Chapter 23 Faolan
TWENTY-THREE
FAOLAN
This wasn’t going to end well, and maybe I didn’t want it to.
“By the Goddess! What are you doing out?” I demanded, standing so abruptly, I tipped my stool over, trying to decide if I was going to be responsible and leave, or stay and accept what may come.
Calytrix jolted back to avoid it landing on her toes, then fixed me with a deeply disapproving glare. “Why should we not be, when you are?”
“Beca—” I looked furtively around, then lowered my voice and hissed. “Because we at least are dragons and are capable of looking after ourselves.”
Caly lifted her chin. “Whereas we are meek females who are not?”
I rolled my eyes. “I didn’t say that. Wait, how did you even get past Nyx?”
She exchanged a glance with Nova, who giggled. “With magic a lot cleverer than your fake snoring ruse.”
“Hey!” Alaric pouted, already well into intoxication. “I thought that was pretty good.”
I frowned. “What do you know of that?”
“Enough,” she said, stepping over my fallen stool and scanning the bar. “So what are we drinking?”
I balked. “You’re not staying. Anyone could recognize you!”
“If you can, we can,” she said in a highly irritating sing-song voice.
“Absolutely not. Nyx will lay an egg if he finds you both missing.”
“And I suppose he won't bat an eye that you have brought the prince out into this city at night? He’s far more recognizable than I am.”
“Will you keep your voice down?” I hissed.
“Just let them have a drink,” Alaric slurred. His tolerance for the lethal spirit was less than Kol’s or mine. “You’re not going to carry them back to the inn…are you?”
Kol poured them each a measure of the aquatic ruin and slid them along the bar. “I think they deserve it for getting past the old grouch. And I would know—he’s been my jailer for months.”
“You mean Dragon Daddy,” I huffed, righting my stool and plunking back down at the bar.
Kol shot absinthe from his nose and howled in pain and laughter. “Shit, that burns! Where did Dragon Daddy even come from?”
I shrugged. “Don’t you think he’s been acting like it?”
Kol shuddered in horror. “I would rather not think of my brother in those terms, but whatever does it for you.”
“What’s wrong? You don’t want to imagine Zaria calling him daddy?” The prince barely held back a laugh.
Kol gagged.
In my peripheral vision, I watched as Caly picked up the small glass and sniffed the liquor, tentatively took a sip, and winced, shuddering hard.
“Ugh, how do you drink this?” she asked as Nova sniffed hers and scrunched up her face.
“It’s better if you don’t think about it too hard and just down it,” Kol said with almost a dreamy tone to his voice. “After one, the blissful fog will set into your brain, and you won’t think about too much anyway. From there it just gets easier with each one.”
Caly looked at the glass sharply again, then shrugged. “Fair enough.” Then she threw the whole thing back and banged the bar counter with her palm as she battled to swallow. A second behind her sister, Nova did the same. I was secretly impressed, but I would not be showing it. “Give me another.”
Kol whooped, and Alaric looked amazed as they refilled their glasses.
Glad they were all having their fun while I sat over here just wanting to throw her over my shoulder and lock her back in her room.
And in half of those fantasies, I’d lock myself in there with her.
It was like the rational part of my brain was fighting with—well, the dragon.
It was a complete nightmare. I could not be around her and the bad decision tonic that was being passed around. Something bad would happen.
“So what do you two like to do for fun?” Kol asked Nova.
I blinked. How was everyone else being so calm about this?
Firstly, tonight was supposed to be my escape from this.
And secondly, Nyx was going to murder us.
There would be no survivors if he discovered we were gone, never mind if he found us with our charges, passing around Aquatic absinthe like water.
I was a fucking idiot for allowing this.
I’d been in my head for the Goddess knew how long, but Nova’s words suddenly had my attention.
“—and Finn and Caly have been together for so long now. You can see how much he loves her just from the way he looks at her. It crushed her to have to leave him behind.”
Bile rose in my throat at the words. Who the fuck was Finn, and did he know he would have to die?
Goddess, where did that come from? So she had a male back home, so what?
She was about to marry the prince, so nothing I felt or thought mattered anyway, except that the prince needed to fucking die, too.
What the—?
