Read Online Why Are All the Good Guys Total Monsters? by De-Ann Black - Free Book Online Page A

heading back to the city with the moths. He knew I’d
found you, and that you’d be safe with me. There are things he has to do.’ His
eyes looked at me with knowing. Did he know Sabastien had kissed me?
    ‘Why is Archer hunting me?’ I said.
    ‘Midnight warned him of what we were up to.’
    ‘Getting me to gift you back the land from Orlaith’s
garden?’
    ‘Yes. Archer doesn’t want the land. It’s not part of his
heritage so it holds no interest for him.’
    ‘So what is it he wants?’
    ‘We think it’s you. He’s been watching you for as long as we
have. We’re not sure what he plans to do, but Archer is a strategist. There is
something about you that he wants.’
    ‘What does he want?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘Are you sworn enemies?’
    ‘We’re not the worst of enemies, but we’re not friends.
We’ve fought and argued many times.’
    The chainmail and metal wrist guards had faded from Daire.
His top was almost back to the soft material I’d seen when I’d first met him.
Like Sabastien’s wings, Daire’s chainmail seemed to appear as if by thought and
fade again when not needed.
    ‘Are you cold?’ His grey eyes were filled with concern.
    ‘No, just tired.’
    His hands cast sparkling dust into the air, and moments
later a cabin lit by the glow of old fashioned lanterns appeared nearby.
    Daire put his arm around my shoulders. ‘Come on, you can
rest here.’
    Inside the cabin were colourful rugs, a cosy fire and a
comfy bed. I lay down on the bed while Daire sat beside the fire. His wings had
faded too. Now he looked the same as I’d seen him in the sunshine in Edinburgh.
    I watched him carefully. Things were different between us. I
knew he liked me. He had a crush on me. But then Sabastien’s words filtered
through my thoughts. ‘ I can never love you, Vesper .’
    ‘Thank you for rescuing me. There were monsters in the
forest. Archer wounded one of them.’
    ‘We’re all monsters,’ Daire said softly, looking at the fire
and not at me.
    ‘You’re not a monster. Neither is Sabastien.’
    ‘We are. Not the type of monsters you think of. Not brutes
with sharp teeth and claws. But monsters nonetheless. We are hunter fae, and so
is Archer.’
     
     

     
    Daire sat beside the fire, eyes
downcast. The light from the fire shone on his handsome features. ‘I know
Sabastien told you how I feel about you. He told me what happened at the
restaurant.’
    I blushed.
    ‘You have to understand that you were spellbound. It’s not
the same. And your attraction was also enhanced by the Cupid’s darts that had
affected Sabastien. If his coat had cut through a single flower, a fae like him
wouldn’t have been tainted. But he cut through all those flowers, and it has
made him fallible to love again.’
    I looked at the wound on my hand. Purple and blue. The blood
of a Purple Thorn and the blue of the Cupid’s darts flowers. Or blue like
Archer? The thought shot through my heart and then disappeared again.
    Despite everything, it was Daire who had fought to protect
me from Archer, and rescued me in the forest. Not Sabastien. ‘Thank you again
for protecting me. Sabastien wouldn’t have.’
    ‘He has his reasons.’
    My expression showed my interest. I urged him to continue.
    Daire threw stardust on the fire. It sparked into a hundred
tiny lights. ‘The girl he used to love hurt him deeply. He risked his life to
save her. He fought fiercely to protect her once. Then she left him anyway. He
swore he’d never do that again.’
    ‘I guess I don’t blame him.’
    ‘Sabastien is not the one for you,’ he said. ‘Neither am I.
You deserve better than we could ever provide. Living here, or in both our
worlds, isn’t right for you.’
    ‘You know this for sure?’
    He couldn’t give me an answer. ‘I’m taking you home after
you’ve rested. All you have to do is stand in Orlaith’s garden and say that you
wish to grant us back the land. Then we’ll be out of your life