“Uh…sure.” Simone fondled the hilt of her knife and chewed her lip for a moment. “I’m not exactly certain of how to get back there, though. Getting to this specific passageway was an accident.”
“Yes, there’s a bit of a learning curve to being a good key. Wait here. I’ll be right back.” Mom started away, then stopped, turned, and walked over to give Simone a sloppy kiss on the forehead. “Missed you.”
“I was wondering if you did.”
“I suppose I gave you good reason to doubt it. I’m sorry for that, my darling. I didn’t know how else to go about things. Daughters are so much different than sons.” She drifted away, and by the time her words settled into Simone’s brain, Heath had his arms around Simone.
“Question it later,” he said, holding her in place. “I’m certain she holds many secrets.”
“But a brother? Or brothers?” Could it be that she really wasn’t as alone as she thought? That was a big fucking deal.
“And older, from the sounds of it. I hadn’t a clue he or they might exist, but then, I didn’t know about you, either.”
Ethan leaned against the wall near Heath. “I wonder if we can pass off the other three assholes at the motel.”
“We could certainly ask when she gets back,” Heath said.
“How many others do you think Queen Rhiannon has skulking around hoping to grab Simone?”
“Why would anyone want to grab Simone?” Dasha asked.
Simone pushed up a brow at Heath. “Yes, Prince. Explain that to us all.”
Heath rolled his eyes. “Simply said, Simone is a problem for my mother for the same reason I am. I’m a competitor. She tolerated me beforehand as a sort of necessary evil, but having a mate tips the level of power somewhat.”
“In whose favor?” Dasha asked.
“No one’s. It’s just balanced now, whereas before my parents were a heavy weight on one side of the scale, and I was a feather on the other.”
“This is like the fairy equivalent of some kind of soap opera, isn’t it? And my best friend is tied up in it.”
Ethan let out a long breath and rolled his gaze up to the ceiling. Simone knew exactly what he was thinking—just wait.
“What does she think you’re going to do to her?”
“Take her place, in spite of the fact I have no such inclination, and nor does Siobhan.”
“Fairies of her age aren’t known for their rationality,” Ethan said.
“So…are you all in deep shit now, or what?” Dasha asked.
“That’s a fair way of putting it.” Heath pulled Simone’s dagger from her waistband and studied the handle as if to make sure jewels hadn’t fallen off during the fight.
Dasha got in front of Simone and stood on tiptoes to meet her eyes. “Why aren’t you more afraid?”
Simone sighed and rubbed her tired eyes. “Maybe I will be later. It’s been an interesting few weeks. I’m exhausted and processing pretty much everything on delay. Mostly, I just react and do my thinking later.”
“Are you still going to want to be my friend now that you’re a fairy princess?”
“The better question would be whether or not you’ll still want to be mine.”
Chapter Twenty-four
With Katie’s assistance—and with a cadre of her guards in tow—the group made its way through quickly drawn passageways between Earth and the fairy realm, exiting near the restaurant.
Cold wind whipped around them as they climbed out of the sandy dune, weapons at the ready. Heath kept Simone behind him until he could assess risks.
It was dark. Had to be after midnight. Beyond the stars and a few shop and restaurant lot lights, the beach was dark and desolate.
Katie took Simone’s hand and guided her back to the portal, and with some whispered instructions, helped her close it. Even if Katie and her warriors would be going right back through it, it wouldn’t do for someone or some beach critter to fall into it while they handled business at the motel.
Heath put his knife away, and Ethan holstered his gun.
Dasha walked away and peered at the sandy indentation where the portal had once been and took up an animated discourse with Simone and Katie.
Ethan pulled Heath a few yards away. “While we were making that long walk, I did some mental math. Totaled up all the palace guards and the ones in Queen Rhiannon’s personal entourage.”
“Let’s see if your math’s the same as mine.”
“She’s got ten in her personal retinue, or had ten, anyway. Subtract the one at the motel, and that’s nine. Of the thirty guards that service the palace and nearest portal mounds to it, she’s already lost three.”
“More than that, if you consider people like Lachlann who are still, technically, under her employ but are doing a shitty job of it.”
“Good point. I believe there are a very small number of soldiers who would be willing to accept a bounty on the princess once they learn we’re trying to reintegrate everyone. Most of the sane ones know they’d be better off out here—outside of her confining jurisdiction. If they’ve got brains in their heads, they’re going to choose freedom over fealty.”
“We can make a list of all the die-hard royalists and have some sympathetic Sídhe in the realm keep an eye on them.”
“A few of the more powerful ones are going to have some outside reach, so we still need to be mindful of that. They can hire people—human people—to try to harm both you and the princess, so I’d advise you to lay low for a while until we can put some safety measures in place.”
Heath let out a sputtering breath, but couldn’t really debate Ethan’s logic. Thom would likely propose similar precautions. Thinking of Thom, Heath nudged his phone out of his pocket and fired off a text message: Be there shortly. Had some trouble. Fine for now.
One of Katie’s spear-wielding warriors seemed to appear out of nowhere, looming nearby and cutting a distracting figure in Heath’s periphery.
