tamlin

In saving Tamlin, I was to damn myself.

Feyre," he said--softly enough that I faced him again. "Why?" He tilted his head to the side. "You dislike our kind on a good day. And after Andras . . ." Even in the darkened hallway, his usual bright eyes were shadowed. "So why?"I took a step closer to him, my blood-covered feet sticking to the rug. I glanced down the stairs to where I could still see the prone form of the faerie and the stumps of his wings."Because I wouldn't want to die alone," I said, and my voice wobbled as I looked at Tamlin again, forcing myself to meet his stare. "Because I'd want someone to hold my hand until the end, and awhile after that. That's something everyone deserves, human or faerie." I swallowed hard, my throat painfully tight. "I regret what I did to Andras," I said, the words so strangled they were no more than a whisper. "I regret that there was . . . such hate in my heart. I wish I could undo it--and . . . I'm sorry. So very sorry.

What do you care?" I barked, and his grip tightened enough on my wrists that I knew my bones would snap with a little more pressure."What do I care?" he breathed, wrath twisting his features. Wings - those membranous, glorious wings - flared from his back, crafted from the shadows behind him. "What do I care?"But before he could go on, his head snapped to the door, then back to my face. The wings vanished as quickly as they had appeared, and then his lips were crushing into mine. His tongue pried my mouth open, forcing himself into me, into the space where I could still taste Tamlin. I pushed and trashed, but he held firm, his tongue sweeping over the roof of my mouth, against my teeth, claiming me - The door was flung wide, and Amarantha's curved figure filled its space. Tamlin - Tamlin was beside her, his eyes slightly wide, shoulders tight as Rhys's lips still crushed mine.Amarantha laughed, and a mask of stone slammed down on Tamlin's face. void of feeling, void of anything vaguely like the Tamlin I'd been tangled up with moments before.

Not forever,' he said onto my mouth. And though I knew it was a lie, I put my arms around his neck and kissed him.

I reached up to touch his mask. It was so cold, despite how flushed his skin was just beyond it. My hand shook, and my breathing became shallow as I grazed the skin of his jaw. It was smooth__nd hot.He wet his lips, his breathing as uneven as my own. His fingers contracted against the plane of my lower back, and I let him tug me closer to him__ntil our bodies were touching, and the warmth of him seeped into me.I had to tilt my head back to see his face. His mouth was caught somewhere between a smile and a wince.__hat?_ I asked, and put a hand on his chest, preparing to shove myself back. But his other hand slipped under my hair, resting at the base of my neck.____ thinking I might kiss you,_ he said quietly, intently.__hen do it._ I blushed at my own boldness.But Tamlin only gave that breathy laugh, and leaned in.His lips brushed mine__esting, soft and warm. He pulled back a little. He was still staring at me, and I stared right back as he kissed me again, harder, but nothing like the way he__ kissed my neck. He withdrew more fully this time and watched me.__hat__ it?_ I demanded, and he laughed and kissed me fiercely.My hands went around his neck, pulling him closer, crushing myself against him. His hands roved my back, playing in my hair, grasping my waist, as if he couldn__ touch enough of me at once.

Every gift comes with a price._ I frowned, and he grinned. __ kiss.___bsolutely not!_ But my blood raced, and I had to clench my hands in the grass to keep from touching him. __on__ you think it puts me at a disadvantage to not be able to see all this?_____ one of the High Fae__e don__ give anything without gaining something from it.__o my own surprise, I said, __ine.__e blinked, probably expecting me to have fought a little harder. I hid my smile and sat up so that I faced him, our knees touching as we knelt in the grass.__hat about your part of the bargain?___hat?__e leaned closer, his smile turning wicked. __hat about my kiss?__ grabbed his fingers. __ere,_ I said, and slammed my mouth against the back of his hand. __here__ your kiss.

He sighed and grabbed my left arm, examining the tattoo. __hat were you thinking? Didn__ you know I__ come as soon as I could?__ yanked my arm from him. __ was dying! I had a fever__ was barely able to keep conscious! How was I supposed to know you__ come? That you even understood how quickly humans can die of that sort of thing? You told me you hesitated that time with the naga.___ swore an oath to Tamlin____ had no other choice! You think I__ going to trust you after everything you said to me at the manor?___ risked my neck for you during your task. Was that not enough?_ His metal eye whirred softly. __ou offered up your name for me__fter all that I said to you, all I did, you still offered up your name. Didn__ you realize I would help you after that? Oath or no oath?__ hadn__ realized it would mean anything to him at all. __ had no other choice,_ I said again, breathing hard.__on__ you understand what Rhys is?___ do!_ I barked, then sighed. __ do,_ I repeated, and glared at the eye in my palm. __t__ done with. So you needn__ hold to whatever oath you swore to Tamlin to protect me__r feel like you owe me anything for saving you from Amarantha. I would have done it just to wipe the smirk off your brothers_ faces.__ucien clicked his tongue, but his remaining russet eye shone. ____ glad to see you didn__ sell your lively human spirit or stubbornness to Rhys.

Say that you don__ love him!_ Amarantha shrieked, and the blood on my hands became the blood of that rabbit__ecame the blood of what I had lost.But I wouldn__ say it. Because loving Tamlin was the only thing I had left, the only thing I couldn__ sacrifice.A path cleared through my red-and-black vision. I found Tamlin__ eyes__ide as he crawled toward Amarantha, watching me die, and unable to save me while his wound slowly healed, while she still gripped his power.Amarantha had never intended for me to live, never intended to let him go.__marantha, stop this,_ Tamlin begged at her feet as he clutched the gaping wound in his chest. __top. I__ sorry____ sorry for what I said about Clythia all those years ago. Please.

You can__ write, yet you learned to hunt, to survive. How?__ paused with my foot on the threshold. __hat__ what happens when you__e responsible for lives other than your own, isn__ it? You do what you have to do.__e was still sitting on the table, still straddling that inner line between the here and now and wherever he__ had to go in his mind to endure the fight with the Bogge. I met his feral and glowing stare.__ou aren__ what I expected__or a human.

I was as unburdened as a piece of dandelion fluff, and he was the wind that stirred me about the world.