I opened my hand, and he slipped it onto my middle finger. Light danced around my hand, and I feltits energy as easily as I felt Bylur’s shadows. “This is amazing,” I whispered.
He lifted my hand to his lips and pressed a kiss on top of my fingers. “I’m so glad it works.”
“Only because you gave me the key. Otherwise, Parcival said that humans can’t usually use fae magic, though the marriage bond lets them feel it.”
He chuckled. “I’m glad you’ve discovered the usefulness of Parcival’s vast knowledge, but—” He turned his hand to emphasize my mother’s ring on his smallest finger. He’d had an elf with metal magic enlarge it so it fit perfectly. “In this case, your gift sealed the magic. It secured the link between us and your heart—” He pressed two fingers against my chest, just above my heart. “Your heart let me in. The key never would have worked if you hadn’t trusted me.”
That called for another kiss.
I tugged him closer to me, and relaxed into his embrace. Magic swirled around us—black shadows and bright moonlight—but also through us, invisibly pulling our hearts together and bridging our souls so that I felt Bylur’s love as easily as I felt my own thoughts.
I wanted to stay here all night, warmed by Bylur and the power that he carried, but he pulled back. “Time to go, before I change my mind and keep you here forever.”
I curled my face into his chest. “Forever sounds nice.”
He wrapped his arms tighter around my back. “You do remember that with the fae marriage bond, our hearts are tied together? You will live as long as me. We will have thousands of years to come here.”
“That doesn’t make me excited to go speak to some of my biggest fears.”
He stroked my hair. “I won’t force you.”
Leaning away from his comforting chest, I straightened up. “I know. And I love you for that. I also love you for coming with me and holding my hand while I do it.”
He offered me a hand, and I set mine in his. “Loving you is such a wild trust,” I said, intertwining my fingers between his. “It’s like you’re in my heart, calming every fear as it erupts.”
He squeezed my fingers, and guided me out of the grotto, keeping our feet dry with his shadows. “Loving you has brought the most wonderful kind of chaos into my life.” We turned a bend around the cliffs. “You’ve filled a hole in my heart that I didn’t even realize was there.” He paused in the middle of the river and brought a hand to my chin, grazing his thumb along my jawline. “Now I need your chaos to balance my structure.”
I grinned at him. “I didn’t know I needed your structure in my life either. But it’s been better than I ever could have imagined.”
He nudged my chin up and brushed a quick kiss across my lips while water rushed past us. I smiledagainst his skin. “This river is a lot more romantic when your shadows are keeping us dry.”
He chuckled, scooped me up in a cradle hold, and planted a kiss on the top of my head while he crossed over the ice on the edge of the river. “I can think of more ways to bring romance into this little adventure.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Be careful there, you might get accused of being spontaneous again.”
He laughed out loud. “As long as it’s with you.”
He carried me down a gentle slope and past a few scattered trees until I spotted the lone tree with white, peeling bark. He set me down and pointed at a small shimmering circle on its trunk. “Would you like me to go first?”
My mind skipped back to when I’d come through before. “I think if you touch it, it will expand big enough that we can both go through at the same time.” He touched it and, like I’d remembered, the shimmering circle grew as large as a door.
Before we walked through it, he pulled a case out of the shadows. I raised a questioning brow.
“I’ve never tried walking through a shadow to another dimension,” he explained. “I think it will be safer if I carry the money through, and then use the shadows again.”
As we walked through the portal, a silver haze blocked my view of everything else. On the other side, a small, dark cottage sat exactly how I’d left it. Even the broken painting frame still lay in a heap on the floor.We picked our way across the bedroom and then through the main room. The door outside was unlocked, and Bylur opened it.
He latched it behind us and then stared at it for a moment.
“You want to report it to the Autumn courts?” I asked, guessing based on the conflict in his emotions.
He shook his head and started moving us through the forest. “Want is a strong word. I do not plan to tell anyone about it, but there is a part of me that is curious about their missing princess and if she created the portal. And if so, why?”
“How long has she been missing?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I don’t remember. Over a hundred years. The only reason we were aware was because they visited every court asking if we’d seen her. Nobody knew anything about her, and Kalshana does not have a history of intermingling with other courts. But I cannot help a little curiosity now.”
“I’m curious too,” I said, “but mostly I’m just relieved that it led me to you.”