Fuck. No.
I was leaving as soon as she was delivered to her new life, so she could do whatever she wanted. Right?
I needed another drink. I reached for the bottle and poured another, then noticed Kol’s smirk.
I scowled his way and threw it back, immediately pouring another.
Caly's glass appeared beside mine with a little nudge.
Clearly, she wanted another. I filled it.
Who was I to stop her doing what she wanted? No one.
I was no one to her.
“Tell us about Finn,” Kol urged her, and my leg began to bounce.
“He’s so handsome,” Caly swooned. Swooned? What was actually happening? “He has these huge dark eyes, and he’s so smart. He’s just the best, you know? I spent every minute with him I could. I’m going to miss him so much.”
Oh, fucking spare me.
“And he just loves to be ridden hard.”
It was my turn to shoot absinthe out of my nose. Shit, Kol was right—it fucking burned. “Excuse me?”
“My horse,” Caly, said, looking me up and down while watching me struggle with the liquid fire in my airways for a moment.
“Y—your horse?” I stammered.
Kol masked his laughter by taking another drink while the prince wasn’t even trying to hide his. I shot daggers at him from my eyes. The arse.
“Yes, Finn, my horse that I had to leave behind,” she stated clearly as if I were hard of hearing.
“I see,” I wheezed.
She frowned at me, and I was feeling too drunk to care. Goddess, had those last couple crept up on me. “What did you think I meant?”
I broke eye contact, not at all wanting to explain to her what I’d been thinking, nor the death I planned for ‘Finn.’ “Nothing, just took me a minute to catch up that’s all.”
“Thats because you’re drink—dr—drunk.” She nodded, satisfied she hit the right word finally.
“I think you’re a bit drink, too.” I smirked. Wait, was I flirting? Nope. I stood quickly. “I’m going to the bathing chamber.”
I wove my way through the tavern and relieved myself, then took a moment to collect my thoughts before I went back out there.
As a dragon, the effects of spirits, even the absinthe, burned off in no time, so you had to pretty much keep drinking to remain drunk for any length of time.
Usually, that was a benefit, but now that she was here, I was in that precarious place between being too drunk to act rationally and starting to sober up enough to know what a terrible idea being near her was.
I needed to call it a night now before I lost all control. I stepped out of the chamber designated for males and bumped right into her.
Whether she had used the female chamber or come looking for me, I couldn’t tell, but here she was, in this small hallway, blocking my exit, and I felt like a startled animal. My fight or flight instinct kicked in. “Are you following me?”
“No.” She put her hands on her hips, causing pert breasts to push out at me. I was just drunk enough to look at them for a moment, then I returned to my senses.
“Liar.” Okay, fight it was.
“What possible reason would I have to follow you?” she threw back like a challenge.
“I don’t know, but you seem intent on cornering me. You followed me to this tavern and now this.” Or maybe I wanted her to follow me? There was a war in my head, and I didn’t know which way was up anymore.
“You do have quite a high opinion of yourself, don’t you?” she accused. “What makes you so special?”
I laughed. I knew that even without developing the bond between us, she could feel that, to each other at least, we were in fact very special. I may not want it, but I wasn’t going to stand for her denying it either. “Is that how you really feel?”
“Don’t turn this around. Answer the question.” Despite her being half my size, she was fierce. Not backing down at all. If I ever did settle down, it would be with a female like her.
“I could show you, but I think we’d both be in trouble if I took your innocence.” I backed her up a pace, so she had nowhere to go.
“My what—ohhhh.—” She scowled and I knew I had her.
“We can’t,” I barely breathed.
“But you want to?”
“Have you seen yourself? You’re the most beautiful creature in the Twelve Kingdoms. Of course I want to, but we can’t.” Maybe the drink made me bold, but every word was true.
She reached for me but stopped before her fingers brushed my skin. “Then why is it so easy to stay away from me?”
“You think this is fucking easy?” I stepped in close to her until she was pressed to the wall. It was closer than I’d allowed myself before, and closer than was comfortable, considering all I was battling within myself.
“You make it look easy.” She sucked in a breath, closing her eyes so her long, delicate lashes laid against her cheek.
She must have felt the thread binding us to each other pull tight.
