Page 11

Chapter eleven

Brandon

“ I ’m getting you out of here,” I said.

Roisin’s fingers tightened on me. The sight of her bleeding made me want to murder the demon who’d made her bleed. I picked up a napkin and dabbed at the wound, but the skin had already healed underneath the blood and all that remained was a tiny pink pin prick mark. At least that was something, but what did the demon do with her blood? What spell did she make? Were we stuck here forever?

“You can go back to your room now.” Tay clicked her fingers, and the door swung open.

The demon who’d escorted us here stood on the other side waiting.

“Not until you tell us why you hurt Roisin.”

“Is she hurt?” Tay asked lifting her head from staring at the items for so long it was like they’d hypnotized her.

“That’s beside the point. You hurt her.”

“We’re immortal, little human. We heal quickly from a slight wound. We’d heal from even larger wounds, unlike you who’d die. Don’t test my patience. I said leave.” She pointed at the door.

Roisin tugged my biceps. I wanted answers, but my job was to protect Roisin, and what a shit job I’d done so far.

“Fine,” I spat. “Don’t believe this is the end.”

Tay smiled creepily. “This is so much more than the end.”

I let Roisin pull me toward the door mainly because she was touching me, and I didn’t want her to stop. The second we were through the door, it slammed shut.

“That was creepy.”

Roisin wrapped her arm through mine as though I was escorting her to a formal dance. I didn’t mind in the least because it kept her close to me and touching me.

“Why would she make you bleed on all those bizarre objects?”

“Magic I’m assuming,” Roisin said. “I should have read more books like Ciara instead of painting. Not a very useful pastime for me to do.”

“Never give up what you love.” I stepped closer to her, so our hips brushed with each step along the long castle hallway.

“Have you?”

I tapped my finger against my leg. Had I?

“No. If you love painting don’t stop for anyone or anything.”

We arrived back at the bedroom. The demon unlocked the door and waited for us to enter. How would we ever get out of here? They kept us under lock and key. Our captor might be crazy, and the bookshelf wasn’t a portal, so even if we went searching, we wouldn’t find a way home. My guess was the demons made the portals themselves. It was entirely different from the Veil between the Fae Kingdom and Earth. How I longed to be back home with the stuff I was familiar with.

Roisin hesitated on the threshold of the room as though she too was undecided if we should go back into the room. A tiny exhale made her chest deflate, dragging my gaze back to her breasts. At least in the demon’s presence, I’d had the wits about me to stop staring at Roisin, but now we were about to be alone, I didn’t have the willpower to keep from staring at her beauty.

She walked inside the bedroom with me by her side. As predicted, the demon closed the door behind us and locked it.

“Well, this sucks,” I said. “I didn’t eat a thing and I’m hungry.”

Roisin laughed, her entire body shaking beside mine. She slid her arm out of our cozy nook and walked over to the fireplace. The loss of our physical connection was instantaneous. She lifted her hands toward the flames and turned them a few different ways as though searching for something.

I walked over to her and grabbed the hand the demon had stabbed with her nail.

“The mark is gone.”

“Of course. ”

“I wanted to rip her head off for hurting you.”

Roisin’s pretty blue and indigo-rimmed eyes lifted. Her gaze dashed over every inch of my face.

“I saw that. I’m not sure that will kill a demon, are you?”

“No, but it’d slow her down for a bit at least.”

She smiled. “It was a tiny wound.”

“Any wound on you is too big.”

She gazed at me as if she longed for my kiss. Was I projecting my desire onto her?

“Well,” she said, tugging her hand out of mine and walking to the door. “Should we try to escape?”

“How?”

“Next time they open the door, you rip their head off, then we’ll run for it through a castle no doubt full of other demons, but you can rip their heads off too, then we’ll run out into the snow where you’ll freeze to death.”

“Roisin, are you being sarcastic?”

She rolled her eyes.

I laughed so hard it took away the last of the anger I had at the demon for hurting Roisin. I couldn’t explain this overprotective urge I had for her. Sure, I was a member of the Fellowship, and it was my duty to protect the Fae. I’d grown up all my life hearing about the Fae from my mother and grandfather. About how we were the special chosen ones to keep their secrets, protect them from harm, and help them in any way they needed. But this was Roisin. The exquisite, very alluring, Roisin. The one woman in existence who made my heart thump in my chest and made me forget all my years of training, for who I was. Whenever I was near her, there was only her. My need to please her. Protect her in a way that had nothing to do with being a Fellowship member and everything to do with being a man who’d developed feelings for a woman.

The door opened, making Roisin startle back a few steps. Four demons walked inside, one carrying a tray of food, the other a jug and a tray of goblets, the next with paints, the last with a canvas. They didn’t say a word to us but set the trays on the small tables next to the chairs by the fireplace, and the canvas and paints by the window. They’d left the door wide open, but Roisin didn’t even look at the door to escape and I was too far away. While I might have thought I’d try to take on one horned demon, four might be a bit of a stretch. Okay, a lot probably since they were all taller than me and I wasn’t short at six foot four.

They left as quickly as they’d come.

“I guess you won’t go hungry after all,” Roisin said.

“Come here and let’s eat.”

I watched her walk toward me, her gaze flickering between me and the canvas. It was like an intangible thread pulled her toward the art tools. I saw the love for it in her eyes. I’d do anything to have her look at me that way, too.

She sat in the ornate seat, so I sat in the other one opposite her, not used to such decadent furniture.

“This looks delicious,” she said.

“Smells it too.” I handed her a small plate. “After you, Princess. ”

“I’m not sure my title means much here.”

“You’re wrong.” I picked up a handful of blueberries and placed them on her plate. “The demon princess respected you were a princess, too.”

“How can you be sure?”

I tapped the side of my nose as I grinned. “My training. Plus, it was obvious with the way she talked to you.”

“I suppose I’m familiar with people talking to me that way.” She smiled. “How did you realize I liked blueberries?”

“Everyone knows Fae love blueberries.”

I picked a few pieces of cured meat from the other side of the tray and placed them on my plate. I’d need all the sustenance I could get if we were to figure out a way out of here.

“And you, what do you love?”

I caught and held her gaze. ‘You’ hovered on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t love her. I barely knew her.

“Tell me about the Summer Court.”

“What would you like to know?”

“Everything,” I said. It was true. I wanted to learn everything about her. About what else she loved. If she might ever love me?