Weakened from the iron sword piercing my shoulder, I cannot control our passage, and we slam into the ground hard enough to drive the air from my lungs.
Lash runs up to us, and within seconds, he has two other Fae healers attending to Joran.
“Take him to the castle. Ensure he wants for nothing.” I hold Kat, drawing strength from our connection as Lash blinks down at me.
“About…damn…time,” Joran chokes out as he’s carried away.
“And tell my uncle…the King and Queen are coming home.”
“Queen?” Kat asks. Lash starts to unlace my battle leathers as my mate looks on in shock.
“No. Kat first,” I whisper.
His eyes widen at my audible speech, but to his credit, he does not delay before turning to her. “What happened?”
“Can…um, we do this somewhere other than here?” She stares over the side of the cliff, a tremble to her voice, and I kick myself. Of course she does not want to be this close to the place she almost died.
“Of course, my queen.”
She starts to protest the title, but I cup her cheek and brush a kiss to her lips. “I have been hiding from my duties for too long, and it nearly cost us…everything. We are going home. Where we belong.”
It takes hours for Lash to treat both of us. I cannot stand his hands on my Kat’s skin, even though I know he must treat the hundreds of cuts from the Phoenix shards, the bruises that cover her from head to toe, and the lingering effects of the poison.
Once he stitches up my shoulder and gives me a bottle of tonic to draw more residual iron from my body, he leaves us alone in our new suite of rooms. My uncle moved out of them when I returned to Faery months ago and had them prepared for me. Moments after we first stepped foot in the castle, the seamstresses started to arrive with clothing for Kat, and now, she rests against a mound of pillows in our bed, a white silk gown clinging to her curves.
I haven’t spoken since the clifftop, and I am scared to even try again. But I do not need to with her. She wraps her arms around me and snuggles close.
“I don’t understand any of this,” she says. “How I got here in the first place. How I can possibly feel so much for you so quickly. But…” Kat peers up at me and smiles. “I think I’m in love with you.”
“And I with you, Kat. You are the other half of my heart and soul. I love you with everything I am. And I do not even know how old you are. Where you were born. What you have given up to come back here with me.” A strange sensation makes my eyes burn, and I do not recognize it until Kat brushes a thumb across my cheek and wipes away a tear.
“You love me?” she asks, hope giving her tone a breathy quality.
“I…love…you,” I say. “I want to make you mine. But…Kat. If I do, you will not age like other humans. You will live as long as I do.”
“Um, how long is that?” Kat winces as she wriggles up higher so we’re eye to eye.
“Fae are immortal.” I roll her on top of me, careful to avoid her various bruises. “We would be bound together forever.”
Kat dips her head and ghosts her lips over mine. “I like the sound of that.”
Epilogue
Adrian
Kat’s scent surrounds me, and I bury my face in her silky black hair. We fell asleep only seconds after I slipped into bed with her, and my need presses against her ass.
“Someone’s awake,” she says with a hint of amusement in her voice. Turning in my arms, she smiles at me, and though she still bears the bruises from the warlock’s attack and dark circles brace her eyes, she is so beautiful my breath catches in my chest. “Adrian? Is something wrong?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all. Except…I very much want to be inside you.”
“Oh.” Her cheeks tinge a bright red, and she reaches down to stroke my cock. “That’s easy enough to remedy.”
Feathering kisses along my jaw, she eases herself on top of me, careful not to put too much pressure on my injured shoulder. Wounds from iron are slow to heal, and I will bear this scar—like so many others—for the rest of my days.
I want to take her. To claim her so thoroughly, she will never doubt my love for her. But uncertainty lingers like a ghost in the corners of my mind, and as she slides the white silk gown up her hips, I stop her and sit up, guiding us both against the pillows.
“Now I know something’s wrong.” She frowns and starts to chew on her lower lip. One of her teeth is very slightly crooked, and the imperfection highlights how real she is. I am here. Not still shackled deep underground, dreaming of freedom. I am in Faery, the woman I am fated to love in my arms, and once we seal our bond, we will rule together over this realm.
“Kat, if we do this, there is no going back.”
“Why would I want to go back?” At my raised brows, she continues. “I love you, Adrian. You jumped off a cliff for me.” Holding out her injured arm, she traces the edge of the muslin bandage Lash secured around her wrist. “You kept me from losing my mind over being…poisoned, and you didn’t leave me behind when sunlight poured out of my fingers and destroyed half the hotel room last night.”
“I would never—“
“I know you wouldn’t.” Kat runs a hand through her hair, staring up through the skylight. White clouds swirl lazily in a sea of deep blue, and her lips flatten. It’s a look I do not wish to see cross her lovely features, a look that says she is unhappy. Or at least, trapped in an unpleasant memory.
“Kat, talk to me.”
“I’m trying to find the right words.” With a small shake of her head, she huffs. “There are no right words for this. Back in the human realm, I never felt like I fit in. I was always too tall, too loud, too careless, or, ironically, too careful. I realize now, that’s because I’m not…totally human. Letting the light out? In that moment, I found something I’d been missing my whole life.”
