“And stop calling me that. I am not now nor ever will be yourown,and don’t act like that’s what you want, because I can plainly see that it’s not. Not only is it in your face, but it’s in your voice. Here’s another thing you should know about me. I read people with amazing accuracy. Why do you think I like animals better?”
He stared at her, looking pained but mainly looking guilty as hell. “I need time,” he finally said, while keeping his head bowed. “I need time to overcome centuries of shallowness.”
“Who asked you to?” Heart aching and lodged sideways in her throat, she spotted the linen draped across an elaborate stand of brass piping and managed to snag it without exposing anything she didn’t want exposed. Snapping it open with one hand, she hid behind it as she stood and stepped out of the tub, all the while glaring at the selfish prince who couldn’t get it through his thick head that he didn’t have to pretend as if he was attracted to her. He didn’t have to clench his teeth and force himself to stop recoiling whenever he saw her scars. She was leaving. He was off the hook. “The hospitality here at Sevenrest is exemplary, but trust me, nothing else is expected of you, so you can just relax. As soon as I find my car and figure out a way back, I am gone. Forever.”
“It is our destiny, my…Lexi. Do ye ken what happens to fated mates who reject the bond?”
“They live on to fight another day.”
He slowly shook his head. “They live on to endure a lonely existence until the next incarnation gives them another chance to pull their heads out of their arses and reunite their souls as they should have done in the first place.”
She swallowed hard, trying not to cry. Why did her heart have to hurt so badly? Didn’t it have a scintilla of pride? She wasn’t about to pretend he liked her, nor was she about to beg him to. She deserved better. “I don’t get lonely,PrinceJeros. At least, I didn’t until Mammaw died. I have my friends and all my animals. I’ll be just fine.” She made a sweeping gesture that encompassed the lavish surroundings. “And if living like this is suffering an existence, I know a lot of people who would gladly trade places with you. You should consider yourself blessed.”
“I can change if ye will only give me the chance.”
She went to the bedroom door and yanked it open. “Rill! Celestia! May I please have some coffee before I commit a felony?” Yanking the thick linen higher and tucking it snugly in place, she marched to the table beside the windows and flopped down into a chair. She had to get back to Kentucky. Today.
She pointed at Jeros, then pointed at the door. “You. Out. Now.”
“But—”
“Out. No ifs, ands, or buts.” She didn’t unclench her teeth until he left the room, then she closed her eyes as tightly as she could to keep from allowing a single teardrop to escape. She knew if one fell, a torrential downpour would start and never end.
ChapterSeven
“Yer personal guard is ready and knows to follow ye without being seen.” Wrekas Darkcord, Sevenrest’s sergeant-at-arms and Jeros’s most trusted friend, shuffled from side to side in the doorway as if he had more to say but thought better of it.
“Speak yer mind, Darkcord. Never have ye held yer tongue before for as long as I’ve known ye. Why start now?” Irritated and on edge, Jeros roamed back and forth across the width of his solar, occasionally scowling at the closed door to Lexi’s suite of rooms.
His own bedroom suite was on the opposite end of the breezy, window-filled space, as was once considered proper for the private floor of a royal and his consort. After visiting several other realities in the Dreaming, he had once toyed with the idea of redesigning the floor plan so he and his intended would share a suite and spend every night in each other’s arms. But now he was thankful that the archaic design kept him separated from his fated mate. He didn’t relish being in the same room with someone who hated him with such a passion that she had already threatened to kill him—even if she meant it in jest. And he was not so sure about that.
He turned and glared at his friend. “Speak, damn ye! What would ye say that has ye biting back the words?”
“Are ye certain this mortal woman is yer fated mate?”
Jeros went to the windows overlooking the thicket of pines between Sevenrest Hall and the loch at the base of the hillside. “’Tis is a strange and frustrating thing, Darkcord. I need to be with her, always in her presence, and whenever I touch her, an irresistible energy teases my fingertips. Aye, I believe she is my fated mate, but I erred and taught her to hate me rather than claim the bond and allow herself to love me.”
“Ye could not overcome her scars, then? They dinna seem all that bad once ye see how she treats everyone, and she bears the mark of Pegasus. Can ye not look past a few flaws?”
“I believe I could—if given time tounlearneverything taught to me by my mother, by the Seelie race. Ye know how we worship perfection.” He slowly shook his head. “I tried too hard to ignore her scars. I foolishly rushed in with too greedy of a seduction that felt forced, and in so doing, I hurt her.”
“Ye dinna have a problem with my scars,” the one-eyed warrior said. “Ye never have.”
“Ye are a fighting man, and I also dinna plan to make ye my wife, either.” But Darkcord’s observation gave Jeros pause. If he could overcome imperfections in his best friend, why could he not overcome imperfections in Lexi?”
“Because ye have yet to admit and overcome yer own imperfections,” Mairwen said as she shimmered into place beside him. “Ye will never know the purity of unconditional love until ye accept not only yer fated mate’s imperfections but yer own.”
“Darkcord? Are the wards not in place?” Jeros bristled with barely checked rage. The old one had no right to appear in his private chambers uninvited and unannounced.
“The wards dinna work on the Divine Weavers. Ye know that well enough.” The commander offered Mairwen a deep, respectful bow. “Especially not on the mighty one.” He backed toward the door. “And I shall be leaving the pair of ye now to give ye yer privacy.”
“Coward,” Jeros spat.
“Aye,” Darkcord said. “And not too proud to admit it, either.” Then he left and closed the door behind him.
Jeros turned back to Mairwen, grudgingly bowed, then directed her toward a chair at the table in front of the wall of windows. “And why, pray tell, am I blessed with this visit, old one?”
“Dinna be rude. Sarcasm is beneath yer station.” Mairwen went to the windows, but she didn’t sit. Instead, she stood there scowling at the view of the evergreens gently swaying in the breeze. “The Fifth Kingdom’s rumblings grow louder. Yer insult to Princess Faeniana stoked their anger even more. They will stop at nothing for revenge, including causing harm to Miss Lexi, the woman ye alienate even more with every false declaration ofmy own.”
