Rosko, Mandy - Eclipse (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Mandy Rosko

  “Thank you!” Bell called to their retreating backs, arm waving in farewell.

  Dawn cocked her head. Bell was taken with the dragon people. There could be no other explanation for it. She certainly admired the views from the mountain and had enjoyed the flight almost more than Aelmon.

  All of this seemed to irritate Kehn, who sulked and pouted the whole time he held his king.

  Aaron touched her shoulder, halting her thoughts. “I’ll have yer brother sent for. He and his friend may return home to deal with yer mother.”

  Dawn’s heart fluttered. “Really?” She looked toward Aelmon, who was also busy admiring the retreating dragons. “He won’t…?”

  Aaron shook his head. “Nay, he will not. There was no chance for him to finish his conversation with ye earlier. They will be punished, but their punishment shall hardly be their lives.”

  That put her back on edge. “What will it be?”

  “Banishment. It would hardly look well upon my father should he simply forgive the ones who came to take his life, yet they are the relatives of the new princess. A banishment would be most fitting.”

  Banishment. She wanted to breathe a heavy sigh of relief but refrained from doing so lest Kehn see it and think she was making fun of Aelmon’s decision. She took Aaron’s hand instead. “Thank you for giving them a chance.”

  Aaron turned away from her. “Kehn, take my father home and see to it he is cared for. Bell, retrieve our guests and bring them back here.”

  Kehn’s face screwed up a little, but he did as his prince bid him and marched off. Bell went with them, leaving the white, crystal sand of the beach and getting onto the grassy path that led to the palace gardens.

  Dawn and Aaron were completely alone. The moon was bright, and the beach waves sloshed gently in the background. Aaron’s gloved hand slid across her cheek, an act she was growing accustomed to. If only it could be his real hand.

  “That spell that Anata gave you, how often can we use it?”

  Aaron’s hand halted. He cleared his throat. “Despite how we were wed, and the unfortunate events concerning the dragons and yer brother, I am glad we met.”

  That totally wasn’t an answer. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  He motioned with his hand toward the dark water. She turned and saw nothing. “What am I looking for?”

  “Ye are looking too closely. Look out in the distance, where the moon and ocean touch.”

  She did and found what he wanted her to see. A boat, a small yacht really, was anchored all the way out there. There was no way that was an elven craft. Her suspicion turned to fear. If she had it right, there was going to be a smaller boat with paddles for rowing hidden somewhere in the bushes just beyond the sand. Nox and Blake would’ve hidden it there as they’d snuck onto the island.

  “You’re sending me away?”

  Aaron crossed his arms behind his back, keeping a stoic face.

  She wanted to punch him just to get a more appropriate reaction. “Are you kidding me? After everything you just said, after what Anata did for you, you’re getting rid of me?”

  Now he flinched. “Ye make me out to be a monster. ’Tis not a decision I am making lightly.”

  “Then why are you making it?”

  “I am sparing ye.”

  “From what? The no sex thing?” she demanded. “Who cares? I could live without it, and we have something to help with that now anyway.”

  “Aye, but ’tis not the same, and ye well know it.”

  That took her aback. So, even he was experienced enough to know the difference between a fantasy and real physical touch.

  “We could still—”

  “Dawn!” Blake and Nox burst from the trees and onto the sand.

  Dawn barely heard the excited shout of her brother. She didn’t take her eyes away from Aaron until Blake pounced on her, wrapping his arms around her middle, and lifted her into the air in a bone-crushing hug and dizzying spin.

  “You did it, sis!” Blake laughed. “I thought I’d be stuck in that damp cellar living off rats for the rest of my life.”

  Dawn wriggled in his grip until her feet were back on soft beach sand. “You wouldn’t have a life without Aaron. Go thank him,” she said, even though she couldn’t look her husband in the face anymore.

  Blake’s eyes widened, as did Nox’s.

  Nox was the first to shrug and turn toward his savior. “Thank you, for everything.” He clapped Aaron on the back and reached out to take his hand.

