His brows rose. “More than that?”
I winced.
Arach roared and spun away to punch his fist into the plants. A crack announced that he'd found the wall beyond.
“What's going on?” King Rory shouted as he came running out of his suite.
The Spriggan guards on duty outside his door had already puffed themselves up, but they stayed back, waiting to see what Arach did next. Taking on a Dragon-Sidhe was not a wise decision for anyone.
“I've just given him some bad news,” I said to Rory. “Sorry about your wall.”
Arach swung back around, teeth bared and eyes glowing.
Everyone but I took a step back.
“Thousands of years?! Is that what you're saying? I'm to wait thousands of years for a family? For . . . you? I just rule alone, an empty throne beside me? An empty space in my bed?”
“Time runs differently here,” I said in a tone of apology. “A few centuries will go by in the Human-Realm before I'm even born. But here, it will be far longer. For every century in the Human Realm, three thousand years pass in Faerie.”
Arach's hands were tipped with claws and trembling. He grabbed me with one of them and the scent of my blood filled my nose. But I didn't wince.
“Youwillgive me a child, Vervain. Give me someone to cling to. Someone to give me hope.”
“Iam your hope, Arach. And it's more than you had before. At least now, you'll know I'm coming. After I leave, you need to let go of me. You need to live your life as if I'm not your future. That's the only way this will work. If I give you a child, you may destroy what awaits us.”
“Impossible.”
“No, it'sverypossible. I know that firsthand. I've wrecked a future before.” I almost blurted out that our daughter came back to ask me to wreck it in order to fix it. But I'd said enough. More than enough. I took his hand. “Please, if you want our family to ever happen, you have to let me go.”
Arach drew his hand away and looked at the blood tipping his claws. He met my stare.
I nodded at him. “The future is still my recent past. My blood will tell you the truth. Show youyourfuture. But are you sure that you can bear holding those memories for so long?”
Arach's lips trembled. He stared at the blood. Then he flung it away. Blood spattered the plant-wall. Bright red against green. So pretty. Christmassy.
I let out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding. “That's a wise decision.”
“I don't understand,” Rory whispered.
“Dragon-Sidhe can see into each others recent pasts when they taste their blood,” Rivella said as she stepped around Rory. “My King, perhaps it would be best if you left.”
“I can't. I have to take my wife to see the High King.” Arach stared at me.
My jaw fell. “Oh, Arach. Thank you. But I can't go yet.”
His brows rose.
“I promised to help King Rory. In exchange, he vowed to let me borrow his ring.”
Arach's eyes started to glow again, and he turned his furious glare from me to Rory.
King Rory held up his hands. “I made that bargain before I got to know you, King Arach.”
“You were being an ass,” I said to Arach. “I came here to, uh.” I looked at Rory and did a little editing. “To ask for King Rory's help because I knew about the ring.”
“How did you—no, don't tell me,” Arach said. “I'm done! Done with this and done with you!” He spun about and stormed away.
I watched my husband go with a heavy heart. Keeping the past intact hurt. It hurt bad.
