Eerin glowered down at the human interlopers that tarnished his forest by their very presence. Everyone knew that race was an inherent threat. Yet he couldn’t kill these creatures as he so wanted to. Crossing his arms, he tamped down the urge to wring their necks. Damn the Spirit of the Woods—and its crystallina flowers—that had spoken and said they weren’t to be harmed. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t terrify them a bit. And he had. How long would did it take for a human to go mad?

He sent the older, awake one a vicious smile, making sure to show her a flash of sharp teeth. The human shrank away. A shot of pleasure coursed through him. They were always so easy to petrify, their fright like an aphrodisiac. He knew he presented a fearsome sight to one who’d never seen a taelin fae before.

For the first time, he took in the human’s appearance. Long brown hair coming free of a bun tumbled in a tangled mess around her shoulders and down her back. He snorted to himself derisively. Her creamy skin might be beautiful to her people, but it wasn’t to his taste. No human female could compare to the taelin ideal of loveliness— black-streaked, white skin. The paler the white and the blacker the streaks all the better. This female’s only saving grace was the hint of paleness lurking under the slight suntan.

For some reason, his perusal of her only angered him further. Why did he care if she were male or female? She was human. That was all he needed to know. Nothing else was of importance.

After marshaling his emotions back into a small steel box, he spoke in a quiet, slow voice. “Well, well, what do we have here?” He nearly grimaced at the sensation of the human tongue on his lips.

Blue eyes widened, and her grip tightened around the younger girl. The scent of her fear was a wonderful thing. Still, she didn’t reply. Was she too scared, or was she putting on a brave, foolhardy act? Either way, he’d have some fun with her, though she surely wouldn’t term it as such.

“What is that human term? Cat got your tongue? Or more like taelin got your tongue?” he asked lightly.

“Is…is that what you are?” Her pink tongue swept out to wet her lips.

That only annoyed him more, and he felt his sharp fingernails bite into his arms. She was afraid of him, of the woods, so why didn’t she crack? “That is what we know ourselves as—taelin fae. I know not what you call us, nor do I care.”

“You’re the strange people of the woods. We don’t have a name for you, except—” She broke off, as if realizing she was speaking of something she shouldn’t utter.

“Except?” he questioned in a voice that brooked no defiance. Even his own people couldn’t ignore the power of that tone.

She blinked, her mouth opening and closing. But still she didn’t talk. Irritation rose quick and vengeful. Always, people had jumped to his bidding. What in the moon was wrong with her? Was she simple in the mind? That was the only explanation.

Could he take a nibble out of her? He and his people weren’t cannibals. Well, not in the true sense of the word, but he might make an allowance for her.

“Except?” he asked again, a razor’s edge to his voice that would demand any sane person start talking or more like babbling.

The infernal woman chewed on her bottom lip and glanced down at the smaller form in her arms. He stood taller, a looming shadow that commanded obedience.

She looked back up, a frown furrowing her brow. “You are the cursed people fae said to bleed black. Just like your forest.”

His hands curled into fists so he didn’t rip the skin off his own arms—or hers. She sought to tell who and what his people were? He bent from the waist and lowered his face until it was but inches from hers. She recoiled back, but it only took the barest spark of his fury away.

He hissed and let his eyes glow an unearthly shade of swirling gray. “You know nothing of us. A pathetic human mind couldn’t even begin comprehending.”

Her back was now against the wall, and a rumbling he’d know from anywhere roared to life. “Get away from that wall, stupid mortal rat.”

Without waiting for her to comply, he grabbed her by one arm and dragged her away from it. She cried out, almost dropping the younger girl. The quaking of the ground only increased, the woods relaying its displeasure of his tactics to him in no uncertain terms.

Once she was in the middle of the chamber, he dropped her arm as if it were poisoned. To him, it was. Her human blood made it so, and nothing could wipe that taint away. Disgust turned his stomach. Why in taelin’s name would the forest want to save her and the worthless scrap in her lap?

Tears swam down her cheeks, and he admired the translucent streaks they left behind. Even in humans there could be beauty, and here it was. So sweet, so delicious. He was tempted to lick the salt off her skin. But he wouldn’t so sully himself.

She stared at him with quivering lips that she pressed tightly together. The tremors decreased until they all but melted away. “W-what are you going to do with us?”

That was the question, wasn’t it? What was he to do with them if he couldn’t kill them? House them as treasured guests within the great forest city of Taerin? No, never. What choice did he have, though? One didn’t ignore the Spirit of the Woods and not live to regret it.

He scowled down at the pathetic creatures on the floor. “That’s for me to know.”

With a snap of his fingers, a ladder of twisted ivy unfurled from the chasm above. It made a slight thump as it hit the ground at his feet.

He gestured to the young woman. “Get up and climb.”

She gazed first at the rope and then at him. “No.”