  Aaron jerked back from the touch and just stared at the offered hand like it might be disease infested.

  Nox’s brows came together, his offered hand slowly dropping. “Uh, all right.”

  “Doesn’t look too thrilled to have helped us,” Blake said, hardly tuning down his voice.

  Dawn nudged him.

  “What happened to your face?” Nox asked, his eyes on the healing burn that still showed. By now it looked mostly like a tan gone wrong, but he still brought her fingers up to touch the spot.

  “I burned it a couple of days ago,” she replied.

  “What will ye do with yer mother?” Aaron asked, straightening his robes. “I’ll need a suitable answer to give to the royal council.”

  Dawn wanted to know the answer to that, too. As far as she was concerned, she was no longer that woman’s daughter, and what Georgiana’d done needed the most punishment of all.

  Blake’s smile was humorless, his eyes angry and hard. “She’s used us before, but she’d never actually put me, my sister, or Nox’s lives in danger. She won’t see us coming when we go for her.”

  “Are you sure you can do that?” Dawn asked. Even she wasn’t entirely certain she could carry out an assassination on her mother.

  Blake shrugged, a cold mask slipping over his face. He nodded out to sea where the yacht was still anchored. “That our boat?”

  Dawn looked at Aaron, knowing he meant her to go with them. “Yes,” she answered for him.

  Nox ran to the tree line and came back hunched over, dragging a small rowboat behind him from where they’d hidden it. He pushed it into the water, jumped in, and grabbed one of the paddles. “Let’s get out of here already. Are you coming?”

  The question was directed at her. She looked at Aaron and shook her head.

  He took a deep breath, chest rising and falling, but when he spoke, he looked at some faraway place over her shoulder. “I will arrange to have yer things sent back to yer home.”

  “Wait,” Blake said with a hopeful smile. “You’re letting her go, too?”

  He nodded. “I would be a useless husband to have. My kind does not practice divorce, but an annulment is possible.”

  “I’m not going,” Dawn said.

  She felt, rather than saw, Blake’s surprised jerk. He gripped her arm in a panicky gesture. “Dawn, he just gave you a get-out-of-jail-free card.”

  Dawn lunged away from her brother. “I said I’m not going!”

  Now she was the one panicking. She reached out and gripped Aaron’s cloak, grasping tightly when he tried to push her away. “Careful!”

  “I’m staying with you!” She looked into his yellow-green eyes, begging, “Don’t do this.”

  He looked away. At the sand, her brother behind her, and Nox in the little rowboat, like he was trying to look at anything but her. She could hear his heart drumming in his chest and his blood flowing hot.

  “’Tis not right, asking ye to stay.” His gloved fingers wrapped around her arms, and in a movement damn near mechanical, he separated them. “There is no life here with me, regardless of any spell. Do ye understand that?”

  Dawn’s throat swelled. “I love you.”

  He sucked in a breath and stared hard at her. His eyes softened. “The sun may love the moon, but he will never catch her.”

  “That’s stupid, sappy poetry shit,” she spat.

  She didn’t mean it. She actually thought his words beautiful. But nobody, not even an elf, could actually spe
ak like that. He was just trying to make it easier.

  Aaron took her leather-gloved hand into his gold one and lifted it to his lips, kissing it. “With this, I banish ye from the Blue Isles for yer part in the attempted assassination of our king,” he said, looking into her eyes. “Go home, Dawn.”

  He turned and walked away from her, disappearing into the shadows of the trees with the grace of a ghost.

  A hand touched her shoulder, grasped it, then pulled her toward the little yellow rowboat that would lead them to the yacht.

  “Dawn, let’s go home,” Blake said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

  She wanted to cry, but she held back. It made her throat ache like a bitch, though.

  She clutched her hands together and allowed herself to be led into the water. If she said one word, she’d break down like some little weakling in front of the two people she needed to be strongest for.

