“Fuck.” King Athon glowered at the closed closet door. “What in the Fae fuck is happening around here?”
“If I had to guess? That little spell you and Princess Trixie did with the seed and flower? You two started a coming change. It knocked out the entire realm, anyone who wasn’t mated already.Including me.” I stared hard at my best friend as his eyes snapped back to mine. “I’ve been thinking about it the past two days, trying to make sense of this, and there’s no way in five hundred years I haven’t smelled him before. Not if he works so closely with the royals. In fact…I’m pretty fucking sure I remember smelling snowdrops the night your father was assassinated in his own office. Sothis? This is new.”
King Athon held himself still for the longest moment. He kept his eyes on me but, eventually, called loudly, “Caspian, did you kill my father?”
It was quiet for a beat. Then my soul mate called loudly, “I know not what you speak of.”
My king blinked slowly. “Well.”
“Quite so.” I snorted under my breath. “You should tell him thank you.”
“I cannot thank him for killing a shifter king…even if it was deserved,” King Athon growled absently, still staring at me. “You truly think Princess Trixie and I caused this?”
“I think that you opened the gateway for it to happen.” I shrugged my massive shoulders and yawned again. “Soul mates have always been rather rare. There may be a reason for that. One that you’ve inadvertently fixed.”
My king watched me closely. “Are you upset with me?”
“Think about it, my king. I never would have slept with him unless the urge hit. And without that, I wouldn’t have known he was my soul mate.” I lifted a tired black eyebrow. “I would have died never knowing who my soul mate was. So you tell me. Should I be upset with you if you’re the person who opened the door to my possible happiness?” I shook my head and grumbled, “The truth is, the Fae are fucking with everyone in this realm. They play their games at our expense, uncaring how many people are hurt along the way.”
My king gauged me for another tension filled moment, and then he rubbed his hands roughly over his face and mumbled into his palms. “Princess Trixie is pregnant. Very,verypregnant.”
As my jaw dropped in surprise and confusion, the closet doorslammedback open, and the elf stuck his head out, saying hastily, “Did I hear that right? Princess Trixie is pregnant?”
“Verypregnant,” I repeated to the spying elf. I lifted my black brows at my stressed out best friend and asked carefully, “Exactly how pregnant do you mean?”
King Athon dropped his hands from his face and met my gaze head on, rumbling, “I mean, Fairy sped the pregnancy along. Their time does not work the same as ours. My soul mate’s ready to give birth soon.”
Caspian gawked. “Fucking…shit.”
“And she is not well,” King Athon whispered and licked over his lips slowly, staring down at the rug beneath his boots. “She is asleep and hasn’t woken yet.”
The bottom of my stomach dropped out. “What?”
“King Traevon believes she will wake. He told me that himself. But…I am still worried.” My best friend started rubbing at the back of his neck roughly. “We brought a bauble back—an artifact—from Fairy that’s supposed to keep her body well until she wakes. It…needs to work.”
I swallowed on a dry throat at the clear anxiety and fear flashing over my best friend’s face. “I hope it works as well, my king.”
Caspian darted back inside his closet, snarling breathlessly, “I need to see her.” Elegant elven clothes started flying out of the closet in silken teals, oranges, and pinks, all landing on the floor outside the closet, and none of it matched as he tore through his wardrobe. “She will be fine.”
Grievances of an elf:
There are days when I think I live a charmed life.
And some days remind me I must fight for what I have.
My favorite time is neither of those.
I enjoy a period filled with truths.
As long as it is in moderation.
Iignored the vast amount of royal guards stationed outside Princess Trixie’s bedchamber door—my father’s deal for allowing us to leave King Traevon’s castle—and sat on the edge of her bed. My soul mate shut my cousin’s bedchamber door, cutting off the noise outside the room.
With King Athon watching me like the tiger shifter he was at the end of the bed, I hesitantly put my hand on her rounded belly. My fingers trembled with genuine fear for my cousin as I looked up at her peacefully sleeping face. I pinched my lips to keep from screaming her Fae damned name, wanting nothing more than to wake her up.
“Trixie,” I whispered gutturally, my voice nowhere near steady. “You need to wake up and see this. You said having an heir with him was possible, and you proved this entire realm wrong.You were right.”
My eyes flicked all over her petite features. So strong but fragile. “Ineed you to wake up. This realm is not the same without you in it. It’s not even worth it if you’re not here. You’re…my person, Trix.” My nostrils flared, and I swallowed hard as wet heat began to burn my eyes. “You know that. It’s me and you against this motherfucking realm. Always has been. Always…forever.”
