Lies of Murk by Eva Chase
15
Madoc
The sun is bright overhead and the grass soft under my back, but for some reason no jolt of apprehension passes through me. Some part of me knows that right now, I’m perfectly safe.
I close my eyes, and a soft touch brushes across my cheek. When I look up, Talia is leaning over me. The waves of her vivid pink-and-purple hair frame her pretty face, her green eyes brighter than I’ve ever seen them up close—but then, the only times I’ve seen them up close before are in the dark of night or the artificial light of the Refuge.
She belongs out here in daylight. It gleams off her like some kind of magic.
But even more magical are the sparks that light up all through my body when she strokes her fingers over my cheek again and along my jaw. I don’t even think about it; I just reach for her. As I push myself up on one elbow, she lowers her head to meet me.
That first kiss is pure, glowing joy. Her mouth is sweet, and her breath hitches with a hint of a needy whimper. Just like that, I’m on fire with my own desire.
I pull her down over me, kissing her harder, delving my fingers into her silky hair. Exploring every inch of that hot, sweet mouth with my tongue. Reveling in the way her body fits against mine, smaller and softer with curves that nestle against me in all the right places.
I slide my hand down over her breast, swiveling my palm against the peak through the fabric covering it, and she gasps. She pushes upright, straddling me, and I realize for the first time that she’s wearing that lacy, rosy dress she had on when I whisked her away from the summer realm. It’s unmarked by the trip now, which some distant part of me recognizes is odd, but the rest of me doesn’t give a shit.
Especially when Talia raises her hands to the neckline and tugs. The fabric slips down over her shoulders and chest, baring her to the waist. Her small breasts sway with the movement, peach-pink nipples hardening in the open air.
She tilts forward as if offering them to me, and how can I possibly resist?
I take one nipple and then the other into my mouth, working them over with my tongue until Talia is moaning and writhing against me. The shifting of her body against my groin is the most excruciating torture.
I can’t wait any longer. I shove up the skirt of her dress and rip off her panties.
“Madoc,” she pants, so full of wanting I nearly explode just like that. I fumble to free my cock, and then I’m plunging into her slick heat as if I’m meant to be nowhere else.
Talia clutches my shoulders, riding me with rolls of her hips. Pleasure like I’ve never known pulses through me with every thrust. My head tips back into the grass with a groan. I grip her hips to pull her into an even better angle—
And my eyes pop open for real.
I blink, unsatisfied hunger coursing all through my body. I’m staring up at the dark ceiling of my little room, sprawled on the inflatable mattress I set up there, my body flushed and my dick unbearably hard. Alone.
I rub my hand over my face, fighting to get my urges under control. Of course I’m alone. As far as Talia’s concerned, I’m just the prick who stole her from her supposed mates and dragged her away from the sunlight. She has no interest in my actual prick. Even if it can’t help noticing how appealing her lovely face and lithe body are.
But I don’t think it’s her good looks that provoked this dream. I haven’t had one like it about her before. My thoughts travel back automatically to the past day, to our excursion to the vault of memories. To the way she looked at me after I told her about the woman from the orphanage, as if she wanted to take up a sword and fight to the death for me right there and then.
She felt our anguish. I’m not sure if she truly was turning against the fae of the seasons before then or if she was only digging for information the same way I have with her, but in that moment, she hated them too. She wanted to stand with me.
She let me hold her arm all the way to the door until I was sure she was steady, staying so close the warmth of her body grazed mine in the chilly air. And when she looked up at me after we left, so many unspoken words shone in her eyes that I wanted to drink them from her lips.
Maybe it’s not surprising that not just the soul-twined mate Orion tied her to but three other high-ranking fae besides have fallen for her. There’s a fierceness to her, an inner strength that burns inside her even now, even after everything she’s discovered.
She would fight for whatever she feels is just, even against creatures with far more power than her, all the way to her death. I’ve seen that, clear as day.
I sit up, shaking my head to clear it. That fire also makes her dangerous, because it might be us she decides to fight. I’ve also seen enough of her, spoken enough with her, to be sure her interest in her mates was more than just fickle hero worship. She might be angry on our behalf for the crimes done to us, but I don’t think her loyalty to those specific men has wavered. No matter how I’ve prodded, she’s never said a word against them.
And there are times when I don’t think she realizes that anyone’s watching her when a sadness comes over her face that pricks at my heart more than it should.
Right now the only thing aching is my unattended erection, though. The lust the dream stirred up in me is refusing to leave me. With a hiss of frustration, I reach for myself through my clothes and shut my eyes, calling up the naked figures of other women I’ve actually bedded behind my eyelids.
As I stroke myself, the images keep shifting back into Talia’s slim body, her pale face with its frame of vibrant hair. But she feels too ephemeral. I can’t quite give myself over completely.
Muttering curses under my breath, I jerk my clothes into place and head down the stairs. My shoes make only the faintest rustling sound over the gravel.
Talia’s new house is the closest to this end of the station where I built it. I don’t even get up off the tracks, just walk until I’m level with it. The door flap is shut, but I don’t need to see her. I take a long, slow breath, letting the tart scent of her, like freshly grown leaves, fill my lungs. I listen to her own breaths, the faint rhythmic wisp as she sleeps.
After several seconds, I know I’ve drunk in enough to get where I want to go. I scramble onto the opposite platform and duck into one of the bathroom stalls. Now, focusing on the false images of her from my dream and her very real scent, I come in less than a minute.