  They walked to their knees in the lapping ocean. Blake hopped into the boat in one smooth motion, seating himself. He and Nox waited for her, both holding out their hands for her, even though she was just as capable of getting into the boat as her brother. She took their hands anyway and allowed herself to be pulled in, dripping water all the way.

  Blake and Nox grabbed the oars and started rowing. No one said anything. There was only the sound of the plastic, yellow paddles dipping in and out of the water. She’d obviously made enough of a display that it had put the awkward all over the air.

  She could hardly believe it. Aaron could touch her cheek in the forest, admit that he loved her since before meeting her, then just walk away? Obviously it made sense in his head. Otherwise he wouldn’t have done it. He felt as though letting her go was the right thing, as if that would make amends for allowing himself to be married to her.

  Then he could go off and sulk and be a martyr for a love he felt he couldn’t have. While she did…what? Lived a happy life, as though none of this had ever happened?

  “The sun’s going to be up in less than an hour. We need to hurry,” Nox said, breaking the silence. He was sweating, as if he could already feel the heat scorching his skin.

  Dawn felt fine. Of course, she’d been walking around the woods for days in her biker gear, which had since become little more than a sweat suit. Must’ve built a tolerance to the heat.

  That made her pause.

  Her hand, the leather glove. She’d switched clothes but had always been sure to wear her gloves. Aaron’s suggestion, and his kiss...her glove wasn’t gold. The other glove was gold, the one that she’d touched Aaron’s chest with, but he hadn’t kissed that glove. He’d kissed her other hand.

  She wiggled her fingers, willing the spell to take over and transform the thing. Nothing. She pulled it off and looked at it from inside out.

  Perfectly normal, the leather was exactly like it should be.

  “Dawn, you all right?” Blake sounded far away and worried.

  In a moment of thoughtlessness and desperation, Aaron had kissed her hand. Her glove to be more precise. And it didn’t change. He’d physically touched her glove with his lips, but it did not turn into gold.

  Blake and Nox had stopped rowing and stared at her, confusion evident in their eyes. She smiled at them and sat up. “You guys go.”

  Blake stood and grabbed her wrist before she could jump out. “We’re supposed to go home. We’re going to take care of Mom.”

  She shook her head, a crazed smile lifting her lips. “You take care of Mom your way. I am going home.”

  Blake’s eyebrows lifted high. With a roll of his shoulders, he released her. “Your choice. Take care of yourself.”

  “You, too.” She kissed her brother’s cheek, then Nox’s, spun, and dived into the water and swam for land. The moment she felt the sand beneath her, she stood up and ran, kicking her feet high above the water until she was clear of the ocean. She followed Aaron’s path into the trees.

  It was weird, but for the first time, they seemed to move out of her way, their branches not hindering and scratching her like before, almost welcoming her now.

  He hadn’t gone far, for which she was glad. She didn’t want to track him all the way through the forest. Elves hardly left trails that could be followed, but she knew which direction to go. The trees pointed the way with their branches.

  An insane laugh bubbled inside her as she figured it out. By letting go of the woman he loved, Aaron had lifted his curse. He’d kissed her hand, and the idiot hadn’t bothered to look and see if the glove would transform.

  She found him not far from the beach, in a secluded spot, facing the East. He must have heard her panting because he turned.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  His lips quirked. “Waiting for dawn, I suppose.”

  She wondered if he’d intended the pun. She decided not to ask on it and stepped forward, walking until they were almost nose to nose.

  She should kiss him. Full-on, mouth, tongue, all that, just to shock the hell out of him.

  He leaned away from her before she could, uncomfortable with their closeness. “Ye should be on the boat.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.” She grabbed him by his robes and pulled his mouth onto hers.

  There was no magical meshing of mouths. He didn’t forget himself in her lips, return her embrace, and kiss her back. Her lips had touched his for the briefest second before he lunged away, his hands clenching her arms and holding her away from him, staring at her in horror.

  She stared back, smiling. She tossed her glove against his chest, and he caught it. “It didn’t change either.”

