by Vivian Arend
“Turn around,” she ordered.
His lips pressed together and she could tell he really didn’t want to turn, but she lifted her brow.
“Yes, mistress,” he drawled, gave her a dramatic bow, and then turned his back.
Latching on to her bottom lip to contain her happy smile, she pulled off her dress and quickly yanked on her clothes. They fit perfectly.
“Rumpel,” she said as she zipped up her jacket, “you didn’t give me a shirt to put underneath this.”
“Forgot.”
Snorting, she rolled her eyes. “I’m just sure you did.”
Laughing, he straddled the bike and it purred immediately to life, its headlight glowing a deep, crimson red.
Walking up to it, she patted the seat. “Genesis, may I please sit?” She remembered to ask this time.
“Once she’s given her okay, you need never ask again.” He glanced at her over his shoulder.
“Oh.” Hopping on, she planted her hands on his shoulder. “How do I strap this helmet on?”
“Here, let me.”
Twisting, he helped her slip it on and then patiently directed her on how to thread the strap through to snap it in place. Holding out her arms, feeling a little claustrophobic inside the heavy shield on her head, she asked, “How do I look?”
She expected to hear all sorts of nonsense. I could eat you. Or ravishing. Or like a lollipop I wish to suckle… Really, it was Rumpel and he had a tendency to say the most dirty and raw things.
“Beautiful.” He smiled. “Now hang on to me tight.”
The moment she looped her arms around him, they were flying. Literally flying. The bike took off into the clouds, reaching speeds that made her dizzy. They sailed among the birds and she laughed as the clouds passed them by. She understood why he’d made her dress as she had. Not even a hair on her head was loose or able to hurt him as they flew at speeds beyond sound.
Content being right where she was, Shayera watched as the land rolled by, the twisted, knotted forest of Wonderland. The Seren Seas, the hills of Under, on and on Kingdom scrolled past like a dream. The old witch’s forest. The fairy gardens. The French hamlets.
Eventually she felt their speed decrease, but only once they’d dropped through the clouds did she realize they were descending. Rumpel finally parked them beside an enormous white coliseum.
It was a ruin, an exact approximation of Zeus’s temple, built by an old stone gnome. Smiling, she jumped off the bike and quickly undid her chinstrap, breathing deeply when the suffocating helmet finally came off.
“I’ve always wanted to see the ruins.” Running up to the temple, she traced the pomegranate carvings.
Rumpel hung back, watching her as she hopped and skipped through the stones, gazing up and down in awe at the fine craftsmanship.
“Maybe someday I could show you the real one,” he said, and her heart caught in her throat when she realized he’d materialized right beside her.
“I didn’t even see you move.”
“We princes can be very surprising.”
“Yes. You can.” She smiled. “So you travel to Earth then?”
“I make deals across all galaxies.”
She couldn’t imagine the sights he must have seen. Kingdom was so vast, but to think he’d gone beyond it—what more was out there?
“So what is all this for, Rumpel?”
“An olive branch, Carrot.” His hand lifted and he held it motionless by her face, as if he wanted to stroke her again, but this time he didn’t do it. Taking a seat on a toppled pillar, he patted the stone beside him. When she sat, he turned to her. He was hunched over with his elbows on his knees, his hair still in that messy bun.
She had to employ every bit of willpower she had left not to loosen it. She loved to see it long and free on him.
“I wanted to talk with you, away from the prying eyes of the castle.”
“Prying? I rarely see a soul. Except for Dalia, and on occasion Giles.”
“And Kai. Do not forget the boy.”
“I hope you don’t mind that I played with him,” she said softly, afraid the boy might now be in trouble.
He sighed. “I’m not heartless. I know the reputation I have, and I’ve earned it. But I’m not soulless, Shayera. I do feel. A lot. And when I feel the hardest, the meaner I become. For that I’m sorry. Dalia told me of your affinity for children, so I sent the boy to you.”
Melting like wax on the inside, Shayera began to question everything she’d ever thought of Rumpel and his demone ways.
He inhaled, squeezing his eyes shut, and with the halo of sun hitting his golden head, he appeared like an angel, beautiful and yet so sad. So burdened. She could feel it as if the emotion was her own and she was drowning in it.
“Thank you,” she breathed, wishing she could touch him. Could show him with actions and not just words what his admission meant to her. “Why do you send me away? After we’re intimate. Why?”
It was the one question that bothered her more than all the others.
His eyes cracked open and his gaze was intense as he said, “Because the things I feel when I’m with you terrify me.”
She moved into him just a little, just enough that their knees barely grazed. She wished there were no clothes between them.
“How do I make you feel?”
“You make me laugh.” He smiled. “You make me want. And you make me desperately confused.”
“Why should it be so difficult?”
Sitting up, he shoved his fingers through his hair, slipping the bun free, and she couldn’t help but smile when it tumbled across his shoulders.
Rumpel was a male Venus de Milo. How many hearts had he broken, even unwittingly?
“Because that is my life. I am an exiled prince and there are…” His jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed as he stared straight ahead.
The coliseum was situated on the flat slope of a tall mountain. The heavens stretched out before them and the clouds were a pale orange as the sun began to set.