Heath turned to him, stared up into his unyielding features, drew a wisp of his energy into him, and had a sinking feeling. “Fuck.”
“What?” Ethan asked.
“I don’t even know if I want to say it.”
“Say it,” came the warrior’s deep, chesty rumble. He crossed his arms over his chest and tipped his chin up high.
It’d been a really bloody long time since anyone had done that to Heath and with such authority. Not even his parents could manage it.
“Apparently, the reason my princess doesn’t read as half-Sídhe is because she isn’t.”
“Say again?” Ethan’s forehead furrowed.
The warrior leaned in and whispered, “If you let anything happen to my daughter, Prince, I will string you up by your bollocks and let the vultures feast on your flesh. I will forgive you for what your mother is, but I will not be so forgiving if she takes her petty indulgences out on my only daughter. If any harm comes to Simone, I will make you wish you’d never drawn your first breath, even if I go down doing it.”
Heath didn’t know what to say except, “Yes, sir.”
The warrior gave Heath a pat on the head and returned to his cadre.
“I’m so fuckin’ confused,” Ethan said.
“I’m going to guess it’s something Katie would prefer Simone not know about. Fairly sure the man she thought was her father is human.”
“Could that be why he and Katie got divorced—he figured out Simone wasn’t his?”
“What did Dasha say? Oh, yes. Fairy soap opera. Sounds about right.”
“What does this mean?”
“I don’t really know. I hate not knowing.”
***
After her mother left with her entourage of stoic spear-bearers—and three parting gifts from the crew in the form of mercenary fairies—Simone collapsed onto the first empty bed she could find. She allowed herself to pull in her first deep breath since dinner.
Her body started a downhill roll toward the center of the bed when Heath climbed onto the mattress.
“We should at least put some sheets on the bed, love.”
“Meh. Screw moving.” For that matter, screw thinking. Every muscle in her body felt as though it’d been put through a wringer. She hadn’t felt so beat up since the last time she’d moved apartments. Apparently, there was an athletic component to being a fairy princess she’d need to get used to.
Heath pushed her legs up beneath her, tucked in her arms, and picked her up like a ball. He set her on the floor near the heater and shook out the fitted sheet. “Why the lip curl? I do know how to make a bed. May not have crisp corners and there may be a few lumps, but it’ll be tight enough to sleep on.”
“Beyond installing that gun safe, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you do anything even remotely domestic.”
“Gotta broaden my skill set eventually, right? Domesticity would be a welcome trade to the life I’ve been leading. I’d even trade in my bike for a week of routine boringness.”
“Don’t get rid of the bike. It suits you.”
He pushed up an eyebrow and pulled a corner of the fitted sheet snug. “Yeah?”
She put her back against the heater and shrugged. “Goes along with that whole prince in leather thing.”
“We should get you some. Leather, I mean.”
“Nah. I’m good.” She liked having her girl parts breathe too much for that.
“Jacket at least? You still need one. And a fitted helmet, if you’re going to ride behind me.”
“It’d have to be behind you, because there’s no way I’m steering one of those monsters by myself. I haven’t even ridden a bicycle in my adult life.”
“I’d prefer to keep you close, anyway. You can’t get into trouble if you’re a centimeter away.”
“I get the sneaking suspicion trouble is going to find me wherever I go.”
He paused his sheet stretching for a moment and stared at some uninteresting spot in the center before whispering, “Aye.”
Aye. He likely had the same sneaking suspicion. That should have worried her, but either she was too tired for worry or deep down, she knew worry was pointless. An unproductive use of mental energy. If something happened, they’d deal. They’d prepare for fights the best they could, and do everything in their power to prevent getting into them in the first place. But, she wasn’t going to hide. She was going to live her life as she always had before the crew had shown up and Heath had claimed her for his mate.
It seemed so obvious now that she was, and that he was hers. An indisputable truth she knew to her core, just like she knew she was a key and everything that meant. Just like she knew she could read moods and intents in auras if she thought to switch on the magic. All magic had switches, and she’d been too clogged before to figure out where they were and how to work them. There was also something else there that wasn’t from her mother. Something she couldn’t touch, but that she was aware of. Something suppressed, and intentionally suppressed if her hunch was right.
“Heath?”
He tucked the top sheet in at the end of the mattress. “Yes, love?”
“What did the guy with the spear say to you?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Because you looked flustered, and very little seems to fluster you.”
“I…”
“You’ve never lied to me before. Don’t start now.”
He sat on the edge of the bed with his back to her and let out a breath. “Fuck.”
She wouldn’t move. Wouldn’t touch him. Wouldn’t let his wondrous body influence her thoughts and make her change her mind about pursuing the subject. She needed to know if she’d put the pieces together in the right order. “Tell me.”
“All right. In a nutshell, he said if I let anything happen to you, he’d see to my demise, which seems to be par for the course with men related to you.”
“What?”
“He called you his daughter, Simone.”
“Whoa.” She pulled her knees against her chest and tucked her chin atop them. “God, I don’t even know how to process that. I guess I should feel something, but I don’t. I never really felt any particular thing about my father. He was very hands-off. Him not actually being my father would explain some things, I guess.”
