When I opened my eyes, I was being carried. Strong arms cradled me, and my head rested against a man’s chest. He smelled nice, like an ancient forest and the faintest hint of a mountain stream.
Distant screams floated through the air. Not agonized, like before. Jubilant.
Had I lost?
These thoughts were floating by like dandelion seeds on the wind, because the anti-pain potion was beginning to fade. What had been a distant ache now turned hot and agonizing.
I coughed, and my vision flashed white.
Breath warmed the side of my face, and a low voice whispered in my ear, “You’ll be fine. I’ve got you.”
That rich timbre…I recognized it, but it couldn’t be Torin, right? I opened my eyes, and my blurred vision focused on a perfect face—cheekbones sharpened by shadows, pale eyes staring straight ahead.
“Torin?” I rasped.
‘Don’t talk,” he said. “They beat you, just as I was afraid of. You’re badly hurt.”
I tried to form the words to ask if I was still in the running for the fifty million, but my next breath was like swallowing shards of glass.
In this very moment, I was starting to think maybe this wasn’t worth the money. Maybe this was all another very bad decision in a lifetime of bad decisions.
Torin’s gaze swept down over me, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say his forehead looked creased with worry for me. Which made me wonder if I was about to die, and he’d lose his best-laid plans.
When he cupped the side of my face, his skin making direct contact with mine, I could already feel his magic sliding over me. Quietly, he murmured in the Fae language, a low and hypnotic purr that thrummed over my skin. There was something rhythmic about the way he chanted, his skin glowing with magic. It was entrancing, bringing to mind beating drums, fires burning under a starry sky.
His eyes locked on mine, and his hand traced down from the side of my face to my chest, just between my breasts. My heart fluttered. If circumstances were different—if I didn’t know this was all fake, and if my life weren’t a complete mess—I would absolutely fall for this man.
And with every quiet word he uttered, with every light stroke of his fingertips, the pain began to ebb, my muscles growing more supple and relaxed. I felt as if the Seelie king were in complete control of my body now, orchestrating my healing like an artist. And I didn’t hate that as much as I should.
I wondered if he could hear my heart racing again, because this type of magic he possessed had a disturbingly sensual edge, making my body feel full, even if he was hardly touching me.
He lowered his face, his gaze tracing over mine. Studying me again. Reading my body’s reactions. He wasn’t just taking the pain away from me—his magic was flowing into me. From the point where his hand met my body, tendrils of heat slid into my chest, sliding down into my core.
My mind flickered with images of Faerie—then uninvited images of what I imagined he’d look like without his shirt on, hunting in the woods. Not hunting to kill. Hunting to fuck, to make women moan and fill them with the power he drew from the land.
Gods, the raw power of him, like tapping into the earth itself…
I closed my eyes, growing acutely aware of how my wet clothes felt against my skin, clinging to me, and I had the disturbing sensation that I wanted to tear them off. That I wanted him to see me naked, to use his mouth on me instead of his hands…a real Seelie party.
But I refused to accept the ache that was building in me, because I wasn’t falling for assholes anymore.
Andrew. Think of Andrew. But in my mind’s eye, I could only see Torin ripping through my underwear, spreading my thighs, and taking me hard and fast up against an oak until I forgot my name.
Freaking hell, I’d only been with him one day, and that was all it took to fall under the spell of a beautiful man. What about the pledge I’d made to myself?
Gritting my teeth, I sat up, knocking his hand off me. “That’s enough,” I said, catching my breath. I held up the covers over my chest like I was naked, even though I was still fully clothed. As I was trying to gain control of myself, my voice came out sounding furious. Imperious, even.
Torin arched a surprised eyebrow. “I wasn’t quite finished.”
“I feel fine now. You can get away from me.” I nodded at the door. “I need sleep, thank you.”
Never in my life had I sounded this prim and proper, like an irritated librarian in a convent.
Freaking hell. Maybe he was right about me being judgmental.
My mind flicked back to our conversation earlier, where I’d been making fun of him for hating parties. But who was the prude now?
He’d said, “A real Seelie party.”
And now I understood exactly what he meant.
I woke on soft, clean sheets and took a deep breath. A cool breeze whispered over my skin. Shalini sat slumped in a silky arm chair, sunlight washing over her.
