The last thing I hear is the soft murmuring of the fae around me as strong, warm hands cradle my fall.
thirty-two
Rivern
She is upstairs sleeping.Dove is onmybed. Layering my sheets in her delicious, honeyed floral scent, her glossy hair spilling over my pillows. All I want to do is run to her. Be the first thing she sees when she wakes.
Instead, I’ve been summoned to address the council in the meeting room. A mostly bare space that holds a considerable rectangle table lit up with flashing crystal orbs cut into the stone walls.
I blame myself. I pushed her too hard. We should’ve rested more. Ate more. Humans seem to need more of everything. Fae cango turns without food and rest. Humans are not made equal in that way, and I will have to remember that now that I’m bonded to one.
Through the bond, I can still feel her body in a state of rest, which fills me with some semblance of calm.
“Prince Rivern.” My uncle, Lyon, addresses me as the appointed head of the council. Although we do have a monarchy within the fae, we also rely on a trusted council of elders appointed by the fae people to support us in ruling for the good of all.
“Yes, Sir.” I sit, rubbing the growing stubble along my face.How I wish Dove’s hands were tracing the harsh lines of my cheeks.
“You left a taken male and seem to have found yourself bonded to a human female?” The gazes of seven much older fae look back at me, including my mother, the queen. She has yet to speak to me, instead opting for quiet contemplation.
My back straightens.I was never taken.
Iam now, though. Without a doubt in my mind, that human belongs to me.
I might be betrothed to the princess of the Silver Sands, but it is not a love match, a bonded mating. It is purely a political move by our kind to protect our home from war. A war we didn’t expect to come knocking on our door.
“Dove is my true, fated bond. I feel her here.” I point to my chest, where my princess lies. “That’s how I was able to find her. The fates drew me to her.”
The truth falls without effort. Ever since those first sparks of life that tethered us together, I’ve felt her spirit interlacing with mine. Maybe I’ve always felt her within, but when those aches started increasing inmy chest, I couldn’t ignore it. She is my chosen, and I cannot give her up. If she dies, I will expire right along with her. I know that now.
My uncle pushes his chair backwards harshly. “Are you saying you lied to us?”
Pushing onto my temples, I sigh. “I never lied. At the time, all I knew was the odd feeling pulling me towards Haven. I suspected a bond mating from the old stories, but I wasn’t sure. The Goddess herself was calling me. I didn’t fully understand what I was experiencing until I saw Dove for the first time. The bond lit up the moon itself.”
“And you brought her back?” Mother drums her fingers at the head of the long wooden table, composed as usual. Bringing her back wasn’t part of the plan. After all, it was Mother’s idea to kill the end of my tether, Dove.
“What else would you have me do? Once I found her, Oona herself wouldn’t let me part from her. Being away from her right now is already putting a strain on the chain connecting us.” As if to prove a point, my chest starts to ache, and I rub at it.
Mother pushes a hand through her silver curls and points towards my older sister, Freya, who has been giving me the most curious of looks. Like she is seeing me for the first time. “When are we expecting Moyrie?” Mother asks the table.
“Within the next several turns, my queen,” my sister answers.
Freya, the good daughter. Always so formal. Marrying for optimal offspring. Not gallivanting around the countryside. However, she did produce my second favourite person in the whole of the lands, Kit. Unfortunately, he has now been bumped to second.
Dove will always be first.
Pulling at my hair, I stand and start to pace, watching the floor as it plays shadow games before winking off opal sparks. The air in the mountains, earthy and stagnant, starts to feel foreign to me as the sweet smell up in my room calls to me.
I am insane.The Goddess bonded me with a human, and I am utterly captivated. Even now, I want to sprint from this room in her direction. If she ran headlong into the void, I would jump in right after her.
“Sit down, son. You are giving me a headache with all your pacing.” Mother’s smoky violet eyes motion towards the chair.
Taking her advice, I sit down across from her. “I wish you had told us of these urges you were having,” she continues.
I want to laugh.This is more than just urges, and she knows that. “Mother, we have not sealed the bond yet.”
A smile graces her pink lips, and my insides shrivel. “Excellent. Then you will marry Moyrie, as planned.”
Pushing up from my chair, I seethe.She has not heard a word I’ve expressed. “No, Mother, I will not. I have changed my mind.”