Like it was reeling us in. This was not the ryder bond.
It was the pull to my mate. A primal need that I’d be fighting for the rest of my life, but close to her like this, I could hardly remember why I would fight it at all.
“It’s impossible. Every time, I’m near you it’s harder.” My words were laced with need, and I was sure she could feel it. Our bodies were a breath apart. If either one of us moved, we’d rub up against the other.
She giggled, and I groaned, but I didn’t dare move. “Harder you say…”
“How you test me…” I leaned closer, until I could feel her breath on my face, until we shared air.
Why was this wrong again?
Her breathing hitched, and I glanced down at her lips.
It was a mistake. I closed the distance, brushing my lips over hers.
We were both breathing harder than normal. She tilted her face up to mine, granting me better access, wanting me to take it.
I parted my lips and lowered them to hers, the soft skin feeling as if it sparked against mine at their touch. Her labored breathing was all I could hear, those freckles were all I could see. Like she drew her very breath from my lungs, stealing it from me.
I wanted her like I’d never wanted anything in my life.
But she didn’t belong to me.
She could never be mine.
I ripped myself away, gasping for air and scrubbing my hands over my face. I bumped up against the opposite wall and stared at her. She had her hand pressed to her chest. She slowly lifted her fingers and traced them over where my lips had ghosted.
“We can’t,” I whispered, then turned and went back to the bar. I didn’t look back. Couldn’t. It took the last of my willpower to leave her there.
I took my seat, still reeling from that literal brush with what would be my end. I grabbed a random empty glass and drained the last of the absinthe, calling the server for more.
“Yes, we definitely need more!” added Caly, sitting back down beside me, not showing any signs of our encounter or how life changing it was. Other than the fact that she was ready for a lot more alcohol.
The spirits flowed, and we laughed. I hadn’t laughed so much in I didn’t know how long. For such an unlikely group of fae, we found much entertainment in each other, and the absinthe let me enjoy it when really I should have been running away.
I had this feeling that things would come crashing down around me if I didn’t get back my distance, but I couldn’t make myself try. I needed a bucket of cold water thrown over me.
“Oh, shit,” Kol said under his breath. That got my attention, and I followed his eye line, turning slowly until I was face to chest with… Oh, shit.
My bucket of water had arrived.
My eyes rose over huge, folded arms and a broad chest to meet the cold glare of night.
The dragon was right there, just under the surface. His eyes had even changed, and his voice was a barely restrained growl. “What. The. Fuck. Do you all think you are doing?”
“Well—“
“I—“
“We—“
We all spoke at once, but we could each only muster a syllable or two before the murder in Nyx’s eyes shut us down. It was clear it was a rhetorical question, and evidently, we were all quick learners when we were drunk, so we shut up.
He took in the empty glasses and bottles around us and huffed out a plume of smoke. “Get. Back. To. The. Inn. Now,” he said low and menacing. Then he stepped aside and waited. It was not up for debate. Our evening was over.
We all stood, drunk and wobbly, while Nyx leaned over and paid the server for our tab. Oh Goddess, we were in real trouble—he’d even paid for our delinquency.
I glanced at Kol, though for what? Advice?
Help? He shook his head nearly imperceptibly, letting me know that there was nothing to be done but do as instructed or there would definitely be a scene.
And nobody wanted a scene. Like condemned fae, we variously staggered, swayed, and hiccuped our way out of the door in silence.
Not another word left Nyx’s lips as he menacingly brought up the rear of our contrite group.
He was not about to trust us to make our own way back, obviously.
After a few minutes of trudging up and down stairs and over bridges, I found Caly by my side.
I wasn’t sure how things were with us. We could barely get through a brief exchange without verbally sparring, it seemed, and yet, when she looked up at me and I looked down at her, I read amusement there.
We were in trouble with Dragon Daddy, and she was thinking it too.
She pressed her full lips together to stop a laugh.
I snorted, unable to keep it in, and slapped my palm over my mouth.
She had to look away, but I heard the giggle cough she made to cover up her laughter.
All the while, Nyx radiated silent fury behind us, and we walked on like chastised younglings.
The yelling began as soon as we reached our rooms.