“Like Varan trying to betray me.”
“Like Selene’s curse.” I shake my head. “I think maybe that’s what got me taken in the first place. You mated a mortal. Then I was taken, bitten, turned.” I sit up onto my elbow. “Do you think that could be why it happened the way it did? With Eraldon swooping in right after we sealed our bond?” I look at where our hands are joined. “The curse tore us apart.” I can’t believe I didn’t put it all together until right this second. “No mortal can be queen of this realm.”
“So your fate was set in motion the moment I claimed you.” He scrubs a hand down his face.
“Yes. Selene’s curse. I was a mortal. Eraldon took me, and his bite should’ve killed me.”
“But it didn’t, because of your three bloodlines.”
“My what?” I cock my head at him.
“Selene told me your mother’s secret.”
“How to seduce a man with nothing more than needle and thread?”
He smiles, slow and handsome. “Your mother’sothersecret. About your birth.”
“Oh.” I settle down. “Wow. Maybe we should do that thing where we share stories, but through the bond. You share yours with me. At least I won’t burn down the joint.”
“So far as we know.”
“Touché.” I look up at him. He’s so soft now, his body languid yet still powerful. But now I notice the fatigue in his eyes. “After we sleep. We’ll share then. Okay?”
“Are you tired? You’ve been asleep for a week.” He yawns.
“My sleep wasn’t what I’d call restful.” I snuggle against him. “Besides, I’ll never sleep better than I do right here in your arms.”
He pulls me tighter against him and tosses the duvet over us.
Before long I start to drift off, my dreams muffled and light. No fear. No darkness, except the shadow that follows me on silent feet and disappears every time I turn around.
“You’re still here.” I chase him through the bright halls, determined to end him.
“I’ll always be here, my pet,” he whispers.
34
Solano
The horses thunder down the distant lane, my soldiers already setting off for the border with night. Emma’s gaze strays toward the sound. “Ancestors watch over them.”
I take her hands, the light wind blowing through the trees around us as we sit in a pleasant clearing. You’d think the day realm was safe and at peace. The flowers around us bloom and scent the air with perfume, and the sun flows through me with the promise of strength.
But the threat grows and grows. Soon, we’ll be on the road, too. Brock is overseeing preparations for us to leave as soon as our address to the nobles is finished.
“I really wish you’d stay here.”
“Not a chance.” Her wings flutter behind her then settle. “If I have to talk in front of hundreds of nobles.” She swallows hard, her nose wrinkling. “Then I get to fight. That’s the deal.”
“You had your lips around my cock when you forced me into that deal.” I raise a brow. “Unfair.”
“I don’t fight fair, my lord.” She grins, her fangs showing.
Why are they so arousing? I don’t know, but when I see them like this, I have the urge to pin her to the forest floor and make her scream.
“Filthy thoughts from a day king.” She tsks.
“You have no idea.” I take her hand and kiss the back.
