“I love you,” I said, cupping her face and drowning in her eyes, in her tenderness, and in her joy. I didn’t even need to connect to her to remember how much joy she always had when she looked at me like this.
“Feel me,” she whispered as I rose over her again, ready to claim her. “I want you to know how your love makes me feel.”
I released my tendrils, ready to dive into her emotions. And when I did, I realized how similar they were to mine. Tenderness, caring, devotion, and love—I felt them all too. Only Elaine’s world was also illuminated by joy, by that pure happiness I knew she only ever felt when she was with me.
The pathetic fools who tried to steal her from me never grasped that. They stole and bought humans. They had Elaine. But they were too stupid to understand that true happiness could never be stolen or bought. For joy to exist, it had to be given freely.
“How long has it been since you brought me here?” Elaine asked, sitting in the cushions in our new bed.
The light from the glowing veins in the ceiling mosaic reflected in the crystal lenses of her glasses that I had returned to her the moment we could get our hands off each other and take a break.
A wooden tray was on her lap. It held dishes with fresh fruit, cooked rice sweetened with honey, and a tall glass of water—all of them nearly empty now that she had almost finished with her meal. The fruit and rice had been delivered from the market by the same people whom Tobis had sent to clean the house.
I wasn’t in the position to go to the market myself, with my cock still standing hard most of the time and my mating cluster aglow. I feared the situation currently happening in my crotch would attract even more attention than my wings or my tail if I ventured out, no matter how many skirts I’d put on.
I made a quick calculation in my head, based on what the cleaning people had told me when delivering food.
“About fifteen hours or so,” I replied to Elaine. “We’ve been here for fifteen hours now. And those were some of the best hours of my life, thanks to you, my love.”
I kissed her, and Elaine put a grape into my mouth with a laugh.
“You need to eat too.”
I ate the grape, then kissed her again.
“So,” she said, playfully. “Fifteen hours, and I’ve yet to see our new house.”
We’d been too preoccupied with loving each other in every way our bodies allowed for her to even get out of bed yet.
“I’ll take you through it.” I dragged her onto my lap, ready to fly up.
“No, wait. My head is spinning even when I’m not moving. I’m afraid I’d throw up if you take me flying. I’m just… I’m still trying to figure out what exactly happened in all those hours, as well as the hours before that.”
She took a bite of an apricot, then set it back on the plate and moved the tray aside.
“I remember waiting for you in our cave,” she said slowly, keeping her gaze on the bitten fruit while going back into hermemories. “The water… No, there was the voice first. The mage, Suhai. He told me he could cure you!” She snapped her gaze to me. “We need to find him. He said he has a way to extend your life by thirty years.”
I rubbed my chin, wondering where to begin.
“Well, I don’t believe Suhai’s magic was much stronger than what was necessary to create these.” I pointed at the glasses perched on her nose. “And even if it was, he made too many mistakes for me to trust him with anything more invasive than taking measurements.”
“But what if what he said is true? Shouldn’t we at least consider it since we don’t have any other choice?”
The familiar desperate hope filled her, spilling over to me through my tendrils.
“Oh, sweetheart, come here.” I pulled her onto my lap. “I believe there is a much greater power in you than Suhai could ever possess or even comprehend.”
“In me? But I don’t have any magic. I’m a human, remember?”
“You’re far more magical than you think. It was foolish of me to think that my connection to you could ever harm me. The corrupted way that Ray was drinking his Joy Vessels’ emotions was what ruined him.”
“You think so?”
I really did. Seeing Prince Rha with Elaine’s friend convinced me. The prince and Dawn were inseparable and obviously in love. But it didn’t damage them. On the contrary, it seemed to have made them both stronger. Their love for each other created a bond that even made it possible for a human woman to use the shadow magic of the tendrils.
When humans were mistreated, however, their emotions ruined the fae who consumed them.
“They say that golden hyacinth has no ill effects on shadow fae unless it’s used in a few very specific spells,” I explained. “But it obviously harms humans. I think when fae consume the emotions of the inebriated humans, it damages them too.”
