by Eve Newton
I stand up, not taking this jealous crap from him. “You heard me,” I say defiantly.
“You let that Demon spawn fuck you?” he says as he grips the top of my arms so tightly, I think he’s going to break them. On the plus side, the curse seems to have lost its juice in the face of a Faerie temper tantrum.
“Need I remind you that I am part Demon,” I say to him. “How dare you speak about him that way!”
My own temper has gone off the charts and oh dear! Xerxei has made an appearance. How in Hell did that happen here?
I slam Sebastian back to the floor, with my hand at his throat, choking the life out of him. Well, not quite, seeing as how that is impossible, but I am giving it the old college try anyway. Even though I am throttling him in defense over my Demon husband, Sebastian is never one to let an opportunity go by. He lifts my hips and rams me down onto his rock-hard cock. I gasp at the audacity as he pumps me up and down over him like I am some sort of blow-up doll, here to pleasure him. He grunts loudly as he comes inside of me and then flings me across the room, where I land half under the ornate bed in the most undignified position known to womankind.
“What the fuck?” I yell at him as I crawl onto my hands and knees, brushing my hair out of my eyes.
“Sorry,” he mumbles. “That wasn’t me.”
I blink as I take him in. No, it was definitely the curse rearing its head after being squashed momentarily by our domineering power clash. He is scorched from head to toe and it looks painful.
“Are you okay?” I ask him.
“I’ll be fine in a minute,” he says, sitting up. “Got the job done, though, didn’t I?” he adds, almost proud of himself.
“Sure, you did,” I say. “The most romantic time of my life.”
He laughs loudly. “I will make it up to you, I promise, once he removes the curse.”
“I will hold you to that or Xerxei will kick your arse again,” I tell him as I hobble over to the closet to get my gown.
“Let that bitch loose on me again and we’ll see whose ass gets kicked,” he says as he too stands up unsteadily.
I turn to face him, now having changed back to Aeval. “You don’t like Xerxei?” I ask archly.
“I don’t like what she stands for,” he says cautiously in case I go Demonic on him again.
“Meaning?” I press.
“Your relationship with him,” he says.
“You have something against Xane?” I ask, knowing I am pushing his limits, but it is such fun. I don’t get away with it with CK, but Sebastian lets me roll him over like a dead dog.
“I have something against anyone who holds a claim on you,” he says. “You are mine, Aeval.” He sneers my Faerie name at me, and it makes me look harder at him. He is being serious. Deadly serious. I think I may have just pushed him that bit too far.
“Even our sire?” I ask, never having been given the gift of knowing when to give up.
“Especially him!” he says through clenched teeth. “He doesn’t deserve you,” he adds as he roughly shoves his foot into his pants. “He doesn’t have anything to do with the bigger picture. He just got to you first. That has been his only saving grace all of these years.” He pulls his shirt over his head, nearly ripping it, as I just stand there, mouth agape, clutching my gown to me.
“He won’t win this fight, Aeval. I can assure you of that. You are my wife now; I am the only one that Drake approves of. If you have truly chosen the Faerie, if you have chosen your father, then you have chosen me!” he exclaims as he sits to put his shoes on. “I alone have your destiny in my hands. You will sacrifice those who have come before me, and we will live as man and wife and bring forth the blessed child.”
He is breathing heavily after this impassioned, and quite frankly, bizarre speech. I have never known him to be so, so…I struggle for a word and then it comes to me: so much like our sire. But of course, it is there. How can it not be? I was a fool to think that he was fun and easygoing and the exact opposite of the intense, brooding, complex man that is Constantine Aquila.
“I see,” I say in the ensuing silence. “You mean to treat me no better than Thrace would.”
My words have the desired effect and I see it pass across his face as I turn to step into my gown.
“Don’t ever say that again,” he says softly. “I love you.” He turns me around to face him, mindless of the sparks. “I love you,” he says again. “You are the only woman I have ever truly loved, and I will for the rest of eternity. But you need to know, Aefre, this changes everything.”
