Page 55 of Fae Mates

We stepped out of a huge sycamore tree, whose seeds rained down like mini helicopters, their wings glinting in the light of the moon. Owls screeched, setting my teeth on edge, and the high pitched buzz of cicadas made my eardrums tremble.

I glanced down at McVittie, who rolled around on the ground, batting the falling seeds.

“What are you doing?” I hissed.

He sprang to his feet, his eyes wide. “N-nothing.”

Hoofbeats echoed in the distance. “Is the forest this noisy at night?”

“It’s the bloody perigee moon tonight, isn’t it?”

I gazed up through the canopy of trees into a moon so bright, I needed to squint. Stars shone down like diamonds in an indigo sky, coloring the clouds silver and illuminating our patch of forest.

“Which way?” McVittie shouted over the roar of a bullfrog.

I turned in a circle, marveling at how different the forest looked at night. Gone were the arrays of greens and browns and yellows, replaced by a landscape of blue and silver.

“Ummm…” Earlier, I had heard the sounds of running water from behind densely-packed pepper trees. I stared between the trees into the dark and pointed at what appeared to be a wall. “This way?”

“Right then,” said the cat. “I’ll duck beneath the trees—”

“The berries are poisonous,” I said.

McVittie turned around and gave me one of those exasperated stares. It was the type my sister used to shoot at me whenever I told her that we couldn’t watch something together because Elijah would be coming over to visit. The only difference was that Sicily’s eyes didn’t glow in the dark.

I raised my shoulders in a shrug. “At least I didn’t let you touch the berries before telling you they were poisonous.”

“Yes,” said a familiar voice in the distance. “Take it all!”

McVittie and I exchanged puzzled looks.

I mouthed, “Coltrane?”

The cat nodded.

“What’s he doing in the academy?” I whispered.

“Is there a rutting post?”

I shook my head. There was no way a classy establishment like the Royal Fae Academy would install such a disgusting object. The last time we had seen the centaur, he had implied that he was plotting something and that our goals ran in the same direction. He had appeared dubious enough then, but hearing him in the academy grounds was suspicious.

McVittie and I headed in the direction of the sound, a romantic, moon-drenched clearing. Something moved from behind a clump of ferns, and I lay flat on the ground and peered through its leaves.

All I could see was the back of the centaur, who lay on his side, swishing his golden tail on the ground. The human part of his body sat upright and stared down toward his hindquarters at something or someone hidden.

Dried leaf litter crackled under my hands and knees as I edged closer. I’d already guessed it was Coltrane from his voice. No one could mistake the long, golden hair and lascivious grin for anyone else.

“Will you hurry up?” snapped another familiar voice. It was female, haughty and very English.

“Maybe if you didn’t keep numbing my cock with your freezing hands, I would give you a good spunking.”

“You’re disgusting,” she snapped.

Coltrane huffed. “And you’re the one desperate to stop me from cumming.”

A breeze blew through my dark strands and rustled the fern leaves. I gave McVittie a nudge and whispered in his ear, “Crawl around and investigate.”

“No, you go there.”