Page 30 of Claiming Starlight
Sophie didn’t know what to say to that.
“Make sure to drink this before he fucks you next, and then every full moon after. And use the bag. But I can’t guarantee anything even with it. I’m sorry.”
“What?” Micah asked from behind Sophie.
The naiad rolled back into her boggy water, her vine hair floating around her prettily and tiny white flowers blooming before Sophie’s eyes. “She is your true light, for all that she is young. And there is not much I can do with that, is there? I just give herbs and hope to postpone fate. I won’t make a binding promise against one like her. Now, do you want to ask me anything else? And what of my payment?”
Micah tossed her the stone. With surprising grace, she snatched it from the air with a hiss of pleasure, saying something to Micah in an unfamiliar language.
Micah tipped his head. “You’re welcome, Syrinx.”
“This is worth more than I give,” the naiad told them with surprising honesty.
Micah said, “Well then, why don’t you tell me why Reaper is coming? Square us up?”
Syrinx floated onto her back, stretching out. Dante and Jumper, who’d been hanging back, made strangled sounds. Theydefinitelysaw something different from Sophie.
“Why else does the biggest monster show up to a party? But to dance with another monster that has broken the Last Law. I only know its nature and purpose. Nothing more. He will be here tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Syrinx,” Micah murmured distractedly. The news seemed to concern him, if the frown he was wearing meant anything.
“Thank you, Micah of the wood.”
He helped pull Sophie away from the cold, sucking water. It stained her feet with green muck up to her ankles. It was on her hands, too. Her stomach rolled, and she thought she might vomit.
He carried her back to the car. “You will be fine once we leave the bogach, Sophie. You can nap in the car.” “The green grows on everything—kills it.” She muttered weakly. Why did she feel so poor? Was it the Bogach?
“Eventually; takes a long time with the blue-bloods. But it loves your sweet red-blood,” Jumper chimed in.
“Shut up,” Dante grumbled.
Sophie’s head swam. She turned her cheek against Micah’s chest, thankful he was carrying her.
“Just breathe. Don’t panic. You’ll be fine,” Micah growled the command in her ear.
And she did as she was told.
Chapter Six
Sophie
Sophie didn’t remember falling asleep, but she woke up laying across the bench seat of the car with her head resting against Micah’s thigh with his sweatshirt under her ear, his wild, masculine scent filling her nose. She felt better, clear-headed, even as she woke. The dizzy, nauseous feeling she had in the bogach was gone. She glanced at her feet, expecting to see creeping dark green bog moss growing up her body like a mold. But her sandals and feet were perfectly clean.
A glance at her hands showed the same. Did she dream that whole thing? Where was that muck?
Micah, above her, must have seen her searching for the green. He brushed his hand across her cheek, catching up her braid, and played with the rope of it. “The cursed peat moss of the bogach stays there. Turns to dust when you leave. And so does the sickness. How you feeling, Starlight?”
“I’m okay.”
A long, pleased hum sounded in his throat. “Good.” One hand on the steering wheel, the other tickled her face with the end of her braid. She smiled. Micah dropped her braid and traced the shape of her cheek with his fingers as he drove, tickling her skin with gentle strokes.
In the seat behind them, she could hear Dante and Jumper talking, but it was just a thrum of low noise, no discernible words.
“Who is the Reaper Syrinx mentioned?” Sophie asked. Micah’s reaction had been strong when he heard the name. She knew what the word reaper meant but lacked a blue-blood context for what it meant to them.
“Is my girl always so curious?” Pushing back the lace of the shrug she wore, he cupped her shoulder, his hand big enough to reach to the crease between her arm and her upper chest. In this position on her side, Sophie glanced down to see her breasts creating a silly plump sandwich, neither modest nor attractive under the gaping top of her dress. Micah’s fingers went back and forth over the exposed skin, teasing the sides of her breast.
“I have read about of the Grim Reaper. The vampir have a library and sorcerers have shared a lot of their knowledge for those in the virgin’s guild and other magic related professions,” she told him. It was hard to focus, with his hands wandering over skin. Not to mention the fact that his friends were in the back seat. It didn’t seem right for him to be playing with her in front of them. She bounced her shoulder twice, hoping he’d get the hint.
