by Vivian Arend
“Take me home, fairy.”
“With pleasure.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Rumpel!” She shrieked his name to the heavens the moment Danika deposited her on the drawbridge.
She wasn’t sure if he’d hear her, but suddenly the gate groaned open and a lone figure stood staring at her.
Blond and sexy and looking for all the world completely bewildered. “Carrot?”
Biting her bottom lip, she ran for him, stopping when she was within an inch of his arms. The sky cracked open and rain poured down, soaking them both to the bone, but neither one was ready to move.
“I love you.” She said it, poured it out there, and held her breath.
His lashes fluttered shut. “I thought you’d never forgive me. I.” He grabbed his chest, wincing. “I was ready to go.”
“You idiot,” she growled at him. “Why would you do that for me?”
He smirked. “Because if you love something, you let it go.”
She licked the rain off her lips, heart trapped in her throat. “If it stays away, it was never yours.”
His stare was intense. “But if it comes back?”
“I always belonged to you.” Her smile grew wide. “I just didn’t know it right away.”
He inhaled. “I love you more than my next breath.”
“You proved your love to me when you let me go and didn’t even tell me how doing that would doom you. You told me once that after the games, if I willed it, if I wanted to see you, you’d show me.”
Gone was his scheming, calculating ways. The smolder. The roguish, impish grin. In its place was a man who seemed vulnerable and it made her melt.
“There will never be any going back for you, Shayera.”
“Rumpel, even if you didn’t show me, I could never leave you again. My home is here, with you. And before you turn, I have something very important to tell you. I know how to cure your son.”
His eyes narrowed. “What?”
“Danika told me there is a quest I need to go on. Fairy lore speaks of an amulet known as the Song of Life. It is guarded by dark elves deep in Under. It is said to break the madness of the moon’s curse and she believes it will heal your son.”
He clapped his hands on hers and she gasped as her curse activated, sucking at his soul. But he clung tighter and then pulled her roughly into him for a kiss.
“That damn fairy would figure it out first. I should have had more faith.” He kissed her cheek. “But I will not allow you to undertake such a dangerous quest, and certainly not alone.”
She jerked her hands from his. “Rumpel, I’m a grown woman, I can certainly handle myself. I managed you, after all.”
He chuckled but shook his head. And there was a definite bounce to his movements now. Rumpelstiltskin was attractive when he smoldered and went all broody, but he was dangerously handsome, doubly so when he laughed with joy.
Her pulse fluttered.
“My love, you handled me quite well. No doubt about that. But the dark elves are no joke. They are warrior trained and a siren’s charms are no match for their deadly arts. I would die before I let anything happen to you.”
“I’m not letting you leave me.”
“No.” He shook his head. “I can’t do that either, Euralis will only feed by my own hand. But there is one in my castle who thirsts for vengeance. Giles!”
The sifting of sulfur emanated a moment before the butler appeared.
“Giles?” She frowned and turned to stare at the attractive, gentlemanly manservant.
“Sir?” The valet bowed his head.
“There is a quest, an amulet to resurrect my son. The way is dark, and dangerous, and full treachery.”
A grin spread slowly across his face and Shayera was shocked to note that he fairly vibrated with excitement.
“Yes. I do it gladly.” Then his eyes turned to Shayera and with a bow of his head, the servant’s clothing he’d been wearing transformed into a warrior’s kilt and leather armor. His hair was no longer brushed back and short, but long and held back by a dark satin ribbon. A huge broadsword appeared in one hand and a spear in the other.
“Mistress, your return is most fortuitous. I thank you.”
As Giles turned to go, Rumpel cleared his throat. “There is a girl by the name of Lilith Wolf. She lives along the howling winds. Seek her out. Tell her the price of my boon is to follow you wherever you lead. And then her debt is cleared.”
Giles’s nostrils flared; clearly he was unhappy at the thought of taking anyone with him. But he did not argue with Rumpel either. With a final bow, he left.
Another fog of smoke appeared then. It was Dalia and she was laughing, beaming from ear to ear. “Bless your heart, miss. I knew you’d win him, I did.”
She wrapped her arms around Shayera and pulled her in for a big hug, then curtsied and bowed to Rumpel. “I’ve ordered the cook to set about making the biggest feast imaginable, all must be well for the wedding, no?”
Shayera blinked. “Wedding?” She shook her head. Everything was happening almost too fast for her to follow.
Rumpel grabbed her hands again, and this time when her energy took from him, she didn’t feel it as cold, but as warm and inviting. He was letting her in and it didn’t hurt, and for the first time she realized it never needed to. The witch had designed the curse to keep her chosen mate from suffering.
He must have realized the same thing, because he picked her up and twirled her around. She laughed, clinging to him for all she was worth.
“Now, or thirty years from now, Shayera Caron,” he said, his deep voice massaging every inch of her soul, “you will be mine forever. And what does a date matter, really?”
He was so right. “It doesn’t. The moment I lay eyes on you, I’ll belong to you alone, for all eternity. The rest is just formalities.”
