and clacks her teeth. “Piggy wants to volunteer. I’m afraid I’d have you as a snack before we even left the city.”
Phin snorts with verve, but it doesn’t change the sea fae’s mind, because she turns her predatory gaze back to Raywen.
The pixie stands and presses her palms together. “I swear to the magic that I will return you to the Ocean of Storms if you heal Silmaran.”
The tang of a deal well sealed fills the air, and the sea fae smiles. “Thank you, sweet pixie. Now, everyone, cover your ears. My song can heal, but only those in dire straits. If you listen yet have no need of it, the tune will bring you to me. Perhaps not now, but one day you will come to the sea. To the deep, deep water. Into my arms. To the teeth that bite. And the nails that scratch. And once you’re mine, you can’t go back.”
Gareth doesn’t seem to like her creepy warning, because he grabs the side of my shirt with his fangs and yanks me away from the table.
I try to hold my ground. “But I want to see what the scary sea fae can—”
His growl brooks no argument as he pulls me down the hall.
“Oh, come on.” I try to smack his flank but can’t get around to it with the side of my shirt in his mouth, so I manage to pelt his side with a firm swat.
Another growl, this one warmer, rolls from him.
“You like it rough, eh?” I grin.
He barely fits through the door to our room, and once inside, he slams it shut with his tail.
“Gareth, it’s okay. I’m not going to be fish food. I just wanted to see, is all.”
He pulls me to the bed, knocks me over with his broad side, then jumps up with ease. Settling next to me, he presses his head to one of my ears and uses his tail to cover the other one.
“You’re ridiculous.” I sigh, but I cover his big, soft ears with my palms.
We lie like that for a while. I could swear I almost hear the sweetest tune, the lilting notes of a song unlike any I’ve ever heard. But Gareth presses his tail tighter against me, and the sound disappears in the fluff.
“You think she’s done?” I try to turn my head.
His tail whacks me in the ear.
“Hey!”
He puts a huge paw on my chest, locking me in place.
“Fine.” I hum a tune of my own. A bawdy one. About a tavern wench named Erlach who spent all her time on her back. I enjoy myself so much that I break out in song at the end. “Her ass was so wide she could control the tiiiiiiide, and that’s where she stored her cooooiiinnnnn.”
Gareth chuffs, his huge cat laughter shaking the bed, and he finally lets up on my ears. I don’t hear anything, no eerie tune from the songstress of the sea.
I scoot to get out of the bed, but that big paw pushes me back down. “I need to check on Silmaran.” I speak into golden cat eyes that are easily the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.
He licks my face, his rough tongue tickly-verging-on-painful.
“You can change back. I know you can.” I kiss his big black nose.
He looks away, and one of his ears twitches.
“Then again, maybe it’s better for you to stay like this. No temptation to mate when you’re a big tiger.” I sigh and close my eyes. “I’m perfectly safe from any sort of sexual shenani—”
The bed shifts, and when I open my eyes, a pair of familiar green ones are looking back at me.
“About that mating.” He leans down and kisses me, his mouth so much softer than the tiger tongue.
I run my hands through his dark hair as he slides between my thighs. Wanting him this badly is some sort of curse. One I put on myself. But I can’t give in. Not when he’d whisk me back to the winter realm if I agreed to his claim. Even so, I open my mouth and give him access, his tongue caressing mine as he rests one palm at my throat. His fangs are long, almost as vicious as the tiger’s, but I don’t fear him. I never could. He’s the only one in this entire world who has ever cared so much about me.
“You saved my life.” I pull back and press my palm to his cheek. “You saved me.”
“I will always save you, my