Page 9 of The King’s Man (The Kingdom of the Krow #3)

~ JANN ~

We’d left the camp too late in the day so weren’t able to locate Jhonas before nightfall. Diadre was willing to keep going in the dark, but I’d walked these Shadows before. I’d have nightmares about that for years.

When we came upon a clearing with water nearby, I proposed that we stop.

“We camp. Get an early start and hopefully find them quickly. If they’re with Jhonas we can make it back to Melek while it’s still daylight tomorrow. And if not, we’ll have the rest of the day to travel on.”

She answered by dismounting and beginning to unload her horse.

I would have made a quip about how the Fetch were supposed to have better manners, but I was too tired to spar with her. So, I followed suit.

As twilight turned to night, we had a fire and a campsite. I asked her what the hunting was like in these woods, and Diadre smiled. Then fucking disappeared.

I scrambled to my feet, fear spearing through me. “Diadre?”

If she left me here, the Shadows would come for me.

“Diadre, where the fuck are you?!”

I half-crouched, my skin crawling, head spinning with memories of my time in the shadows before. Had this been her plan all along? Did she know where Jhonas was, and this was just a way to sacrifice me?

No wonder she’d been more relaxed and better humored. She’d been planning to get me fucking killed the whole time!

I turned a circle, my eyes wide, staring into the dark mists that shrouded the trees and swirled even when nothing moved through them to disturb them. The hair on the back of my neck stood up.

How long would it take her to be far enough away that the shadows would reach for me? How long would it take them to kill me?

Could they outrun a horse? My beast was tired, but he was a warhorse. If the shadows came for us, he’d run until his heart gave out, I was sure of it.

I turned another circle, heart thundering in my ears. “I knew you Fetch were liars—sorcerers! The lot of you! ” I spat into the dark. “I will haunt you for this, Diadre. I will not walk into the embrace of the Divine, I will stay on this earth and hunt you fucking down for this—”

“Dear God, you're dramatic.”

I whirled at the sound of her voice behind me, to find her standing there, a limp creature hanging from one fist, the other planted on her hip as she stared at me with one brow arched.

“You left me in the fucking Shadows.”

“I didn’t leave. I walked the Shadows to hunt because it’s a lot easier and faster when the creatures don’t hear or see a great, hulking, manchild creeping through the forest thinking he’s being sneaky—”

She stopped abruptly when I turned, manifesting my wings and slipping into the shadows beyond the firelight, under the nearest large tree.

Her mouth dropped open and she looked around. “Jann? What the fuck? Where did you—”

I chuckled and stepped back out from beyond the tree, ruffling my wings and grinning at her to cover the dredges of my nerves that still jangled in my veins.

My wings weren’t nearly as foolproof as her shadow walking. But they obscured me in shadows and aided hiding. If she’d walked around the tree, she would have seen me. But still, it was nice to shock her back.

“How the fuck did you do that?” she asked nervously.

“You aren’t the only one with tricks.”

“Clearly.”

We stared at each other for a moment, then she shook her head. “I can’t decide what kind of trouble you are,” she said quietly—with no hint of humor.

“Definitely both kinds,” I chuckled.

She didn’t smile.

She did, however, do a quick and efficient job of gutting and skinning the creature she’d caught, then impaled it on a spit over the fire in record time.

When we’d both eaten and checked the horses were tethered securely, the moon was high, making the fog overhead glow. My eyelids grew heavy.

We sat a few feet away from each other, both our bedrolls still tied up and on the dirt next to our saddles. I’d caught her eyeing them more than once. And I knew why.

“We don’t need to be touching, but if we meet any Neph, they won’t believe I’d let you out of arm’s reach. They need to think you’re leashed.”

Her upper lip curled back in disgust. “Let me guess,” she muttered. “You’ll be kicking my feet out from under me and pulling my hair again. In case there’s an unknown watcher nearby.”

I turned to face her, found her glaring at me, her body tense and poised for flight.

And I grieved it. I fucking grieved it.

What the fuck was wrong with me?

Her eyes widened when I got to my feet, then took the two paces to stand over her where she sat, locking eyes with her, then leaned down.

