A Veil of Truth and Trickery (The Veiled Realm Book 1) by Analeigh Ford

Author:Analeigh Ford [Ford, Analeigh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-07-30T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

With Nyx among our party, I swore the forest moved right alongside us. By the time we made camp that night, my flint quickly lighting a roaring fire with the dry leaves for kindling, we’d ventured further in those last few hours than we had the entire day before.

Like Nyx had said, not all the magic of Avarath had faded yet.

Not enough to keep the forest from reacting to its prince’s presence.

Not enough to keep from poisoning me in my sleep, either.

I felt the fae’s concern before I felt it for myself. I woke in a tangle of my own skirts, the pallet having done little to prevent the cramps that made me groan with every waking movement, or the ache that exploded in my head when I sat up. The sun had barely begun to rise, but the birds had wasted no time swooping low overhead with their morning song.

Nearly a dozen of them had found Nyx in the dim light, pecking at him gently until his eyes fluttered open and they took off to hover around him, offering him small gifts of seeds and berries. Each one of these he took with a grateful half bow, the bird in question taking off with a delighted noise—doubtlessly to seek out new offerings.

Nyx didn’t see me watching until the last of them, a hummingbird no bigger than the tip of my thumb, buzzed off in a blur of red and turquoise feathers, a final drop of honey still lingering on the tip of the prince’s tongue.

He was a picture, a window into a dream I wasn’t entirely sure I’d awakened from. Sleep pulled heavily on my eyelids, and vision, still blurred and dimmed with rapid blinking, gave everything a soft, feathered appearance.

I was jealous, in that moment, of Nyx. I fixated on the drop of golden liquid, imagined the sweetness, the stickiness—but more than that, I was jealous of what he was.

He wasn’t a monster, not in this realm. I was merely rumored to look like one of these creatures, and I’d been ostracized and hated for it. But here one of them was, an actual, living fae, and nature itself treated him like a god.

Nyx caught me staring, and before I could figure out for sure if what I saw was even real or dream, he suddenly did that part for me. It had to be a dream, because he leaned forward, grabbed me ever so gently by the shoulders, and kissed me.

His lips were soft and sweet, but nothing compared to the honey on the tongue he pressed to mingle with my own. It was hot and thick, brought fresh from whatever hive the hummingbird had been brave enough to rob.

I should’ve pulled back, should’ve grabbed whatever weapon was closest to me and used it to shove him off of me. But it was a dream, after all.

So, I didn’t.

I kissed him back. I let my tongue savor the taste of him, the feel of him.

His lips pressed harder, his tongue seeking mine out long after the honey had melted away between us.

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