Like a fucking animal.
Only after he’s sure he’s tasted every bit of me does he dry his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Nothing, Quinn,” he sighs, falling down next to me. “Nothing, in all the realms, tastes as sweet as you.”
“Thanks,” I say, my face heating from the compliment. “I like the way you taste, too.”
I never thought I’d actually enjoy having jizz in my mouth, but Kirian was the perfect combination of salty and sweet. I wouldn’t mind doing that again. Soon.
But first, we need to talk, and this conversation isn’t going to be sexy. Nothing like politics to kill the mood.
I wait a minute, allowing us both to come down from the high we’re riding.
When our breathing finally slows to normal, I snuggle close and request, “Tell me about the Day Realm. They steal humans?”
Kirian stiffens slightly, his arms tightening around me. I can tell he tries to hide the reaction by playing it off like he’s just shifting to get comfortable, but I noticed.
For several seconds, he doesn’t respond. He kisses my forehead while running a finger down my arm.
“I was wondering when you were going to ask me about it,” he says, resigned. “It’s something I’ve shielded you from, but you’re part of this world now. I can’t keep it from you any longer.”
“A long time ago, you told me your world doesn’t do the changeling thing.” That was something I’d asked Kirian about after doing some research on fae folklore. Not gonna lie, when I read about fae exchanging their sick babies for healthy human ones, I was freaked out.
“We don’t—not anymore. The humans who eventually turn fae could be considered changelings, but that word has negative connotations stemming from a shameful past, so we avoid using that term. Long before I was born, the realms unanimously decided children were off-limits. It’s strictly forbidden to abduct a child.”
“Brittney was kidnapped.”
“As an adult, yes.”
“That’s not much better.”
“I agree with you. The truth is, the Day Realm doesn’t just take humans. They go after fae women, too—any female of breeding age.”
“Why?”
“There’s a bit of history to explain first.” He rolls toward me until we’re facing each other. His erection prods my thigh, but I try to ignore it because I want to hear this. “During the time when my mother was an infant, my father’s parents were assassinated by Day Realm soldiers. Although he couldn’t prove it was the king and queen who ordered the ambush, he knew. As a form of retaliation, he cut off trade with them for many years.”
Yikes. “It doesn’t sound like enough. I mean, I respect him for not going ape shit on everyone, but damn.”
“Well, someone did go ape shit—my uncle. Silas hired a coven of witches to inflict a terrible plague on the Day Realm.”
I gasp. “The witches. The ones who cursed you.”
Kirian nods. “You know faeries don’t get sick, right? At least, not by natural causes, like viruses or bacteria. We’re immune.”
“Yeah.”
“Then you can see why it would be so mysterious for a plague to sweep through an entire realm. It only affected reproductively mature women. Within a year, ninety-five percent of them had died.”
“Almost all of them?” I can’t hide the horror I feel at the brutality of it.
Pressing his lips together, Kirian pauses. “This is too much for you.”
“No. I mean, yeah, it’s a lot. But I need to know.”
He blows out a breath. “My mother was too young to catch it, but her mother and oldest sister weren’t so lucky.”
“They both died?”
“Her sister recovered. Her mother did not.”
“Poor Zella.”
“Things only got worse from there. Many men lost their wives, including my grandfather Zed, who was king at the time. The thing you have to understand about fated mates is they’ll go crazy without each other. Being separated is unbearable.”
All the pieces are coming together now, from what I know about the curse to what Zella told me in the bathroom. “Your mother mentioned that.”
“She would know from experience. In his madness, King Zed tried to keep her from my father. He’d already promised her to one of his council members. The Day Realm was suffering a great shortage of females and Keryth, King of the Night Realm, was his rival. He wasn’t about to let his youngest daughter get swept away. But, enemy or not, you can’t keep soul mates apart.”
“Where was his compassion?” The ruthless nature of this culture is mind-blowing. “If King Zed knew how awful it felt, why would he want to inflict that pain on his own daughter?”
Kirian idly twirls a lock of my hair around his finger as he continues, “His mind wasn’t right. From what I’ve heard, mourning a mate is so consuming, there’s no room for rational thought. For a halfway-insane king to try to rule his lands while coping with a grief that never eases… it’s a recipe for disaster.”
“So he was crazy from sadness.” It’s not an excuse, but I’ve never lost anyone close to me. I don’t know what grief feels like. I try to imagine what watching Kirian die would do to me. Just the thought of it makes my heart hurt.
I scoot a little closer, resting my head on his bicep as he adds, “In order to replenish their female population, King Zed ordered the unthinkable—abduct humans to fill their place.”
And just when I was starting to feel sorry for the guy. “Where I come from, that’s called sex slavery.”
“And it’s wrong. Here, there, anywhere.”
“But King Zarid allowed the human trafficking to continue after he took over?”
Kirian gives a noncommittal tilt of his head. “Although he created a law against it some years later, rebels still went on with the abductions, and Zarid pretended not to notice. I think he feared an uprising would happen if he cut the people off. By the time the younger surviving generation of females were
