Hugging the girl tightly to her side, she shook her head. “I’ll hear no arguments from you. You’re beyond exhausted. All three of you must get back to the castle immediately. This is the only way to make sure you’ll each survive the journey.”
He glanced down at the still-unmoving child in her arms. “What are you going to do? You can’t carry her that way.”
He was right of course. “I won’t. I’ll turn her into ice with me.”
Her heart thundered at the words. What she was going to do was dangerous, and Luminesa knew it. In fact, it could actually kill the child. But staying out in that cold any longer would surely do it too. The only way to ensure Gerda stood half a chance of survival was to get her back to the castle as soon as could be.
Alador had obviously come to the same conclusion. Gripping Luminesa’s shoulder, he leaned forward and planted a violent kiss against her lips, both a promise and a question to her.
“I’ll be safe, I vow it. Now go.”
Kai had begun trembling violently again.
“He needs to be warmed more,” Luminesa said, knowing that what she asked would be difficult for Alador, but without the added burden of Gerda on his back, he’d be free to clutch the boy tightly to his chest.
Understanding why she’d said so immediately, he grunted, switching the boy from his back to his front. Little Kai huddled into her centaur’s chest, and Alador gripped him tightly. She’d never felt anything as warm as her centaur’s arms. The boy would be in good hands.
Alador nodded once, grunted loudly, and then twirled on his hooves and ran for the castle, becoming little more than a dark blur streaking through the whiteout conditions of a raging blizzard.
Looking down at the girl’s face, Luminesa forget her antipathy toward humans, because it no longer mattered. Gerda was a little child in desperate need of care, a child she’d come to love as if she were her very own.
“Survive this, Gerda, or I shall never forgive myself.”
Then blowing a kiss at the girl’s face, she watched as Gerda’s form transformed from flesh to swirls of ice. In seconds, Luminesa, too, transformed, becoming a tower of raging snow. Gripping tightly to the girl, she raced for home, saying a prayer to the gods that for once, they’d show Luminesa mercy and spare the girl.
Luminesa and Alador had spent the next several hours warming Gerda up. When they’d arrived back at the castle, she’d been immobile and so cold Luminesa had feared the poor child would never recover.
Alador had suggested a centaur method of reintroducing Gerda to warmth gradually so as not to send her body into shock.
First, they’d focused on warming the girl’s feet, then her legs, her arms, and once those had flooded once more with the healthy stain of pink, they’d centered their efforts on her chest, piling heaps of blankets and hot stones over her. Kai had even crawled under the furs with her, hugging his arms tightly to her body and hanging on through the worst of the girl’s trembles.
Her teeth had chattered and clacked for hours, but around the time the sun had begun setting, the worst of Gerda’s chills had passed. The two of them slept peacefully.
Luminesa had set ice guardians both inside and outside their shared room for the night, not wishing to take any chances. She and Alador sat in her study, watching the wall of ice she’d transformed into a two-way mirror of sorts that helped them keep a constant and vigilant eye on the children and also the nighttime sky.
The ice demons came pretty much at the same time, around three or four in the morning.
After so long, Luminesa had begun to understand that the Goblin wasn’t truly trying to kill them, he was merely ensuring they hardly knew any rest. That there’d be very little downtime for them to relax or breathe easy.
It had become their new norm.
Baatha, who normally flew to roost in the forest during the night, had also joined them in the study. He was still weak and not fully recovered from the blood loss. Only because he was such a strong and powerful familiar had he survived the attack on him.
Cradled in the strong arms of her male, Luminesa tried to relax as she watched the crackling snap and burn of white flame dance inside the hearth before them. But her thoughts were jagged and sharp.
“Relax, female.” Alador’s heated whisper shivered across the nape of her neck as he dropped a gentle kiss behind her ear.
Her body trembled from want of him. Her shoulders stiff, she shook her head. “I’m trying, horse.”
“But you’re upset. About what happened today.”
It wasn’t hard to come to that conclusion. It was all either of them thought about. They’d worked for hours tending to Gerda, so long they’d all forgotten to eat. Luminesa was exhausted and weary from the stress of trying to understand why the Under Goblin had done that to them.
“Of course I am.” She turned in his arms.
Her male was so warm, his flesh so hot to the touch that there were times she felt she’d be consumed by it. But it was odd, the feeling of burning up even while desperate for more of his heated touch. His deep green eyes gazed down on her, their depths fathomless and full of mystery.
When the danger was over, whether she succeeded in thwarting the Under Goblin’s game or not, Alador would return to his herd, his people…he’d forget about her.
Because his kind and hers, they didn’t mingle. And those who did were excommunicated. Cast out. How could she ever want that for him?
She felt as though her soul had just fractured into a million tiny pieces. Cringing, she shook her head, desperate to think of something else. Anything else.
“Gerda was so wounded, her arm broken in three places. How that poor girl managed to remain conscious is a miracle,” she whispered. Luminesa had used what little healing magic she had in that place, knitting the bones together with ice splints. The wound would ache, but at least it would heal properly. By tomorrow, Gerda should feel much stronger.