“Exactly, my pet.” He tapped her nose, but there was a dark, excited light growing in the back of his gaze, and she felt her own body respond in kind. “Tell Cook to make it grand. We will invite all of Kingdom, to include the Caron clan. Tomorrow.” He never took his eyes off Shayera.
Dalia frowned. “But, sir, she’s here now. And—”
“And tonight she’s all mine.” With a snap of his fingers, Dalia disappeared and a thick smoke screen shielded them. “Right now, I wish to be alone with my mate. I’ve waited long enough.”
She swallowed and nodded. “Me too.”
“My love, do not scream.”
“Scream?” How hideous was he?
He stepped out of her arms and took a deep breath, and she prepared herself for any and all possibilities. A black slug with tentacles for arms and razor-sharp teeth? A man made of stone? Made of wood, like Pinocchio? Anything… everything, knowing no matter what it was, she’d take him any way he came.
“Remember I love you.” His words faded out and then he was a tower of smoke, a pillar that shifted and moved like a churning funnel, bringing with it the scent of whiskey and smoked cherry.
When the smoke cleared she blinked.
His skin was darkest onyx but gleamed as though it’d just come out of a fire. His eyes were the brilliant red of his servants’, and his hair just as black. But he was different too. Upon his head were two small, curved horns. Below his navel he was a little furrier than the average man and he had a tail.
She looked back at his face and there was where she saw Rumpel. His beautiful face hadn’t altered in the slightest; if anything, he appealed far more. A siren had a weakness for men, but there was no man more potent than her dark prince.
“You’re a satyr.” She beamed and her heart became so large, so warm, and each beat was an echo of his name, each thump a cry of love. She moved into him.
“You are not disgusted?” His voice was dark and deep and made her insides quiver.
When she neared him, he wrapped his arms around her waist and she sighed, breathing in his scent. “I’m so grateful you’ve shown yourself to me. That you trusted
me. We make a fine pair, you and I. The nymph and the satyr. Don’t they tell stories of us?” She wiggled her hips when his hard thickness brushed against her center.
He hissed. “I could entrance you; it is what my ilk does. But I want you to choose me, Shayera. So I forgo my use of magic—I will not charm you to love me.”
Framing his face, she tamped down her own magic, buried it deep, deep inside, because she wanted that same declaration from him. “I choose you with all that is inside me. With all that I am. I am yours. And, satyr, you are mine. All mine. Forever. Say it.”
His brow twitched, but his grin was pure sex. “I am yours. Dark heart, body, and soul. And you, my lovely siren, you are all mine.”
Then he was pushing her down and the clouds surrounded them and rose up to meet them, creating a bed.
She gasped as her clothes vanished and then laughed when he fell on top of her, pressing his weight down on her. Spreading her legs wide, she opened for him, wrapping them around his waist and shifting her hips up just enough so that her center brushed his own.
They hissed in unison.
“I will not last long,” he chuckled.
“Nor I. But if we have an eternity, then who cares, right?”
“Shayera.” He pushed himself off her just enough so that they could look at each other without going cross-eyed, and his muscles trembled. “This is your first time and I wish to be gentle.”
“I do not want gentle. I’m a nymph, I was born to do this.”
“Only with me,” he growled and the ruby of his eyes glowed a bloody crimson.
“Yes.” And with that word she forced him inside her.
Rumpel thrusted deep, penetrating her to her very core, and she wept because the immense strength and power that poured from him was glorious and dangerous and almost frightening.
“Give me everything, Shayera.” His hot words were whispered in her ear. “All of you. All your charms, all your passions. This is magic, love, this is magic. What you and I have, this is real. Now. Give it to me.”
And she did. She released it all. Everything she always held inside. The power that roiled like thunder beneath the surface of her flesh, she blasted it out and it poured from her like a blinding, glittering wave of golden light that crashed against his own dark splendor.
The force of it slammed into them, taking them beyond the heavens, beyond the stars. There was sex, and then there was this.
And it was so much more.
Tears burned from her eyes and he was there kissing her, kissing them away, thrusting deep and making her body flare to life like a supernova ready to implode.
“Trust me, my love. Trust me and let go. Whenever you’re ready, let go. I will catch you. I will always catch you.”
Biting her lower lip, she approached the yawning, dark chasm, the pinnacle of that rising orgasm that threatened to obliterate her. Then he was kissing her, shoving his tongue into her mouth and she accepted it with a delirious moan of desire. He tasted of cherry, of cinnamon. Of heat and fire.
“You’re so beautiful.” His jaw clenched. “So damn beautiful.”
Her head swam, her pulse raced, and her blood resonated with song. “I’m dying,” she cried.
“Then take me with you.”
And with one powerful, final thrust of his hips, she spilled into the little death, taking her dark prince with her.
His howls echoed like thunder, and she trembled into it. Lost, but not alone. He was holding her and he brought her back. His touch, his whispers, his love…
Then she blinked open her eyes and they were present in one another’s arms. She laughed, hugging him tight, and so did he.
“Was that even possible?” She blinked up at him. “No one ever told me it would be that way.”
“It’s not that way. Only for us, Carrot.” He twisted a hank of her hair around his finger as he nuzzled the side of her neck, breaking her out in a wash of goose bumps.