“And make others less clear, I imagine.”
“Yeah.” She let out a strained chortle and tightened her hold around her legs. For a while, she just rocked. There wasn’t a thing Heath could say that would make anything better, and she was so thankful he didn’t try—that she didn’t have to say oh, it’s okay, when she wasn’t really sure it was. Lifting her chin, she met his concerned gaze. “I don’t like feeling like I’ve had plot holes pulled into my life.”
“Aye, I’m gutted for you. I really am. It’s a mess I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I’m an energy reader. The fact I had and am having such a hard time sorting out what’s what in your magic speaks to your parents’ skill in muddling it. I imagine given time, I’ll be able to work out all your components so you’ll be able to use them if you want. Or else choose to keep them pushed down if you don’t.”
“Do you do that? Suppress things you don’t want to use?” She knew her fairy had to be keeping some secrets, even from her. She wanted to know all of them. More than that, wanted him to trust her enough to share them because she so badly wanted to share hers.
“Aye.”
“Want to tell me about it, Prince?”
He raked a hand through his hair and pulled it free of his jacket collar. For a long while, he said nothing. Didn’t move. Didn’t look at her. “Aye. Just not today, love, okay?”
It was so gentle a plea that she couldn’t possibly take umbrage over it. She was so used to him being unctuously cheerful and affectionate around her that she forgot he was a man with layers and she hadn’t known him long enough to peel back the tops and have a long, hard look at the ones buried deepest. She wanted to, though. She wanted to know what made her man tick. Wanted to know all of his weaknesses and soft spots so she could keep them covered. Wanted no surprises if one day, there was something he couldn’t hold back and he let that deepest layer float to the surface.
“Okay,” she said.
She stood and picked up the last clean bedspread at the entire motel. She worked it up to where Heath sat, and he rose up for her to smooth it on the rest of the way. He tossed the pillows onto the bed and shrugged out of his jacket.
She started to undress as well, starting with her sneakers, which somehow managed to get a smudge of blood onto them. Laughing, she remembered Heath’s boots had a similar affliction when he arrived at the motel. It seemed the tables had turned, and maybe for the better.
He propped his sword next to the nightstand and climbed into bed nude, but there was no come-hither beckoning expression or snarky smirk. Just wan skin and tired eyes, which he closed the moment his head hit his pillow.
She left her dagger on the nightstand on the other side after wiping some gunk off the blade onto her shirt, and then stripped. She climbed into bed and huddled close to Heath’s large, warm body. A stark contrast to the coolness of the sheets.
“We forgot to turn off the lamp,” he said.
She sighed. “I don’t imagine you’d have the kind of magic to get that from here. Now that I’m down, I don’t want to get up again. Not for a couple of days, at least.”
“Alas, you’ll need to get up and play the productive, hospitable innkeeper.”
She blew a raspberry. “I’d rather sleep.”
“I’m sure if we don’t emerge at a civilized hour, Siobhan will keep things rolling smoothly.”
“Dasha will help, too, assuming she doesn’t realize how traumatized she actually is.”
“I think she was taking things pretty well in stride, considering.”
“Well, no one’s told her she’s got a fairy mate yet.”
“You think she would mind so much?”
“I honestly don’t know. This isn’t exactly one of those situations you can vet your friends for in advance. If I
had any idea ten years ago I’d be here…”
“You’d what? Try to alter your path? No matter what you did, eventually we’d catch up to each other. I imagine the same hold true for people like Dasha and Zenia as well, even if they aren’t Sídhe.”
“And you’re sure of that?”
“Reasonably sure. With you, I caught a taste of it, even if the level was off. I don’t read anything at all off them.”
“Do you think the men would prefer having Sídhe mates?”
“No, I honestly don’t. I think they’d be pleased to have whoever would take them. You’ve stated yourself how difficult we are.”
“That’s because you took a special interest in annoying me specifically.”
He grinned. “You’re cute when you’re annoyed. I love seeing you get your dander worked up.”
She rolled her eyes, but grinned, too, and pushed up onto her hands. Obviously, Heath wasn’t going to get that light, and tired as she was, she didn’t think she would be able to sleep with it on. She reached across him and tapped the lamp base twice, and the room filled with the welcome dark.
She drew her arm back, but before she could settle onto her side, Heath capitalized on her poor balance and pulled her down onto his chest.
“Mmm. Almost like déjà vu.” He pressed his lips against the side of her face and laid gentle kisses down her neck.
“Let me guess. You just need a little energy, right?”
“No, I’m fine on energy at the moment, but I could use a little something else.” His hands skimmed down her body and eased between her thighs. He parted them, setting her knees on either side of his legs and fitted his cock against her entrance.
“Just a little, huh?” She slipped down onto him, biting her lip against the pleasurable burn as she stretched around him. A perfect fit.
He didn’t thrust so much as stir, making small circles within her as his hands took up residence on her ass. He stroked it, kneaded it, and gently possessed it as he slipped his tongue between her lips.
Beyond The Veil: A Paranormal & Magical Romance Boxed Set Page 98