but it’s certainly a children’s song.
At the same time as the wall clicks back into place, Seb pauses mid-song and the girl spins around to face me.
“Hello, Daesyn,” the little girl says, her voice carrying across the throne room. Seb frowns, placing the guitar down and walking to the girl’s side. I walk over to them both, carefully taking in how Seb stands so close to the girl, protective over her.
“How do you know my little sister, vixen?” he demands, a tic appearing in his jaw.
“Sister?” I murmur to myself, pulling my eyes to the girl. “We met on the roof, kinda. I don’t even know her name.”
“Her name is Eira,” he tells me. “And she should be getting back to bed.”
“But—” She angrily stomps her foot. Seb picks her up and hugs her tightly.
“But nothing. I will come to you later, but no more songs if you’re not asleep soon,” he softly tells her. She pouts as he places her down, and she walks right to my side, looking up at me with her bright eyes.
“The spirits said if you gave them back what was taken, they will cease the hunt,” she tells me…in a super creepy way with a big smile on her lips.
“I’ve told you to stop speaking to those spirits, Eira. They are dangerous!” Seb spits out, walking and stopping right in front of me, leaning down and placing his hands on her shoulders. “Your connection to them isn’t normal.”
She looks down and pulls away from Seb. “I know.”
Eira leaves without another word, disappearing into the swords, and I hear a door open and close in the distance.
I turn back to Seb just as he grabs me and slams my back onto one of the swords that acts as a wall as he pushes his body against mine. I let him grab my hands, hold them above my head.
His eyes are nothing but threatening, a promise of alluring darkness in them. And I like it. “You will tell no one about my sister’s…unusual friends.”
“I’m no fan of the spirits, Seb,” I reply, enjoying his body pressed against mine. He feels good in all the right places. “And how exactly do you plan to force me to keep silent?”
He leans in close, his lips inches from mine. The seductively dark prince smells forbidden with an almost clean, earthy under scent that I suspect is all him. I could breathe him in all day long. I bet every girl in the academy, bar Poppy, would die to be in my position right now.
“I have my ways, vixen,” he growls. “Promise me.”
Seeing how serious he is and being that I have a thing against hurting kids in any way, shape, or form, I sigh. “Of course I promise. I would never hurt her, and I doubt telling everyone she talks to spirits is going to do anything other than hurt her in the end.”
He changes his grip so one of his hands holds my arms up and his other hand falls to my neck.
My body reacts in an unexpected way, liking the pressure. Liking how close he is to me.
“I bet you taste as forbidden as you look.”
“Try me,” I whisper, taunting him, and he gives in. His lips fall on mine, his tongue parting my lips within seconds and kissing me with an expertness that only comes from practice. I feel myself sinking into his grip, not caring that he is in complete control of me.
Suddenly he stops and leans back.
He watches me closely, and then he lets me go, stepping back, and I miss his touch. “I protect Eira. Only me, and I’m shit at it, but I will never let the world find out her secrets.”
I guess we are pretending that life-shattering kiss didn’t happen then.
“I don’t sense she is half fae,” I say. “Being that I know one secret, can I ask for another?”
He rubs his chin and nods once. “Eira is my half-sister, and her father is unknown to me. My mother refuses to acknowledge Eira’s existence, and I could not leave her to grow up alone in this castle as I mostly did until Ryker came.”
“The more I hear about your mother, the more I dislike her,” I reply with a small smile that matches his.
“My mother is ruthless and killed many for her throne. Her children are simply mistakes,” he replies. “She tells us that repeatedly.”
“She is wrong,” I say truthfully. “So wrong.”
He shakes his head, running his thumb across his bottom