Shoving away from the table, she rose. “I am not some insignificant breeding stock shipped in from another world to please His Royal Highness. As soon as I find a way back, I am gone. Thank you for making the decision so much easier.” She stormed from the room with Aylryd at her heels, ignoring Jeros’s call. She had worth. If he didn’t realize that, he didn’t deserve her.
* * *
Lexi saton the balcony floor, leaning against the coolness of the stone post, Aylryd by her side. It had taken forever to get rid of Rill and bolt the door so no one else could bother her. She was done. Homesick. Fed up. And more than a little ready for the biggest pity party in which she had ever indulged.
She closed her eyes against the burn of tears begging to be released. No. She wouldn’t cry. Tears helped nothing. They just stopped up her nose, gave her the hiccups, and ended up making her puke. The logical side of her grudgingly admitted that Jeros wassort ofright.
No, no one would die if she didn’t return. Maggie would miss her, and hopefully, so would the employees at Vinemagic Horse Farms. But just as Jeros had so rudely pointed out, life would go on for all of them. Maggie would return to her own practice, taking Lexi’s clients with her. The board would run the farm, and the lawyers would see that everyone was not only taken care of but still had a job. Vinemagic Horse Farms would become the property of the employees, and they and the board would either see to its successful running or sell it to another family of the Lexington Horsey Set.
But none of that meant she didn’t matter or have worth beyond being some sort of Fae fated mate—whatever that amounted to other than marriage and the less than likely possibility of motherhood. Marriage and family were important, but it was not now nor ever would be her identity. She had worth beyond that which she did. Mammaw had drilled that into her from a young age. Preaching that no matterwhatLexi did in her life, that was not her identity. She was more than her job, accomplishments, friends, or if she ever married, her family. She was Lexington Elizabeth Vine. A confused, complicated animal lover who excelled in overthinking any and every situation.
“I am me,” she whispered, sounding pitiful even to herself.
Aylryd lifted his head andtrilledan almost kittenish sound that a tiger shouldn’t be able to make.
She hugged his neck and rested her cheek on his head. “I don’t know what to do, Aylryd.”
His purring helped, but didn’t provide any answers.
Even with Jeros making her so angry, she still…she still…A heavy sigh left her, and she leaned against the pillar again and looked out across the garden bathed in the moon’s blue-white glow. She still liked Jeros more than she should, and heaven help her, she ached for him to hold her and show her just how badly he wanted her to stay.
“Lust,” she told the night and the stars winking overhead. “Just because I lust after him doesn’t mean I love him enough to marry him.”Love him enough? “Love him at all,” she corrected in case snoozing Aylryd or the stars were really listening.
She needed to find a way back so she could think without so many distractions. Seventh Realm was sensory overload with unicorns and faeries and whatever other mythical creatures lived here. She’d forgotten to ask about dragons. And the war. There was the war to worry about now. How exactly did faeries fight one another? If they were capable of magic, how was anyone safe anywhere?
“I need to go back,” she told the moon. “I don’t belong here.”
* * *
Hands fistedon the stone balcony railing, Jeros gritted his teeth until his cheeks ached. Could he be any greater of a fool? He had as much as sat there and told Lexi she was as insignificant as a wee midge, when that was not what he meant at all.
“I am a feckin’ eejit.” He tossed back his whisky and went back inside for another. She was…she was…She wasLexi.HisLexi. The indescribably delightful woman who belonged at his side, and the longer she was here, the more he ached for them to seal their bond. And it wasn’t just lust. He needed her on a level of his soul that had never been touched before. Without her, he was incomplete. Without her, he could not imagine how life would be. She had to stay. She had to accept him and a new life here in the Seventh Realm.
He had to make this right because, if he didn’t, he would surely lose her as soon as she discovered a way back to her world.
ChapterTen
The weather matched Jeros’s mood: dark and stormy. But word that some of the younger unicorns had gone missing and that the remainder were uneasy demanded action, no matter the weather. Members of the herd never went missing. Never. It could only mean that some of the magical wards along the northernmost boundaries had failed, and someone or something, namely the warriors of the Fifth Kingdom, had disrupted the peace of Sevenrest by lifting part of the herd. The younglings would never wander off on their own. The mares would never allow it. And because it was the unicorns, common sense bade him get Lexi involved. After all, she was the alpha’s chosen. Pegasus had gifted her an understanding of the beasties as if she were one of them.
When she had shown up at the stable in the clothes from her world, his heart had nearly stopped beating. Those dark blue breeches fit her like a second skin, brazenly displaying the cleft of her mouthwatering arse. Yet he had to admit, she rode as though born to it. She and the unicorn mare moved as one, and instinct told him it had nothing to do with the alpha’s mark.
Squinting at him through the rain, she raised her voice to be heard. “How much farther to the boundary?”
Jeros blinked, struggling to concentrate. She was soaked to the skin, and never had he seen a woman look more beautiful or desirable. “What say ye?” he shouted to ensure he didn’t answer incorrectly. After their disastrous dinner conversation the other day, he carefully weighed every word before letting it come out of his mouth.
She pulled the wide brim of her hat lower and lifted her collar to shield herself from the rain as much as possible. Her dark brown braid running down the center of her back had turned nearly black from the soaking. “I asked how much farther to the border? Will I be able to help you find the wards, or are they invisible?”
“Look for a stone glowing with a soft purple light. It will bear my symbol.”
“What is your symbol?”
“Crossed spears.”
She said something else, but he couldn’t hear her because of thunder rumbling in the distance. The rain fell harder, coming down with the ferocity of water dumped from a bucket.
“What say ye?” He directed his mount closer. The unicorn stallion rarely deigned to allow anyone to ride him, but the beast wanted those of his herd returned.
Lexi halted her mare and shouted, “If someone shut off the ward or broke through the boundary, would it still glow?”
