Fantastical (Fantasyland #3)(39)

There it was. A decent excuse.

“Salem, right, he’s a good horse. I couldn’t possibly engage in any, um… naughty activities with him around.”

Salem snorted and I had no idea if it was a “go ahead, don’t mind me” snort or a “thanks for thinking of me, Cora,” snort.

“It isn’t his first time,” Tor told me.

Way, way, way wrong thing to say.

Way.

My back shot straight, my eyes shot open and Tor took his mouth from my ear.

“Cora?”

I lifted a hand and curled my fingers around his at my breast, pulling them down.

He sighed. Then he said, “My love, you know you’re not –”

“If I were you, Prince Noctorno Hawthorne, I’d keep my trap shut.”

He, of course, did not.

“I’m a man, Cora, and you’ve been withholding from me.”

“No I have not, considering I lived in an alternate universe until a few days ago,” I reminded him. “The other Cora has. If you were my husband, you’d be getting it regular,” I announced.

Tor’s body went solid behind me again then he asked, “Does that mean what I think it means?”

I twisted and glared at him. “Yes!” I spat. “You’re a prince. You’re hot. You’re a great kisser. You have a cool horse. You’ve got great eyes and an even better chest. You have just enough, not too much chest hair. And when you aren’t being a jerk, you can be sweet. So, obviously, if we were wed in holy matrimony, I’d be giving it up… regular.”

His brows drew together. “You’d be giving what up?”

“Me!” I shouted then twisted forward, muttering, “Yeesh.”

His mouth came back to my ear, not to play, just to speak. “Well, since you are here and you’ve taken the place of the other Cora and you’re apparently stuck here, then I expect to get you,” he paused and finished firmly, “regular. Starting now.”

“No, absolutely not,” I denied.

“Then you lied?” he asked.

“No,” I answered. “But I can’t give it when I’m peeved.” I twisted to look at him again. “And make no mistake, Prince Noctorno, I… am… peeved.”

“You’re peeved a lot,” he observed.

“Learn from that, big guy,” I educated and twisted right back.

He chuckled.

I gritted my teeth.

Then I heard it.

My head snapped to the left and I peered into the trees at the same time Salem took two side steps and blew through his lips.

“Cora?” Tor called and my hand shot up.

“Sh!” I hissed and listened.

There it was again.

“Pull back on the reins,” I ordered.

“Pardon?”

There it was; I heard it again!

“Pull back on the reins!” I shouted then kept shouting, “Salem, stop!”

Noctorno pulled back on the reins and Salem stopped.

“What do you sense? Danger?” Tor whispered in my ear, his arm fiercely tight at my ribs.

“No,” I whispered back. “Aggie.”

Then I broke from his arm, slid off the side of Salem, landed on my slippers and immediately darted around the front of the horse and ran toward the trees.

“By the gods, Cora! Stop!”

I didn’t stop. Instead, I shouted, “Aggie! Aggie, is that you?”

I kept running and heard the hooves of a horse and the boots of a man behind me but I no longer heard the chirps.

“Aggie!” I screamed then let out an, “oof,” when my running was halted by an iron arm around my stomach and I was hauled into a hard body. “Let me go!” I yelled, pushing at his arm and pressing forward.

“Cora,” he ground out in my ear, “don’t ever –”

“Chirp, chirp, chirp,” I heard faintly and I knew it meant, “Cora, help me.”

Oh God.

I twisted in Tor’s arm to face him as he dragged me toward Salem who’d run off the road with Tor and I.

“Tor!” I cried desperately, tipping my head back to look at him, struggling against his arm and dragging my feet to stop him from dragging me. “I hear Aggie.”

“Who?”

“Aggie!” I yelled.

Tor stopped and stared down at me. “Who’s Aggie?”

“Aggie, Aggie, Agglethorpe! The bird!”

His brows shot together. “The what?”

“Bird!”

“Chirp,” which meant, “Help.”

“Tor! I think something’s wrong. We have to do something!” I lifted my hands to his jaws, got up on tiptoe, leaned in and begged, “Please!”

He stared into my eyes then he muttered, “Gods,” let me go, grabbed my hand and jogged into the wood, pulling me behind, Salem following on a trot.

“Aggie!” I called. “Chirp for us, sweetie, so we know where you are.”

I listened. Nothing.

I lifted my hand, cupped my mouth at the side and yelled, “Aggie, honey, please. Give us something!”

Then I heard it, a close, weak chirp right above us. I stopped, tugging on Tor’s hand making him stop and Salem stopped with us. I looked up and saw the bright feathers of Aggie about ten feet up in a tree.