It wasn’t much comfort, but things could have been so much worse.
Sadness tightened the corners of Alador’s eyes. “She is strong. And so is Kai. I just wish that if the Goblin were going to force this hell upon us, he’d not dragged the children into it. None of us deserved this, but especially not them. Now more than ever, we have to focus our efforts on finding the key that releases us from this purgatory.”
He called it purgatory. And maybe he was right. To relive practically the same day over and over. To never be able to move beyond the borders of their tightly controlled environment, to see the same things day in and day out…it must be miserable for them.
But for Luminesa, that place had begun to become a safe haven. Though she hated the demons that terrorized them each night, and the fear of silver that would make itself manifest at the strangest times…there was also something oddly wonderful about the place for her too.
Waking up in the morning and knowing that the first face she’d see would be Alador’s. That her nights would be spent in his arms, that every so often throughout the day, they’d share a stolen glance or two…
Yes, her life was in just as much danger as theirs, and yet…and yet, a part of her never wanted to leave there.
“After we get a little sleep, whatever we can, and if the children are amenable to it, we’ll search for the key. Turn it into a sort of game for them. Find and seek.”
“My wise female,” he murmured, sounding exhausted and leeched of his reserves.
She was too. Worrisome because they had only a few hours left before the ice demons came clawing at the castle doors.
Leaning forward, Alador dropped a kiss to her forehead, a chaste peck of lips, nothing sensual or improper about it. In fact, he could have shared such a kiss with his sister, that was how impersonal it had been.
He’d said nothing of what they’d done that morning, and Luminesa suspected why.
Her stomach churning with a swarm of nerves, she forced the terrible words past her lips. “I am…sorry for this morning, Alador. For what I did.
For my lapse in judgment that caused the children to come to harm—”
Gripping her by the shoulders, he squeezed. “Luminesa.”
His voice was a harsh growl, but she lifted a hand and shook her head, causing curls of hair to slip down across her left breast.
“It’s all my fault and—”
A throaty sound vibrated through his chest, and then he reached for her breast, cupping her soft swell in his hand and making her skin feel as though it’d just been lit aflame from the inside out.
Her words died on her tongue, and she couldn’t have ripped her gaze from his even if the castle suddenly melted at their feet.
His thumb twined through the tips of her frost-blue hair.
“We could not have known. We did all we could to ensure their safety.”
It was hard to focus with his hand on her, but she tried. “But…I shouldn’t have…distracted.” Her words died when he squeezed her tightly budded nipple. “Oh gods,” she moaned.
“Seal the doors shut,” he softly ordered.
He didn’t need to ask twice. With a flick of her wrist, she sent a javelin of ice hurtling at the door, sealing them in and locking her good-natured but pestering maidens out. The only sounds she heard then were their increased breathing and the sounds of crackling fire.
Alador’s face was unfathomable and intense, as though he were stripping away her outer layers to reveal the lonely, frightened, and terrified woman she tried to hide behind a case of ice inside.
She licked her lips.
“Do you feel this?” he asked, gesturing between the two of them.
Luminesa knew immediately what he asked. She understood well his meaning. In a land that thrived on tales of happily ever afters and the concept of fated mates, she knew exactly what he implied.
That what they felt then, their growing bond and awareness, that it was fate. Magical. Predestined. That no power in heaven or hell could keep them apart since they’d found each other. That they’d been created and fashioned one for the other.
That the reason their connection and bond had been so instantaneous was because he was her other half and she his…
But happily ever afters and fated mates were reserved for the princesses and princes of the tales, not for the villains. Not for evil queens with hearts made of ice.
She hugged her arms to her chest, aware again of just how warm she’d become in his presence. How alive he made her feel.
“You’re a centaur,” she said simply.
His lips twitched. “And you, mostly human.”
She nibbled her lip. “This is forbidden.” She tried again, not sure why she was denying what she felt for him. Maybe because it was terrifying and frightening to think that she’d finally found him. The One. And that he was nothing at all like she’d imagined he would be when she was growing up.
After what Josiah had done to her, she’d sworn off the male species. Developed a hatred and disdain for them, believed them all to be evil to the core. That no matter what pretty words fell off their tongues, that they were nothing more than lies and deceit. Vain words said only to get what they wanted from her.
She trembled as Alador scooted out of her arms, got to his feet, and walked around to the front of her. He was a proud male centaur, gloriously beautiful in his raw masculinity. He made her heart beat wildly, made her remember the joy she’d experienced in his arms that morning and her desire for even more.
“We would be outcast, yes. Reviled amongst both our peers.” He nodded.
“I have not cared what humans have thought of me for quite some time,” she said, a second before realizing that she was actually defending their right to mate.
Her eyes widened as he slowly smiled.
“From the moment I met you, Luminesa, I knew deep down you were mine.” He touched his fist over the spot of his heart and tapped his chest twice. “Centaurs do not mate for life. Centaurs do not want to be shackled down. We are a free species, prone to go where the wind takes us. Free to do as we will. It is the spirit of the wild stallion that lives within all of us.”
