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“That’s not possible, my dear one. Only magic can cut that bond.”

“And so it did.”

His fingers tightened on my waist, and he forced them to relax. His voice never rose from a whisper, never deviated from the silken velvet that he ran over my nerves. “How did that happen?”

I told him.

I told him everything. The more I spoke, the more the words poured out of me. It was a rushing dam of thoughts and feelings held back by a single flummoxed beaver that had perished long ago and whose ghost was all that kept the sticks from being breached.

I had only managed to get to the part where we were running from the first magic storm before he gently pressed his fingers to my lips. I hadn’t noticed as I unburdened myself the small changes in his appearance. Hadn’t noticed the way his angelic features turned gaunt and hollow. The way the cosmos grew darker and darker until even the light cast by the brazier was eaten by the black. Hadn’t noticed the way his lips strained against the outline of jagged teeth or the way the edges of his face shivered like a film drawn over an ocean ravaged by storm-tossed tides. Even the fingers he pressed to my lips felt icy to the touch, the skin thin and crepey like fallen leaves.

“The Oaken Rose stole from you your bond with The Raven of the Dawn?” His voice, once silken, now hid a dagger of barely suppressed rage.

“Did she steal it if I bargained with it?”

“Did she tell you this was the price? Expressly and explicitly?”

“No.”

“Then it was stolen. And that is an abomination before magic. To use the sacredness of an oath to strip the will of fate and the ties of magic from another, human or Fae, is a heinous crime. One that in days of old would have been punished with an eternity of torment. When the House of Magic still walked this realm, such crimes would have drawn their ire, and its patron god would have stripped her to the bones, not even allowing her magic to return to the well to corrupt it.” He trembled with unspent wrath, drawing in ragged breaths before crushing me against his suddenly bony chest.

He held me for a long time, never letting the savage crush of his arms ease until the shaking ceased. “I had hoped to spend this evening with you serenading me with the song of your pleasure, but it seems that the affairs at the palace are in far more disarray than I had thought.”

“I thought you knew everything,” I teased.

“Mostly everything. And there is a lot between mostly and all.” His fingers worked at the knot that held the robe to my body.

“Hey! I thought you said you weren’t going to seduce me?”

“I said nothing of the sort. I will still feast on the bounty between your thighs and drink from you, but I’ll be content just to feel your silken skin as you tell me your tale from beginning to end.” He stripped me of the robe with barely any resistance before shifting the two of us under the blankets and settling me against him.

He remained, despite his insistence on seducing me, wholly dressed.

The ghost of Emrys lay beside him, watching me with a smug smirk that said, “Try to bury me all you want, little bug. I am in the very marrow of your essence; you can no sooner escape your skeleton than wrest yourself free of me.”

“So you get to pet silk, and I get to smell your dusty linen all night? That’s not a very good trade-off,” I huffed, getting comfortable, trying to convince myself more than him that this was a good idea.

“By all means, my dear, allow me to rectify this great injustice.” He grinned and snapped his fingers. The clothing wrapping his body rotted away as if a thousand years had passed and it had been left to molder in an open grave. By the time they had fully disappeared, all that was left was a speck of dust that clung to the hair that kissed his centerline. “Far be it for me to deny you anything. I would have you spoiled beyond measure whenever you are with me.”

“Show off.” I snorted but didn’t demand that he get dressed. The warmth of his skin as I pressed my cheek into his chest felt soothing. Listening to the steady, slow throb of his heart kept my mind from wandering to the battle between my lust and my reluctance.

“I am, yes. And very impressive, as you have said before. Now tell me all that you have experienced. I would know everything.” His fingers found my long golden tresses and began gently combing through the still somewhat damp strands.

And I told him everything. I told him all about my life in Human. I told him about Rictus and how he violated me and forced me into this body and how much I hated it. I told him about the palace. I told him about the warrens. I told him how Daróg had beaten me. I told him everything that had happened to me since coming to Magh Meall, and the more I told him, the more the burden of it all come off my knotted shoulders.

I hesitated when it came to telling him about my mother. I hadn’t even told The Raven about that yet. I hadn’t had the words or the space in my heart to spare the hardship of transporting that massive emotion to my tongue. I hadn’t cried through the whole telling of my story, but when I spoke of what happened in the deep dark, I sobbed. Open and bald, I let it all come with no attempts to hold it back.

It felt good to tell someone. To tell someone I could fully trust the whole of what I had experienced. To have someone know the full depths of the anguish I held back.

When I was done, when I let the silence draw out too long, he took my hand and pressed it to his lips. “Thank you for trusting me, Banfhlaith.”

I snorted, wiping the tear-snot from my nose. “I’m not a Banfhlaith.”

“Oh, but you are. If you are in fact Airgetlám and Túathal’s daughter, you are the heir to the House of Magic, Banfhlaith of the House of Magic and all its lands and titles.” His lips pressed to the part of my hair. “And it makes so much more sense now why I see power rolling off you in great waves. You are the last hope. The last of the line of a great Fae. Child of two ascended gods. Granddaughter to the rightful Ard Banríon of the Fae. And a long line of great Fae before her that took the same name.”

I sniffled into a laugh. “And yet I can’t even do magic. Some Fae I am.”

“Says who?”