Aefre? Why did he call me that now? It sounds strange coming from his lips and I feel like I am somehow back in the Other World. I start to panic, wondering if we have been switched again and I am in her body again with her Sebastian, but I see the look in his eyes. The look of quiet calm and complete confidence. The look of victory. In his mind, he has taken me from our sire and by calling me by my first name, my original name, by the name that Constantine calls me, he has stepped out of his shadow and into the light.
Or should that be fight?
Chapter 13
The Dark Fae Kingdom, March 2014 - Liv
“I have some questions,” I say to Drake as he escorts me downstairs to his office.
“You always have questions,” he grumbles to me.
“How can one learn if they don’t ask questions?” I ask.
“Very well,” he sighs. “Ask your questions.”
“Well, firstly, how come my Fae Powers don’t work here?” I ask.
He pushes open the office door and ushers me inside. “What do you mean your Fae Powers don’t work here?”
“Exactly that. They work on Earth and in the Underworld, but not here. I tried before, to do that puffy thing, and it failed,” I say.
“Puffy thing?” he asks, confused.
“Where you puff yourself out, you know, puffporting, or whatever you call it,” I explain.
He lets out a loud guffaw at my choice of word and I stand there while he laughs it up at me. “Oh, Aeval. You never fail to surprise me with your words,” he says. “We just call it transporting. And you should be able to do it. All royals can.”
“Oh,” I say. Epic fail then on my behalf. “So why do you think I can’t?”
He shrugs. “Maybe you are trying too hard?”
“No, that’s not it. It works outside of here,” I say, chewing my lip.
“When?” he asks.
I think back to the few times I have used Faerie magick. I had been angry every time, well beyond angry. Thoroughly pissed off more like. “It came to me while I was fighting,” I say.
“Fighting?” He looks concerned as only a father would, but I brush it off. “Hm,” he then says and rubs his chin with his hand.
In the next second, I am flat on my back, having been hit with a bolt of lightning.
“What are you doing?” I ask him, annoyed that not only did he throw magick at me, but that he got me with it.
“Trying to get you angry,” he says with an innocent smile, before he lobs another bolt at me.
I am ready this time and I duck behind his desk and try to throw one back, but it doesn’t work. I shake my hand out with a muttered curse and dodge the next bolt he throws at me.
“Stop it,” I say to him, as I peek out from behind my cover. “It’s not working.”
“Then you obviously aren’t angry enough.” He blasts at me with a two-handed spell that crashes into the desk, blowing it apart and scattering the debris everywhere.
“Aaaahhhh!” I yell as I scramble for cover, but there is no cover. I am cornered. Like a trapped rat. Well, now I am pissed, and what do trapped rats do? They fight. So, I guess I am going to have to pull this off somehow. I hold out my hand and with everything I’ve got, throw some magick his way, which he bats away easily.
“Well, at least you aren’t defunct,” he says. “It’s there, but you are a Princess. A Dark Fae one at that. You are acting like a pansy-ass Light Fae,” he sc
offs.
Pansy-ass? I have never been called that in all my life and I fire off a shot at him, which he deflects, but it gives him something to think about.
“Better,” he says, and puts his hands down. “Now try transporting yourself.”
I close my eyes and off I go to the other side of the room via the Faerie mode of relocation. I clap my hands with glee, but then frown. “But it still only worked because I was mad,” I say.
“Are you mad now?” he asks.
I shake my head. “No, why?”
He points to my hands that are on my hips and they are alight with electricity, sparks flicking quickly, and they grow in intensity as I lift my hands up. I can’t resist the whoop of delight as I fire off a round of bolts at Drake and that has him laughing at my happiness. He holds his hand up and one of my bolts hits his palm and then boomerangs back to me and hits me square in the stomach.