“There are things that I cannot speak to you about. That I want to with every fiber of my being.” He looked at her. “But you still have one test left.”
“I do not like those tests,” she finally admitted it to him. “I’ve tried to be brave and not show you what I feel, but I hate the games. What they make me feel afterward. Even knowing it’s not real, my senses are so drugged, so involved, that I cannot separate fact from fiction. Why must I continue to play?”
His eyes grew hooded. “It is not so simple an explanation. The games have begun and so they must end.” His breath shuddered and she sensed that he grappled with this. “Tell me, what would you do to save the life of someone you loved?”
Her heart raced—she’d gotten her first real clue. “Is that what this is about? To save a life? Is that why I’m here?”
He didn’t answer.
Licking her lips, she spoke from the heart. “Rumpel, whatever it is that you need from me, I would do it.”
“But you do not know what is even required, and what if at this point I’m not sure I’m willing to allow it anymore?”
“Are you willing to allow it?”
A robin sang a sweet melody as crickets chirped, and the air was alive with the scent of life. The sun was warm upon her face and for the first time she felt hope, a sense of purpose even.
“You must face the final challenge.” He looked over her shoulder. “And then judgment will be passed.”
“I do not like the sound of that.”
His lashes fluttered and he looked like a man torn apart. Swallowing, he whispered, “I will make this right, somehow. Do not worry anymore.”
“How can I not?”
“Because…” He scraped a hand down his jaw. “You are worth it. Now let us talk of other matters. What do you think of Genesis, is she not amazing?” And she could feel the words were forced, far more jovial than he actually felt.
Shayera wasn’t sure she was ready to change the su
bject, but neither did she want to linger on this. She’d spent three weeks locked away in her room, and now the man she’d craved the entire time was here and he was being true to his word. A girl couldn’t get any luckier than that.
“She is amazing. If I didn’t know any better I’d think her alive.”
He chuckled. “She was once. Hundreds of years ago.”
“Really?” Her eyes widened. “What did that poor girl ever do to deserve this fate?”
Lifting his brows, he pointed at the bike. “It was her request. She believed herself desperately in love with me and wished never to be parted from my side. She’s evolved many times in her life since. First a horse, then a car, now a bike.”
Turning to stare at the gleaming chrome, Shayera shook her head. “But did she really intend this fate? Why not keep her as a woman?”
His grin was cocky as he said, “Because in her own words, she wished me to ride her for the rest of her days.”
Covering her mouth with her hand to stifle a scandalous snort, Shayera said, “Okay then. But I’m still certain she did not mean to be nothing more than a pile of metal.”
“I do not keep her bound to me. She is here of her own free will. Her soul is still very much alive in there, and she knows that I will return her to her old form if ever she wants it. But seeing as how I’d taken no lovers since entering Kingdom”—he glanced at her from the corner of her eye—“then that would mean she would be parted from me. I like her more this way and I’m sure she feels the same.”
The truth of that statement hit her like a fist to the stomach. “You take no lovers?”
“I’ve taken none since entering Kingdom, save you.”
And here she’d believed that she’d been the only one as deeply affected because of her limited exposure to men. “Wh…”
She wasn’t even sure what she’d meant to say there.
“Because you’re you.” He smiled. “You do not fear me. You do not act coy, or childish, or try to manipulate me with your charms, though you certainly could. You are simply yourself and I like it, Shayera Caron. A lot.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Another month had passed since that day in faux Athens and as time passed, the two of them grew closer.
And while that elated Rumpel, it also worried him. He’d made a vow, to both Euralis and Shayera, vows he meant to keep.
But how?
How could he keep one without breaking faith with the other?
Brooding, he drank from the glass of whiskey in his hand and stared deep into the fire. It was well past midnight, the servants were all abed, but yet he knew if he called for Giles his man would come. Still, he couldn’t do that.
A flash of pink static popped through the room and then a dragonfly-winged vision in lavender sailed through. Danika’s transformation still unnerved Rumpel. In all the time he’d known her, she’d always been a matronly, plump lady.
He wasn’t used to the svelte curves of a flower fae, not on her anyway. Blinking big blue eyes at him, she dusted off her petal gown and sighed.
“Well, old man, and how goes it?”
He smirked. “How did you know I’d be needing someone to talk with this night?”
“I may look a fool, a ravishing one mind you…” She lifted a finger and winked. “But I promise you I’m not. I’m a godmother, or have you forgotten?”
Snorting, he took a sip.
She sniffed. “Are you drunk, imp? Since when?”
“Since the moment that siren stepped foot into my castle.”
“Oh.” She chortled, grabbing hold of her stomach and plopping herself into the burgundy-and-gray-striped divan in his study. “I knew it, I knew that girl would get under your skin. Proud and mighty Rumpelstiltskin, Prince of the Air and Darkness, brought to heel by a fiery beauty, a Caron no less.” Her wings buzzed. “You do know the blood of her father runs through her veins? You stood no chance against her.” Wearing a supremely satisfied smirk, she adjusted the baby’s-breath wreath resting upon her plaited chestnut hair. “This”—she waved a hand down his body—“do you know not what it is, mate?”
