Fierce Enchantment

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  He hadn’t kept it exactly secret, as he’d held Faith’s body and performed magic on the battlefield in front of countless witnesses, but he’d yet to announce it in the presence of the full Conclave. Beside him, Astoria stood up, her attention on him.

  “Yes. I am mated to one of them. She is mine. Mine to bond. Mine to protect. We cannot and will not kill them because you feel the others made a mistake.”

  “You’re too involved in this to think clearly,” the demon spat. “If you weren’t leading with your cock, you’d see we have a problem. Each time one of these bitches finds out what they are, they almost start another war.”

  The demon screamed as flames licked around him. However, it wasn’t the flames that made the demon scream. No, Dante was smarter than that. He’d only surrounded the demon with fire. The demon screamed because the mermaid had stabbed into his thigh with her triton.

  “Call any of those women a bitch again and I’ll move higher up your thigh, demon.” Calypso grinned, a flash of sharp teeth, then stood back.

  “As for war, that is for each realm to decide and react,” Levi said. “Not all realms have a problem with what is going on. If we as a Conclave do not discriminate against those who are different from us, then maybe, just maybe, the realms will take note.”

  “And if there is an issue with how our mates are treated, then we will deal with it as we see fit,” Dante added. “As we’ve always done.”

  “You have no grounds to kill those you tried to control,” Tristan said, his voice sounding bored. Levi knew the man was anything but that. The fae hated anyone who judged based on the blood in another’s veins, rather than their actions. “You wanted to see what would happen if you changed human DNA, and now you know.”

  “But the reason the lighting struck was because of the diluted human DNA,” a siren said, his voice melodic and dangerous. “We all used to procreate amongst the species. That’s how humans sprouted into existence. They are the outcome of mixing too many types together.”

  Levi ground his teeth. “That was a long time ago. Much longer than most of you have been alive. Since then, our worlds have expanded one hundred fold. None of us are in a position to lose our world because some of us have the off chance of producing human offspring. We’re not to the point where our DNA is completely diluted. That doesn’t make us any less paranormal.”

  “Killing those who are different only makes us weak, immoral,” Tristan added. “We should let those who have been thrust into our world live their lives accordingly. We can’t control them, nor do we have the right to.”

  The other dragon in the room, an older one Levi didn’t know well, sighed. “We will table this discussion for a later time,” he wheezed. “We are not in a position to act, and since three of the young women have not turned into paranormal creatures, we cannot know how the tables will turn. When that time comes, we will decide what to do. Until then, we stand back and allow fate to turn.”

  Levi let out a breath and didn’t correct the dragon on his math. Only Faith’s friends knew of Faith’s new identity and powers—not that they knew what Faith’s individual powers would be yet. Levi wanted to give her time to come into her own because she would, once again, be put under a microscope.

  The Conclave departed at that point, leaving a crick in Levi’s neck and an ache in his back. He wanted to go home and see his girls, but today was Lynn’s turn with them. Instead, he would go to Faith’s and see his mate. She was a photographer and was busy working on prints and dealing with a new client. He wanted to see her in each of her elements.

  It would be nice to be able to give her a pure future without the weight of the Conclave bearing down on her, and Levi would do everything he could to make that happen.

  “You on your way home?” Tristan asked as he fell in step with him.

  Levi shook his head and held the door open for the two of them. “No, the girls are at Lynn’s, so I’m heading to Faith’s.”

  His friend smiled and slapped him on the back. “Even with all the shit going on around us, you seem really happy with her. I’m glad.”

  “I am happy,” he said honestly. “Though nothing is set in stone yet when it comes to Faith.”

  Tristan shrugged. “Nothing is truly set in stone for anyone. If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. You’ll work it out because you’re you, and wouldn’t have it any other way. You’ll scowl and try to reason with whatever logic you could just to make sure you won. And if that didn’t work, you’d fight it bloody.”

  Levi stopped in his tracks. “I have no idea how to take that.”