  His eyes went from her down to the glove, then back to her and her bare hand, the other still in the golden glove. He shook his head. He didn’t believe it.

  After years of living with his curse, she didn’t blame him. “You’re cured, Aaron. You tried to let me go. You wanted me to have a husband that I could touch and have children with, and that proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you’re without greed. You’re cured.”

  Aaron’s nostrils flared. He yanked his glove off, then reached trembling fingers to her face. He bit his bottom lip and pulled away at the last second, his breath heavy from the struggle he was going through. “I cannot…”

  Dawn took his arm and brought his hand back up. His fingers clenched up, so she brushed her cheek along his knuckles before smoothing out the digits with her own bare hand.

  He exhaled a tortured sound, his eyes scanning her face for any signs of a transformation.

  “I’m still here,” she said, then touched his face for the first time. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  He released another gush of air. He looked ready to have a seizure, but instead, he put his mouth onto hers in a clumsy kiss.

  His bare hand threaded through her hair, touched her face, everywhere that could be touched. He lifted her, and she wrapped her legs around his waist.

  “Thank you. Thank you,” he chanted between kisses, tightening his arms around her, nearly crushing her into him.

  She did not release his lips until the sky began changing colors in the distance. From black to navy, lavender, and pink.

  She pulled her mouth away, the heat from the sun and his body too much on all her senses. “We need to take this inside now. Get all those layers off you, and after that, you can’t ever suggest an annulment again.”

  “I would never dream of such a thing.” He grabbed her hand into his ungloved one and all but ran with her back to the palace.

  Every guard they passed lost their serious faces as their prince ran down the halls with his wife, and the ones who noticed his bare hand holding onto hers got all bug-eyed. It was enough to make Dawn burst out laughing.

  “Shall we alert yer brother—?” one elf guard called as they ran past.

  “We are not to be disturbed for the remainder of the day!” Aaron shouted back, a wide smile on his face as he did.

  Dawn only barely recognized the layout from the few times she’d travelle
d these halls herself, but they definitely weren’t heading for her rooms.

  Aaron finally made a sharp turn and burst in through a pair of double doors, revealing a chamber consisting almost entirely of gold.

  Aaron released her hand and ran to his windows, pulling shut the heavy golden curtains over each one along the wall to keep out the coming morning rays of dawn.

  It gave Dawn a moment to look around herself. Everything was gold, from the rushes at her feet, to the sparse furniture, to the swords and practicing dummy on the far right side.

  In a way it made sense. If this was his bedchamber, then it would also be his sanctuary. This was his place to not have to worry about his curse or touching any other living thing.

  And Dawn knew that she was the first other person to be allowed access to this space.

  Aaron came back to her, his face bright with anticipation.

  “No more spells this time?” Dawn asked. His excitement was contagious.

  “Never again, if I can help it.” He bent at his knees, wrapped his arms around her legs, and lifted her up and over his shoulder. Dawn shrieked with laughter as she was almost immediately slammed down onto the gold covers of his bed. His hands were on her neck, fingers in her hair and touching her ears.

  “Yer flesh is soft.” He said it like he was in a trance.

  “Feels better than the fantasy?” she asked.

  “Aye.” His fingers found their way down to her borrowed blouse, the one that he hadn’t turned to gold, and deftly began opening the buttons. He was pretty good about it considering none of the elf clothes had buttons to use.

  Dawn’s blood bubbled in response, the folds of her sex swelling in anticipation, and she found herself working on the strings of his breeches and peeling off both layers of his clothing.

  She slowed down only to put her hands on the expanse of his chest. It was one of the things he hadn’t altered in their magical hallucination. He was just as gorgeous, if a little paler. Her fingertips were the first to touch the muscle of his stomach, and then she flattened her palms against him, delighting in the feel of his warm skin.

  Aaron released a breath that sounded almost relieved, but his eyes slid shut as she worked her hands around his hips, stroking and touching to her content.