Gasping, feeling as though she’d run a mile, she slapped a palm over his chest. Straight over the spot of his heart.
“I adore you.”
“I will work the whole of my life to ensure you say that to me every day.”
His ruby eyes gleamed and she had to frame his face.
“My dark prince, I vow it.”
He sealed that vow with a kiss.
EPILOGUE
Euralis, under the guidance of Danika and Rumpel, was beginning to grow out of his shell. They allowed Shayera twenty minutes each day to go into his cell. The first day was not fun. The boy tried to attack her and might have succeeded if not for the cage.
But weeks had passed and now his son smiled at Shayera. Her charms, which had once been such a curse, were now a miracle.
Today he allowed his siren into the cage.
She was a vision dressed in white with flaming red hair curling wildly down her back. Euralis was in boy form and had his head in her lap while she read a storybook, a tale of a boy who cried wolf.
The child never took his eyes off her, his look adoring, and Rumpel could understand. She’d bewitched them all.
They’d gotten married in the traditional binding ceremony of Kingdom denizens, trading the stones of Veritas, but in his heart, their wedding had happened the night before. In the quiet, peaceful darkness of a storm, he’d pledged his soul to her.
She glanced up then and smiled.
I love you, he mouthed to her.
Her cheeks heated to a bright pink.
He loved everything about her. Her spunk. Her intellect. Her body. But mostly he loved the purity of his siren’s soul.
Rumpelstiltskin had discovered the greatest prize of all was the love of a good woman. And while this interlude was wonderful, he could only hope that Giles would return soon.
Euralis was stronger, but he was still too weak.
That amulet had to work; there could be no other option.
She joined him back in their chambers ten minutes later. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she kissed his cheek. “Become who you really are, my darkness.”
Smiling, he transformed for her and then slipped his arms around her waist.
“No regrets, Rumpel?” Her blue eyes gleamed.
“None.”
“Euralis will be okay.” She sighed. “I believe it with all my heart and soul.”
And so did he—he believed in magic when she was with him. Believed that good would come to those who waited.
“I love you, Shayera. Always.”
Her smile sank into his soul and no matter what the future held, they had each other, and that was enough.
It was always enough…
“No regrets, my dark prince. None at all. Believe in Giles, in Danika, and the strength of my love. He will be saved. Have no doubt of that.”
“Is that a deal?”
“Do you want it to be?” She quirked a brow and wore a sultry smile. “Does that do it for you, love?”
“Always.” He pinched her bottom.
“Rumpel, you’re incorrigible.”
“Would you have it any other way?”
“No.” She kissed his lips. “Absolutely never change.”
And for her, he never did.
MORE FROM MARIE HALL
Want to learn more about Kingdom and all its sexy villains? Then make sure to start at the beginning with Kingdom Collection: 1-3 The books included in that set are Her Mad Hatter, Gerard’s Beauty, and Red and Her Wolf!
Love my stories? Want to know when the next Kingdom Book comes out, then sign up for my Newsletter! Or, maybe you just want to hang out with like minded Kingdom maniacs and talk fairy tales all day long and the sexy bad boys that live in them? If so, then sign up for my Street Team. Also known as Hatter’s Harem, it’s where I hang out and even occasionally give away awesome prizes exclusive only to my teamers!
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Giles and Lilith’s Story will be the next book, already titled Hood’s Obsession. That story will pick up where this one
left off. The journey to find Euralis’ cure. Currently the book is slated for a July, 2014 release. But make sure to sign up for my newsletter to get an accurate release date!
Keep scrolling down to see a listing of all my books!
MARIE HALL BOOKS
Her Mad Hatter (Free everywhere! Book 1 based on Alice and the Mad Hatter)
Gerard’s Beauty (Book 2 based on Beauty and the Beast)
Red and Her Wolf (Book 3 based on Little Red Riding Hood)
The Kingdom Collection (Books 1-3 with bonus deleted scenes)
Jinni’s Wish (Book 4, based on Arabian Nights)
Hook’s Pan (Book 5, Based on Peter Pan)
Danika’s Surprise (Book 5.5, novelette and first introduction to the upcoming Dark Princess Series)
Moon’s Flower, (Book 6 based on the legend of The Man in the Moon)
Huntsman's Prey, (Book 7 spinoff Dark Princess Series)
Rumpel’s Prize, (Book 8)
Hood’s Obsession, Book 9 (Coming July 2014, Giles and Lilith’s Story)
Moments Series (NA Contemporary Romance)
A Moment, Book 1 (Ryan and Liliana’s Story)
Right Now, Book 2 (Alex and Zoe’s Story)
Tor and Jaime’s Story, Book 3 COMING May, 2014
Night Series (Urban Fantasy)
Crimson Night,- Book 1
All Hallow's Night- Book 2
Howler’s Night- Book 3 COMING AUG 2014
Chaos Time Serial
Sable
Slayde
Synnergy
Eternal Lover’s Series
Death’s Lover (Book 1) From Grand Central—Forever Yours—Publishing
Previously published under the title The Witching Hour
Death’s Redemption (Book 2) Coming JUNE, 2014 from Grand Central!
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