I did. I told him all of it. From the Mirror to the death of its prisoner. His expression hardened but he stayed silent through it all. I watched his chest rise and fall with his furious breaths, and my heart sped up. Finally, when I'd finished, Arach closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“Why didn't you mirror me?” He asked.
“To tell you about things you couldn't do anything about?” I countered. “No; I didn't want to do that to you.”
“I have a right to know these things, Vervain,” Arach snarled. “We've talked about this, and you agreed that you'd tell me.”
“I agreed to tell you when I was going to war,” I corrected. “There was no war. As far as me going into the Mirror, there was nothing to be done while I was inside, and once I was out, it was over.”
“One of the others should have mirrored me,” he said in a low, dangerous voice. “And it wasn't over; you were taken again.”
“Arach, you were planning this party,” I said softly. “It was a happy time for you. I didn't want to ruin it with things like that.”
“You mean things like my wife being trapped in a mirror?” Arach growled as he pushed me up against the trunk of a tree. “Did it not occur to you that a faerie king, one who you contact throughmirrors, might have some knowledge on how to free you from one?”
I gaped at him; both at his treatment of me and his words. “Couldyou have?”
“I don't know, but that's not the point,” Arach snapped. “I could have tried. I could have searched for a spell or consulted other monarchs. I could havehelped, Vervain!”
“I don't think you could have, Arach,” I said calmly. “The Fates said it was meant to be. I was supposed to end up in that mirror and free Narcissus, and Qaus was supposed to come and kill him.”
“Well, if a trinity ofgodssays it's so, then it must be,” he sneered.
“Arach,” I whispered in shock.
“No!” He pushed his body against mine. “No more keeping me in the dark, wife. You will tell me what's happening from henceforward.”
“Okay.”
I barely had time to get the word out before Arach's mouth covered mine, his sharp teeth cutting my lip so he could suck at my blood. I tried to pull away from him; I didn't want him to see what I'd been through with Narcissus, and my blood would show him everything. But Arach held my head firmly between his hands and savaged my mouth; growling deep in his throat as he experienced my recent memories.
“Fire and fury, Vervain!” Arach roared as he pulled away from me. “Even now, you hold back. You didn't tell me he tried to rape you.”
“I'm sorry,” I whispered.
Arach roared, grabbed the nearest trunk and uprooted a tree; a whole tree. He tossed it aside and roared again. His face shifted into sharper angles and scales spread down his cheeks. Arach's sulfurous eyes brightened to sharp lemon and started to glow. Claws erupted from his fingers and he bent double as his breath sawed out of him.
“Okay, Dragon, you win,” I said gently as I laid a hand on his shoulder. “I'll tell you everything from now on, even if it's hurtful.”
Arach glanced up at me and a low growl left his lips before he spoke, “Swear it.”
“I swear it,” I repeated.
I started stroking Arach's face tenderly, easing him back from the edge of his beast. He closed his eyes and his breathing started to slow. I pulled him upright and spread my hands down his throat and then over his chest. Arach's shoulders dropped with a ragged breath, and he opened his eyes.
But there was still heat in his stare.
I knew what Arach needed; the one thing that would bring him down. I just hoped the orchard survived it.
I undid the lacing at the front of my dress and let it slip down my body to puddle on the grass. Arach's stare shivered a second before he reached for me. Our joining was rough and wild, but that's exactly what I had expected. I even craved it. My other men had been so careful with me after I'd come back from Narcissus' territory. They must have sensed the wounds in my mind that struggled to heal; the images I couldn't yet banish. And they had been so gentle with me that it was ironically driving me mad. I wanted this; this primal reminder of strength and life. I wanted Arach.
Arach bent me over, and I grabbed the tree in front of me for support. He didn't bother to undress, he was too far beyond that. Arach simply pulled his cock free and slid it into me until his hips met my ass. We both cried out with the near-therapeutic pleasure of it, and then Arach started a wild tempo; a thrashing thrusting that jostled my breasts and my bracing tree as well. The slick sound of sex echoed around us, giving proof to my rising desire. That drove Arach even more wild, and he bent over my body to fill his hands with my breasts as he slammed home with a dragon's strength and speed.
“A Thaisce,” he growled into my ear. “I love you more than life.”
“I know, Dragon,” I growled back. “I love you too.”
Arach pushed me forward until I went upright, my arms hugging the tree trunk, and then he lifted one of my legs and hooked it over his arm. It brought him closer to me; his sex going even deeper. I screamed with rapture. So perfect; the brutal barbarism of it full of love and a fair amount of rage. It leeched the fury from my own heart and rattled the darkness in my mind until the broken pieces—the ones that had threatened my sanity—came loose and fell away.