It’s only a basic bodily urge now satisfied, but I feel absurdly uncomfortable afterward, as if I’ve somehow defiled Talia even though she wasn’t really involved at all. As if it’s such a horrible thing that a Murk like me might direct any lust her way. She’s a human—a human who was shaped by my own king. She isn’t better than me.
I’ve mostly pushed the uneasy feelings inside when I head back to the tunnel. I slip down onto the tracks—and the flap on Talia’s house pushes open. I freeze.
“Madoc?” she whispers in her clear voice, which holds none of the passion it did in my dream but enough concern to bring back a pang of guilt. As she peers out at me, she swipes her hand across her eyes, obviously still sleepy. “Just getting another middle of the night snack?”
Did my thoughts manage to wake her up after all, or is she sleeping so badly in her new home that the simple act of my walking by pulled her out?
Either way, she doesn’t appear to have any idea what I was actually doing, thank all that’s holy.
“That’s all,” I say. “Nothing important. You look like you should get some more sleep.”
She mumbles in agreement and lets the flap drop. I should set off, but I can’t quite will my feet to move. I stand there as if guarding over her until I hear her breaths even out with sleep again.
She has no idea what went on in my head. And it doesn’t matter anyway. Animals rut at each other. Whatever physical desire I’ve felt, it doesn’t mean anything beyond my having a working dick.
I remind myself of all those things, but when I finally do make it back to my room, I don’t get much more sleep myself. The images of Talia that haunt my mind now have nothing lustful about them.
She peers out at me from the shadows of her makeshift home. She thanks me for easing the pain of her headache. She answers Orion’s questions in front of me, clearly nervous but refusing to be cowed.
She stares off toward the ceiling in a rare private moment, as if hoping she’ll be able to peel back the layers of cement and asphalt with her hopes alone to see through to the world above.
She looks at me, pale and sickly but full of righteous horror, and says, I needed to know.
I finally get up when the rest of my people will be stirring, though my nerves are brittle from my fragmented sleep. Maybe the simple fact of the matter is that I know something isn’t exactly right here. Talia might not be Murk, but in most ways that matter, she’s one of my people too.
It’s early enough that I can hope not too many people are hassling Orion yet. I catch up with the fae bringing his breakfast and help myself to a few tidbits on the way to his audience room. They know my standing with him well enough not to protest.
I fought hard for that standing. I’ve earned our king’s ear. I don’t think I’m really going to ask for all that much.
But when I come up on the platform that holds his throne and watch him get up from it with all his feral yet regal poise, my chest constricts.
I smile and take a seat across from him at his motion. He accepts a mug of coffee from another servant and sips it with great enthusiasm before digging into the food. “Well, then, my busy friend. Any progress?”
I’ve already told him about taking Talia to the vault of memories. “There hasn’t been much time for new developments,” I say dryly.
“Who knows what may happen while others are sleeping?” he says with a flippant wave of his hand, oblivious to the uneasy twinge his remark sends through me.
I choose my next words carefully. “I have been thinking more about my observations. It’s obvious that Talia is coming around to fully support our efforts to claim the Mists. But it also makes sense that she’s had a little trouble adapting to spending all her time down here after such a… different life before.”
Orion hums and licks yolk from a soft-boiled egg off his fingers. “I hear what you’re saying and ask you to get on with the point.”
“I know we have to be careful of the soul-twined bond,” I say. “But it would only take a small amount of energy to temporarily expand the shield a little, wouldn’t it? If we could give her an hour or two above, outside or even in a building with windows—she couldn’t see anything that could lead back to the Refuge’s actual location anyway, and she’d have no way to communicate what she does see to anyone regardless…”
I trail off at the arch of Orion’s eyebrows. He snickers to himself. “You want to coddle her? She’s barely given us anything. She must know all kinds of inner workings of the arch-lords’ courts, and she’s keeping it all close to the chest.”
I resist the impulse to bristle. “I don’t see it as coddling. She’s done a lot for us already, and we’ve used her a lot. Offering her a little kindness would be strategic, making her feel even more that we’re on her side and that she should be on ours.”
My king makes a dismissive sound and shakes his head. “Of course we’ve used her. She’s mine. I made her. That’s what she’s for. And she has more use in her yet if she wasn’t so stubborn.” He picks up a cherry danish. “I think we should take the opposite approach.”
I study him warily. “What do you mean?”
“She obviously doesn’t trust either of us enough to open up. There’s an easy way to shift the dynamic. What is it humans call it—good cop, bad cop?” Orion smirks. “I’ll get meaner to give you the chance to play her champion. Let’s see what we get out of her once you’ve earned her full devotion.”
Doubt winds around my gut, making the bits of breakfast I ate churn. This isn’t how I wanted the conversation to go at all.
I’ve seen how close Talia already is to believing in us. But I can tell from Orion’s tone that if I contradict him, he’ll go from amused to scathing in an instant. I might make things even worse for her if he thinks he needs to teach me a lesson too.
Talia’s voice rises up from my memory. As far as I can tell, Orion is more interested in hurting fae—and not just the fae of the Mists.
I shove that thought aside and focus on the present. “What exactly did you have in mind?” I force myself to ask.
“Oh, you’ll see,” Orion says with delight sparkling in his eyes. “Just make sure you swoop in and ‘save’ her thoroughly afterward.”
