by Elena Lawson
I left the pair in the entryway, eager to feel clean after days spent in bed and hours spent pouring over dusty tomes in the library.
The water was luxurious, heated to perfection and infused with lavender and jasmine brought to the palace from southern traders. The oils made my skin feel like silk, and the warmth soothed my body, but did little to temper my thoughts.
I knew it would take time for my Grace to develop, and even more time still for me to learn how to use it. But every Graced Fae got a small taste of their new power during the Ceremony. They knew what to look for—what to expect. I didn’t.
I wasn’t even certain I was Graced at all… unless my Grace was having eyes able to change color. I hadn’t looked in the mirror since I awoke, but Finn told me they seemed to have settled between only changing from blue to violet and back again. Whatever that means.
“Are you alright?” Alaric’s strained voice came through the wooden door.
“Fine!” I called back, sighing, “I’ll be out in a moment.”
It was maddening having to be guarded at all times. The hour I had spent in the bathing room was no where near enough. I had spent hours each day alone with my own thoughts, free to roam the isle as I pleased. I’d traded one cage for another, and I still wasn’t convinced it was an improvement.
Don’t do this, Liana. Don’t do that, Liana. That’s improper, Liana. Act like a queen, Liana.
Maddening.
With the plush robe staving off the chill wafting in from the tall window, I strode from the bathing room—and ran straight into Alaric’s chest.
He caught me, “Whoa, there, what’s the rush?”
I didn’t step away, instead twisting in his arms to see his face. His breath caught, and his jaw clenched. I was still dripping wet, covered in nothing but the soft robe. Everywhere his hands touched me tingled.
I tilted my face up and his body tensed around me.
His grey eyes locked onto mine, and I noticed a ring of dark blue around his iris’, and streaks of near-white and specks of black. His dark hair fell forward as he leaned in, chest rising to meet mine as he took a deep, steadying breath.
“Liana, I—,” he started, trying to detangle himself from me, but I clutched him tighter, trying not to think about the consequences of what I was about to do.
“Stop thinking,” I told him, watching as a war raged beneath the surface of his skin. I placed a hand on his bare shoulder, “Feel. Don’t think.”
He shuddered at my touch and a flash of carnal desire raced through me. I moaned, eyes closing and body melting at the feel of the raw emotion. My heart was a riot of thunder in my chest—a tempest that wouldn’t calm.
A ferocious growl tore from his chest, and my eyes flew open. His warm hand wrapped around the soft flesh at the nape of my neck, tangling in my still-damp hair. He pulled gently, and it was enough to make my legs buckle.
His lips collided with mine as though there wasn’t a second to waste. His kiss deepened, and he pressed his body against mine. I moaned again at the feel of his bulge pressing against me. The heat spread between us, enveloping me, expanding, contracting—settling into a blaze deep at my core. His tongue flicked against mine and a tremor scrambled down my spine.
“I knew it!” A shrill voice broke me out of the trance, and Alaric spun on his heel, hand on the hilt of his sword.
Thana stood across the room, seeming to have let herself in without the courtesy of knocking. Her hands gripped her hips, and the look she gave me could burn a hundred forests to the ground. “Thana!” I shouted, “What are you doing in here?”
She rolled her eyes, and instead of answering, she extended a hand, her fingers pulling at the air in the room.
“Thana don’t—”
But it was too late, my air Graced handmaiden had already blown Alaric from the room. I watched him crash to the ground on the other side of the door before she used her Grace to slam that on his groaning form.
“What did you do that for?” I demanded.
“For your own good!”
Alaric came through the door, glaring at Thana, his eyes filling with malice.
“And you,” she chastised, pointing a long finger at him, “You should know better.”
I shook my head, falling into the chair beside my dressing table. “Thana calm down,” I said.
Thana came to stand at my side, and I had to resist the urge to strangle her, “You may go. I will stay with the queen tonight.”
