Chapter 24 #2
“There are apparitions everywhere.” Faron breathed into her neck. “Don’t move.”
He pressed up against her as if he would take her right then and there. She could feel evidence of his desire to do so at her back. She tried to push against him, but he held her firm, one arm around her stomach and the other blocking her face from view.
A door down the hall burst open and a half-naked male stumbled out. “Fire! She’s on fire!” Waylon’s deep, silky voice called down the corridor.
The dark figure hesitated, then spun on its heel and rushed past the man into the room.
Waylon slammed the door shut and waved his hand at them frantically. “Go!” he called after them.
The door next to them opened, and Oona poked her head out. “Come!” She waved them over. “You must go!”
Tal twisted and pushed against Faron as he lifted and carried her into the room. He set her down once the door closed, and she pushed against his chest, swearing at him.
Egan paced the floor while Oona opened a window and waved them over.
“Flaming hells, what happened?” her friend asked.
“I’m going back out there.” Tal tried to step around Faron, but he blocked her advance. She stared at him, wishing he could see the hatred in her eyes. He had betrayed her, and here he was, interfering with her chance at revenge because of what? Jealousy? She wouldn’t let him stop her.
“The man you’re looking for is dead. They both are. You won’t find any closure tonight. We must leave now.”
“What do you mean they’re dead? Did you do this?” This could not be happening. She’d behaved. She’d spent weeks holding herself back from proving to her attacker, to herself, that she wasn’t some weakling he could take advantage of.
“You know I would never take that from you.”
She could feel his breath on her face and her anger grew when she realized she enjoyed it.
“My men found them an hour ago. The mage knows you’re here. He wasn’t at the incinerator. I got here just before the apparitions arrived, then paid the headmistress for her newest girl.”
Tal’s eyes burned into him, but Egan doused her anger with his sharp tone.
“Get over it, Tal. We had to get you out of that room, which, by the way, was guarded by someone playing with a gold coin. We never would have gotten to you or Oona before the mage did.”
Sweet Egan had never spoken to Tal like that, and it cut through her inner rage. She swallowed her pride, if only for the moment. She stepped up to the third-story window, stopping with her foot on the sill.
“Tal, there’s no time!” Faron warned. “Waylon can’t hold them off forever.”
“I’m not leaving. There’s a girl, younger than Egan. She’s a worker here. I’m getting her out.”
Faron swore, but Oona’s hand on her arm pulled her attention. “Go. I’ll protect the girl. We’ll get her out, but tonight is not the time.”
“No.” Tal refused to move.
“Bleeding hells, Tal.” He placed three coins into Oona’s hand.
“Tell your mistress to put her in a room for the night, and she is not to be disturbed.” He turned to Tal.
“Is that sufficient? I’ll buy her freedom tomorrow, but we have to go now!
” Faron ran his hands through his hair, watching the door warily.
Leaving the girl for even one night angered her enough to make her want to burn the whole place down, but with the mage here, she would be hard pressed to get the girl out safely.
Biting her lip, she turned to Faron. “Tomorrow,” she said and waited for his confirmation.
Then, without a word, she climbed out the window.
The three of them reached the ground quickly, using ledges and gutter pipes to leap down.
They paused only briefly to ensure no apparitions waited outside the building and ran as fast as they could.
They turned a corner when shouts rang out from the brothel.
Waylon’s distraction had run its course.
Tal prayed that Oona’s part in the night remained undiscovered, that her and the young girl would be safe.
They ducked down alleys and sprinted down streets until they found a tunnel entrance that would lead back to their home. Convinced of Tal's safety, Egan went after the twins who had been nearby before everything fell apart. Tal breathed easier, still filled with anger over the turn of events.
Faron had taken off his shirt and not relented until Tal covered herself. It reached the skin above her knees and covered her chest, a great deal more than her chemise offered.
At first, they said nothing. Faron stayed several paces behind while Tal stalked home.
Each step added fuel to the fire raging within her.
Someone else killed Badger and Gully. Someone else took away her retribution.
And who had been the one to tell her? Not only tell her but force her to satisfy him before he revealed himself.
“I promise, I’ll get the girl out tomorrow.”
Tal stopped and turned around to face him. “Did you enjoy it?” she asked.
“What?” He jerked to a stop.
“Did you enjoy having me pressed up against you?”
“Tal—The guard was paid off. We couldn’t risk him knowing,” he pleaded.
“How about when I touched you?” She ignored him and stepped closer. “Did you enjoy it when my hand ran down your thigh?”
“What are you doing?” he asked warily.
“Or when my chemise came up over my hips? Did that ignite anything in you?” She bunched the fabric of Faron’s shirt in her hands until the hem reached above her mid-thigh.
“Hells, Tal, what’s gotten into you?” He backed into the tunnel wall, and she followed.
“Did you ache for my hand to venture closer?” She now stood chest to chest with him. She reached between them, smiling wickedly when his body answered her question. “Does it feel good now?” she whispered.
Faron gripped her shoulders and whipped her around to press her against the wall. With both forearms resting by her head, fists clenched, he growled out, “You’re playing a very dangerous game.”
She reached behind her and continued stroking.
“Is it? Is it just a game to you? Because I can play too, and I don’t lose.
” She spun to face him again and raked a hand up his bare chest, his neck, and into his hair.
