Page 54 of Fae Mates

A shudder ran down my spine at the thought of Helen’s father trapping me in a room for a hard pounding. He would probably throw me into the Dark Fae Prison afterward to join his daughter.

I glanced away and coughed. “I’ll be alright as long as Prince August returns before the heat flares again.”

“Try to time things so you’re mating with him before the heat restarts. We don’t want Pokeweed waking up in agony.”

My gaze flickered to the mezzanine. “It’s out of my hands now.”

I turned back to Pokeweed, whose chest rose and fell with the barest of movements. Because of some treacherous bastard, there wouldn’t be anything left of him to bury. It would be just like Sicily, who had vanished from existence. A pang of longing pierced my heart, and I reached down to touch his furry cheek.

McVittie hissed. “What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing?”

With a jolt of shock, I snatched my hand away. “Right. Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

“Have you had lunch yet?” he asked.

I rubbed my empty stomach. “Maybe I should get something to eat.”

“You’ll need all the strength you can muster if Prince August returns with his brothers,” said McVittie.

Despite my heartache, my core muscles fluttered at the thought of becoming the center of the princes’ attention. I stepped out of the room and headed for the kitchen.

After a hearty lunch of yesterday’s bread and some of Pokeweed’s rainbow salmon stew, I stood at the window, looking out into the orchard. A thin covering of grass had grown over the scorched earth, and the low branches now had a covering of bark.

“Looking for the duke?” McVittie jumped on the windowsill.

“You’re right about Pokeweed not being fully asleep,” I said.

“What makes you think that?”

“He’s repairing the damage to his tree. Maybe he’s also battling the poison in his dream state.”

McVittie turned around and stared in the direction of the stairs. “That doesn’t surprise me. Pokeweed has a lot of power, and unlike most young faeries, he knows how to use it.”

As a flower bud appeared on the branch, an idea landed into my head with a splash. “We need to meet him halfway.”

“How?”

“The life-water.”

McVittie sighed. “You heard what Healer Tarax said.”

“That someone powerful wanted Pokeweed dead? If you were him, would you interfere with the assassination plans of someone high up in the Royal Court?”

“Probably not,” muttered the cat.

I rubbed my temples. “Let’s just get the water and leave it at his bedside. If Pokeweed wakes up, we’ll tell him what happened, and he can make a choice on whether to drink it.”

“There’s no harm in that.” McVittie jumped down from the windowsill and headed to the clothes peg.

I clapped my hands together. “Alright, then.”

McVittie swept his gaze down my form. “Put on a cloak and fetch a pouch for the water.”

* * *

Instead of venturing out to the orchard, we navigated the academy grounds through Pokeweed’s trees. Flora and Mr. Whittaker had already shown me the direction of the life-water aquifer, and I needed to hurry so I could reach the safety of the tree before my next heat flared.

This time, I didn’t have Flora around to act as a decoy, and if there were any horny males around, I doubted that McVittie could make himself sound like a female in heat.