Yew Queen Trilogy, стр. 22

Lucus’s gaze snapped to my face. “We fae are the givers of life, the caretakers of the wood, the curators of the earth’s energy. We are simply created to feed off your kind as a bear feeds on rabbits. Though we are far gentler and allow our quarry to live on. It is no moral fault of ours that we are designed as such. You devour life too. Animal and plant.”

“We don’t eat humans!”

Baccio lifted his black eyebrows and cocked his head. “And we don’t feed on fellow fae.”

I couldn’t argue this. They believed they were a step above humans in the food chain. They weren’t wrong. And this discussion wasn’t going to keep Hekla from showing up here.

What power did I have to turn this around? They wanted me alive because of my ability to affect the curse.

So I needed to use my life.

I spun and ran to Aurelio, counting on the fact that none of us knew if I had fae blood or not, so ignorance would protect his act of feeding. His eyes widened at my approach, but he didn’t fight me as I grabbed his arms and pulled him close. “Feed on me.” I lifted my chin to him as a feral look blazed through the starving fae’s eyes.

His horns blazed into view, more gently curved than Lucus’s and Baccio’s, and his wings expanded behind him. He dipped his head, and his lips floated just above the skin of my neck.

In a matter of seconds, sensuous pleasure fell over me like a silk nightgown, brushing over my shoulders and breasts, down my back, across my legs. There were shouts and a female voice somewhere behind us, but I could barely hear them because I was drowning in sensation and an overall feeling of want. I dragged my fingers through Aurelio’s golden hair as warmth traveled from his breath down and into my body. His hands—pressed against me just above the waist of my jeans—poured heat into me, filling me with a euphoric lightness. I felt as though nothing could stop me, that I was only now truly alive, that this was the best decision I had ever made.

But a voice inside my head shouted, Connelly! Too much! Get the F out of here!

I gritted my teeth and mentally pushed Aurelio’s lure away. Sweat slicked my body with the effort of it even as Lucus tore Aurelio and me apart.

My heart kicked to a stop. Hekla—cheek white with flour and her teal apron still tied around her waist—stood inside the castle’s door, her eyes glazed and staring at Baccio. He smiled like the evil asshole he was.

“Why did you risk yourself like that, Coren?” Lucus gripped my arm more firmly, his wings shifting behind him.

I shoved him away and took hold of Aurelio’s wrist. The younger fae was flushed with healthy color now, but still he seemed to struggle to stay upright. “I will give my life up to Aurelio if you don’t let Hekla go immediately.”

Aurelio leaned into me, and I felt his gaze like a press of fingers against the pulse in my neck.

Wings shuffling, Baccio trailed a finger down Hekla’s face, and she visibly shivered with pleasure.

My stomach flipped. “Get the hell away from her, or I die and with me dies any chance you have of ending this shitty curse of yours.”

Lucus paled. “Aurelio. Stand back.” Lucus’s voice strained on his command. His features clearly showed how torn he was between the short-term goal of keeping his younger brother alive and the long-term plan to untangle the curse in full.

Aurelio snarled, and I jerked, surprised at the viciousness of the sound. His kind eyes had narrowed, and his lip curled. “I will not. You can’t ask me so much, brother.”

I swallowed. I’d made this play, so I had to have the guts to keep this show going. “See?” I said to Lucus. “I’m for real here. Let Hekla go, or I’ll keep throwing myself at Aurelio, and it’ll be pretty damned tough for you to get anything out of me. Ever.”

Aurelio pulled me close and poured his lure over me. I battled the urge to fall into his arms, to sway on my feet with desire.

Setting my jaw, I locked my gaze on Lucus. “I can fight this lure,” I said, shaking with the need to let Aurelio have me, “or I can give in, and you’ll have a real mess on your hands. Your call, fae lord.”

Lucus studied my face, his chest moving up and down more quickly. He stepped closer, his gaze falling to my throat, then grazing over my body. His magic sparkled around his hands—emerald, forest, sage. Chills of desire rippled along my skin, but I didn’t think they were from Aurelio’s lure. My body was reacting to the look in Lucus’s eyes, the look that said he wanted me, a look that had nothing to do with his brothers or the curse. I read it as clear as if the words had been written on his devastatingly sexy self.

When Lucus finally spoke, his voice was the rumble of far-off thunder, and that odd euphoria filled me again, the feeling I’d had about him in the memory. “Release her, Baccio. Aurelio will not have Coren. She is mine.”

Ignoring whatever was going on between us, I turned to watch Baccio sneer, then he begrudgingly let go of Hekla. The lighter green sparks of Baccio’s magic faded from his hands. He leaned close to Hekla’s ear and whispered something.

“Hekla?” I started toward her, every movie night we’d shared, all our wild recipes, the poverty we’d gone through to accomplish our dreams for the bakery rushing through my mind.

But Lucus held me back. “If you fully wake her now, she won’t want to leave. Don’t ruin the victory you’ve had here with rash behavior. Remember, I cannot lie.”

I stayed with him, his words feeling true. But why was I trusting him now? I had no idea, but everything in my gut told