She leans closer and plants a chaste kiss to my lips. “But even before that…as soon as I woke up in your bed, scared, in pain, in a world I’d never known existed, and saw you, looked you in the eyes, I was home.”
Wrapping my arm around her, I ease my mate onto her back. Her nipples pebble under the thin silk, and her arousal perfumes the air. “Claim me, Adrian,” she murmurs as she cups my neck. “Make me yours.”
“Oh, I plan on it, my love. My queen. Every day for the rest of our lives.”
From the author
Patricia D. Eddy likes to consider herself an unstoppable force. As long as there's coffee. Then, the voices in her head come to life.
Her tales of vampires and Fae, Doms and subs, and battle-hardened, scarred military heroes feature characters so real, you'll want to jump inside the pages of her books to be friends with them. Or just give them a hug.
When she's not writing, she's a professional freelance fiction editor and technical writer. On weekends, she loves to take on home improvement projects, especially if they involve power tools.
Patricia lives in Seattle with her husband and very spoiled cats. Email her at [email protected], check out her website at https://patriciadeddy.com, and sign up for her newsletter where you can receive an exclusive romantic suspense novella, for free!
Copyright © 2020 by Andie M. Long
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Chapter One
Zara
My appointment at Withernsea Dating wasn’t for another thirty-seven minutes. As was usual for me, I was early. Even my mother berated me continually for my six weeks early entrance into the world, when she’d not yet packed a hospital bag. There was a coffee shop Jax’s in the row of shops the dating agency sat above, and while I debated whether coffee was a good idea given my already jagged nerves, the smell every time someone opened the door was too enticing to ignore.
As I pushed open the door, I jumped a foot as an elegantly dressed woman with the most gorgeous sharp-edged bob, grabbed my hand and pulled me towards a seat. “Here, sit here. I need to speak with you. Latte with one sugar, right?”
“H- how do you know that?” I asked her, looking around for anything else weird, like a camera crew.
“I’m a seer. I saw you in a vision.” The woman said in a cut-glass accent as sharp as her bob.
“I- I think I’ll just… I remembered somewhere I need to be.” I began to edge back towards the door.
A small woman with a dark brown pixie cut walked past me carrying a tray of drinks and doughnuts. “Please excuse Ebony. I’m sure she DOESN’T MEAN to scare off all my customers.” She glared at the woman. “But she truly is a seer, so if she has a message for you from Fate, you really should sit and hear it. Give me a minute and I’ll get you that coffee… and a doughnut. On the house for the psychological stress caused by my friend.”
The woman walked away, and I just stood there for a moment debating my next move. Then my stomach rumbled, and I thought of the doughnut. It was chocolate. Taking a seat at the table with the weird woman, I realised that my craving for coffee and chocolate meant I’d risk sitting with a potential nutjob. There was no wonder I had a sketchy dating history.
“I appreciate this is a tad unnerving to be ambushed in a strange coffee shop, but I really have seen your future and I need to talk to you about it.”
My eyes widened as all of a sudden I thought she might be about to warn me about stranger danger. Maybe she’d had a vision of me being strangled by a date? I knew I should have stuck to the idea of being single forever and buying some cats.
Slowly, I lowered myself into the seat at the table where Ebony sat. I made sure to sit at the opposite side nearest the door. Now was it my imagination or did a slight smirk curl her upper lip as I did so? My latte and a doughnut were placed in front of me and the other woman also took a seat. She held out a hand.
“I’m Jax, the owner of the coffee shop.”
I held out my own. “Zara. I live in town and I’m here to visit the,” I lowered my voice, “dating agency.”
“Oh they’ll certainly get you the love of your life. Shelley and Kim are amazing. You’ll be in good hands.”
I began to relax a little as Jax seemed really normal and friendly.
“I hope so. I need all the help I can get.”
“Your one is coming.” Ebony said, her skin turning a weird grey colour and her eyes going white. My chair scraped across the floor as I shot as far backwards as I could. Jax jumped up and squeezed my hand.
“I know it’s weird, but she’s one of my best friends and she saw my husband coming. And I would never in a million years have thought I’d end up with Tristan. He was an arsehole. But in love we are.” Her expression went dreamy. “Anyway, scoot back closer, let’s listen to what she has to say. I promise nothing weird is going to happen to you.”
I would have liked to argue that it already was happening, but despite being small, Jax had quite a grip and so I moved back towards Ebony.
“Strange things will keep happening. Make sure not to offend the one, or you could lose him forever. Embrace the different. I see… milk.”
Ebony’s eyes returned to normal and her skin lost its grey pallor. I looked at the table where she had tea, a small jug of milk, and a slice of what looked like carrot cake.
“You see milk. Yes, I do too.”
Ebony shook her head vehemently. “No. Not this. Milk part of your future. That is all the message I have for you. The rest you must figure out for yourself. But the love of your life is out there and if you do not offend him greatly, he will be the love of your eternal life.”
“Oooh, how very exciting.” Jax clapped her hands together. “You’ll have to pop back in and let us know how you’re getting along. There’s a great group of us women hang around my coffee shop. All of us are used to Ebony’s weird ways, and well, the weirdness of Withernsea itself. There’s so much more to the place than people realise.”