I licked my lips to wet them and a thrill shot through me when her eyes dropped, but she yanked her gaze back up to mine and I fought off the smile.

“Diadre, the next time I pull your hair when we’re alone, it will be because you want me to. I give you my word.”

Her jaw went slack and she blinked. I smiled wider because I could tell she was responding. “Sleep where you want to sleep, as long as I’m safe in this fucking hellhole,” I muttered. “But if any Neph somehow make it this deep, we’ll have to maintain the ruse. That’s all I’m saying.”

Then I straightened and walked over to the base of the tree where my saddle and bedroll waited, shook out the furs next to the fire, rolled myself into them and left my back to her as I closed my eyes and told all that hair standing up on my arms and neck that this was not the time.

*****

~ DIADRE ~

The sheer, carnal nature of the man was stunning. The grin he gave me before he walked away simultaneously sent a thrill through my belly, and a trickle of ice down my spine.

These creatures were devastating.

I was left sitting there, my back to a fallen tree trunk, watching as he bedded down. When he’d gotten himself comfortable, his back rose and fell in a deep sigh… and he started snoring half a minute later.

It was something that had always pissed me off about men. A trick of their bodies—or perhaps their minds—that allowed them to slip into sleep anywhere, anytime. I’d observed it in the field countless times, and among the men I’d invited to my bed.

It was part of being a man that made me truly jealous.

I wished I could lay down and the events of the day would leave my mind and allow me to rest, but I had to be utterly physically spent for that to occur. And nights like this? No chance.

While he snored, I pushed to my feet and grabbed my bedroll, frowning as I argued with myself about how close to sleep to him. Ultimately, I laid down a couple feet from his back. It seemed strange though, to be that close when we were alone and there was no one for which to perform.

The truth was, even when I did invite a man to my bed, I rarely asked him to stay the night.

This was more akin to bedding down on a mission, which I’d done dozens of times before. But with just two of us…

I sighed and stopped torturing myself.

As I rolled myself into my furs, Yilan came to mind. Then Melek.

No doubt if they were here, she’d have no trouble being exhausted enough to sleep. By the few accounts she’d given, Melek was a thorough and—shockingly—considerate lover. If a touch aggressive. But Yilan liked it.

First my mind conjured what that would look like, here in the black forest. Then, as desire arrowed through me, I pushed the images away. But in their wake my chest tightened with jealousy.

Which was stupid.

These men were dangerous.

I was glad Yilan was happy, but I couldn’t share her easiness with being so close to these brutes and walking in their shadows.

I rolled over to look at Jann with objective eyes.

He’d rolled onto his back, both hands slumped on his chest.

His furs were easily twice the width of mine, and still they only barely covered his body.

I found my eyes trailing over those broad shoulders, landing on his nearest hand—measuring the wide flat nails, those tendons that stood proud on the back of his hands, knowing they led to the lines in the forearm…

I’d always found it fascinating how a man’s body responded to him. To heat. To strength. To anticipation of a fight.

Tendons, rippling muscles, the swell of strength…

Suddenly, images bloomed in my mind—that hand of Jann’s reaching for my naked body. I should have been repulsed, but I also saw that wicked smile and those flashing eyes, that thing that crackled between us when he drew close and I touched him.

My pulse sped up and an ache began between my thighs.

“Stop it, Diadre,” I whispered at myself—at my body—and tore my eyes from him, punching and squashing the jacket I was using as a pillow. “These Nephilim pricks are too full of their own, well, pricks, to be anything but beasts.”

I slumped back down onto the pillow, huffing—then froze.

Jann had rolled onto his side, facing me. He was awake. And smiling.

“Shut up,” I muttered when our eyes locked.

“I didn’t say a word.”

“Your eyes said plenty.”

His grin grew wider.

I sneered. “I wouldn’t be smiling if I were you. Those eyes have a habit of betraying you, Jann.”

His smile disappeared, which meant I found mine.

“Good night, Jann. Sweet dreams,” I said, as sweetly as I was able. Then rolled away so he could only see my back and wouldn’t know how long it took for sleep to find me.