I was red-faced by the time we reached my room, which was nowourroom.
“Listen,” Stryker said as he cupped my face in his hands. “Just because we are married now doesn’t mean we have to rush anything. If you aren’t comfortable with—”
I reached up and tore his shirt open, the fabric ripping in my hands like it did in the romance novels I’d read.
Stryker’s eyes went wide. “Or we could do that.”
I burst into laughter and he tossed me onto the bed like I was made of feathers. Boxing me in with his arms on either side of me, he leaned forward and peppered my collarbone with kisses. “Lady Aribella Warrick.”
“Yes?” I panted.
“I promise to love you forever and to kiss every inch of your body any night you will let me.”
I smiled and then he made love to me while shadows danced on the ceiling and I cried out his name.
Chapter 26
It proved harder to find a blood witch to help us reach out to the Winter princess than I thought it would. Apparently blood witches had been banned from all four of the Ethereum kingdoms for decades, their magic having been considered too dark. The ones that remained were either in hiding, or lived in the Midlands.
It took the combined effort of all four Ethereum lords’ spies to finally track one down who had been living in a remote village on the southern border of the Eastern Kingdom. After a couple of days we received word that they were bringing her back. But the message also told us that when they approached her about returning to Easteria with them, she tried to flee, fearful Stryker would put her in his dungeon.
Four men had been seriously injured before they could subdue her, telling me she was powerful.
I didn’t know much about blood witches. They were relegated to myths and fairytales back in Faerie. The only thing I knew for sure, because Stryker confirmed it for me, was that they were seelie fae who used blood to enhance their magic. In our stories they were always portrayed as soulless creatures,power hungry enough to taint their natural abilities with dark magic to gain power.
I didn’t know how much of what I knew about them from Faerie was true, but it was clear that the fae in Ethereum were wary, if borderline scared, of them. And that said something. When I heard about how difficult it was to bring one in, I understood why.
When we got word that the men had returned with the blood witch, we all congregated in Stryker’s library and waited for her to arrive. I fidgeted, wringing my hands, and chewed on my bottom lip. I startled when Stryker reached up and lightly brushed his thumb over my bottom lip and then tugged it free.
“That lip is too pretty to abuse,” he said, his gaze both soft yet filled with desire, and I felt myself blush.
I looked into Stryker’s gray-blue eyes and then glanced at his mouth, remembering how it tasted and felt brushing against my own. My face heated even more and a low growl rumbled in Stryker’s chest as he read the look in my eyes.
I almost forgot we were in a room with all three of his brothers until someone cleared their throat. I peered up and saw Zane smirking at us from across the table.
“Do you need the rest of us to give you two some time alone?” he asked, his smile growing.
Stryker glared at his brother and Zane broke out in a full-on laugh.
“What’s going on?” Adrien asked, walking over to our table from his spot across the room. Thank the stars that Elisana wasn’t with him. I got the impression we had hurt her feelings by not including her very much and now she was keeping her distance.
Zane opened his mouth to say something, but with a flick of Stryker’s wrist a shadow shot from his palm and slapped over Zane’s mouth, muffling him. Zane clawed at the shadow to no avail before finally lifting his hand in front of his face. A bolt of black lightning shot from his palm and zapped the shadow, which disintegrated into thin air.
Adrien doubled over in laughter and even Dawn and Zander looked amused from their place by one of the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.
Zane frowned at Stryker. “Not funny.”
The corner of Stryker’s mouth twitched, which for him was almost equivalent to a full smile. “He seems to think so,” Stryker said, pointing at Adrien.
“You know I’m going to get you back for that … eventually,” Zane promised.
Stryker leaned back, slinging his arm over my shoulders. “You can try.”
Zane, whom I considered the most lighthearted of the brothers, couldn’t keep his sour face for long and finally smirked. “It’s on.”
My heart warmed seeing Stryker so relaxed and happy around his brothers. He was still the surly and dark lord I fell in love with, but over the last several days I’d seen more sides of him appear. He was wise and strong with his people, soft and gentle with me, and lighthearted and even a touch mischievous with his brothers. I treasured each new facet of him as much as any of the others.
I would have taken Stryker just as he was and loved him for the rest of my life, but it was obvious to me he was starting to heal. When I looked at my new husband I no longer saw a fractured man,broken and scarred. Even in the midst of turmoil and uncertainty, he was finally beginning to learn what it was like to accept love and be happy. The pieces of himself he thought he’d lost forever were coming back, re-forming him into something beautiful.