I bend over double, catching my breath, and Drake is at my side instantly, cupping my elbow, with concern etched on his face. “Sit,” he says and pulls out a chair.
“I’m fine,” I say as I stand up straight. “But thanks for thinking my own magick was powerful enough to hurt me.”
“No, it’s not that,” he says and pushes me gently down. “We shouldn’t have been messing about.”
I look at him to explain and he looks away.
He clears his throat and says, “I assume you and Kalen, err, attended to business?”
What? My cheeks flame at the question and I, too, look away, but I get now why he is so concerned. There is a very strong possibility that I am with Fae child now that the union has been performed and Sebastian and I have consummated it. I can only hope it takes a bit longer, so that my husbands, my real husbands, get used to the idea.
“I’m okay,” I reassure him.
He nods and then sits down himself. “Now that you have overcome your power block, what is the next question?”
I think about that. Have I overcome it? Was I trying too hard?
“My next question is: What did I agree to?” I ask him candidly.
“With regards to what?” he asks, cautiously.
“My union with Kalen, of course,” I snap at him. “I don’t speak Faerie and I don’t know what I got roped into.”
He laughs at me again. It is really annoying. “Oh, Aeval. You worry too much. It was a basic ceremony. We had to be quick about it.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” I press, concerned.
“You were joined with him and you are now his wife,” he says.
“Anything else? Is he now my one and only? Am I a slave to his master?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Aeval. What kind of society do you think we run here?” he scoffs at me.
Beats me if I know. Well, doesn’t look like I am going to get much more out of him on this, so moving on. “Very well, seeing as I don’t speak a word of your language, I want you to assign someone to teach me. We have already talked about this, but nothing has been done about it yet,” I say.
“Why can’t your new husband teach you?” he asks slyly.
I think that through. I don’t think Sebastian strikes me as a very good teacher, his temper is too quick, and even though I am a quick study, I don’t think it would work. Not to mention the distractions…
“Perhaps someone with more experience in this area?” I suggest.
“Galoch, then. He teaches the young Fae English,” Drake declares.
I blink as that sinks in. Of course, they bloody speak English. We are speaking in English right now, but it just never occurred to me that it was classified as a “second language.”
“Great!” I exclaim and then decide it really is time to head home. I stand up and he holds his hands out for me. “One more thing,” I say and then frown as I turn to the door. I can sense my new husband hovering on the other side. Seems we have had a bit of an upgrade in that department, and it is not to my liking, as it also means he can sense me. CK will go nuts.
Drake is waiting for me and I lean down and whisper in his ear what I require of him. He looks quite startled, but then pleased and then the grim reality of what I have just said to him sinks in and he scowls at me. “How can I refuse?” he says. “You know what this means, though?”
“I sure do,” I say. “I’m ready.”
“Then I will be too,” he says and leaves it at that.
I keep my secret conversation to myself as it is huge, and it isn’t something that I want a big fight over just yet. We have enough of that as it is. I take Sebastian by the hem of his shirt and say, “Allow me.” I transport us in a puff of smoke back home and Sebastian delights in my found powers. I have landed in the corridor outside my bedroom and I put my hand up to his face, hovering a few inches away. “Home, now,” I murmur, and he nods his acceptance of my backward invitation. I pull my hand away and turn to push open the door. I look back, but he has already gone.
Cole rushes towards me as I step inside, his arms extended, but then he gets thrown back by the curse to his utmost shock. I growl at CK, who is sitting quietly on the bed and I march up to him.
“Get this fucking thing off me,” I snarl at him.
He stands silently and takes me by the arm and drags me into the bathroom. His fingers make quick work of the laces and the gown drops to the ground. His eyes go black as he breathes in and he shoves me into the shower and turns on the jets. I inhale sharply as the frigid water hits me and then glare at him as he mutters more Celtic words that I don’t understand. I am getting highly pissed off with this.
He clearly knows that I have been with Sebastian and he is highly pissed off himself. It fuels my own anger and I turn to him, dripping wet and freezing. “You should know by now that I will do what I want, when I want, regardless of any curses.”