“If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say I’m well and truly sprung.”
Giggling, she shook her head. “Aye, that’s one way of putting it. Tell me, have you snogged her yet?”
Thinning his lips, he gave her a sharp look. “What do you think?”
“Bit prickly that one, eh? Touching her is a bit like trying to ride lightning, no?” She winked.
“Danika, is there a point to all this?” He shook the tumbler in his hand.
“Had sex yet? And not just the fun naughty kind you can do with your clothes on. I’m talking, skin on skin.” She crammed her palms together. “Done that yet? Shown her yer true self, the one we none get to see save your most beloved?”
He glowered.
“Oh, come on, we’re among friends.” She glanced around the room. “Well, we’re alone anyway. Come on then, be honest, I won’t tell her parents.”
Slouching further in his chair, he licked his front teeth. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
“Ah.” Her eyes lit up. “That would be a no.” Fluffing up her petals, she nodded. “Good.” And then she pinned him with a hard stare, turning completely serious. “It goes well for you that you did not kiss and tell. See that you don’t.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Aye.” Her burr came out fast and sharp. “She’s not unchaperoned now. Shayera Caron is officially under my charge and I’ll kill ya if ye hurt her.” Her wings buzzed furiously.
“And what if she wants it? She’s a woman, Danika.”
“Then you be completely honest with her or you let her go.”
“What?” He thinned his eyes.
“Oh,” she said and wagged her fingers, “you think you’re the only one in Kingdom with a network of spies? I have mine too, and I know what these games are really about. That is not love, imp, that is desperation and laziness. There are always ways.”
“If you know about the games, then you should know why I’m doing it, no?” He sipped from his drink, rolling the full-bodied whiskey around his mouth until it coated his tongue.
“I will not let you do it. I’ll hang back for a while, but mark my words, I will stop this charade the moment I even sniff one tiny hair on her head is in danger.”
She got to her feet, giving him a withering glare, and rather than be angry, Rumpel felt relief. Relief that Shayera had someone so powerful to battle for her. To care for her.
A pink rift in time tore before her.
“Fairy, how do you know when it’s really love?”
“If you love something, let it go. If it returns, it was always yours; if it doesn’t, it never was.”
He stared into the fire the rest of the night with the echo of her words ringing softly in his ears.
“Battleship,” Shayera cried and clapped her hands. “That’s it, isn’t it? I sank it! Ha!”
Laughing, because he still didn’t understand the ins and outs of this game, he shrugged. “I suppose you did.”
Sweeping all the pieces back into the box, he gazed at her. In the last few days they’d spent every waking moment together, eating, talking, laughing. In the mornings and at night he’d fed Euralis, and each time he did so, he felt more and more a traitor. Felt the dark gaze pierce his soul. Felt the silent accusation like a sting.
It was well past the witching hour, and they sat in his study. Well, she sat, he lounged beside her.
Her bare toes peeked out from the bottom edge of her nightgown. Wishing he could touch her, knowing he should not, he contented himself with grabbing the hem of her gown and dragging it through his fingers.
She took a deep breath.
“The final test is tomorrow.” His words were like the explosion of a cannon in the stillness of the room, rocketing through the languid silence and bringing with it all the nervous energy both had tried desperately to pretend away.
“Neither can I. But I think…” He sighed deeply, regretfully let her gown go, and shoved up to his feet. “We should at least try.”
She frowned, picked at an invisible thread in her dress, and with shoulders drooping, stood. “I want to go to the bowl.”
“Last time you saw a wolf, Shayera, which might I add, did not comfort you in the slightest. Why would you want to go back there tonight of all nights?”
She nibbled her lip and he sensed her strain. “Because after the test I am done, and this might be my final chance to decipher its meaning.”
“Do you really want to leave?” he asked with his heart on his sleeve.
“No,” she finally said after what felt like a horribly long pause. “But I fear what will happen if I stay.”
She had every right to fear that. Danika’s warning still rang in his ears. Not fear of the godmother, Rumpel was too powerful to be bothered by something so inconsequential, but rather fear of what would happen tomorrow.
The decision he knew in his heart he should make versus the one his intellect demanded.
Crossing his hands behind his back, he stood to the side. “Goodnight, Carrot.”
Brushing a stray curl out of her face, she smiled sweetly at him. “Goodnight, my dark prince.”
It was the first time she’d ever called him such and as he watched her walk away, he whispered, “Forgive me, Euralis, for I am too weak.”
Shayera settled herself beside the bowl, tucking her gown beneath her legs. She was a strange combination of exhausted and alert. Her body ached for rest, but her brain refused to allow it. She needed any sort of distraction, not only from the thought of the final game tomorrow and whatever it might entail, but also the fact that she and Rumpel had somehow managed to find and build a true friendship.
Dipping her finger into the cool water, she waited for the image to appear. The key to unlocking her happiness supposedly rested within its vision. A wolf made no sense, and if she was to go home, she wanted at least to know what it meant. Was she to find love with a shape-shifter? Was that it?
But even as she thought it, she rejected the notion. The thought of entangling her heart with someone she did not know when it was already obsessed with another felt wrong.