The Abyss (Fae's Captive #7) - Lily Archer Page 0,19
I keep my lips wed to each other. The answer is there. I already know what it is, and the gleam in her eyes tells me she does, too.
A million answers would be better than the one I’m compelled to give. But my mouth will not form a lie, my breath will not give life to one, and I simply cannot utter anything except the truth. So I say nothing at all despite the pain that builds and scorches.
“Well?” She tips her chin up and peers deeply into my eyes. “Would you simply free me or would you wreak havoc on the slavers? I know what I would do if I could, if the situation were reversed. If they’d hurt you?” She rests one palm over my heart. “I’d burn every last one of them.”
The certainty in her words sends a pleasant chill down my spine, and the feral unwinds within me, purring with approval. Too bad my tongue is on fire and my lungs feel as if they are going to explode.
“Just tell me.”
As if I could ever deny her. My answer comes out on a quick, painful breath. “I would kill every last one of them, turn their bodies into dust, and raze the ground so that none of their kind could ever seek to rebuild their evil.” The feverish weight lifts, and I can breathe again. “But that doesn’t mean we should go along with this rash plan.”
“I’m a slave, Gareth.”
“No, you—”
“I am.” She rests her forehead against my chest, her voice low. “I’m free now, because of you. But they aren’t. We have to help them. Just like we helped the slaves here. Clotty isn’t enough. Not when we have the chance to free them all.”
“I won’t risk you.”
She turns her head, pressing her cheek against me. “Sometimes you have to risk it all if you want to do what’s right.”
“You have risked and suffered enough, my beloved.” I kiss her crown.
She sighs. “Maybe.”
“I will stick to our agreement for Clotty.” I keep my voice level. “But I will not agree to take you into a warzone.”
“I understand.” She wraps her arms around my waist and tilts her head back. Her mouth is utterly tempting at this angle.
“Good.” I lean down, needing a taste of what’s mine.
“But that doesn’t mean Parnon and Chastain and a few of their friends can’t tag along with us.”
I stop. “Beth, that’s not what we agreed.”
“It is what we agreed. We are going to save Clotty. End of. But we can’t stop the others from travelling with us. And the Abyss will be safer with companions who know the way, right?”
“Parnon knows the way,” Chastain pipes up. “Every step.”
Parnon gives his customary grunt of assent.
I grind my teeth as I look around the table. Chastain and Silmaran set a trap for me, and Beth sprung it. My need to claim her seems to have erased my reason, because I can’t find a good argument to avoid travelling with Chastain’s force.
Spires!
Silmaran is smiling, though sadness is still etched in her eyes, and Chastain gives Parnon a nod of approval. “Get packed. We leave as soon as possible.”
Parnon stomps from the room with Chastain at his back.
“We aren’t going there to free anyone but Clotty,” I say the words, and Beth nods in agreement, but we both know that I’ve been had. “We aren’t.” I give her a little shake.
“Stern.” She grins. “Just the way I like you.”
Her mischief will drive me mad. “We are freeing Clotty, getting out, and then Chastain can enact his foolish plan. We’ll have nothing to do with it. I mean it, Beth.”
“I know.” She gets onto her tiptoes and cranes her neck toward me, her lips parted.
“I won’t be cowed with a kiss.” I say the words even as I drift closer, my feral purring and my gaze straying to her mouth.
“I know.” She darts her tongue out and wets her lips.
“Damned clever changeling,” I growl and give in, kissing her hard and lifting her onto the table.
She clutches my shoulders, her legs spreading so I can nestle between them.
Silmaran hurries from the room and closes the door behind her.
“I still don’t agree to this.” I rest my palm at her throat as she dots kisses along my jaw.
“All right.”
“I will not risk you.”
“All right.”
“I’m serious.” I pull back and tighten my grip at her throat, then use my other hand to fist her soft hair. “You and Silmaran can scheme all you want, but when it