  Tristan grinned. “Take it as it is. It’s what makes you my friend. Speaking of friends, should I have met Faith by now? I feel like you’re hiding her from me.”

  “I didn’t want to push too hard.”

  “Showing off your amazingly attractive friends isn’t pushing too hard.” Tristan wiggled his eyebrows, and Levi let out a laugh.

  “She’d never be swayed to your side, Tristan. However, I guess it’s time to show her more of my life. Including my friends.” He let out a breath. “And my parents.”

  Tristan winced. “Have you told them yet?”

  Levi nodded. “They know I’m mated and the fact she’s not a wizard. I couldn’t hide Faith because the girls know she’s around. The girls, however, don’t know she’s my mate.”

  “Because you want to keep them safe in case Faith walks away.”

  He nodded, hating himself for it. “I might have faith in her, but that doesn’t mean she has faith in herself.” He rolled his eyes. “No pun intended.”

  “Her name tends to work out that way. And as for your parents, don’t stress too much. They might want perfect little wizard babies, but they already got that with your girls. They love you, even if they love their throne as well. They want you to be happy, and I have a feeling Faith can keep you happy, brother.”

  “You haven’t even met Faith yet, and you sound so sure.”

  “Then let me meet her.”

  Levi laughed and pushed at his friend’s shoulder. “I see. Is this a roundabout way to getting yourself an invitation to dinner?”

  “Nothing roundabout about it. Invite me to dinner and maybe invite one of her single, hot friends.”

  “Eliana would cut off your balls, and Amara couldn’t handle your charm.” Though he wasn’t sure he was right about the latter.

  Tristan smiled. “Let me come and play. Please?” He folded his hands above his heart and fluttered his eyelashes. “Pretty please, with sparkles on top?”

  Levi warmed at the thought of sparkles and Faith so he nodded, knowing his friend had said the word on purpose. Of course, Tristan knew what Faith had turned into. As a fae, he knew more about pixies than Levi would. Maybe introducing the two would help in the long run.

  “Fine, but if you hit on her friends, Faith will kill you. And have I mentioned she’s really good with knives?”

  Tristan took a step back, but the smile didn’t leave his face. “I’ll keep watch out for your mate, but thank you for the invitation.”

  “Is it truly an invitation if your invite yourself?”

  “You said the word invite, so it counts. So when are you thinking?”

  “I have no idea. I need to check with Faith.” He liked saying that. Like having someone to check with when it came to things like dinner with friends. He’d been alone for far too long—even when he was with Lynn. Faith was good for him. He only wished she’d see that.

  “There you are.”

  Levi turned quickly, a ball of magic forming in his palm before he could think. Tristan gripped his wrist, and Levi let his magic fade.

  Lynn, however, had seen it and narrowed her eyes. “Going to hurt me with magic, husband? Naughty boy.”

  Tristan took a step forward, but this time Levi held him back. He gave a quick shake of his head to his friend. Levi could handle this.

  “First, I’m not your husband. Second, you came at me from behind. Of cour
se I’m going to try to protect myself. Did I hurt you? No. Third, how in the fuck did you get into the Conclave realm? It’s for Conclave members only.”

  “No, no dear boy,” Astoria sneered as she strode to Lynn’s side. “The actual building is for Conclave members only. However, the realm itself is open to others as long as a Conclave member accompanies them and never lets them out of their sight. You should read the laws, boy. Learn something.”

  Levi barely restrained his temper. Lashing out when he didn’t know why Lynn was there wouldn’t help anyone.

  “What are you doing here, Lynn?”

  “You claimed another woman in the middle of a Conclave meeting, and you didn’t think I’d hear about it?”

  “Seriously? Seriously?” Tristan came forward again, but Levi pushed him back.

  “Put a leash on your pet fae,” Lynn retorted.