Her heart sank because she’d known it. Of course she’d known it. Everything he said was true, but it didn’t make it ache any less.
Swallowing hard, she nodded because she was unable to speak and took a step back. At least he’d been honest with her, hadn’t filled her head with lies just to get his way…they’d had their dalliance, a little bit of fun. It was good enough.
So why did she feel suddenly so cold and empty inside again?
His hooves echoed loudly through the room as he walked slowly toward her, and though she knew she should not let him touch her, because the touching only made her want him more, she was incapable of moving away.
Her feet were like lead, holding her steadfast to the floor.
He palmed the corner of her face, and his eyes were startlingly intense as he said, “But I am broken and always have been. For I want nothing more than to be yours and only yours till the end of time. I want to twine my soul to yours and yours to mine. I want to possess you, claim you in every way possible. You own me, body and soul, Queen of Ice, and whether you know it or not, I am spoiled for any other.”
She gasped, sure that she was dreaming and would wake from that wonderful dream anytime. But the minutes ticked by, near deafening in the absolute silence of the night. Even the wind outside the castle walls refused to howl, as if Kingdom itself held its breath.
The mating of true bond souls was a momentous occasion in that world of magic, and if they did so, if they truly took that step together, there’d be no going back for either of them.
“We hardly know each other,” she whispered.
He nodded. “None of this makes sense to me, but you know as well as I do that in our world, when soul mates meet, it is a magic far greater than any other. I should never have been so fortunate. My people do not often receive the gift we have been given.”
She lifted a brow. “You mean, Chester and his Kym? Do they regret it, Alador? The life they’ve chosen together? That he has been made an outcast from his herd?”
The answer to that question was important, because unlike her, a herd was central to the health of the centaurs’ souls and well-being. Much like shifters, without their packs, they could not survive. And she would never do that to him.
He stepped closer to her, leaning way down so he could wrap his arms around her middle. He then lifted her up so they were eye to eye.
“I never understood why he didn’t seem unhappy by the herd’s ostracism of him.”
Luminesa admired the way his biceps bunched as he held her. He was so powerful, her male. Nothing but muscle and steel wrapped in smooth, silky flesh.
She shivered thinking about it. And about what they’d done that morning. While she wasn’t exactly a novice at the joining of bodies, she didn’t have much practice at it either. She wet her lips.
“You visited him? But I thought he’d been ostracized.”
His crooked grin made her heart skip a beat.
“As I say, I’m not much like my kind. Chest and I grew up as young colts together. He was a favored cousin, and I hated to see him leave. Especially as I found his Kym oddly enchanting.”
She grinned, wondering what Kym might look like. What kind of human woman had been able to turn a centaur’s head enough to make him choose the path he’d chosen.
Luminesa decided Kym must be impossibly beautiful and perfect in every way. Maybe someday, she’d visit her, just to sate her curiosity.
“And he was happy?”
Suddenly, she was being pressed tightly to Alador’s side, forced to wrap her arms around his neck as he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers as gently as the brush of a butterfly’s wings.
“Deliriously so,” he whispered upon her mouth.
“But I am a villainess, horse. There are no fairy godmothers to give us our happily ever afters.”
His snort sounded decidedly horsey as he said, “Then we do not wait to b
e given one. Instead, we make one, female.”
She sighed, going limp in his arms. She found it almost terrifying how deeply she’d come to care for him in such a short amount of time. But seeing how he treated the children who weren’t his own, how he treated her, how he treated her staff…how willingly he’d come to her defense when the Goblin had shown up…all of those instances were the true characteristics of a man.
They weren’t safe. In fact, if they didn’t find the key, they could all die. Alador had no reason to be duplicitous with her. He had gained absolutely nothing from that arrangement.
Running her fingers through his hair, Luminesa allowed herself to do something she hadn’t done ever before—she allowed herself to fall in love.
Closing her eyes, she pressed her lips to his. But what started out chaste soon turned into something passionate and zealous as his tongue slid along the seam of her lips. She opened to him, both literally and figuratively. The last of the ice encasing her heart melted away beneath his tender touch.
For so long, she’d cocooned herself away from pain, from the touch of others, terrified of ever being hurt again. But there was beauty in the yielding.
Because while there was no one else in all of Kingdom that could hurt her the way Alador could, there was also no one else in all of Kingdom who could make her feel a tenth of what she felt for him.
She grumbled when he broke away from the kiss and gently sat her down.
“Be still, my frigid beauty,” he murmured. “If we are to do this, then we will do this in the proper way.”
“And that is?” she asked, knowing her eyes glowed blue from the impossible, incandescent joy she felt coursing through every inch of her.
Stepping back from her, he bowed his head, and suddenly, a brilliant fiery light spilled from out of him, transforming him from centaur to man.
Her breath hitched as she looked down where his hooves should have been and instead spied strong, sturdy, and hair-dusted legs. Her heart hammered in her chest, and that cold thread of fear tried to worm through her gut. She loved him as a centaur, but he was suddenly a man…and very human looking.
Alphas for the Holidays Page 152