mind grapples with warring desires. Foolish. I’ve always been foolish. I rub my temples and enter a dark hallway.
This is a mistake. I just need to go back to my room, wank, and sleep.
A figure emerges ahead of me, the dark clothes and notched blade giving Phinelas away. His Catcher costume is spot-on, creepily so.
I shake my head. “I’m sorry. I can’t.” I curse Gareth inwardly for being an invisible cockblock.
Phinelas cants his head to the side and continues approaching.
“I mean, I can. There’s nothing wrong with my goods.” I wave a hand across the front of my body. “But I can’t.” I lean against the wall. “I’m stuck on an ass who isn’t stuck on me. And I’m dumb to keep wanting him, you know? But I can’t help it.” I cover my face with my hands.
He stops in front of me. Maybe he can give me some words of encouragement or something, sort of like a pep-talk fueled by unrequited lust.
“I’m pathetic.” I sigh into my palms. “I know I promised you some fun, but I can’t have fun when I’m all miserable and like, spurned by an asshole fae male person, you know? Have you ever wanted someone you can’t have? I kept thinking he wanted me and he was just pretending to be a total jerk, but turns out I was overconfident—which I’m not really confident, I just sort of fake it, because I can’t admit to myself that I’m scared no one will want me because I’m damaged.” Why are my eyes watering? “Yeesh. That was sort of a deep thought revelation there, right? I’m ‘in my feels’ as Taylor says. It’s the wine. And I did just witness an epic mating. I think I just need to go to bed. Alone. But thanks for listening.” I clear my throat and try to work up the courage to meet his gaze. “You’re a really good listener, you know?”
Metal snaps around my wrists.
“Whoa. What kind of kinky fuckery are you into, Phinel—” I look up at Phinelas but find only cruel silver eyes in a half-hidden face. My breath stops, fear cutting through my drunken stupor.
“Granthos has been looking for you, little runaway.” The Catcher stuffs a gag into my mouth as I open it to yell for help, my bottom lip splitting from his rough treatment.
Hefting me over his shoulder with feline ease, he strides down the hallway and disappears into the freezing black night, my muffled screams ignored by the snow, the rocks, and the Catcher.
2
Gareth
“More?” I run a hand through my hair and pace the war room.
“More. Reports are flooding in.” Branala drops into her chair at the scarred wooden table and takes her shoes off. “That ceremony did me in.” She rubs her foot as Brannon and Thorn walk in, both of them with drinks in hand.
“It’s broken.” Thorn takes a huge drink from his mug, a foamy mustache appearing on his upper lip. “The queen broke the curse.”
“Her magic is stronger than I think anyone could have anticipated.” Ravella appears from the vale and warms herself by the fire.
“When she pulled the curse out of the air like that? The shockwave went through the entire realm.” Branala switches to the other foot. “The sheer power it took—” She shakes her head. “I wonder if even the Ancestors could feel it.”
Ravella scans the room. “Anyone here sense anything … anything at all?”
Thorn’s gaze drops to the floor as does Brannon’s. Ravella sighs, and Branala stops rubbing her foot.
“Our mates will come in time.” I glance at Gray as he strides in, a pitcher of beer in each meaty hand. “Take heart. Now we know the curse is broken.”
“Right.” Gray downs one tankard. “To our mates.” He raises the other, doesn’t wait for anyone to join his toast, then drains it.
I felt an itch at the back of my skull the moment Taylor lifted the curse. Could it be that my mate is near? My heart thunders at the thought, my blood hot. Without warning, the memory of Beth laid out naked in the Greenvelde, her skin dotted with water from a stream, bursts free from the cage where I keep it. I grit my teeth. That little changeling has worked her way under my skin, but I have to move her aside to make room for my fae mate. Now that Shathinor’s mate curse is no more, I have to think about my future, not simply my current desires. But my need