City of Fae

“It’s fae … Your draíocht and mine coming together.”


Carefully, I settled my hands on his chest. The warmth of him soaked through his shirt but I wouldn’t feel anything more unless we were skin to skin. What would that be like? He and I, so close, this peculiar sensation alive between us. It was intense enough with just a single touch. A kiss. More? His mouth elsewhere, his hands roaming, and that magic … Delicate trembles quivered through me. I could pass it off as being cold, but when I met his gaze, he already knew it to be a lie without me having to say a word. I wanted him. I’d always wanted him. I wanted to know him, every inch of him. To taste his lips, nip the tantalizing spider tattoo on his neck and stroke my hands over a body that demanded to be touched. This thing between us was probably the only real thing that I owned. My past, my life, was hers. But Reign, here and now, was mine.

“Alina—”

I didn’t give him a chance to finish, but pushed up on my toes and met his lips with a careful kiss. Maybe I’d gotten it wrong, maybe he didn’t want me, he’d said as much in his apartment, but that had been anger and lust. This was different. If these were my last few days alive, I wanted memories to cling to. I wanted to taste him, to experience something real. I needed this to be real. When he sunk his hand into my hair and pulled me close, I very nearly came undone. The madness and terror stalking my thoughts drowned beneath the sensation of his lips on mine. I forgot it all. Forgot my own name. He kissed as though relishing every second, as though I was something to be savored. The tingle spread across my tongue, urging me to take more. I did. Curling my hand around the back of his neck, I drew him down and fueled the kiss with pure need. Desire, or magic, I wasn’t sure which, darted through me. A groan peeled from my lips.

Reign broke away, drawing in a savage hiss. His hand remained locked in my hair, the other pressed at my lower back, hauling me so close I couldn’t think beyond the raw press of his body against mine. “W-what …” I blinked, coming back to my senses.

I saw the moment he shut down. How the dazzling light in his eyes faded. He let me go, and stepped back. “I … This can’t happen. You’re …”

Something was wrong. I ached to have him back, to pull him into my arms and finish what we’d started. Desire strummed through me, reducing me to a trembling wreck, but he was moving away, looking at me like I’d betrayed him. “Reign, what is it? What did I do?” I touched my lips, tasting him there. His gaze darted, as though seeking something I couldn’t see. What was going on? “Reign, talk to me.”

He shook his head. “I can’t,” he said, and turned away, about to break into a jog when Warren rounded the corner of the building. Seeing him now sent my already confused mind deeper into a spin. “Warren … ? What’s happening?”

He held up a hand, and shook his head. “You need to leave.”

“What, why?”

Reign, several strides beyond us both, stumbled and fell to a knee. He wasn’t getting up. Why wasn’t he moving?

“Warren, what did I do?” I moved closer, but Warren’s fierce glare stopped me dead.

“You’re too close to the queen. Your draíocht unraveled his control,” he said, as though that would explain everything. “Get out of here, Alina. Go! Now!”

I wasn’t going anywhere. Something was wrong with Reign. I’d hurt him. Warren stalked toward me, lips raised in a vicious snarl. Screw him. I wasn’t damn well leaving Reign until I knew what the hell was happening.

“Back off Warren,” I warned, but my attention drifted over his shoulder, to the emerald-green vapor whipped up by the breeze. I’d seen that before. When the queen’s spiders had come for me, when I’d stabbed one of the FA. Raw draíocht in its natural form. “Oh my God …”

Reign rose up, as though dragged to his feet by invisible threads. Movements wooden and jerky, the vapor teased around him, spiraling faster and faster, whirling into a storm.

Warren spat a curse. “See those people in there?” He pointed at the restaurant windows beside us where diners chatted blissfully unaware of the chaos unraveling outside. “I don’t care what you do, but make sure nobody leaves. No human can witness this.”

“What’s happening?”

“You wanted to know what the hound is? What Reign is? Now you will.”

A warm, sweet blast of wind tore past me, whipping my hair about my face. Ahead, by the water’s edge, Reign’s figure drowned inside a storm of liquid green. Fae magic danced in the air and tingled on my tongue. I could taste it as surely as I’d tasted it on his kiss. “I did this?”