And, suddenly, I’m in a washroom. My room. At the palace.
Seated on the velvet lounge that never quite made sense.
Declan and the Shadow King are crouched in front of me. They both have beards now. Weeks of growth. Unkempt and wild.
They’re still the most beautiful males I’ve ever seen. And most importantly…
Not the Mountain King.
“Hi,” I whisper with a little smile.
Their relief floods through me as they lunge forward and pull me into their arms.
Birthday Present
In the end,I got what I wanted for my birthday, which had come and gone while I was in a catatonic state.
But it was a few weeks later now, and the private plane ride to Canada was uncomfortable.
Uncomfortable in the bad way.
The Shadow King took my hand as soon as we settled into the soft leather seats. Declan sat directly across from us.
Neither of them said anything. Felt anything.
Our bond bites had been weirdly silent since I woke up, and I had the sense they’d closed off their ends of the link.
Probably because I was feeling enough for all three of us.
Ever since coming out of what the town doctor had called “your wee break,” I’d been aswirl in unchecked emotions.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t still sense their worry as we crossed the Atlantic, headed to get the answers I wanted.
Neededactually. Even more desperately after what had happened with Tadhg.
Whose name we hadn’t spoken.
Not even when Brigid visited with her adorable sons: Gregorio Jr., a beige cherub with a head full of black curls like his Portuguese father, and Cathal, a bald little chubster with steel-grey eyes who her husband Darach insisted would inherit the family’s white streak.
“Look at yer brother, praying for the legacy of genetic mutation for our spare,” Brigid had teased Declan.
“Well, we were both born bald, too,” Declan pointed out. “But we could do with a redhead in the High King family.”
He and Brigid had started getting along. That’s how worried they’d been about me.
The exceptionally cute baby nephews also helped patch the rift. But mostly, it was the worry.
So, I didn’t blame Cian and Declan for being so quiet on the flight. But that didn’t mean I could put up with it forever.
“We should probably talk about him before we land in Canada,” I said to Declan after the attendant popped back out of the main cabin after telling us we had less than an hour to go until we reached our destination.
To the High King’s credit, he didn’t pretend not to know who I meant. But his mind stayed carefully blank as he said, “Ask us anything.”
There was only one question. And it had been swirling in my head since they’d snapped me out of my wee break.
“Why?”
Declan audibly exhaled. And though the Shadow King stayed silent on all fronts, he squeezed my hand and moved it over the armrest to settle in his lap.
