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Raw desire builds, winding tighter inside me, a tension on the verge of snapping. I move my hips against his mouth as my body clenches tighter, my thighs pressing around his head. Hot pleasure ripples through me, intoxicating, until I no longer remember my name, or his, or what the truth ever was. There is only this—his mouth against me, his fingers inside me, the heady pull of his touch. All I can think about is the overpowering pleasure where his mouth touches me.

As his fingers move faster inside me, I come hard, and stars explode behind my eyelids, my body tightening with a mind-shattering release. I clench around him and call out his name. My body shudders, back arching, until my muscles slowly start to relax again, aftershocks rolling through me like thunder.

I catch my breath, my body glowing and damp in the warmth from the fire. Talan pulls me firmly against him, wrapping me in his arms. I wish I could stay like this, in the in-between world where he hasn’t yet learned the whole truth.

I turn to look at Talan, and he stares into my eyes, a small, satisfied smile on his face. “I meant to get your secrets out of you, Nia,” he says softly, “but you gave me none. It almost never happens that I lose control. But since the moment I met you, I haven’t been able to think straight.”

His words light a warm, glowing fire inside me.That makes two of us.“And why is that?”

He studies me with a line forming between his eyebrows. “It’s like I was living in a world of shadows and mist, and then you showed up in my castle—wild, furious, insulting me. And you looked like dawn.” His voice drops. “Rose and honey. You felt like something I lost a long time ago. And ever since, I haven’t been able to clear my mind. Without you, now, I think it would feel like the air stopped moving through the trees. It would feel like the sun would never rise, the rivers would stop flowing, and everything would turn to dust.”

My heart stutters, and his words make my eyes mist.

Because my secrets are a ticking clock between us, counting down the minutes.

And perfect things never last, do they?

CHAPTER 37

Rosy morning sunlight slants into the cabin, and I shift back against Talan in the cozy bed. Every now and again, wrens and nightingales sing, making my eyelids flutter open.

The fire in the fireplace died sometime in the night, and as the hours stretched on, a chill spread through the cottage. Still, even without the fire, the heat from Talan’s body keeps me warm. I nestle against him, folding my arm over his. The dawn light bathes the warm cedar tones of the cabin in honeyed shades. As I snuggle close to Talan, my mind drifts through that liminal realm between sleep and waking. Thoughts appear and dissipate like fog that drifts over Lake Avalon.

Talan knows that I’m demi-Fey, and he doesn’t care. Maybe he doesn’t knoweverything, but I feel safe in his arms.

He really isn’t who we all thought he was—the Butcher of Brittany, the ruthless killer. He understands that the humans, the demi-Fey, were nothing more than a scapegoat for the king.

If I’m right, we can stop the war together. I just have to think of a way to slowly tell him the whole truth without ripping the rug out from under him.

And right now, I really don’t want to leave this delectable cocoon.

Talan’s hand shifts on my stomach, his fingers lazily stroking my skin. “Nia, are you awake?”

“Mmm.” I pull the blankets up around me and shift my ass against him. I can feel the hard length of him, and it stirs desire in me all over again.

“We have to get back to Perillos,” he murmurs. “But I’m going to hunt us more food and get some water before we go. You sleep a little longer.”

He kisses me on the temple, and I watch dreamily as he pulls on his trousers. It’s hard to stop looking at him—every perfect inch of him.

I watch as he steps out of the cottage and the door closes behind him. I listen to his feet crunching the snow as he leaves, and I luxuriate under the blankets for a while.

When Talan gets back, I want to talk to him about the war. I want to find out why he’s trying to conquer Scotland. What’s his plan if he doesn’t support his father’s crusade against humans?

I curl sleepily underneath the blanket, Talan’s masculine scent still coiling around me.

My eyes snap open,my heart racing, danger sliding into my thoughts. At first, I’m not sure what woke me, but then I hear it again, and my breath catches. Men’s voices ring out from the forest. Did Talan bring someone back with him?

I rise from the bed and pull on a thin silk gown over my naked body. I cross to the window, and my heart skips a beat. I leap away from the glass, then carefully peer around the side again, taking care not to be seen.

It’s not Talan—it’s the King’s Watch. At least twenty soldiers are marching toward the cottage, all wearing the engraved armor of the king’s guard. Their swords are drawn, and they look sharp and vicious.

My blood roars as I recognize the man in the center of the group. He’s larger than the rest, his lip curled with a bone-chilling ferocity. He’s wielding his monstrously large sword, the one he used when he captured Raphael.

It’s Vidal, Maertisa’s brother, and based on the look on his face, I think this mission is personal to him. He knows what I did to his twin.

Slowly, realization sinks in like snow melting into soil.

Talan told me yesterday that no one would recognize my face in town. But what if Vidal came looking for me here, hunting for his sister’s killer? He must have pieced together that it was me, probably right after we left Aedan’s palace. His sister, after all, had already suspected me. She must have whispered something to him, but Vidal bided his time. An attack in Perillos would have been foolish.