by Marie Hall
Her uncertainty of what’d been happening between her and Robin, the immediate and overwhelming strength of their passion…it’d transcended mere love or magic.
“Surely you did not doubt it.” She brushed a curl of hair behind Nixie’s ear. “Legendary love is both rare and one to be envied. And bloody hell is your wedding night going to be one for the ages when your twenty years are up.”
She vanished then, the strains of her merriment echoed through the warmth of those woods, wrapping Nixie up in a velvety embrace.
~*~
“Favorite color?”
“Red,” she shot out at him. “You?”
He narrowed his eyes, as if giving it serious thought, which she thought was ridiculously adorable.
“Green.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course.”
They laughed. A month into her sentence and Robin and Nixie still had so much yet to learn about each other. She’d gotten over the worst of the pain, over the knowledge that he was nothing but shadow to her, and she to him.
Now, it was just the pleasure of getting to see him each night, the warmth that flowed through her body whenever the veil between their worlds would part and he’d step through to her.
“Robin?” she asked, plucking up a daisy by her foot and stripping one petal off at a time.
“Hm?” His unswerving gaze seemed to drink her in.
“Is this real? Any of this? Do you really feel for me now what you did when I was flesh with you?”
Sitting up from the blanket they were sitting on, he lifted a hand toward her, as if wanting to caress the side of her face like he used to do.
The sunlit meadow they sat in sparkled and danced with life. The entire place might be crafted from his imagination, all of this imagined, but nothing had ever felt more real to her.
Not when she’d created her Chicago skyline. Not when she’d chatted with Danika and shared tea and biscuits. This setting, this world within a world felt more real than her life on Earth ever had.
Every morning she’d wake to wander the woods, to walk through the massive gardens of his castle home. Sometimes, if she were really adventurous, she’d tour the great castle.
His home when he’d been a child.
Robin had fashioned it to appear, not as it had under Crispin’s reign, but under his father’s. She passed as a ghost amongst the shades of people who wandered through it. He’d created everything to exacting detail.
And every once in a while, she’d even see a small child with blond hair and blue eyes that looked almost exactly like Robin might have when he’d been one. It’d been tricky at first to decipher which was Robin and which was Crispin, but remembering Robin’s stories, of how he was silent and shy, it soon became evident who was who.
Every so often, she’d follow Robin around looking at what he looked at. Coming to know and understand his likes and dislikes.
A swath of sun shone through Robin’s hand, tinting his blue colored skin an even lighter shade of translucence, so that she could almost make out the pattern of the fabric they sat on through it.
Robin squeezed his eyes shut, but not before she caught a flash of pain in them. “I can’t touch you, I can’t taste you, I can’t hold you, but even while I know this,” his eyes opened and he pierced her with his sincerity, “this is real. I will wait for you, my pet.”
She tilted her jaw just a little. “Hold your hand up.”
He moved it up, so that now it appeared only an inch separated them. She smiled and pretended to rub her face back and forth against it, pretended she could feel the heat of his warmth invade hers.
“Robin, if this ever becomes—”
He smiled. “It never will. Have faith in me, as I have faith in you.”
Wanting to change the subject, not because it didn’t make her smile and want to jump up with joy, because it did. But it also made her want to sob and that she didn’t want to do. She gave him a tight-lipped smile.
“I know you were worried about Crispin, Robin. How will you—”
Settling back onto the blanket, he gave her a careless shrug. “Well it seems I had more options than just merely wishing him away to make sure he stayed gone.”
“What?” She gave him a small giggle of confusion. “What did you do?”
His grin moved slowly across his face, reminding her of sun warmed honey. “It is not what I did, but rather, what Danika did.”
“Danika? What in the world did Danika do?”
A breeze stirred between them, smelling sweetly of flowers and rain soaked earth, though it never rained in here, the weather and setting was, nonetheless, always perfect.
“Seems her friend Baba Yaga helped her out once again and Crispin is now her problem.”
“Wait. What?” She rubbed her brow. “Baba Yaga? Like the Russian fairy tale witch?”
“Oh,” he chuckled, “Did I never tell you of my encounter with the witch? Well then, my pet, allow me to regale you.”
And so he did, making her laugh and chuckle along the way.
~*~
And for the next few years she and Robin grew closer than almost any two souls in the universe could. Learning not only each other’s hearts and likes, but the very core and heartbeat of themselves as well.
And there was always something new to discover, about him, about her, about who they were together.
And the curse that should have been a torture slowly evolved into a story far greater than their tale. He could never feel her touch, or her his, but the link that’d formed between them upon the lands of Kingdom grew richer. Deeper. And so vast it was endless.
Sometimes Robin would play the lyre for her until the sun rose. Other times he’d play and she’d dance to his tune. Even though she was a lousy dancer, he seemed to enjoy it. Some nights they’d talk about their lives, about growing up as children, and every once in a while, when the desires for more overtook them, they’d dare to dream about their future.
She as his queen, he as her eternally devoted mate.
And though it should not be possible that their union grew stronger without the melding of their bodies to enrich it, it was undoubtedly so.
