I let my gaze flutter to his lips and feast there. “Excuses, excuses,” I murmured and taunted.
Something sparked in his eyes. Like lightning glimpsed through an evergreen canopy. That beautiful mouth curved, transforming into a smile. Pure. Playful. Both his hands left my hips to graze my ribs, and then went down, down to my ass. Two palms flattened, and in a deliberate and slow move, he pulled me in another an inch so that our bodies pressed against each other. That mouth went to the nape of my neck.
I waited, spine tingling.
A kiss, moth-like and soft, had a thrill rushing through my veins. My chest froze, and my guts boiled as his lips moved up the curve of my throat. Another kiss and another and another until Wilder had left a trail of burning spots across my skin. Then, with nowhere else to go, his teeth snagged on my earlobe. Just a tiny sharp pressure, joined by a lick of pleasure that made me melt and mold my body against his. Arching just slightly …
My breath caught as he stood in one fluid action and held out his hand. “Come on, temptress. You’re leaving before my control slips completely.”
Whatever charge had been building in my blood went stone dead. “You’re kidding.”
I gave him my best brooding scowl. A quiet rasping laugh was his only response.
Bastard.
He caught my wrist and smoothly pulled me up. There was nothing of desire left on his face. I searched and searched. How the rats did he just switch it off like that?
Wilder gestured toward the window with our hands now entwined. “It might be safer if you go out this way. Even Goldwyn can’t have kept Dimitri busy all this time.”
I let him lead me over to the bay window. “You know, for someone so cautious, you should really think about buying some curtains.”
Wilder stopped to tap a knuckle against the glass.
“All the mentors’ windows are made of spelled glass, so if you’re looking in from the outside, all you’ll see is timber.”
“Of course its enchanted,” I muttered.
He disentangled our hands and stepped back. “I’ll see you in three days at dawn. Don’t try going without me. I can track better than any fae from the Wild Hunt. Especially that one you were hugging.”
I almost glowered at that last comment, but his quirky smile stopped me. Before I lost all control over my limbs and became rooted to the spot, I moved to release the window catch. Not bothering to say goodbye, I cracked it open and climbed through. After a glance in both directions, I ran toward my barracks.
Chapter 26
A Quest Beginning
I arrived at the barracks feeling lighter than air, replaying every touch. Then I got hit in the face by a hard truth. Goldwyn had been and gone, only stopping long enough to disclose details of the sixth trial. It wasn’t anything we didn’t know, thanks to Hazel, but my pack still discussed and picked at every thread. Now, I had to add to their worries: Dimitri’s threats, Hunter’s warning, and Wilder’s proposition. Or should that be demand?
Their reactions weren’t unexpected. Shock, and more shock.
Adrianna paced. “So, this Hunter of yours—”
“He’s not mine.”
That low snap made Adrianna pause and switch her tack. “Okay, but do you trust him? I mean, enough to believe what he said about the Riverlands?”
She was trying so hard not to sound like the idea pained her.
My temper slipped, and I softened. “Hunter’s complicated. He has so many parts, I could never trust him completely. But on this … I don’t think he was lying.”
A quiet hush.
Liora’s whisper fractured the silence. “Poor Cassandra.”
The two men—males—in our group sat on the bed opposite us, wearing matching grim expressions. Cai was the one to add, “So is this what we’ve come to? Morgan rounding up all the domestics and stray humans, and throwing them into her war machine? A war we don’t even really know is coming?”
Clearly rhetorical questions. Yet, when no one answered, he muttered, “Fuck,” and cradled his head in his hands.
A straight-backed Frazer looked over to Adrianna. “Can you get word to your contacts in the Riverlands Court? Maybe they can clarify, or at least confirm what Hunter’s said.”
Adrianna, who’d continued pacing the boards, halted and turned to us. There was a jolt around my midriff as I realized her expression had smoothed into a vacant stare. As if her inner most being had fled to some deep, private place within.
“If something this big has happened without them contacting me, then I don’t have any friends left in that court.”
A neutral response. She almost fooled me, but I caught the tremor in her wings. With that, we all sank into our own muddle of thoughts.
Minutes passed before Liora muttered to me, “Wilder used to work for Morgan, and he’s one of the mentors. He might know more about her plans. Maybe you could ask him?”
I nodded, distracted. Suddenly a red-hot pulse in the thread got me to meet Frazer’s insistent stare.
What is it?
He answered aloud. “You know that you can’t travel alone with him, right? No matter what he says.”
I’d been dreading this part. But I felt sure that Wilder hadn’t exaggerated the threat Dimitri posed. And Wilder had wings. Frazer did not.
An inconvenient truth; one that Frazer was now grappling with, if the seething grief shimmering in our bond was anything to go by.
I truly despised the fact he was going to make me say it. “Frazer, I trust you more than anyone, but—”
Of course, he got there before me. “There is no ‘but.’”
I stood with a steel spine. “Don’t you dare go all dark and twisty on me.”
Frazer’s head lowered, his expression clouding over as he traced the lines in his palms. Thinking. Brooding.
My voice thawed. “You’re my kin—a part of me. But that doesn’t give you the right to order me around like that.”
“You mean like Wilder does?” he said quietly—lightly.
A blow that knocked the wind out of me. I collapsed back onto the bed.
He still hadn’t lifted his gaze to mine. My voice grew cold and distant. “I didn’t fight him on it because if he’s right about the threats being real, then flying to Attia makes thing easier.”
A sticky silence fell for eight fast heartbeats, during which his eyes traveled up to bore into me with those midnight blues smoldering like molten ore. “Then go with Adrianna.”
I looked over to where she stood at the head of our pack; her jaw muscles bunched together, her tattooed brow heavy with lines, she argued, “I’ve got the longest journey, and the feather’s the hardest object to find.”
“It’s on your way. Drop her off,” Frazer said, his eyes never leaving mine.
Adrianna’s mouth parted, but Liora cut across her. “Listen to yourself, Frazer. If Dimitri’s planning something, she needs someone to guard her back the entire time.”
A reasonable, calm tone that failed to soothe the beast. Frazer continued, speaking directly to me. “Have you considered that if Dimitri finds out that Wilder’s accompanied you, it might push him to take things even farther? It might be all it takes to confirm his suspicions about you two.”
I blinked. Shit. That hadn’t occurred to me.
Cai drew a deep breath and eyeballed my kin. “This still sounds like the best play we’ve got.”
Frazer didn’t even acknowledge him. He just stared at me. “You’d really rather have Wilder watching your back?”
That quiet, unsure sound made my heart melt and plummet at the same time. “Never. It’s just this once, brata, I promise.”
I got a snort in response and tried not to wince. “At least you won’t have to do two quests now.” My voice was a mousy murmur.
He looked away with a grim turn of his lip.
Adrianna addressed me then, arms folding as she frowned. “Are you sure about this? About Wilder?” Gods. I felt like screaming. It must’ve shown because she showed me her palms and said, “I know you care about him, but he did work for Morgan.”