  “Stop it,” Levi demanded. “Just fucking stop it. You’re not a shrew, Lynn.” That might have been a lie, but she was the mother of his children, and he refused to give up on her if only for his daughters’ sake. “You and I divorced. We aren’t together anymore.” He almost said it in another language just to make it clear but held himself back. “You signed the papers so you don’t get to come back and try to act like the jealous wife.”

  “I signed the papers because of the Conclave. Now that you’re able to come and go as you please, things are different.”

  “No they aren’t, and you know it.” His patience had worn thin, and he needed to see Faith. “You don’t want me. You never did. You want the crown.”

  “And you think your parents will freely give the crown to that mongrel?”

  “Speak of Faith that way one more time and I’ll make sure you never step foot in the wizard realm again.”

  Lynn’s jaw clenched. “You do that, and you’ll never see your girls again.”

  That was it. He’d been slowly working his way to equal, if not sole custody because he loved his daughters and didn’t want them to be ripped away from their mother. But he could see now that they were merely pawns for his ex-wife.

  “We’re done here, Lynn. Stay away from Faith. Stay away from my parents. Stay away from the crown. Make sure you think carefully about what you’re saying because I love Juliana and Arya more than anything in the world, and I won’t have them used for your agenda.”

  “You love them even more than your precious human?”

  “They are mine,” Levi said slowly. “They are my flesh and blood, my successors to the crown. I will not let you hurt them. Now get the fuck out of my presence and keep away from Faith.”

  With that, he stormed past her, Tristan by his side. He knew Lynn was up to something, and it couldn’t be good. He only prayed that he could find a way to use his pull to keep his girls—and Faith—safe before Lynn took her next step. Because if something happened to any of them because of the choices he made, he’d never forgive himself.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Harder! Harder!” she panted, her eyes closed so she could feel every sensation, every caress.

  Faith pressed back, hands gripping the sheet as Levi pounded into her from behind. She bowed her back, urging him to go deeper, faster, harder. His fingers dug into her hips, and she knew he’d leave bruises, marking her as his. She’d take it, take the reminder, as long as he kept moving.

  “Head down, ass up, Faith,” Levi barked. He ran his hand down her spine and gripped her hair, forcing her face to the bed.

  She grinned before her eyes rolled to the back of her head. In this position, he hit that sensitive spot right inside that sent her over the edge with a mere whisper. Her body shook, her breath coming in tiny pants as he pushed home once more. She could feel him come inside her, warm and so freaking full. They collapsed in a pile of limbs, his front to her back, and his cock still deep inside her. He slowly worked his hips, as if he couldn’t stop moving even though they were both spent. Considering he was still hard even after coming, she didn’t blame him for moving. But damn, she was sensitive. She sighed happily, and he slowly stopped moving and pulled her even closer to him.

  “Good morning,” Levi murmured, taking her lips in a deep kiss.

  She moaned again, sinking into him. It scared her how much she loved waking up to him like this. No matter what happened, she at least knew they were good—no, fantastic—at this part of their relationship.

  He knew how to work her body—if only she knew if he could work her heart. Of course she had to actually let him in to do that. They’d been together for almost a month now, and normally, she wouldn’t even have been thinking of forever, but these were not normal times. In fact, nothing about this was normal.

  When he left to go get a warm towel to clean them up, she fell just that much more for him. Seriously, he was just so…perfect. And nothing was perfect. She closed her eyes and almost screamed into her pillow. If she kept picking at her relationship with Levi, it wouldn’t go anywhere. She hated the fact that she was becoming this whiny, insecure woman. She was a fucking independent woman who happened to be mated to a wizard and who was also now a pixie. She could do anything she wanted. Be anyone she wanted to be. If she happened to want to be with Levi, then damn it, that’s what she would do.

  “What’s your plan today?” Levi asked, his fingers running along her skin. She sucked in a breath, remembering just what he’d done with his touch to wake her up.

  She forced her attention to his words, rather than his very talented fingers. “I need to work on a couple print proofs for the magazine.”

