After a while, after the silence has become a comfort, the bubbling water nothing but a humming background noise, I look up at him, making him tilt his head down to look at me. “This is it, isn’t it?” I ask quietly, feeling so soft and secure in his arms. “This is real love.” That word. That huge, momentous, meaningful word just falls out of me, rippling the waters between us, but I know it’s true.
Before, when I thought I had that, it was nothing like this. It was nothing likehim. After tonight, I see with such clarity. I see what’s right in front of me.
Slade’s arms tighten around me, and then he places a kiss on my forehead. “Yes, Auren. This is love.”
CHAPTER 39
AUREN
Slade and I spend therest of the night in bed. He makes love to me two more times before I fall asleep, only to wake up with his mouth between my thighs while his tongue does wicked, wicked things.
I’m not sure what time it is when we both fall asleep again, but when I wake up the next time, I’m alone in bed. It’s not anything unusual since I’ve been keeping opposite sleeping patterns in fear of suddenly gilding something. Still, I can’t help the pang of disappointment at not having him here.
Looking at the clock sitting on top of the fireplace mantel, I see that I didn’t sleep as long as I usually do. It’s late afternoon, which means it’s still daylight. Normally, I’d turn over and bury myself beneath the blankets, content to hide until night. But my stomach decides to growl hollowly right at that moment, because it’s been a long time since the feast at the pavilion. Especially considering how...activeSlade and I were last night.
It helped, to fall into each other instead of getting bogged down with all those revelations. But now that I’m alone and have time to process, all I can think about is this village. About all the long-lived Oreans inside of it.
Mostly, I think about his mother.
I can relate to her. She was taken away from her world, trapped with a cruel man. Coveted for her magic, kept away like a trinket to bear him fruit. I wonder what happened when she went through that rip, why she no longer speaks.
Perhaps her voice broke that day, right alongside her lover’s neck.
It makes sense now, why I kept picking up something odd about the villagers and Elore. I must’ve been sensing their connection to Annwyn, as subtle as it may be.
But mostly, the thing that keeps cropping up in my head is wondering how I got here. If Slade and his father wielded their magic and tore the world…did someone else do the same? Was I smuggled through some rip that might still exist somewhere in Orea? The thought that another fae could’ve been sold to the flesh market, treated just as I was, makes my heart hurt. And yet, if there are other fae in Orea…where are they?
My thoughts roll in and out on a steady tide until my stomach really starts to complain, and I force myself out of bed. “It’ll be fine,” I murmur as I leave the warmth of the blankets and wander into the adjoining room. I’m not going to gild anything during the day.
I have to start taking baby steps, and getting up with the daylight is the first one. The last thing I want is to lose control and hurt this village. I would never forgive myself.
After using the washroom, I wander into the closet. Now that my back is mostly healed, I decide to ditch Osrik’s shirts in lieu of one more my size. I pull on clean clothes and then head back into the bedroom, my gloved hand pausing on the handle of the door. With a deep breath, I open it and step out, walking down the long hallway to head for the kitchen.
When I’m nearly to the open doorway of the living room, my steps come to a halt at the sound of voices straining past the walls.
“Rip, we can’t keep ignoring these.”
That’s Lu’s voice, and her tone sounds...worried.
“I know,” Slade replies, a heavy resignation weighing down his words.
There’s a pause, and then I hear Digby say, “They’re idiots if they really think this about her. If you ask me, it’s just a bunch of caterwauling.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Judd replies. “They feel threatened. They’re too arrogant to think Midas was the liar. And anyway, it’s political. If there’s one thing you can always be sure of when it comes to rulers, it’s that they will always try to spin a situation to their advantage.”
My brows pull together in a frown.
The front door suddenly opens, and I jump, pressing my back against the shadowed wall as Ryatt comes stomping inside. If he was really looking, he’d spot me, but he stalks inside and rounds the doorway, his shadow spilling into the hall.
“Is it true?” he growls, making everyone else go quiet. “Is it?”
“Yes, it’s true,” I hear Slade say.
Ryatt makes a noise of frustration, and I see his shadow start to pace. “Fuck.”
A simmering unease sloshes against my stomach, tainting the hunger I had and replacing it with nausea. I know there’s something going on—something Slade hasn’t told me yet. That much was clear when I overheard him and Ryatt at the pavilion, and I got the same feeling when Slade received that hawk and didn’t offer an explanation. Sure, it could’ve been something minor, but I don’t think so.
For a second, I consider turning back around. Going back to the bedroom and hiding from all of this. But I can’t keep doing that. It’s time I take another step. So even though my anxiety is spiking up, like water levels rising to my ears, I force myself to push away from the wall. To walk into the living room.
