Chapter Twenty-One
“Your face is pinched,” Zephyr said, tossing his sword in the air and catching it easily by its handle. They’d been in their practicing spot in the woods ever since waking. “You don’t want to look like you’re holding back vomit.”
Cricket pinned him with a glare. “How about you keep quiet? You’re the one who wanted to come out here with me. I offered to bring Juniper.”
“I know what Mistress Eliza threatened, but you’ve been working yourself ragged ever since the authorities left yesterday. You will hone in on your curiosity when you’re ready. Mistress Eliza brought you back from death, so she has no right to make you lose a place in the carnival. I know most of the performers would side with me on that.”
Would they? They may have vowed to protect her while she remained here, but she didn’t think they would forever, not when she was a way for them to lose coin and food in their bellies. “It’s not for her—it’s for me.” Cricket pressed her palm to her chest, feeling the rapid pulse of her heart. “Besides, if I stay indoors, I may never catch sight of the murderer if they decide to show up again. Perhaps I should wander around alone like bait on a hook.”
“Don’t be foolish,” he chided.
“Look, if I can at least get my curiosity down, then I don’t have to worry about it being a liability if I were to come face to face with the murderer. This is for me— I need this.”
Zephyr placed the sword on top of one of the rocks and sauntered toward her. He lifted her hands, then pressed his palms flat against hers. She could feel every line, dip, and callus there, his warmth tamping down her raw emotions. “Will you try something with me?” When she nodded, he continued, “Look into my eyes and focus on your breathing. Slow. In and out.”
Cricket licked her lips and locked her gaze with his. She took deep breaths through her nose, inhaling the piney scent of the woods.
Rustling stirred as Zephyr’s thick vines unraveled from his bare back and curved around them, creating a barrier that made her feel protected. But then she realized something. He hadn’t placed a leaf into his mouth, his feet weren’t bare as they touched the grass, and she couldn’t see any other plant touching his flesh.
“You don’t have a leaf hidden in your mouth already, do you?” she asked.
Zephyr shook his head and smirked. “It’s because I’m touching you ,” he purred. “I told you I’ve been feeling something inside you every time I touch you, and it started to make me wonder if your curiosity could draw mine out. It’s not death I feel inside you, but life. I feel the roses in your blood, pumping, aching to be set free. It’s your guilt, your melancholy, your fear, and every other harsh emotion you’ve felt that is making them resist. I’ve seen the single red one find its way out once, and I know you can bring it out again. You can make them all bloom if you don’t let your emotions consume you.”
Cricket couldn’t feel his curiosity the way he could hers, but oh did she wish she could. However, she pretended as though she did. Pretended she could feel his pull, that his vines were seeping beneath her flesh and grasping her roses. She watched as her skin became translucent, the layers drawn back to reveal her bones. When the scratching came, followed by the soft brush of petals, she kept her breath even. A bright crimson spot formed before a single rose blossomed at her wrist. Beautiful and ruby and shining like glass. Her heart slammed against her rib cage, and she let the power she held draw the flower back to the slumber it had awakened from.
Not breaking contact with Zephyr, she blinked away the tears pricking her eyes.
“Do it again,” Zephyr instructed. “Don’t let the darkness consume you, lovely Cricket. Think of something that makes you happy.”
Before she’d died, so many things made her feel happy, and since then, even if she hadn’t let herself truly feel them, there were more now too. The night and its brilliant, countless stars, the first day of winter, her mother’s cooking, her father’s teasing, dancing alone in front of a mirror, watching Anika paint, Bram’s politeness, Juniper’s kindness, Zephyr’s sweetness and banter. But at that moment, the way he’d said her name made her heart flutter the most. She honed in on that feeling and more. Dancing as a child, when there seemed to be no worries in the world, twirling and twirling, creating her own magical world, a world where she was weightless, free of all care. And she would fall to the floor in a fit of giggles, still consumed with delight from what she’d imagined.
A prickling sensation twitched within her, and she squinted, prepared for the dahlias when red roses broke through her skin, across her hands and arms. Red like cherries, the sweet floral scent caressing her senses. Beads of perspiration slid down the back of her neck as she attempted the final task, to draw them back in. They listened, tucking themselves away for now.
“I did it,” Cricket whispered, her chest heaving. She continued to hold Zephyr’s intense stare, the dazzling smile that played on his lips. “Because of your help.”
His smile turned lopsided, making him appear almost boyish. “Now, do it on your own, and I’ll watch. I promise I’ll keep you safe.” He took a step back, his palms breaking away from hers.
Cricket shook out her hands and breathed steadily, then shifted on her feet before focusing. Only this time, when the flowers came, the red roses were accompanied by black dahlias. She fished them back in as best she could, but a few dahlias lingered, so she placed a dried rose petal in her mouth, chewing until her arms were bare once more.
“That’s an improvement.” Zephyr grinned. “You’ll get it.”
