itself deep into my lungs and against my body, squeezing me, wrapping around me, almost like a hug.
“I could make you tell me something.” He takes another step, eyes bright as his cheek twitches and his features sharpen. The shadow his horns cast falls on my breasts, almost stroking them.
I filter through all my favourite secrets, searching for the best one.
I want to purr. Instead, I only wait.
Dae’s hungry eyes consume me, his hands balling into fists as his arms shake with tension.
The vibrating air dissipates.
The temperature plummets.
And I’m left wanting to throw up all over his stupid, weird, brown, old-fashioned shoes. Shoes made of bark and twine and held together with string. Shoes that cruelly remind me, again, that this isn’t my world. I’m in the wrong place.
Sticky sweat crawls across my skin, as though I’ve run a hundred miles in a leather jacket, then suddenly stopped running and taken the jacket off. “What the fuck was that?”
Dae doesn’t give me a second to react. He swings the door open and storms out.
I stand, shivering, clutching my skin and my secrets as tight as I can.
The fruit—it’s like the first time, in the forest, when I lost myself and ate the apple. The fruit gives him some kind of control. Running to the bathroom, I stuff my fingers down my throat. I want my control back. I need it.
The mist still exists. Whether Obi is there to create a distraction or not, the mist is still there. I try to shake off the invisible spiders crawling all over my body.
Dae killed the mouse-boy for me. Maybe that’s incentive enough for the other guards to leave me alone.
Tomorrow, I’ll try again. Whatever is waiting there for me is better than this.
Maybe, if I’m fast, I can just run my way out of here.