His black eyes now turn red, and for the first time in a couple of years, I start my old mantra: “I will not flinch, I will not flinch”.
“And you should know by now that I do not tolerate this kind of insubordination. Or have you not learned your lesson?” He looks strained, like he is holding onto his monster temper and I wish I hadn’t said what I had.
I turn away from his scary, red eyes and turn the tap to scalding hot. It steams up the room in a matter of seconds and burns my skin, but I don’t care. The look of intense emptiness in his eyes froze my essence. I didn’t even recognize a small part of him.
“I’m sorry,” I mumble as he continues to stare at me. “We had no choice. Thrace threatened me…” I sigh heavily. “It doesn’t matter.”
At his silence, I look back at him warily. His eyes have gone back to their normal beautiful shade of amber. “I know,” he says. “I knew what would happen when he found out, but I had to try,” he adds softly, and I want to cry at the sorrow in his voice.
I reach for him, but he pulls away and turns to leave. Funnily enough, I don’t follow him. Seems I have learned my lesson after all.
Cole joins me a few moments later, emerging from the steam into my view. I turn the tap back down to a more reasonable temperature and smile at him. “All curse free,” I say, indicating my person.
“I’m glad he did it,” Cole says. “Was a bit rude not to include me in the exception, though.”
“Very rude,” I say with a little laugh.
He regards me with his sorrowful eyes, and I know he knows about what Sebastian and I have done. I do the only thing a loving, and manipulative, wife and sire can do to ease his pain.
I lie.
“It was one time, baby. We had to make the union whole. That’s all,” I say quietly, hating myself.
“And what about the baby you are supposed to have?” he asks. “Unless you plan on trying to convince me it will be Immaculate Conception, you are going to have to do it again.”
Immaculate Conception. What a grand idea that would have been. Too bad no one thought of that when they came up with the prophecy. Too bad I didn’t just tell them that was the way it was going to g
o down anyway.
I shrug. “Don’t want to think about that right now,” I say, taking the coward’s way out.
He nods in agreement. “Me either,” he says and then we just stare at each other.
“Will you go to Carolyn now?” he suddenly asks.
Ah crap! I had almost forgotten about that. I shake my head. “Tomorrow. I am worn out. I can’t deal with that right now either,” I say and slump my shoulders.
Cole leans in and turns off the jets. I shiver as the warm water stops heating me and he reaches for a towel to wrap around me. I wiggle out of it and it drops to floor. Cole’s eyes blaze over me and without warning he takes me hard and fast against the sinks, with his pants around his ankles. I let him use me, this one time, and then I whisper to him that I want him to make love to me. He lifts me into his arms and staggers to the bed with me giggling at his slow progress due to his pants. He drops me on the bed and whisks the rest of his clothes off before he dives on me with exuberance and this time I finish long before he does.
Twice.
I awake alone, as per usual, and dread wells up that I have to go and see Carolyn this morning. I really don’t want to, but it has to be done. I should also check on Cade, but I decide to do it later and head downstairs to find my husbands. I pause on the bottom stair, as I once again hear them whispering in the library. I sit down and let my Dragon hearing take over.
“What was the point of it?” Cole asks in exasperation. “It didn’t even work.”
“It did,” CK says.
“No, Liv already ‘fessed up. She screwed him, and now this fucking blessed baby is going to turn up,” Cole says, angry. I hear him throw a punch at the wall. He seriously has to stop doing that. He is destroying my houses all across the Realms.
“Perhaps,” CK says, still calmly. I cock my eyebrow at that. If anything, I thought he would be the one going ballistic.
“Perhaps?” Cole repeats. “Is that all you have to say?”
I hear CK give his world-weary sigh and picture him sitting in my desk chair.
“I put the curse on her, not to stop Sebastian from taking her, but to stop Thrace,” CK eventually admits.