He stiffened, clearing his throat, “It isn’t safe. I’ll stay.”
Alaric searched my face, looking for something there, but I wasn’t sure what. “It’s alright Alaric,” I told him, turning to face the mirror, “I’ll be fine with Thana until morning.”
Turning on his heel, he stormed from my bedchamber. I flinched when I heard the main door slam behind him.
Chapter Fourteen
That night, I was restless—falling asleep only to awaken again and again. I stepped from the comfort of my bed, cringing when my bare feet met the night-chilled tile. Thana was asleep in the armchair at the corner of the room. Some bodyguard.
I had planned to get a glass of water but found myself at the main door instead. I opened it in infinitesimal increments, afraid to wake Thana. She slept like the dead most times, but on edge as she was, I wouldn’t risk it.
The palace was silent, not even the mice had come out of their holes in the walls. I crept on light feet through the corridors and down the spiral staircase into the ballroom. My heart thudded behind my breast and a cool sweat broke out along my collarbone.
Where was I going?
A pull at the core of my being drew me to the right, toward the Great Hall. I swallowed, eager to return to my chambers, but I was almost there. And there was something I had to see there… or something I had to do. I wasn’t sure. In a trancelike state I padded to the entryway of the hall.
The cauldron perched atop its pedestal on the dais, beckoning. The bluish fog always rising from the surface of the water seemed to glow—almost to shimmer, small shining flecks catching the moonlight from where it streamed in from the windows on either side of the space.
Liana… a strange voice whispered, and I whirled around, searching for the owner of the voice. There was no one.
My lips parted, and I stood perfectly still, waiting for whoever it was to come out. Did someone lure me there? Was this all some form of trickery to get me out into the open? Alone. Did I fall for it?
I crept forward, keeping my eyes and ears open in case of an attack, cursing myself for not bringing a weapon with me—for leaving my chambers at all.
As I neared, it was clear the buckling of the earth I felt beneath me during my Ceremony was no hallucination. There was a jagged, crater-like dent in the marble where I had stood, and a fissure sliced through the stairs and spider-webbed out through the Great Hall.
Liana, the phantom voice whispered again, the sound seemed to come from everywhere and no where at the same time. I ground my teeth, wrapping my hands into the fabric of my night clothes.
I had to go back. I shouldn’t have ventured so far from the safety of my chambers alone. But I was almost there—almost standing over the cauldron of water that almost destroyed me.
The fog thickened and pulsed as if it were a living thing. The air cooled to the point of freezing until plumes of steam accentuated my rapid breathing.
Be warned… the voice said, echoing inside my skull. Not everything is as it seems…
I wrapped my arms around myself to stave off the chill, speaking through chattering teeth, “Wha—what do you mean? Who are you?”
Liana…
“What do you want?”
A crash outside the Great Hall had me snapping my attention to the entrance, my heart galloping in my chest.
Run, the voice commanded, and a section of the wall opened behind the cauldron, warm air pouring from the darkness within. The sound of thudding footfalls heading straight for the Great Hall thundered
from across the room. Without time to think, I flung myself into the hidden passageway and the stone door shut behind me.
The darkness was all-consuming. It was as though someone had thrown me into a vat of ink. The air was musty and warm and the floor slick with condensation. I shuddered, stabilizing myself with a hand on the rough stone wall as I stood. I listened for a sound, for anything, but was met with complete and utter silence.
If there was a way in, there must be a way out, I told myself, cursing my rash decision to jump inside. I pressed lightly against the wall where the hidden doorway had been, but somehow, I knew, I just knew it wasn’t safe on the other side any longer. Whoever had been about to enter the Great Hall wished me harm. And that voice, whatever—or whoever it was—was trying to protect me.
Swallowing my panic, I searched for another means of escape, using the walls of tunnel-like corridor to find my way.