  Levi grinned, his face brightening. “I’m excited for you on this project. It’s good to see you back. Well, not that I saw you before, but you get the idea.”

  She ducked her head, not wanting to see the happiness in his gaze. If she did, she’d fall for him harder than she already had, and she’d end up hurt. “I’m just happy the magazine gave me a chance since I was out of the game so long.”

  As a freelance photographer, she’d been lucky. When she was in the coma she hadn’t truly lost her job. She also had money in the bank, and her friends would never have let her lose everything, but that wasn’t all of it. She needed to make sure she could go back to how things once were, even if nothing would ever be the same. Assuring her old contacts that she was indeed back while making new contacts in the process wasn’t easy. With this new campaign though, she’d be in print and online again so she could earn some income. Then she could focus on less high-paying gigs that made her photographer’s soul happy.

  “You’re talented at what you do, Faith. You were never going to be out of it for too long. No coma can take you down.”

  She snorted but leaned into him at his kind words. “Thanks. Nice of you to say, even if you haven’t seen a lot of my work yet.”

  He kissed her temple. “Then show me. I’m unemployed at the moment since the Conclave isn’t in session.” She looked up, and he frowned. “I have more free time than I know what to do with.”

  She sat up, not bothering to pull the sheet over her breasts. He’d seen and tasted every inch of her already. “Don’t you have princely things to do?” And that still freaked her out, not that she told him that. She had a feeling he already knew.

  Levi trailed his fingers over her stomach but didn’t go any higher or lower. It was as if he needed to touch her, even absently.

  “My parents run the realm just fine. They also have help with the cabinet and other members of society who dream of running the realm. They’ve been at it for hundreds of years, and I never really had a true place with them. Since I thought I would be gone for so long, I pulled away from whatever duties I might have held.”

  “And you don’t want to go back to that?”

  “I never really liked running the day-to-day things that came with my family. I never thought it was a burden because people relied on me. However, now they don’t, and if I have a chance, I’ll try to make sure that my family is okay with what they’re doing and hand off the role to my
daughters once they are old enough. That is, if they want to do it. If they don’t, they have plenty of cousins and second cousins who could do it.”

  She bit her lip and frowned. “Are you sure? Or are you saying that because you’re mated to a human-turned-pixie?”

  Levi sat up and gripped her hand. “Never, Faith. Never think that. I told the entire Conclave that I didn’t care about your blood and meant it. I wouldn’t have said that if it wasn’t the case.

  “I don’t even know what to do with this whole pixie thing,” she said softly, ignoring the warmth in her heart at his words.

  “Well, you know how to hide your wings from humans and to keep them hidden to avoid knocking into things.” Levi smiled, and she rolled her eyes.

  “It was one vase. I’m sure Shade and Ambrose had issues with their wings when they were learning.”

  “They were born with them so they had the advantage,” Levi put in. “But yes, you are learning to use your wings while you walk. And when your muscles are strong enough, Shade or Ambrose will take you out flying.”

  When he frowned, Faith punched him in the shoulder. “Stop it. They’re friends. Mated to my friends. No jealousy.”

  “I can’t help it. I’m a little territorial.”

  She wasn’t about to tell him she liked it. Well, she liked it as long as he didn’t act like an ass.

  “Do you know if I’ll have any other traits or powers? You know, something that isn’t so sparkly?”

  Levi shook his head. “Each pixie bloodline is different, and many pixies only have a small amount of magic. Some can create a sense of happiness, others grow flowers and plants to stimulate new life, while others…” He cleared his throat, and she raised a brow. “The thing is, the closer you get to the royal bloodlines the…uh…darker you get.”

  “Darker?”

  “Think whips and chains and leather.”

  Faith paused then burst out laughing. “You’ve got to be kidding me. That sounds like Nadie and her succubus realm, not pixies.”

  Levi shrugged. “They aren’t sex pixies, Faith.”