Regar’s eyes glinted and the corners of his mouth twitched upwards. “That blast of life force during the battle felt like old times. Do you think it was the queen sharing her ecos?”

“No,” I muttered unhappily. “That felt different. This was her daughter.”

We dropped the delther’s corpse by a high fire that several fae were feeding with more logs and pieces of delther meat. The stench was horrific.

“Isay?” Regar’s voice raised high in surprise.

I gave a solemn nod. “Most definitely.”

His eyebrows rose. “What would she be doing blasting out life force like it’s sugared candy?” Regar wondered, out loud for my benefit.

I shrugged, not willing to share my theories. She might’ve thought I was struggling again, but that was my ego talking. She hadn’t used her unique power for me. It was more likely the delthers reached the palace and she was fighting them off the only way she knew how. I really needed to see if she was okay.

“You sure it was her and not the queen?” Regar asked as we walked back towards the broken-down gate to retrieve the next corpse.

“I do not need to prove it to you, but I do know how she tastes. Her life force was all over the servant.” I’d also seen her in the forest, but Regar didn’t need to know that.

He grimaced. “She tastes like scorched earth and rotten boots? I’m not all that interested in her anymore.”

I gave him an ‘I’d tread carefully if I was you’ look, and he raised his hands in defence with a light chuckle. I shrugged his comment off.

“I think that’s what the delthers taste like.” It took me a while to place the taste with the stench they emitted, but now that their bodies burned in the fire, the connection was unmistakable. “Isay tastes like sunshine and forest.”

“Ahh,” Regar sighed in content. “I got bits of that too, but mostly the tang of rot. Haven’t felt this alive in ages, though.”

“Tell me about it.”

Except for that new irritating hunger, I had never fed this often or in the quantities that I kept getting from Isay. King Grath had thought Siya would invigorate the court, but it was Isay who’d given the boost in the middle of the battle.

“Tell you what, after this damage is cleared and Hiko’s feeling better, why don’t we get out of here for a little while? Get some fresh air,” Regar suggested as he grabbed the hooves of another dead delther and I followed suit. We dragged the beast through the training grounds towards the flames.

“It’s been a while. Would be nice,” I agreed.

While I craved to see Isay after we’d worked for hours cleaning up the signs of battle and mending the fence, I didn’t search her out for two reasons: The night had fallen by the time we stopped, and the hunger in my gut intensified simply by the thought of her.

Simply put, I couldn’t trust myself around her.

Instead, I found myself at Sela’s doorstep. By the sounds of it, she already had companionship, but I didn’t give a damn. She always made my hunger go away, and I needed it gone.

Without announcing my presence with a knock, I marched into her one-room flat to find her with legs wide open, a fae I didn’t know buried deep inside her folds.

The hunger intensified and burned within me. This was what I needed. With a rough hand on his shoulder, I yanked the fae off Sela using more force than I intended.

The man flew through the air and crashed into the nearby wall.

Sela jerked up at the sudden intrusion, eyes still drooping from pleasure and mouth wide open. I pulled her in for a greedy kiss, and it soothed my craving down to a bearable ache.

My competition was up on his feet by the time I released her lips, and she smiled lazily. “Kar, I wasn’t expecting you tonight.”

I wasn’t expecting to go crawling to her either. Usually, I visited her when I needed to feed, but after what Isay had done no fae in this court faced that problem, not when it came to life force. I hadn’t known myself that I needed anything more than that from Sela, but staring into her passion-filled eyes it became painstakingly clear I needed the sex to ease the burn.

“Get out!” I growled at the fae that had left his scent all over the sheets.  He glowered back, glancing between the two of us.

“That’s not necessary, is it?” Sela drawled. “Why can’t we all have a good time?”

Not happening. The fae read it from my posture, choosing instead to gather his clothes and leave unsatisfied while I pulled my shirt over my head.

“Heavens, Kar,” Sela exclaimed, staring at my abdomen. “Didn’t you get that looked over?”

I dropped my eyes from her bare breasts to my stomach where the delther tentacles had left a hideous mark on me. No, I hadn’t gotten it looked over. The infirmary was full of with fae in far worse condition than me, and Drek’s salve on my arm must’ve seeped into my bloodstream to counteract the additional venom.

I dropped my shirt on the floor while Sela shifted off the bed and sashayed over to the sink in her naked beauty.

She was a stunning fae, and her appearance always worked up my appetite, especially when she moved like that. We also knew how to work each other into a frenzy.

It was a comfortable casual relationship that gave me what I needed and gave her—well, I’m not sure what she got out of it other than my wonderful company. I wanted the sex, and I wanted the hunger for it gone, but as I followed Sela’s curvy shape with my eyes, I knew with all certainty that I did not want Sela.

Taking a deep breath to let that new revelation sink in, I groaned aloud, making her look back at me. I must’ve been completely see-through because she gave me a knowing smile.

“That bad, hmm? That’s why you’re here this time, isn’t it? Because you can’t be with her.”

My eyes narrowed. “Am I that obvious?”

“I see to a lot of men, Kar. I know the signs. You are not a mystery.”

“You’ve got no problem with it?”

Sela laughed, sloshing water around in the big basin she was carrying. “Do I have a problem with you being in love with the girl?” She shook her head as if I’d amused her. “It’s a shame, but no, I have no problem with it. This was bound to happen sooner or later. I just hoped you’d find someone who could appreciate your talents.”

“Right.” I sat at the edge of her bed, but I felt like dropping onto the mattress and letting go of the tension in my body.

I would just lay there, disconnected from the world until this feeling of hopelessness drifted away. Not before she cleaned my wound, though.

“You’re not going to correct me?” Sela dipped a towel in the water, squeezed it, and dabbed at the dried blood and pus on my stomach.

I averted my gaze. “You’re not wrong.”

“Mhmm, but most men try to deny it anyway.”

“Does it help?”

Sela laughed again. “You are way too smart for someone your age.”

“You then realise that no matter how much I’ve enjoyed our time together, I won’t be staying.”

Her smile was sad, but she gave me one anyway. “You know where to find me when you change your mind.”

I would not change my mind. Not about Isay. I just needed to find another way to satisfy this second hunger. If my assumptions were correct, this craving stemmed from passion. It would mean that one of my parents had been Felrothian. Those fae fed on emotions.