What felt like hours could’ve only been minutes as I followed the path around a sharp corner and saw a faint fissure of light up ahead. A way out! I raced to it, using my nails to pry open the section of wall. In my haste to break free of the blackness, I tripped, falling to my knees on the other side. The entrance sealed itself back into place behind me.
if the scent of lilac and rosebud was any indication, I was near the gardens. The passageway I’d just come out of had vanished. Only if I looked closely, could I see the near imperceptible line in the otherwise smooth stone wall.
I flew from the alcove, ready to run straight back to my bed, when a shadowy figure emerged from the gardens.
“Who’s there?” he shouted.
And I ran. I ran as fast as I could but didn’t get more than a few paces when I was tackled to the ground. He knocked the air from my lungs, and I struggled to breath. The male had me pinned to the ground, his hands like manacles around my wrists, his body weight pressing into my hips.
I thrashed and struggled, vaguely aware of the strangled sounds escaping my lips. The male was off me within an instant, staggering backwards.
“Queen Liana?” he asked, though it was more of a statement. He fell to one knee, bowing his head, his honey blonde hair looking more like muted beige in the bright moonlight. “Please forgive me.”
“Tiernan?”
What is he doing out here all alone in the middle of the night? And without a guard.
He looked up, and I saw the strain in his sharp features, “Please,” he repeated, “I didn’t know it was you.”
I stood, brushing the dust from nightclothes. “Why are you out here? Why are you even still here at all?”
He arose, flipping his hair back away from his face, “It calms me,” he said, “When I can’t sleep, it’s soothing to be outdoors.”
I hurried to cover the exposed flesh of my breasts, tying the lace at my collar tighter with shaking fingers.
Tiernan only then seemed to notice my lack of attire, and averted his gaze, “Are you alright, majesty?”
I rolled my eyes at him. Does it look like I’m alright? No. I couldn’t sleep and was propelled into the Great Hall where I hallucinated hearing voices and was nearly attacked only to be locked in a dark passageway and finally find my out only to be assaulted by you! “I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding,” he said, coming near.
I took a step back in response.
“I won’t hurt you,” he said, his voice gentle, as though speaking to a cornered mutt. He pulled a length of cloth from the pocket of his trousers, “Let me wrap it for you. And then we’ll get you back to your chambers.”
Now that he’d drawn attention to it, I could feel the sting on my right knee, throbbing with each rapid beat of my heart. It would heal fast, as wounds did once the transformation from mortal to immortal was complete.
“Why are you helping me?”
“Why not? We’re alone out here, who else is there to help you? Or would you not do the same for someone you saw in distress?”
I couldn’t help it, I blurted, “Don’t you despise the Night Court? Isn’t that—I don’t know, like bred into you?”
He chuckled, and the sound pulled at something inside my chest. When he came forward again, I didn’t move away. He knelt in front of me, tearing the cloth into two pieces to wrap around my wound. “There’s been tension between our two courts for centuries—millennia actually, since the Mad King divided the land, but no, it isn’t bred into us. Though the older of the Fae in my court uphold that you lot are all a scheming, selfish sort of folk and are not to be trusted.”
“And you?” I asked, wincing as he secured the makeshift bandage into place with a tight knot.
He rose to my eye level, and I averted my gaze, so the darkness could hide the roiling colors of my iris’. “I think there is good and bad in everyone—and we should not uphold the prejudices of our ancestors.”
“Thank you,” I said, gesturing to my now bandaged knee.
He bowed, “You’re welcome.”
He cocked his head, and I realized he was staring into my eyes, “Your eyes, they’re different.”
I turned away, and he took my arm, spinning me back around to face him. I parted my lips to shout at him and found his bright green ones not more than an inch from my own. “They’re beautiful. They seem brighter in the moonlight.”
My heart sped. There was wonder in his gaze, and I had to work to calm my erratic pulse.
How could something so beautiful be so dangerous?
