Bad Fae | romantasy | Bad Fae #1

Chapter Eighteen

"What in the ever-loving fuck is this?" Dain asked, his step faltering as he finally walked into the dining room.

Venali and Phin smirked, failing to completely hide their laughter. Ninleyn took, as usual, the more calm approach when it came to the volatility of their friend.

"Yana has been practising..."

"My glamour," I finished for him happily. I was indeed as happy with Dain's thunderous expression as much as my achievement.

Dain looked around the room in obvious disgust. "This shit screams Stouze heritage."

I shrugged. "I wouldn't know," I said sweetly. "I just thought about what would piss you off most."

A bubble of laughter exploded out of Phin before she buried her face in her mug.

Dain raised an eyebrow at her, but drew no more attention to her outburst. "Of course you did," he said to me as he slid into his seat.

He kept shifting, like the flower garlands I'd grown through the room made him almost unbearably uncomfortable. But he left them there. He didn't destroy them with shadow, or geas command me to take the down. He just shook himself out and turned to Ninleyn as he picked up his own mug.

"Anything new?"

"Sudden desire to be anywhere but here?" Venali chuckled and Dain sneered at him.

"Keep that up and I'll have a sudden desire to remove your head from your body. It would be unwise of you to make me do something I may come to regret one day."

Ninleyn looked between them, like he was sizing up the sense in interrupting them. "There is something," he said.

Phin's eyes darted to me, and I knew when I was supposed to be dismissed.

*

Dain came to my room later.

"I suppose you're very proud of yourself?" he asked me.

I smiled. "Rather, yes. Didn't you like my gift?" My pout putting the final touch to my sarcasm.

He ran his tongue over his lip in that way of his. "And what do I owe you for this gift?"

My fingers traced the pendant at my neck. The one I hadn't taken off since my birthday. "Not everything is a transaction, Dain."

His eyes narrowed shrewdly, and I breathed a small laugh. One that made his eyes burn warmly.

"Your annoyance and obvious discomfort are more than enough payment," I told him.

"So pleased I could clear that debt so easily." His eyebrow rose like he was reminding me not so subtly that there was another debt hanging over him.

In answer, or decided lack thereof, I walked up to him. My hands ran up his firm chest as I reached my lips to his. He claimed them instantly, wrapping his arms around me and lifting me closer to him. I ran my hands through his hair and nipped his lip playfully as I rubbed against him.

He groaned into my lips, his hands tightening on me.

"Yana..." he rasped, leaning his forehead to mine. "As much as I would rather stay here and lose myself in your pleasure, we have been summoned. Phin, Ninleyn, Venali and I have been summoned..."

The way he left the sentence hanging, I could guess what he'd been summoned for.

"Off on another killing spree?" I huffed as I stepped away from him.

He was deathly still. Silent. No emotion, no words. Like a statue made of living flesh. It was neither a confirmation or a denial, which was a confirmation of itself.