When I got a bit of my strength back, I dragged myself up and started my chores. All of yesterday’s aches and pains came back. The nymphs were all back to their usual beautiful selves. They flew about as I worked. I suspected my additional protections were seen as me doing my duty. I wanted to point out that they were being very Fae-like, but I knew it was pointless.
When I strapped the demon blade back on and prepared to leave for class, they stopped me. The purple and red nymphs flew up to me. They were dragging a talisman threaded through with something so thin and transparent I only saw it because of the angle of the sun.
“What’s this?” I asked. They dropped the talisman onto my open palm. It was in the shape of a gourd. One of those ones that looked like a figure eight with one circle much smaller than the other.
The purple nymph pressed her hand to her abdomen. She imitated smoothing her palm over a mound on her belly. I froze as it dawned on me. The damned thing was a fertility talisman. Every single one of them grinned at me. I dropped the talisman and bolted out of there to the sound of their uproarious laughter. That settled it. The next time they were in trouble, I was just going to let the Fae imprison them again.
17
I was not in a cheerful mood when Kai found me just as I was stuffing a bagel in my mouth and trying to make a move to my first class. “Blue!” he called out. I pointedly ignored him. The nymph’s laughter was still ringing in my ears.
“Hang on a second.” He easily caught up with me. I pretended to be occupied with chewing. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I’m really late.”
He knew me well enough now to be able to decipher my speech even when I was chewing. “One of the Pantheon Fae is complaining that there’s a hex on the Grove,” he said. “Do you know anything about that? I tried to get in just now and there’s a blood barrier so thick I could barely see through it.”
I shrugged and swallowed. “They shouldn’t start fights they can’t finish.”
His left brow twitched. He tried to reach out for my hand, but I stepped back. “Am I in trouble or not?” I asked.
“Will you dismantle the hex if you are?”
“No.”
“Then I think you’ll probably be in trouble.”
“Fine.” For some reason, my hand lifted up and grabbed the hilt of the demon blade. He rolled his eyes at me.
“You can’t just go around upturning centuries of tradition,” he said.
I snorted. “Oh, and you can? Just because you’re Malachi Pendragon?”
“It’s different.”
“How? The only difference between us is that you’re their golden boy and I’m just a human. I shouldn’t have this much power. Is that what this is about?”
“I’m not accusing you of anything!” He took a step towards me. I held my ground. Anyone who glanced at us would see a six-foot-something Nephilim towering over a puny human. Something about that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
He scraped his hand through his hair. “That pissy Fae is going to kick up a stink. What am I supposed to do about this?”
I could literally feel my blood boiling. “You can tell the Pantheon Fae that if they want to go into the Grove, they can ask the nymphs instead of treating it like their personal playground.”
“The Grove belongs to the Fae,” he said.
I made a buzzer noise. “Guess again. Their dimension is gone. There are new rules now. I’ve busted my ass looking after that Arcana tree. If some snotty Fae prince wants to have a go at it, he’s going to have to go through me.”
He grabbed my arm. I willed myself not to react. With his head bent, half of his face was cast in shadow. It made the chiselled plane over his jaw even sharper. “If you antagonise them, they’re going to reciprocate,” he said. The vein above his brow jumped menacingly. “I’m stretched thin with classes and my other duties. What if something happens and I can’t get to you in time?”
“Well then, I suppose I’ll just roll over and die,” I snarled.
He wrenched me forward until there was only a sliver of space between us. Green light vibrated from him in such frantic waves I felt it skidding across my skin. It backlit his eyes so that they were saturated in colour.
“Can you for one minute think about preserving your own safety so I don’t go out of my mind with worry?” he bit out. The retort was on my tongue before I could even think but he shook me. And then his mouth blanketed mine and I couldn’t think at all. Searing heat scraped over the skin on my arms as his palm grazed my elbow and down to my hip. His tongue brushed up against my lip. They parted and he deepened the kiss. Alarmingly, I thought of the fertility pendant. My heart stuttered in my chest. I wasn’t sure if it was because Kai was biting my lip or because of my reaction to having the future so tactlessly thrown in my face.
I heard footsteps. His wings fanned out around us. I leaned into him. He wrapped me in his arms, pulling me closer and turning so that I was obscured. Stupid Nephilim jackass and his stupid overprotectiveness. I knew he hated having to steal moments with me. But I continued to feel exposed being with him, so he made himself lesser to make me comfortable. And of course, I thanked him by picking fights I probably couldn’t win. Bloody hell!
When he broke away, I could barely breathe. My fuzzy brain registered that the first warning bell had rung. I glanced up into his