I was about to tell him to let go of me, I swear I was, when a shadow fell upon us. The sound of beating wings was audible for a mere second before the Draconian barreled into Tiernan, sending him careening into the palace walls.
“Kade!” I shouted, thinking it to be him, but it was Finn who turned, eyes ringed with glowing yellow. “Stop!” I shouted at him before he could charge Tiernan again.
He came toward me, wings spread wide, his features softening and footfalls slowing when he beheld my ragged appearance. “Why are you alone? Did he hurt you?” Finn examined me for damage, a blush crawling up his neck.
I took his outstretched hand into my own, hoping to reassure him, “I’m alright. Tiernan found me, he—well he was helping me.” I thought it wise to leave out the part where he tackled me first.
Finn turned to where Tiernan was lifting himself from the ground. The ease with which he stood made it appear as though the Draconian had merely shoved him. But the buckling stone behind him told the truth.
Finn retracted his wings, “I thought—”
Tiernan waved off his attempt at an apology, “No harm done. I would have thought the same.”
Clasping Finn’s hand, I led the warrior away, “Thank you,” I called back to Tiernan. “And you can stay here at court as long as you like.”
Chapter Fifteen
Alaric was furious the next morning. Finn had stayed with me throughout the rest of the night after some harsh words exchanged with a very ashamed Thana.
“I knew I shouldn’t have left!” he exclaimed, running a fisted hand through his still-tousled hair. “And what were you doing out alone in the middle of the night, anyway? With everything that’s happened, Liana…” he groaned, “It isn’t safe.”
I was glad I had time to remove the bandage from my knee, clean the blood from the skin and change into a clean gown before he arrived, or he would have been even more in distress at my appearance.
“And invited the emissary to stay? Why would you do that?”
I was seething, but I knew he had good intentions, and only wanted my safety. “I’m sorry. I just—I had to see it—the Great Hall, and the cauldron. It was like it was calling me,” I said, reigning in the urge to lash out.
He looked at me with patronizing eyes, making me want to cry out with frustration, “Calling to you?” he asked, as though I’d said the most ridiculous thing in the world.
And maybe I had. Maybe it was all a strange dream my stress-addled mind created to play tricks on me. But that couldn’t be true. I had gone t
here, and I had heard a voice—a voice that warned me and told me to run and had kept me safe from whoever had been coming to harm me. It didn’t matter if Alaric didn’t believe me.
“I’m sorry,” he said, calmer, coming to rub warmth into my shoulders, “What’s important is you’re alright.”
I nodded.
He sighed, and I relaxed into his embrace, “I’m sorry I frightened you.”
“I’m sorry I shouted.”
Kade came in then, raising his eyebrows at the sight of Alaric and me, still locked together.
“Captain,” he said, jaw tensing, “Silas has requested to meet with you.”
The Captain of the Horde armies? I wondered what for.
“Right,” Alaric digressed, releasing me from his embrace, and taking his time about it too. “I’ll be back soon. Stay with Kade.”
Once he was out of sight, Kade rushed me, lifting me in a tight hug so my feet dangled a foot from the ground. I gasped. “It’s only fair.” He winked. Cocky bastard. “The three of us share everything. The fearsome threesome—that’s what they called us back at camp.”
“Surely you didn’t share everything,” I mused, disentangling my limbs from his.
He tilted his head to one side, pursed his lips, nodded, “Most things, yes.”
I dropped back to the floor and steadied myself with a hand on his bicep, “Females?”
Waggling his eyebrows at me he said with a wolfish grin, “Sometimes.”
“So, none of you are bonded, then?”
Kade made a dismissive sound at the thought, “No,” he said, sounding as though he was stating the obvious, “But… we are all bound to you. Not by magic, but by honor and duty.”
That beautiful, warm ache spread through me again. I bit my lower lip to keep it from trembling at the thought of the three males. All bound to me. Mine. Kade followed the motion with hungry eyes, “Why are you looking at me like that?”