She fisted his hair in her hands and pulled until he grunted against her.
Part of her enjoyed teasing him, and another part of her wanted to torture him.
She reached her other hand up from where it worked against his trousers and slipped it into his waistband.
His mouth came crashing down onto hers, and his body pinned her hand between them, keeping her from teasing him further. He kissed her greedily and wrapped his arms around her, fisting her hair the way she had done to him. She moaned against his lips.
His hands dropped to her thighs, and as he lifted her, she wrapped her legs around him.
He crushed her against the tunnel wall and groaned when she bucked her hips into him.
They tore into each other as if the recent distance between them finally became too much to bear.
Tal didn’t know if her anger or her desire fueled her, but it didn’t matter.
Right now, she only wanted to touch him and be touched by him, to torture him with desire and let him do the same.
Fire raged within her. She scratched a hand down his back, eliciting a shiver across his body, and rolled her hips against him with vigor.
He answered in kind. Her magic pounded within its cage.
She threw her head back, exposing her neck.
Faron took the opening, and the sensation of his lips on her skin sent pleasured chills to her core.
She pressed her hips into him, wanting more.
She had fantasized about his kiss over the last few weeks, the feel of his body against hers.
She had only just begun to enjoy the thought of his touch when everything had come crashing down.
Her body wanted to forget her anger. Her fury wanted to consume him.
Tal ran her teeth over his bottom lip and ground against him again and again.
Faron exhaled a frustrated breath. Suddenly, his arms were under hers, lifting her above his head.
He guided her legs to his shoulders and held her aloft with his hands under hips.
Tal gasped when his mouth connected. The warmth of his tongue matched the inferno burning within her.
Her hands went to the ceiling of the tunnel, and the shock of his mouth between her legs made her want to twist away.
Instead, she pressed onto his tongue, needing more.
Her dreams of the man were suddenly lacking.
She had never known passion like this, and she hated him even more for it.
She groaned at the intensity building between her legs.
Faron only fueled the fire. His hands held her against his mouth with a desire that had been burning for too long.
Tal closed her eyes and saw red. She grabbed a fistful of his hair and guided him.
Her legs started to go numb from the building pressure. She held her breath and tensed.
An animal-like cry escaped her lips when she climaxed with his tongue inside her.
Her fury bellowed within, thrashing through her blood with each pounding wave.
She pushed against him, but Faron didn’t stop.
He demanded her pleasure until she shook against him.
Her echoed moans escaped down the long tunnel.
She prayed for relief and for it to never end.
When her pulsing slowed enough for her to catch her breath, her power quieted, and her body relaxed. Faron lowered her carefully. He kissed the skin below her jaw and inhaled her scent.
Tal stood breathlessly, her legs shaking.
She pushed him off her, breaking the seal of his lips on her neck.
He blinked, his chest heaving. Tal caught her breath, and her thoughts of him sobered.
She tore off his shirt and threw it at him.
“You’ll want to clean yourself up before you return to the palace,” she said, noting the wetness around his mouth and on his chin.
Without another word, she turned to head home.
“Blazing hells, Tal. Really?” He stood with his arms out, shirt in hand, a rising anger in his eyes.
“Let’s see how you like it when someone plays games with you.” She continued walking.
Faron swore and muttered that he must be crazy. His hurried footsteps echoed down the tunnel. He grabbed her arm and turned her around, and she didn’t fight him. “It was never a game. How can you not see that?”
“How? How can you expect me to believe anything you say when you lied about being the blazing king! How am I supposed to trust anything after that?”
“I was going to tell you, okay?! That day! When did you expect me to bring it up? When we fought the mages? Or maybe while we hid under that window listening to the apparition talk to those thugs? I’m sure they would have loved to overhear us then.
When Tal? When do you think I should have told you that the king snuck around at night to try to take back control of the kingdom that he lost power over?
The kingdom I should never have ruled in the first place?
” He ran his hands through his hair and his head fell back.
“I don’t know, maybe before you kissed me? Before you tricked me into believing a noble liked me?” she yelled in his face, but he didn’t flinch.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like that! I didn’t mean for it to go that far before—”
“Before what?” she pushed him in the chest. “Before you left? Before you disappeared back into your palace once you’d had enough of playing pretend?”
“Before I fell for you!” He swore before gripping her shoulders.
“It wasn’t supposed to go that far before I fell for you!
Okay? I tried to find a way to tell you.
I tried to take you somewhere that day to tell you and ask for your forgiveness, but Daire showed up and ruined the whole damned thing. ”
“Don’t blame him for your carelessness,” she spat.
“Carelessness? You think I don’t care? Do you not see how much I’ve risked being here to protect you?”
“Then don’t. Go back to your palace. I don’t need your protection, and I didn’t ask for it.
” She lit a flame in her hand to remind him of the power she had at her disposal.
“Leave before I set fire to your beloved trousers.” She stared at him with such hatred, willing him to see the seriousness of her threat.
His face turned from frustration to confusion, and finally…
hurt. He released her and took a step back, but didn’t say a word.
When she continued to hold the flame, her stare unwavering, he huffed and continued backwards, giving her the space she demanded.
Before he’d walked five paces from her, she turned and walked off, pretending not to listen for his retreating footsteps, even though the sound never reached her ears.