Page 233 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

“I am not a child,” Atlas bellowed from a distance.

Kilian nodded at him with a little smile on his face. “My pardon, I meant grown boys.” When he turned to us, he regarded me for a long moment. A lick of pleasure shot up my spine from the way he raked his gaze all delight over my body. “That is nice. Is it for me to take off?”

Suddenly, it was really warm. Too warm. Especially between my legs. I’d spent too many nights away from him trying to deal with the Isjordians in Myrdur. “By the buttons this time, preferably. It is one of my good dresses.”

Mal clapped his hands and gave us both an annoyed look. “Signal for me to evaporate from this realm.” And he was gone in a blink.

Kilian came to kneel before me, resting his hands on either side of me before leaning in and dropping a kiss right on my chest, between my breasts. “I’ll have a thousand made for you.”

“The last time I let you dress me I almost suffered a stroke. No, thank you.”

He chuckled and the sound was so soothing somehow. A tendril of thick black fog materialised from thin air, crawling over his body and then over mine. The lick of magic over my skin was warm, almost as warm as his hands when it brushed over my cheek to tuck a stray strand of hair behind my ear. It still triggered my unconsciousness, but I was getting better and not fearing it. I knew why he often let small parts of it linger around us—to make me comfortable around it, teach me not to fear it. It was working. “What do I owe the pleasure of seeing you in broad daylight?”

I kicked back the hem of my dress and pushed off my slipper, trailing my foot over his thick muscular leg before pushing it under his shirt. “Several reasons.”

His brow rose and he sucked in a sharp breath when I lowered my foot over his crotch. “Dangerous reasons, considering you need to distract me to convince me to help you.”

“Did it work?”

He leaned in, leaving small kisses down my leg and then my foot. “I’ve been at your mercy ever since that day when you grabbed that sword off of me.”

My face was solemn but there were inner parts of me smiling. “Hm, is that so?”

“Enough chatter.” He put my foot down before gathering me up and slinging me over his shoulder like a sack of soil.

“You’ve dirtied me, you moronic piece of Adriatian flesh,” I shouted, wiggling like mad.

He smacked my bottom, hard. “Reason for you to bathe with me.”

“Sister!” Thora shouted from somewhere in the distance and Kilian paused while I lifted my head to grasp where she was coming from. “Oh, why is she up your shoulder?”

Kilian put me down. “Long story, young one.”

My sister frowned and blinked slow. “Why am I either young or little to you two brothers?”

“My missus here,” he said, pointing his chin to me. “Is little, too.”

“Fair,” my sister said and uncrossed her arms. “Did you tell him about where we are going tomorrow?”

Kilian turned to me with a raised brow. “We? And where are we going tomorrow?”

“Nowhere,” I said. “Right in the middle of nowhere. Well, right in the middle of the Hollow Sea where fifteen ships of unblessed folk are travelling back to Comnhall.”

“Are we to deliver them a sweet farewell on this trip of ours?” Kilian asked, crossing his arms.

“Yes, to their Otherworld.” I frowned. “Do they have their own Otherworld?”

“They rot in the ground of their birth, according to their tales,” Thora said, nodding with confidence. “Technically they will not rot because the Hollow Sea is festered with scavenging creatures who will not let flesh waste. There is also the matter of the salt levels and water pressure. Ultimately, their skeletons will pile at the bottom of the sea. There will be no rotting process.”

“What she said,” I offered to Kilian who was now slightly gaping and looking all stunned at the two of us.

“Keep explaining, ladies, you’re not helping your case just yet.”

“Oh,” I said. “Yes, as I was saying. The new Lady of Grasmere has provided me with a detailed route of their trip. Father planned to escort them out of the Hollow channel himself to see that they cross without being noticed by Solarya and safely onto Moor. So my Aura will make sure Isjordian sails drift far away from the unblessed and we will make a trap for their ships. Once I’ve made sure not a single piece of wood swims back to the unblessed, I will send news to their king through a spy of mine explaining to them how they were ambushed by Isjordians on their way back and my father’s intentions of invading their lands. Not only will whatever agreement of metal trade they have with my father end, but I highly doubt there will be peace between the two kingdoms.”

“Is that why you are dragging Thora into this?” he asked. “To make it more believable that it was Isjordians who did it?”

“Actually,” Thora said, raising her hand. “I volunteered. I’ve never been on a ship before.”