“A penny for your thoughts, Noli?” V’s voice pulled Noli out of her rumination as they approached their suite. The guards opened the doors and they went inside.
As the doors closed behind them, she looked around the front parlor. It was empty except for Urco, who lay on the settee gazing at them with wide eyes.
“Good evening, boy.” V went over and scratched Urco behind his ears.
“I’ve been thinking.” She’d been mulling things over in her head that she didn’t dare speak aloud in the war room. V might trust their advisors, but she wasn’t ready to speak treason in their presence.
“About what?” V continued to lavish attention on Urco, who thumped his tail against the settee. It was nice that he had found his dog.
“Um … ” Noli looked around. “First, I need to check on the children.” She went down the hall to glance in on Elise and Aodhan, who slept soundly. Good. When she came back into the parlor, V was still playing with Urco.
He looked up at her expectantly from his place on the floor.
“Can you do … what did you call it? A glyph?” She took a seat on the settee, her belly tight.
“The soundproofing spell?” He frowned. “It is a glyph, but I’m not sure I called it that.”
“Oh. But can you? And teach me? Please?” So much had been running around in her head since she’d taken the kingdom, it seemed like every day more information appeared in it and she wasn’t sure how—or why. Perhaps she was tapping into something like when she’d accessed the court’s magic.
That had also been very strange … and all too comfortable.
But Noli wasn’t ready to share any of this with V. It was too odd sounding, and she didn’t want him to worry.
“Of course I can.” He took a seat beside her. “I expect that we should send for magic tutors for everyone—you, Elise, James, me … ”
“Probably. I … I suppose we’re raising Elise?” Not that she minded, but she could barely care for herself, and now she had a kingdom, a husband, Elise … it was overwhelming.
“What else would we do with her? I thought for certain Tiana would demand to see her tonight.” He frowned slightly.
She’d wondered the same. “We could always send her to school in the mortal realm; she can be my mother’s perfect ladylike daughter.”
V opened his mouth in protest, closed it, cocked his head, and then nodded. “That might be an option, depending on how things go. It could be safer for her. But we should keep her here for now.”
“Of course. Now … how do you do the spell?” Noli watched as V showed her several times how to work the spell, which was a lot more complex than simply drawing a symbol in the air.
Finally, she got it to work.
“Very good,” V said. “Now, what’s on your mind?”
“The salamanders.” Even though they had the spell, she spoke softly. “I’m not convinced it was the dark court, fire court, or rebels.”
“Who else could it be?” V’s face screwed up in thought. “It would have to be someone who could control fire.”
Noli nodded, forming her words carefully. “Who else can control fire? Who would no one expect—or even mention, because the very words are dangerous?”
V paled. “Flying figs—but do you actually … no … why would she?”
Noli shook her head. “I don’t know. But she’s cold, calculating, and crazy. I overhead some people talking about how she’s terrorizing dark court villagers, stealing their inventors, killing people who possess certain types of weapons. I’m not as good at history as you, but even I understand that those actions can cause a rebellion. Also, she accepted us marrying and taking the kingdom far too easily. I should have expected her to do something. The worst thing that you can do to a bride is to destroy her wedding.”
His lips made a hard white line and he gulped. “This is dangerous. Believable, but dangerous. You can’t tell anyone other than me.”
“Why do you think I didn’t mention it in the war room?” she replied. At least he believed her.
“We can’t even put Bran on this. But we can ask him about the rebellions.” V continued to pet Urco absently.
“What does Bran do?” Noli asked, cheeks warming. “I know I should know, but I don’t.”
“Oh, he’s our spymaster.” V shrugged.
“Ah, I see.” A spymaster. Since the high court and the dark court had spies, she was grateful they had some as well.
“Anything else?” V asked.
She shook her head. He taught her how to undo the spell.
A sleepy Miri, in a nightgown, padded out. “I thought that was you. Would you like a bath?”
“I can do it myself,” Noli replied. A bath sounded perfect, but she felt strange having people do everything for her. It had been so long since she’d had servants.
“Nonsense. I’m awake. Do you need anything else?” Miri bounced up and down on the balls of her bare feet.
“No, just run the bath and go to sleep please. It’s late.” Noli yawned. It had been a long day—at least there were no early meetings tomorrow.
“Of course.” With a little bow, Miri scampered out.
V gave her a long look. “If you’re going to take a bath, I’ll go wash up elsewhere.”
He leaned in and gave her a kiss, long and lingering. Her belly tightened as his arms curled around her. She tangled her fingers in his hair as she met his hungry mouth with hers.
When he pulled back, he brought her to him. “I’m sorry your wedding was ruined.”
Noli shook her head. “It’s odd, but it didn’t seem like a real wedding.” Her cheeks warmed. “I mean, yes, I understand we’re married, but I suppose I’d be a lot more hurt if it was the kind I’ve always expected. Does that make any sense?”
“It does.” He gave her a bashful smile. “I promise we’ll go to Boston for Christmas. I’ll propose properly. But we don’t have to have a double wedding if you don’t wish to. We can wait.”
