Savage Beauty(26)

“I wouldn’t go near Virosa.”

“You would. She would slip into your mind and make you walk there, and you wouldn’t even realize it until she stood in front of you with a saccharine, poisonous smile.”

“Why do you care? Is it just because you loved my brother?”

“Isn’t it enough that I do care, Prince, without questioning the reasoning behind it?” With those words, she turned, strode across the room, grabbed her broom along the way, and left the cottage. “You could come with me,” she added from the porch where she stood waiting. Her eyes glowed back at me.

I blew out a breath, tension melting slightly from my muscles.

“I can keep you safe,” she added.

Blinking rapidly, I tried to understand the emotions, the fire that had just roiled through me. It was like when she used her magic, her flame lit me on fire. Not my body or clothes, but me. My emotions and thoughts became scrambled, angry, and incoherent. “I’m sorry for what just happened... I don’t know what came over me.” I tried to search myself for why I was so upset with her. She wasn’t mine. I didn’t have a claim on her.

“It’s fine. You’ve been through a lot, and now that my sister knows you’re here...” she trailed off, shaking her head. “Ember, find a wolf,” she ordered, and her familiar took off into the woods to hunt. How they would communicate once she found it—and somehow, I knew Ember would—was something I didn’t understand.

I blew out a breath, tension melting slightly from my muscles.

If Aura was mad, I didn’t want her to harm my family. I would go with Luna, but I wouldn’t help her carry out these dark tasks.

Luna let out a low chuckle, and my eyes snapped to her. “Why are you laughing?”

She stared at me for a long moment. “I didn’t laugh.”

The distance between us was naught but a few feet, but it seemed like miles in that moment. Was she toying with me?

“Are you feeling well, Prince?” she asked, concern wrinkling her brow.

I swallowed. “I’m fine.”

But I wasn’t fine. I was feeling things that didn’t exist and hearing things that weren’t there. If this was the result of her spell, she’d made a bad one.





chapter eleven




PHILLIP

With a small leather bag tied at her waist, Luna sat on the broom, her dark skirts hanging off it. “Hop on.”

“We’re going to Ringsted?”

“No, since you’re coming along, I’ll get the easiest ingredients out of the way first.”

She meant the safest. She wouldn’t want me to get my princely hands dirty.

“What ingredients are we going after?”

Laughing, she replied, “Whichever we can find.”

“You have no plan whatsoever, do you?”

“Not really. But I won’t fail, Prince.”

“My name is Phillip. Why won’t you use it?” She was infuriating. And beautiful. Even with the marks of the dark fae, she was enchanting. I shook my head to clear it and sat down on the back of her broom.

“Hold my waist, Phillip. I won’t bite... much.”

Oh, now she was teasing. Now her mood was light. She was driving me insane with her manic mood swings. One moment, it’s Burn the porch down! and in the next she threatens to bite me. Not that I hadn’t wondered what those canines might feel like raking gently against my skin...

My hands found her narrow waist and clamped on tight. “I won’t let you fall,” she promised. “You have to trust me. Oh, and I forgive you for reading my journal.”

“How’d you know?” I asked guiltily.

“Your scent.”

I knew it!

“So, you know everything now?”

“I didn’t read anything about my brother. I wanted to hear it from you.”

She tensed under my hands. She’d obviously wanted me to read it so she wouldn’t have to speak about it. Well, too bad.

“Very well. If we survive until morning, I’ll tell you. But know that you asked me. The details are more disturbing than you can imagine.”

Whatever happened to William, I knew it was bad. Various scenarios flickered through my mind, none of them pleasant. The fact that he was dead wasn’t in dispute, but I did fear the way he left this world was torturous, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear it in detail.

With wind swirling gently around us, it picked us and the broom up and carried us into the sky. My heart raced as we zoomed forward, avoiding the taller trees in the forest canopy. But in the end, flying was amazing and fun, and I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. Throughout it all, I never felt like I would fall off. The wind pressed up and around us, keeping us balanced on the broom. Luna glanced back at me, the moon casting her skin with a pale light. When she saw my face, she smiled and urged us faster.

I held tightly to her and enjoyed every second of it, laughing as she showed me a few tricks and recited the list of ingredients we’d need to gather over the next few nights for her spell. When she twirled us in the air, I panicked and let go of her waist while we were still upside down. I screamed for Luna as the dark earth rushed toward me and closed my eyes. I was going to die.

And then, I came to a sudden stop. Not splattered on the ground, but in Luna’s arms. She was smiling and holding me like a bride being carried over the threshold on her wedding night.