“Jax.” Ebony shook her head at her. “No. She must learn for herself as we all do.”
Right. No matter how lovely the coffee was, I had fully taken in my limit of ‘weird as fuck’ for the day and so with my doughnut eaten, I got up as slowly as I could so it didn’t look like I was running away from the crazy folks even though I was.
“Thank you so very much for the coffee and doughnut. They were delicious. It was lovely to meet you. I’d better make a move now as there are only a few minutes until my appointment upstairs.”
“He likes to be naked. That just came to me.” Ebony added. “Gosh, if I wasn’t happily married myself, I’d be jealous. He has some body. Makes Chris Hemsworth look like a twig. I’d definitely climb this one like a tree.”
“Well, bye.” I said overenthusiastically and I edged slowly out of the door. I’d go have my appointment and then I’d get the hell out of there. I’d thought meeting strangers would be daunting, but it had been future dates I’d been wary about, not strange women in coffee shops.
I walked around the back of the building and up the stairs that led to the dating agency offices. Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the outside door. A moment later a redhead pulled the door wide open, a large welcoming smile on her face.
“Hi, Zara. Come on in through to my office. I’m Shelley, the owner.”
For a minute I wondered how she knew who I was, but then I remembered I’d had to send a photograph with my application.
We passed another office where I heard a female voice say loudly that ‘Brownies were an acquired taste’. I met Shelley’s gaze as she raised a brow.
“Personally, I love ‘em.” I shrugged. “Especially warm with ice-cream.”
Following her through to her office, Shelley beckoned for me to take the seat opposite her. I looked around. The office was bright, its side window looking out over the front of the row of shops. There was a venetian blind at the window, half-closed, which made me feel secure in this place where I secretly hoped to find love, even though you’d have to be able to fly to see me sat up here anyway. Looking at her desk, I saw a photo of Shelley with a tall, pale man; a woman with the same dark hair; and Shelley was holding a dark-haired baby.
“My family.” Shelley looked fondly at the photo. “My husband Theo, daughter Charlie, and son Leo. He’s six months old.”
“You don’t look old enough to have a grown-up daughter.”
She smiled enigmatically. “Thank you.” Shelley began typing on the keyboard until my application appeared on her screen.
“What I do today, as I explained on the phone, is just go through your written application form in more detail so that I can be sure there is the right information submitted. Then the computer algorithm can find your best matches, and hopefully your perfect match.”
“Gosh, I hope so.” I said honestly. I was thirty and fed up of being alone.
“Would you like a drink at all before we start? Talking can make your mouth dry.”
“Just a water please. I had a coffee downstairs before I came here.”
“Oh, Jax’s. Best coffee around. We’re addicts here, Kim and I.” Shelley walked over to a little trolley and lifted up a jug of lemon-infused water.
“The coffee was lovely, but the company was bizarre. A woman tried to tell me my future.”
“Oh?” Shelley tilted her head toward me with interest.
“Yeah, she said my one was coming, so that’s encouraging right? At least she didn’t predict my death.”
“No that’s probably next week.”
“Pardon?”
“Oh nothing. Right,” she handed me a glass of water and sat back down.
“Let’s get you sorted. On your application you mention that you were recently thirty and you realise that how you’ve been dating so far hasn’t resulted in any suitable matches. Could you tell me a little more about that?”
I nodded. “I dated
a boy I met at school from being fifteen to eighteen. Then I met a guy who was in the Army. We dated for six years, but only actually had ten dates. He dumped me by letter when I was twenty-five as he’d met and married someone else, cheating scumbag. Since then I’ve found it hard to trust anyone, so I’ve met people in pubs and clubs but only gone on the odd few dates. Trouble is, I don’t know why, but if I bring people back to my place, they make excuses and leave. I’m not sure where I’m going wrong.”
Shelley steepled her fingers. “Interesting. Getting a date hasn’t been a problem as such, but something happens at the point you bring them back to your house? Are you maybe closing yourself off in some way, do you think? Bearing in mind, your feelings about the guy you, erm, dated, for six years.”
“I really don’t know. I offer them a coffee. They say yes. I get out a mug and they look at me, make excuses and leave.”
“You do know that offering someone a coffee is usually taken as offering them sex back at your place, right?”
“Oh yes, I know that, but I do actually want to have a drink first. Sex is thirsty work if you’re doing it right.” I blushed. What on earth, Zara? She’s going to think you’re a nympho.
After asking me some more questions, Shelley inputted more details into the system and then set it up to run a programme. While it was doing its thing, she chatted with me.
“I’m sure we can find you your perfect person, and if not, you’ll have fun along the way. I’m happy to take you onto our books if you’d like to join.”
“Really?” I breathed out a huge sigh of relief. I thought my coffee comments might have had me dismissed as a hopeless case.
“Yes. When would you like your first date? The sooner we get you out there, the sooner we can help you find true love.”
“Any chance of tonight?” I figured the sooner the better.
Chapter Two
Tempted By Fae Page 16