Phantom of the Library - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,13

to do it either. I won’t kill you. We could still change the future, right?” Although I did wonder how that would work.

“This seems beyond my ability to foresee,” Lord Abiron said. “But if I am fated to die this day, may I at least have the pleasure of knowing you first?”

“Oh, Byron…” Tears welled in my eyes. Lord Abiron reminded me of Byron, but he was also more distant, more godlike. He accepted his fate much more easily than I would have.

“Since we don’t know what fate is to bring, it’s possible that this night must still go on. I came here tonight to wed you and show you the pleasure of my bedchamber, and if I changed course, I might hinder the future.”

“Maybe…” I just didn’t know what was supposed to happen. But the more time I spent in Lady Hulda’s skin, the more I felt as if she never intended to give him the poison. I don’t know why I felt that way. When I was here, of course, her presence was gone. But her body still had this sense of some other person clinging to it. Movements. Words. As if I could feel her instincts.

Her mother’s request to kill Lord Abiron was at least as horrible to her as my mother’s desire to make me become some rich warlock’s wife and put aside my own dreams. Well, probably a lot more horrible.

And like me, I thought, Hulda wasn’t going to do it.

But then—what am I here for?

“You already know me well, don’t you?” he asked, his words intimate against my ear. “I can feel it.”

“We have, yes…although not quite like this. I’m worried about what will happen if the soldiers come. They think I’m poisoning you.”

“My men will fight them. And then I suppose we shall see. There isn’t much you and I can do, unless you would like my men to attack your royal retinue, kill your small number of guards and Lady Hulda’s family. I can’t see that leading to a good result either. No, I had to put my trust in the humans and it seems it was misplaced, but I needed the strength of a human witch bride. I had to make a choice. Maybe there was no wise choice. Maybe all the humans have just been waiting for this chance.”

“You expected it?”

“I always expect it. It’s the way of history to keep others out. To stake your claims. They have never liked me because I keep the realms united and force them to deal with one another.” He kissed my ear and then the tip of his tongue glided down the edge of my cheek, until it reached my lips. “If you like me, I will be content.”

Maybe all I could do for Lord Abiron was leave him with a good memory. I would have to be content knowing that this wasn’t really the end of him. I just hoped this was what Byron wanted me to do.

It certainly wasn’t a chore to meet his lips with my own, and reach for him as he put his arms around me. He held me close in his massive arms as our lips met, his wings lowering around me, sheltering me. Then he started to slide downward, his fingers tugging open the laces at the back of my dress. He pulled the garment down, exposing my breasts, and then he started to give them the attention of his deliciously warm and skilled mouth.

It was hard to think about much of anything when he was so good at taking it all in stride. His tongue licked and his lips suckled and his teeth nibbled as his hand played with my other breast, and then he moved from one to the other, so the wetness he left behind on my nipple caught the air and made my skin pebble with cold. He swirled his thumb around in the saliva and then gave my nipple a few rough tugs. His tail, meanwhile, curled around one of my ankles and moved my feet open.

He pulled my hair out of the long braids, something I always liked in my normal life, but I’d never have the patience to grow out these crazy Wagnerian opera braids that Hulda had, so that just drew out the pleasure of feeling him tug and toy gently with my hair until it was loose everywhere.

Maybe I should try to grow my hair longer, I thought. A spell tonic or something. But then washing