His touch disarmed me. It wasn’t the force. I wasn’t afraid of this man. No, there was something else to the way he handled me that made my breath hitch. I heard a slight wobble in his growl that made me pause.
Rhoan was legitimately afraid for my safety.
Too bad I knew that he valued me as a chess piece and nothing else. I ripped my face out of his grasp and threw myself off the bike. He snatched me by the back of my shirt and yanked me back into his arms. The man kicked the bike-stand down and stood, which lifted me from the ground so that I hung from his hooked arm.
Son of a…
We were in rural New York now, though. I threw my arcana out towards the trees lining the side of the road. The branches stretched towards Rhoan and grabbed ahold of him the same way he held me. The man didn’t let me go, even when his own feet left the ground. So, we both hung in the air at awkward angles, neither of us ready to relent yet.
“Is this your form of a royal temper tantrum?” Rhoan grumbled.
I had the urge to shake him, but I was still in his arms. If I gave in, I’d shake myself, too. It was almost worth it. However, I wasn’t going to give in and let this be a temper tantrum.
“Put me down and let me get on with my life,” I demanded.
Rhoan laughed. “Not a chance in hell. You don’t know how to keep yourself safe. Right now, you and I are two stationary targets. There’s a fae assassin down the road, setting up their crossbow. The way you’re dangling, it’ll be easy to shoot you right through the heart.”
“Then let me go!” I threw my hand in the air.
“Never,” he said.
His voice dropped into a possessive growl that made my heart skip an unexpected beat. His arm around me became warm. I was made aware of the way his hand pressed flat against my exposed skin.
I swallowed the rising feelings back down. There was no time to indulge in such thoughts.
If we didn’t resolve this, Rhoan’s prediction would come true. Somewhere, an assassin was setting up for the shot of a lifetime. If he wasn’t going to relent, then I had to. I dropped Rhoan and sent us both crashing to the ground. He twisted mid-fall so that his back hit the pavement and his body cushioned my fall.
Meanwhile, I turned the outstretched tree branches into a canopy with dense foliage that blocked us from view. It would buy us a bit of time, but not much. A good hunter would be able to estimate their next shot.
That wasifthere was someone out there. If there wasn’t…then I didn’t mind lingering in Rhoan’s arms for a short while. He could have let me hit the ground all by myself. I would have scraped my knees and maybe learned a lesson. Instead, he made sure that every part of me was safe.
It was kinder than I deserved…
A crossbow bolt ripped through the foliage above our heads. My stomach lurched as adrenaline hit my system. Another crossbow pierced the canopy and hit the seat of Rhoan’s bike. The motorcycle let out a pained sound.
Rhoan cursed, a real strain in his voice. He carefully extracted himself from the pile we’d been in. He army crawled towards the bike and ripped the crossbow bolt from the leather. He threw it to the ground with a snarl. When he ran his hand over the seat of the bike, his tattoos rippled. His hand fell away and the hole was gone.
I desperately wanted to know how his magic worked. Was this a kind of magic that I had access to? I wouldn’t be able to find out if I kept disrespecting him. That meant I had to play along while I figured out how to contact Beryl’s court for an audience.
Rhoan rose to a crouch and beckoned me forward. “We need to leave. I don’t have a fast exit the same way we left.”
Rhoan
I could not believethis woman.
She marched her ass right up to Beryl like a damned sacrifice on a silver platter while I’d been out getting her the fae fruit that she practically begged for. This woman vexed me more than anyone I’d ever met on the face of this mortal planet. There was only one other woman with as much gumption, and I was pretty sure that she was the one firing at us from a distance.
I quickly tossed Cerri back onto the bike and urged my steed forward. The bike whined in pain. See, it wasn’t really a bike. At least, it hadn’t always been a bike. Back in the day, before my court fell and I found myself adrift in the mortal world, the mechanical beast beneath me had been a horse. We’d charged into battle together, like one creature with the same instincts and strengths.
Now, she took the form of a motorcycle so that I could blend into the mortal world. I had no idea what a poisoned crossbow bolt would do to my beloved steed. The faster we got out of here, the faster we could get to the bottom of this issue. If the princess thought she was going to waste more of my time, then she was wrong.
I would sacrifice many things for her safety, but I didn’t want to have to sacrifice one of my oldest companions. I’d already lost too much. I wasn’t sure if my court was worth this kind of loss. My own life was expendable. My steed’s was not.
“Hold on, Princess,” I growled.
She tightened her grip around my waist. Having her pressed against my back awakened a hunger in me that I hadn’t felt in a very long time. A beast writhed inside me. It had sharp teeth and an insatiable hunger. I could almost feel its dark wings trying to rip free from my skin.
I would never become that monster ever again. If I’d been an honest man, I would have told the princess and warned her to keep me from crossing that line. I couldn’t risk speaking the creature into existence, though. It was too dangerous.