She blew on her tea as he returned to his place at the window. “You have tarnished our people’s reputation as unbiased, dutiful servants among the fae.”
That got my hackles up. Victor had donenothingbut what I’d asked him to do, and he’d been entirely virtuous and dutiful since the moment I’d met him. Well, until I’d seduced him, at least, but that tookweeks.I curled my fingers into my blanket, not knowing if I should speak in his defense or hold my tongue. He wasn’t upset or angry. He didn’t even look particularly chastised.
“How dreadful,” he murmured.
“You caused much doubt among the Morningstar family as to your ability to care for their daughter,” she continued, making my anxiety spike again. They wouldn’t… They couldn’t make me leave him now, could they?
“And I, well—I’mgoing to be laughing about it for at least the next few hundred years,” she continued before taking a careful sip of her tea. I wasn’t sure I’d heard her correctly until I saw Victor’s reaction.
Victor raised his eyes to meet hers and flashed her a smile. The mansmiled. I’d never seen such a beautiful thing in my entire life. It was the brief, self-satisfied, affectionate grin of a little boy who’d gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar and knew without a doubt that he’d be eating that cookie. It was the brightly glowing morning sunrise after a particularly long night. It lit up his entire face for a brief, glorious second of incandescence. My lungs ceased to function. You could have knocked me over with a feather.
His grandmother returned his little grin with a mischievous-looking one of her own and chuckled to herself. “It was quite the coup,” she said, sounding thoroughly impressed. “But we have to pretend that you’ve been reprimanded within an inch of your life, for your mother’s sake, or the jig is up.” She sighed, turning to me. “And how are you holding up, darling Celeste? You lookmuchbetter than the last time I saw you. How long were we gone for?” she asked, directing that last bit to Victor.
“I was gone three weeks. I’m not sure how much longer your stay was. We arrived here maybe five weeks ago,” he suggested, folding his hands in front of the long line of his body as he leaned against the wall.
I was having a hard time following the conversation, having been dazzled so thoroughly by Victor’s unexpected smile moments earlier. I hadn’t yet been able to shake it off when she turned her attention to me again, expecting a reply.
“Oh, I—um, I’m fine. Thank you for asking,” I stuttered out pitifully, having a hard time tearing my gaze away from her grandson.
“I’m so glad to hear it,” she told me kindly anyway. “After living with our magic day in and day out for a thousand years, it becomes rather commonplace. Mundane, even. But seeing its effect on you is remarkable,” she said, studying me. She turned to Victor briefly and said, “You did very well caring for her, Vitya. Not that I doubted,” before turning back to me.
“Vitya?” I asked, glancing at him. His family kept calling him that.
“A diminutive,” she explained. “May I see your binding mark?”
I realized I was clutching my arm against my chest and forced myself to let her have it, leaning forward to show it to her.
“One of many this dear boy is subjected to,” she muttered as she leaned over my arm to look closer, and I realized she was still talking about his nickname. “When he was a baby we would call him Vitüshka.”
I broke into a wide grin, looking past her to my husband as I imagined a soft, tender, baby version of him being doted on by this woman as she called him “Vitüshka.”
She made a comment about how the mark was filling in nicely before looking up and following my expression to her grandson, who was watching the two of us with rapt attention. “I can see this was a match well made,” she said with smug affection, before patting me on the arm and releasing it. She turned to Victor. “I trust the hormone surge hasn’t been too unbearable?”
Victor’s eyes snapped to hers, and there was no mistaking the dawning horror within them. “Thewhat?” he asked, his words like the snap of a whip.
She hesitated in confusion before responding. “The surge of hormones after the binding is finalized.”
“Isthatwhat this is?” he asked, all of his distress from the past week bleeding into his words, his face a mask of irritation.
“Oh, dear. Please tell me you received some education about ‘the birds and the bees,’ dearest. I’m afraid this conversation is quite outside of my wheelhouse. I always left these kinds of talks to your grandfather.”
Victor practically sputtered with indignation, the most flustered I’d ever seen him. “Of course I know what…thatis. But no one mentioned anything about a surge of hormones. I’ve felt like I’ve been going through a second puberty.” His voice was still low, but his tone was acerbic, and I worried how his grandmother would respond, but again she surprised me.
“Well, now you have some ammunition to volley back at your mother when she comes for your hide,” she suggested lightly. “The hormones will settle down… eventually. It’s been too long ago now for me to remember specifics. Perhaps ask your brother.” She drained the last of her tea and handed him the cup when he stepped forward to take it, putting it away and returning to lend her a hand as she stood. I climbed off the bed to stand beside her as she rose and helped her straighten her woolen cloak. “I think I will take a day or two here to rest and catch up with Yasgrot on the local happenings,” she told him before turning to me and placing her hand lightly on my healed binding mark again. “Welcome to our family, Celeste. We will not try to replace the one you already have, but now you are included in ours as well. It appears Vitya’s magic has already begun to correct your malfunctioning organs, yes? It will take you a while yet to be back to your full strength I think, and several years for your cells to fully turn over for you to reach full immortality, so please be careful with yourself in the meantime.” She lowered her voice to a murmur and met my eye. “I know the handfasting was an awful thing, but you were strong, and so brave. You did so well. And you’ve weathered the worst of your healing already, I can tell. I’m very proud of you.”
I nearly melted into a puddle on the floor as she leaned in to press her cheek to mine and kiss the air. All I could do was look at her grandson with watery eyes and my heart in my throat. He didn’t seem ready to let go of the revelation about his body’s response to our “finalizing” the binding, by which I assumed she meant consummation.
“Do watch out for Nikolai,” she told him as she passed him. “He blames you for having to listen to two days of Milata’s haranguing.”
Victor didn’t seem concerned about her warning, but I couldn’t help but feel concerned. I didn’t know which one was Nikolai, but would he hurt us? I felt extremely on edge, and Victor seemed to notice, as he reached out to take my hand and draw me against his chest. “Please remind them that Celeste isn’t used to people stepping through walls,” he said dryly as his grandmother reached the door. “And that she sleeps at night,” he added as an afterthought.
“I’ll do my best,” she responded, though she didn’t sound entirely hopeful.
I relaxed my posture against him as we watched her go, comforted by his warmth and his arm around me. “Well. That explains that, I suppose,” he grumbled when the door clicked shut.
I glanced up to find him glowering at the floor before he raised his gaze to mine, looking rather put out about the fact that no one had warned him about his reaction to our first joining. I bit my lip and tried not to laugh, failing entirely and hiding my face against his side instead. He huffed at me, clearly vexed with all of this, but that just made my grin wider. I turned my arm so I could peek at my binding mark, wondering what the effect of his family being here would be on our relationship dynamic.
Victor took my arm in his hand and smoothed his thumb down my binding mark in a way that felt both comforting and protective. I marveled at the way the mark itself had changed over the last week, the vague shape of a young tree sending out roots farther down my arm. It was growing, just as we were. My stomach churned with a mixture of happiness and nerves.