They took a break to eat fruit and fish caught from the lake while drinking whiskey until she felt relaxed. Once they finished their meal, Zephyr brought her to his caravan to fill her locket with more petals. Earlier, Cricket had seen Juniper carrying a bag of props, but now both she and Stormy were nowhere in sight. She smiled knowing they were somewhere together.
“Are you ready for more?” Zephyr asked, placing his swords neatly on the wall.
“Depends on what kind of more.” She laughed. “But I’ll do a little more in here.”
He sat on the mattress and scooted back against the wall, then patted the spot in front of him. “Come here,” he purred, a wide smile spreading across his cheeks. “We’re going to bloom flowers wherever I tell you to.”
Cricket rolled her eyes, but as her gaze swept up his toned chest, to his strong jaw, to those shapely lips of his, she couldn’t deny his request. She lowered herself in front of Zephyr, shifting toward him until her back pressed against his firm chest, and she was settled between his strong thighs.
“I like you this close,” Zephyr whispered, trailing a finger down the column of her neck that sent a delicious shiver through her. His digit then skimmed across her arm, to her palm, and halted in the center. “Bloom a rose here.”
As she called on her curiosity, it didn’t listen. She couldn’t even get her skin to turn translucent. All she could focus on was his long finger, wishing it would touch her elsewhere, beneath the layers of her clothing. “I can’t,” she said, her voice husky.
He inched closer, leaning near her ear, his warm breath heating her cool flesh as he cooed, “I don’t like those two words coming from that beautiful mouth of yours.” His lips brushed her neck, and she gasped, her back arching into him as he softly nipped.
Light scratching prickled her skin before a deep red rose lifted from the center of her hand.
“See? You did it. Now, how about here.” Zephyr touched the dip between her collarbones, and Cricket’s mind drifted to flower petals unfurling during the spring beneath the blazing sun’s rays. Her skin tickled as a red rosebud broke through her flesh and opened. “Reel them both back in.”
Her body trembled slightly, beads of perspiration dotting her brow, when finally, her curiosity took the flowers away.
“Perfect. Would you like to try other places?” he asked, his voice gruff as his hand drifted to the curve of her hip.
“Yes,” she murmured. Please, she wanted to beg.
“Tell me if you don’t like anything I do, and I’ll stop,” Zephyr said, his fingers on the top button at the back of her dress.
“Keep going.”
One by one, he unfastened the buttons down her back, then peeled the fabric from her, letting it pool to her hips. He ran the pads of his callused fingertips across her stomach, halting. Her breaths remained even, just as he’d taught her, until three roses grew. With a smile, she tucked them away and lifted her body so he could bring the dress the remainder of the way down.
Cricket kicked the fabric away, and he chuckled, deep and lusty. Left in only her undergarments, she leaned back into him. Zephyr spread her thighs apart, and a cluster of rosebuds released, disappearing as fast as they’d come. She could barely breathe as she wondered where Zephyr’s fingers would venture next. A moan unintentionally left her mouth as his digits skimmed higher up her thigh.
“I’m restraining myself, and I think I may have to stop,” he rasped.
“Don’t stop,” she whispered, arching into him again and drawing his hand up so he cupped her mound over her undergarments.
With a growl, Zephyr lifted her and brought her into his lap so she now faced him. “Tell me you want me as much as I do you. Lie to me if you have to. I don’t give a damn.”
“I can’t lie. Not about this. I want you. Badly ,” she admitted. Her lips crashed to his, and she tasted whiskey and cherries. His fingers dug into her hips as the kiss deepened, fueling her desire. She rolled her hips forward while skating her hands up his chest. Not once had she ever felt this raw want, this need, to have someone, to have all of someone. He loosened her corset, then trailed sparks of heated kisses across her shoulders before he removed it. His intoxicating lips drifted to her neck, and while he kissed down it to her breast, she could feel every inch of him as his arousal strained against his trousers. When he took her nipple between his lips, she pulled him onto the mattress so they faced one another.
“I want to hear the sounds you make when your pleasure peaks,” Zephyr said before he dipped his hands into her undergarments. She couldn’t hold back a moan as his fingers moved against her, inside her.
Cricket reached between them and unlaced his trousers, drawing them far enough down to free him. His cock was like velvet in her hand as she stroked him hard, then harder.
His tongue found hers, and their mouths exquisitely caressed the other’s. His hand’s pace matched hers, growing faster as he circled her pearl until a pleasureful bliss stormed through her and she writhed from his touch. Another deep growl escaped Zephyr’s throat, his mouth claiming hers once more in a fierce kiss, his warm seed spilling between them.
“I don’t want this to be temporary,” Cricket breathed, having meant to keep the words to herself.
“Neither do I.” Zephyr pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, his eyes slitted. “Tomorrow, if you work just as well with your curiosity, I’ll make you come much, much harder.”
Even after allowing him to pleasure her, she still blushed at his words as she nodded with a content sigh.
For now, she still couldn’t use her curiosity on her own in the way Mistress Eliza wanted, only with Zephyr’s touch. But she could at least control herself enough if the murderer came near her.