She looked up at me, and her eyes lit. She slammed the book in her hands shut. “You’re awake!”
I touched my chest, my gaze roaming over the books lining the small room. I’d been brought back to the chamber where I’d slept last night. I inhaled deeply, relieved to find the pain was almost gone, then winced a little, feeling bruised around my ribs. “I think I’m better.
She rose. “Hang on a second. You can speak to the medical expert.” She crossed to the door and beckoned to someone.
A moment later, Torin was crossing into the room, and his piercing gaze landed on me.
I swallowed hard. “You didn’t tell me yet if I made the cut.”
“Just barely,” he said. “Two broken ribs and a punctured lung. It had nearly collapsed by the time you crossed the finish line. You could have suffocated or bled to death.” He quirked an eyebrow. “Last one to make the cut. You barely got over the line in time, but you did it.”
I let out a long, slow breath. “Oh, thank the gods.”
Torin sat next to me on the bed, and I felt the mattress depress with his weight. “Tell me if anything hurts when I touch it.”
Oh, gods. There goes my restraint. “Okay…” I said slowly, not sure if it would send me into some kind of unwanted lust spiral. I started to push up on my elbows, but he raised a hand, signaling for me to stay down.
Torin pulled back the sheets, and I glanced down at my sweat-dampened shirt. He traced his fingertips over my ribs on my right side. A line formed between his eyebrows as he concentrated. “Does this hurt? You didn’t let me finish healing you for reasons I’d frankly love to examine.”
I wouldn’t.
“That does,” I said wincing as he touched my ribs below my breast. He was trying to be gentle, but I still felt a stab through my chest. “Are you training to be a doctor or something?”
“Here in Faerie, the one with the strongest magic is the best doctor, and I have the most powerful magic of any fae in this realm. You must have felt it.”
“What about the women with the severed limbs?” I asked.
“They did not make it over the line in time, so they will be recovering in whatever common fae towns they hail from.”
My eyebrows shot up. Ice cold. As soon as I got my money, I would be out of this place. I’d always been suspicious of other fae, but never before had I fully understood how terrifying they were.
He paused, a wicked glint smoldered in his eyes. “Unless there’s some reason, Ava, that you are afraid of me being near you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I just don’t need someone fussing over me.” It was my prim and proper voice again, one that I’d never before used in my life. I was now a deeply repressed Victorian governess.
He cupped my side, and his magic slid into me. A flash of heat flared in my core, and I sucked in a sharp breath. A soothing sensation washed over me, like warm water trickling down my skin, making my muscles relax. Then his magic slipped into me, making my body feel full and ripe with his essence, his primordial power…
It was a divine feeling that made my limbs feel languorous and supple, and despite what the Victorian governess was saying out loud, the real me didn’t want it to end.
“You should be fully healed now.” He gave me a half-smile, then pulled that delicious magic from me. “I’m impressed that you dragged yourself over the finish line.”
I nodded, and a dark image unfurled in my mind—the two women with severed legs, screaming in pools of their own blood. “A good day for both of us, then. I could still win the money, and you have a potential queen, with no messy emotional involvement.”
His expression was unreadable. “Exactly the way it should be for a king.”
“That whole thing was brutal today,” I said. “Have you ever considered banning mutilations and murder attempts during the trials?”
He pulled his gaze away, staring out the window. “That is not the fae way, Ava. Do not try to change us just because you lived a few years among insipid humans, with all the comfort their culture entails. We are creatures of the Wild Hunt, and we could never be anything else. If you feel we go too far, it’s only because you are living a lie about your true nature.” The corner of his mouth curled. “Because underneath it all, you are as vicious as the rest of us.”
And with that, he stood and crossed to the door. I shot Shalini a nervous look, and for the first time, I saw her looking unnerved as well. She gave me a casual shrug, but by the furrow of her brow, I could tell she was wondering if we’d made a bad decision in coming here.
Torin paused at the door to look back at me. “I’ll return for you later. We must prepare. Because if you thought the competition today was brutal, I don’t know if you’ll survive what comes later.”
A fog of cold dread wrapped around me, and I clutched at my blankets.
At least I wasn’t thinking about Andrew anymore.