V looked so adorably awkward talking about such things. She smoothed his hair with her fingers and gave him a little kiss.
“I love you, V.” She patted Urco on the head, then stood. “Now, I’m going to take that bath.”
His eyes gleamed. “Yes, you do that. I’ll be waiting.”
Noli lay back in the scented bath, eyes closed. One of the things that would take getting used to was that she seemed to always be surrounded by people. At least she had this lovely, giant bathtub. Though she had to order Miri to go to sleep and not wait up to help her get ready for bed. She was capable of doing that herself.
Closing her eyes, Noli half-dozed in the water until it cooled and her fingers had gone pruny. She climbed out and dried herself off. Miri had said she’d left nightclothes for her.
Noli picked up a bundle of white, which slid under her fingers like the finest of silk. What was this? She unfolded it to find, well, she supposed it was a night dress, it was long, but had no sleeves, and was elaborately embroidered with white thread and pearls, as if it were meant to be seen.
Her entire body flushed. This was essentially her wedding
night. Even though a proper girl shouldn’t know these things, she knew exactly what happened … and wanted it.
She slid on the silky garments. They made her feel beautiful and grown up. Noli brushed and braided her hair so it wouldn’t get tangled and put on the matching robe. Taking a deep breath, she entered the bedroom.
V lounged on the bed in naught but a nightshirt, reading something, hair damp from his own bath. He looked up at her and a blush rose to his cheeks. Setting his reading on the nightstand, he gazed at her in a way that made her heart leap.
The room glowed with candles. There were flowers everywhere, their perfume delicate, yet sensual. Rose petals sprinkled the top of the bed.
“Miri left these fo
r me. It’s so soft. Feel?” She walked over to the bed, trying to be beautiful and confident. So many emotions fluttered in her belly.
V pulled her onto the petal-covered surface and ran his hands over her shoulders and down her arms, pulling the robe with it, her skin sizzling where his fingers caressed her.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispered, voice warm on her ear.
“So are you,” she breathed back, running her hand through his still-damp hair. Fresh out of the bath, he looked quite … ravishing, and it made the fire in her belly grow. Leaning forward, she kissed him as he peeled the robe off her. “You’re mine, V.”
He put his arms around her and leaned forward, gently lowering her to the bed, his eyes never leaving hers. “Yes, I am. I love you so much, Noli. I’m yours, forever, to do whatever you wish with. What do you command of me?”
Those soft words awakened everything. Her back arched slightly in anticipation.
“Love me forever.” She tilted her face up, asking for a kiss.
“Only if you love me forever in return.” His lips brushed hers as his hands slid under her back, bringing her to him, deepening the kiss.
“I love you, so much.” Noli lost herself in his green eyes. “I feel like I can do anything with you by my side.”
His kisses trickled down her neck. “I feel the same. Now, what do you wish of me? Do you wish for me to kiss you here?” He kissed her collarbone. “What about here?” The kiss went a bit lower.
“Oh, that tickles.” She laughed and wiggled as he kissed her again and again.
“What about this?” He took a flower and ran it down her face, her body curving as he trailed it down to her navel, then kissed her through the fabric of her nightclothes. “So … ”
A coy smile spread across her face. “You know exactly what I want.”
She was a faery queen. All those old-fashioned things her mother had drilled into her no longer applied—if they ever really had.
V kissed her on the lips. His kisses got lower and lower, which made her body shiver with anticipation.
His eyes danced. “As you wish, My Queen.”
She pulled him to her and kissed him with all her might. The past few days had been difficult, but she no longer regretted any of it. Regret wouldn’t change things. It was time to accept this new fate and give it her best—and she could, with V by her side.
V’s hands caressed her body. A happy sigh escaped her lips and she surrendered herself to the one she loved most.
Twenty-Five
Discoveries
Steven gazed at Noli, who slept peacefully, her head on his bare chest, curls tickling his nose. He tried not to sneeze, afraid it would wake her. The sneeze came out anyway, and even though he tried to stifle it, her eyes fluttered open.
“Good morning, V.” She gave him a sleepy smile.
“Good morning.” He kissed her on the forehead. “I … I love you.” Last night …
Words couldn’t begin to describe it.
Her hand caressed his face and she smiled. This wasn’t sleepy; no, it was coy, and it assured him that last night had been everything she’d wanted.
“We can do this,” he told her, filled with a new sense that perhaps this would turn out all right in the end. “We’ll work together and do what we need to in order to recover from the attack, we’ll create and implement a plan for the kingdom,
we’ll go to the Academe and study. I’m sure you can study plant magic—that’s a bit like magical botany, don’t you think?”
“Magical botany, I like that. Though perhaps I’ll start with that tutor first.” She yawned. “I’m so tired. I don’t know if it was all that magic, or the stress of yesterday, or … ” A blush rose to her cheeks in a way that made him want to kiss her and start last night all over again.
So he did.
“V … ” She laughed and pushed him away, gently.
“I’ll see about those tutors today. Elise’s nursemaid, too. And … ” He pulled her close. “Since we don’t have meetings this morning, perhaps after breakfast we can hunt for a good place to set up the royal workshop? Then we can send for your things from the big house, and when we go back to the mortal realm we can get whatever you like from your house.”
