“Great.” The other fae grinned. I think his name was Ferris or something of the sort. “We can use her for target practice. I’m tired of aiming at unmoving sacks of hay.”

“Ferro,” Karmuth rebuked. That was it, like iron. Like a good sharp piece of iron moulded to slash deeply and efficiently. “If the assignment was to miss, you could have her standing in front of your bow all you want, but I doubt that’d give you the desired rush. Nobody is using Isay for target practice.”

“Protective, aren’t we?” Regar pitched in, bumping Karmuth’s shoulder as if to congratulate him for standing up for me.

He was shoved away with a grunt. “She is under our protection.”

Karmuth threw an apologetic smile my way that I was not looking at. Just as I wasn’t looking at the way his muscles flexed as he pulled out an impressive blade strapped to his back, nor the way his body moved with quiet assurance into a fighting stance that tensed those muscles I wasn’t looking at, and highlighted their strength further.

“You can use me for target practice all you want,” Karmuth said, grinning widely.

My heart leapt out of my chest when Ferro took him up on that, drawing a mean bow quicker than I could register and shooting an arrow at his awaiting form.

A swish of that big blade broke the flying stick in half before it reached its destination in Karmuth’s heart, and so the dance began.

While Karmuth and Ferro battled out their indifferences, the rest of the warriors did not sit idly and started their own sequences, two against one.

The prince was attacked from both sides held his own. I wished he would lose his footing or let his guard down, but he didn’t. Instead, Regar ended with a slash across his biceps, and Sinister the Rottweiler lost his weapon when Hiko directed all of his attention at him.

Ferro and Karmuth were more evenly matched even as Ferro stuck to his bow and occasionally used its pointed limbs to counteract Karmuth’s sword. Stunned and unable to look away, my mouth gaped open as I followed the deadly dance with wide eyed wonder. At one point, Sinister joined Ferro’s efforts to overpower Karmuth, then Regar. Then the blue-eyed warrior was standing on his own against all of them at once, and while I could see considerable signs of fatigue from Ferro who’d started out as his equal, Karmuth never wavered.

I was so entranced in the training session I didn’t realise someone sat down next to me, and I jumped when a raspy female voice spoke up. “Magnificent, isn’t he?”

My hand rose to my chest to stop my heart from jumping through as it raced faster than a horse in a competition and didn’t stop as I took in the dark fae now beside me.

“If that’s your taste, sure,” I croaked.

Throaty laughter that fit more to the bedroom than in the battle field erupted from  the female’s throat. Her short black hair fell to her eyes as she crouched over from the amusement. I didn’t think I’d been that funny.

“Kar is everyone’s taste, darling.”

I swallowed. “Perhaps in the Vindican court. Where I come from, we have higher standards.”

“You want me to believe that looking at that tight ass does nothing to you?” the fae taunted, studying me like I was a marvel and not because I was more often considered a meal than a conversation partner.

I hadn’t been looking at Karmuth’s ass, but now that she pointed it out I couldn’t not look. She laughed again, raspy and seductive.

“You can have him.” I cleared my throat. “Like I said, not my taste.”

“Oh, I do,” she sighed happily. “Every now and again. You think he looks good now, wait until he loses those pants.”

I jerked my head toward the woman, my cheeks heating up and not because I was imagining Karmuth pantless—o,r well not, only because I was imagining Karmuth pantless—I was imagining him pantless with her. I didn’t care for that image.

She drawled, “I’m Sela, by the way.”

“Isay,” I grumbled, then turned my attention back to the warriors.

“Oh, I know.”  She smirked.

“If you’re here to warn me off Karmuth, you’re wasting your time. He can’t even touch me.” I did not sound convinced. Can’t rang like a lie with the ring in my finger thrumming quietly.

“Warn you?” Sela laughed. “No, I am not beyond sharing. I just wanted to see if the rumours held any truth to them.”

My eyes widened. “Do they?”

“They most certainly do,” Sela said with satisfaction. “You’ve got him wrapped around your little finger and you don’t even know it. I thought you were more than just a pretty face and a tempting life force, but frankly I don’t know what he sees in you beyond that.”

Sela stood up and left without waiting for my reaction. It didn’t matter, because she’d left me dumbfounded as my brain tried to wrap around what she’d just said. Then I was the one laughing. Only, my laugh didn’t sound like sex on a rainy day, it sounded like cracking of wood under the hooves of a deer scared shitless by a chasing predator.

Chapter 9

KARMUTH

SWEAT DRIPPED DOWN MY BACK, AND MY MUSCLES ACHED FROM exertion. I wanted to believe the fact that I’d lasted this long against all of them had something to do with Isay watching—and I knew she was watching; I caught her eye a time or two when Sinister crouched over from the hilt of my dadao in his gut or Regar fell flat on his back when I tripped him.

While I did want to impress Isay, I knew it was more to do with part of her ecos thrumming through me. I could almost prevent every single move any of them made. I could certainly outlast them, and by the looks on their faces they were reaching their limits.

“Okay,” Hiko called out breathlessly, his sword only half rising to parry my strike. His hand shook under the force. A vein on his neck pulsed, and his teeth gritted as steam rose from his damp forehead. “Timeout.”

Overly satisfied with myself, I dropped my dadao back into its scabbard and turned to fully look at Isay on the stacked stone wall. She found the patch of grass by her feet more interesting all of a sudden, but heat flared up on her cheeks at my attention.

The itch was back. The one deep in my gut I had no way of scratching, but it turned out she was the one to make it prickle.

It couldn’t be a coincidence that it flared up whenever she was near. What it meant, I had no clue whatsoever. But fuck if I didn’t want to find out if the same remedy I used Sela for would work with Isay.

Once that thought surfaced I couldn’t force it down again.

Would she shiver as I ran my fingers up her thighs? Would her breath catch when I’d pull at the fabric of her panties?

Yep, that would most certainly be the origin of the itch, because it suddenly flared up into a burning that almost left me gasping. A hunger. Even as my ecos had never been fuller, I’d never felt this hungry. It was Isay who brought this craving to such an extent.

While the fighting hadn’t done much to my breathing, Isay got me panting without even raising her eyes from her feet. I was in so much trouble.

Needing to focus on anything other than the encompassing sensation taking me over, I walked closer to her.

“Come, it’s your turn,” I beckoned.

That’s all I could come up with. While others took a breather, I could show Isay some moves. I stared at her as I waited for her response.

She looked at me then, incredulous. “What?”

“You against me, I’ll go easy on you.” I grinned. “What do you say?”

She scoffed, “How about no?”

“How about: Yes, Kar, that sounds like so much fun?”

“In your dreams, maybe. You won’t hear me repeating that.”