Page 54 of Voidwalker (Beasts of the Void #1)

Her backwards careen stopped against something hard. Fi’s flailing hand found no floorboards. Instead, fabric. A brush of cool skin. Antal’s chest. He locked an arm around her waist to stop her slumping to the floor.

“I’ll take Fionamara home,” Antal said. She could hear his stupid grin. And something buzzing.

“Forget it,” Kashvi said. “I’ll grab her after Boden.”

Antal scoffed. “What do you think I’m going to do to her, Kashvi?”

“Yeah, Kashvi, relaaax .” Fi swayed with the words, nearly toppling out of Antal’s grasp. “He’s fine. Plus, if he tries anything, I’ll… I’ll stab him, or something. I don’t know.”

“I’d like to see you try,” came a whisper in her ear. And with the press of his arm at her hip, his chest at her back… Fi shuddered, a new heat blooming in her core.

Kashvi looked ready for protest, until Boden wobbled and nearly took them both to the ground. She squared her stance, supporting his weight. His angry mutters turned incoherent.

“I’ll stop by in the morning,” Kashvi warned. “She’d better be well and whole, daeyari.”

So angry all the time. Fi gave Kashvi her best pout.

“Of course, Kashvi,” Antal said, flat. “Void save me from your wrath.”

His arm tightened on Fi.

“No, no, no!” Shouting made her head throb. “Don’t teleport. I’ll throw up if you do.”

He tilted her a skeptical look. “You’re probably going to throw up anyway.”

“Antaaal.”

He sighed, holding her upright enough to stagger out the door.

Outside, the deepest chill of night had set in, making Fi shiver.

She mumbled good night to Kashvi and Boden then clutched her arms in her coat and stared at her boots, focused on walking straight.

Mostly straight. Not very straight, judging by Antal’s growl as he tried to keep an arm around her.

She tripped on something… it might actually have just been the ground. Fi tipped forward.

Antal caught her.

She yelped as he scooped her legs, lifting her into his arms as if she weighed nothing.

Fi squirmed, indignant in his grasp, but swiftly found herself more comfortable than expected. Less dizzy. She felt… safe. His bare arms, cool at first, grew warm against her.

She scowled. “Can you change how hot your skin is?”

“It’s just energy,” he replied.

He carried her out of Nyskya, through the Curtain at the edge of the trees and into the quiet of a Shard, pale trees reaching toward Void black and a dim red aurora.

The gentle rock of his gait lulled Fi. She rested her head against his chest. Just for a moment.

Just to stop her head spinning. His smell of ice and ozone turned her thoughts foggier.

“You did great tonight.” Fi patted him like a well-mannered dog. “Good progress. Very tolerable.”

“And I only had to bare my heart. How easy.”

Fi puffed her lips. “Kashvi’s so mean. Acting like she still expects you to devour me or something. Rude.”

Antal quieted. “Thank you.”

“For what?” Fi slurred.

“For thinking better of me.”

Sappy piece of shit daeyari, making Fi’s chest flutter. She couldn’t afford any kind of chest fluttering with her stomach struggling to stay down. Where did he get off on being so thoughtful? So considerate, to carry her home. So handsome, in the dim Void light.

“Teach me how to cuss in daeyari,” she demanded.

Antal glanced down, brow raised. “What do you want to know?”

“Fuck.”

He laughed. “A fine place to start. We have two versions. Oyzen is meant for insult. Oysen is more… intimate.” The words sounded nearly the same, the second a softer roll of the tongue.

“That’s so weird,” Fi complained. But versatile. “What about fuck you?”

“Oyzen yzru.” The sharp syllables danced off Antal’s tongue. If Fi remembered any of tonight, she’d have to ask him to speak more daeyari to her.

“Fuck me?” she asked next.

He hesitated. “In what context?”

“Fuck me, an insufferable daeyari is carrying me home because I can’t walk straight.”

He grinned. “Oyzen yzri.”

Fi mulled the mini linguistics lesson, trying to make it stick to her few active brain cells. “So the other version is more literal. Fuck me. Oysen… yzri?” She rolled the softer “s” on her tongue, like he had.

Antal said nothing. Fi jabbed an insistent finger to his chest.

“ Antlers . Is that right? Oysen yzri?”

“Why do you want to know?”

Fi spread her arms in a grandiose gesture. He lurched to keep balance.

“Antal.” She waxed philosophical, even as individual syllables proved hard to disentangle. “The spirit of fuck unites us all. A connection across language. Cultures.”

“If you say so.”

Fi scrunched her face at his dismissive tone.

“How many mortals have you fucked?” she asked.

A growl rumbled Antal’s chest. Rumbled Fi. He considered her with lidded eyes, but it was the slow trace of his tongue across his lips that set her ablaze.

Merciless Void, she’d loved the taste of him. The brush of that tongue against her. A desperate ache tightened Fi’s belly, the same she’d fought for days, unbearable now with his arms around her.

His mouth so close.

She brushed a finger along his jaw. One time. One time . What was wrong with one more time? Her breath shallowed as she tipped her head up.

Antal’s claws clamped around her, holding Fi down.

“Ask me in the morning,” he said.

She blinked. “What?”

“You can’t ask me these kinds of questions when you’re like this.”

“Like what?”

“Shitfaced drunk.”

“Pff. I’m not that—”

“ Fionamara .”

The command stole her breath. He stopped walking, the two of them alone with the Void, holding her close and leaning closer. So lethal. So soft.

“Ask me in the morning.” Antal’s mouth brushed her temple, a tease of heat that drew a gasp through Fi’s lips. “If you’re still interested, I’ll be happy to oblige.”

Fi fell silent the rest of the walk.

That didn’t stop her staring at him, studying the lines of his face as her eyes drooped. Drifting in the glow of his irises. When they passed back onto the Plane, the chill of the Curtain drew shivers across her skin.

“How do you know which one goes home?” she murmured. “If you teleport everywhere.”

“I can smell it.”

She frowned. “What does it smell like?”

“It smells like you, Fionamara.”

“What… do I… smell like…”

Before he could answer, Fi drifted too far, lost in warm arms and the sweet abyss of sleep.