Noli glowed with happiness. “I’d like that so much. Last night all I could think of was how much easier it would have been to fight the fires if we’d had our hoverboards.”
That was his Noli, always thinking about better ways to do things.
“V … I hate to change the subject, but … when will they expect us to have children?” She gazed up at him. “I know we used magic to prevent them, but I have no idea what people will expect here. In the mortal realm it would be my duty to have them as soon as possible, and … I’m not ready,” she blurted. “We have so much work to do and I don’t want to disappoint anyone, but—”
He stroked her hair, soothing her. “No one will expect us to have children right away—especially given that everyone here pretty much considers us children.”
“Oh good.” She sighed with relief. “I’d like to make our dreams come true and spend time with you before little feet pitter-patter about this place. Also, we have Elise.”
“I’m not ready to be a father,” he admitted, glad she shared his feelings. “You’ll probably be ready to be a mother before I’m ready to be a father, because girls always seem to be more ready for these things.”
She shoved him as she laughed. “That’s not very modern of you.”
“But it’s true,” he mock-pouted. “We’ll need to come up with a cover story for your mother, something that explains us being out of touch and not visiting much.”
Noli nodded in agreement. “But we should tell Jeff and Vix the truth.”
“Yes.” As much as he didn’t want to, it would be helpful. “I … I was thinking we could tell your mother that we’re studying abroad, since she doesn’t like airships—and that we’ll be terribly busy with our studies and such. We can work out a system for messages with Jeff, and James can retrieve them for us. I … ” He took a deep breath. “I think we need to examine the rest of Quinn’s research on the staff, especially what Uncle Brogan had, and send James to track down any remaining pieces. Maybe he can even work with Jeff.”
“Or Hittie and Hattie.” Noli laughed. “I never got to meet them, but they sound like fun.”
He shook his head, remembering the sisters. “I think you’d get on well with them. Are we protecting the pieces … or have things changed?”
Steven wasn’t sure if the Bright Lady still spoke to her.
Noli drew the glyph in the air. He should set strong protections around their bedroom as well. After all, there were spies among them.
“I think we’re going to need to assemble it once we have all the pieces. We need to find out what pieces the dark king has,” she admitted.
The last thing he wanted to do was to work with Ciarán. However, she had a point.
“How exactly do we do that?” he asked. Stealing them wasn’t going to work.
“We could ask him,” Noli replied. “Also, I think we’ll need to start preparing Elise to take the throne.” She put up her hand when he opened his mouth to protest. “We can do it covertly. But we’ve been charged with ensuring that she’s the right type of queen to wield the staff. Which unfortunately isn’t … ”
It wasn’t Tiana. He gulped. “I know.”
Would it really come to this? He was unhappy with his mother, but he didn’t want to kill her. Perhaps they could discover a peaceful solution and solve things with words instead of swords.
“We should think about regents as well, someone to rule on her behalf and advise her until she’s of age. We can’t be regents, and James isn’t of age. Though he’d refuse anyway.” Steven sighed, this was even more complicated than he’d expected it to be. “
Quinn would have been perfect.”
“One thing at a time.” She squeezed his hand. “I think breakfast might be in order before we decide to change the Otherworld as we know it.”
He kissed her neck. “I suppose.”
“That’s not what I meant by breakfast,” she laughed as she tried to get up.
Steven pinned her to the bed and grinned. “No?”
She wiggled out, then pinned him. “This is better.”
“Is it?” He liked this playful, feisty Noli, her nose touching his, her grin wide as the Cheshire Cat’s. “Why don’t you show me?”
Kevighn sat up with a start, blankets around his waist, light streaming in through the window. Where was he? What had happened? He rubbed his throbbing head and looked around.
This was Ciarán’s room. Last night …
His fingers went to the sigil around his neck. No. Last night wasn’t a dream.
Nor did he regret it.
A hand clasped his wrist, eyes meeting his. “Don’t run—and that’s an order. I’m through being patient with you.”
“I won’t. Not ever.” He meant every word. Why had he waited so long?
Yawning, Kevighn turned to look at Ciarán, who sat up as well. “I want to get an early start,” Kevighn told him. “The sooner I find Magnolia’s father, the sooner we can bring Aodhan home.”
“I was thinking … perhaps Aodhan could become caretaker of your sister’s grove and tree house—if it’s all right with you,” Ciarán said quietly.
Kevighn took a deep breath. “Yes, the grove has been neglected for too long. I think he’s of a good age for that.”
His sister’s grove deserved a real caretaker. Who better to do that than her son?
“Excellent.” Ciarán stood and got dressed. “Take whatever provisions you need.”
“I will. I hope I won’t be gone too long.” Kevighn dressed as well. “Do you want to come with me? It’s been a long time since we had a reckless adventure.”
Ciarán put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m always up for a good adventure—and I never shirk from a fight—but when you have people under your care, you can’t be reckless for recklessness’s sake.”
Fragile Destiny (The Aether Chronicles) Page 26