Robin—now known only as Robin to her and his men, as he’d firmly established himself in his brother’s stead—was known as a great and powerful king. A true warrior and lion-heart for his subjects.
She laughed when he told her of the games he held each year, and how mothers far and wide from across the realm would try to turn his eye toward their daughters. She no longer doubted his devotion to her, though she was stuck in a world apart from his, she knew with all her mind, and soul that only she held the key to his heart.
And prisoner though she was, especially during the days when the isolation was long and desolate, and her body ached for his, she knew her nights would be just the opposite. He never failed to come to her. Taking off his ring, he’d approach her not as Crispin the king, but as Robin the man—the noble thief who’d stolen her heart.
Murmurings soon began to stir in the realm that the king’s heart was ensorcelled and that was why he’d refused all offers of marriage. Eventually, it’d been John who’d circulated the legend of the cursed Maid Marian.
With Danika’s help, they’d crafted a mirror that enabled an onlooker to see her. Robin had set the mirror in a prominent vantage point of his great hall every morning so that any member of his realm could look upon his truest love.
Nixie had been a little shy about it at first, but she’d soon learned to play up to her role. She could not look out, she could not interact with anyone, she didn’t know whether it was children, men, or women looking in on her, but she smiled and she kept herself busy. Humming beneath her breath, dressed in the fashion of his Kingdom, and slowly but surely the people of his realm grew to love the cursed princess trapped within the looking glass.
Every night, Robin had his guards take the mirror to his room. And so even as his legend grew, so did hers.
And in that
manner the time between them grew, as did their love. Transforming from a mere thing of fiery passion to one deep and sure and unshakeable.
~*~
Halfway through her incarceration now, it was easier on her to deal with their arrangement. No longer did Nixie even think about not being able to touch Robin, or he her. Because their hearts had so completely melded and united as only two like hearts could.
“What did you do today, my lovely?” Robin asked her, plucking at a grape and popping it into his mouth.
Robin had discovered about five years ago that if he wanted to eat in her world, he could actually bring small items through in his secret pocket. The magic of the pocket broke the rules of this world in that, not only could Robin eat of it, but so could she.
She could grab hold of anything that came out of that pocket. And so each time he passed her an apple, to her, it was almost as good as a caress.
Nixie stole one of his grapes and plopped it on her tongue. Laughing when he growled at her.
“Thief,” he snorted.
“Well, you should know.” She swallowed the sweet fruit, then dusted her hands together. “You are the king of them after all.”
“Aye.” His grin was pure cocky bravado and made her toes curl. “That I am, pet, that I am.”
Snorting, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “As to my day. It was the same as any other. Though I did happen to spy a blond headed boy with the most startling pair of electric blue eyes come tearing down a hall screaming bloody murder, as a similar looking child raced after him with what appeared to be a garden snake.”
At first Robin frowned, but the moment she mentioned the snake, he burst out laughing and slapped his thigh. “Good God, I’d forgotten all about that.”
Sitting to her knees, knowing she was about to learn another one of his funny stories, she nodded.
Nixie had discovered as time went on, that not all of Robin’s memories with his family had been bad. Not even with Crispin. Though Crispin was an asshole of the highest order now, there’d been a time, way back in the beginning, that he’d been nothing more than a rascally little boy.
Rolling his eyes, Robin popped another handful of grapes in his mouth, before saying, “Argh, yes, well that was one of my least bright moments in life. So I was walking the gardens one fine spring day and happened upon a pig-snouted candy adder. Well, kids and sweets, how could I resist, you know.”
“Oh, of course.” She giggled. “But what exactly is a pig-snouted candy adder?”
“You’ve not got those on your world?” His eyes went wide when she shook her head. “You’re absolutely missing out. They’re only the most desirable of all reptiles in all the lands. A pig-snouted candy adder gives you treats.”
“Treats? How?” She shook her head, smiling as his hands began to twirl and dance about as he told his story.
“Every time it breathes, out pops a tiny little confectioner.”
“That’s gross, Robin.”
“What?” He frowned. “Gross?”
“You’re telling me you eat snake boogers. That’s gross.”
Tossing his head back, he laughed loud and hard, hanging onto his stomach with one hand as he knuckled the tears out of his eyes with the other.
“You’re really quite absurd, my pet. Boogies. Honestly.”
She tossed up her hands. “Yeah, where do I get these things.”
“Hm.” He nodded. “Anyway, I was so proud of myself for catching it that I raced into the castle to show my braether—”
Now, after all these years, Nixie finally understand why when Crispin had used the word Robin had turned white as a sheet. Braether had been their word for brother back when times had been happy, when Robin had been confident in Crispin’s love.
After much time and talking it out, Robin had finally gotten to a point where (if he hadn’t exactly forgiven his brother) he’d come to accept that he could laugh about the good without thinking about the bad.
“—the bounty I’d caught us. Of course, that was when Crispin snatched the snake out of my hand, and growled at me, ‘you idiotic ass, this is not a pig-snouted candy adder, but a hog-nosed adder’. Which is quite deadly.”
It was her turn to laugh. Laughing so hard she began wheezing. “How in the hell did you not realize the difference?”
Looking a little mortified, he shrugged. “They looked exactly the same to me back then. And maybe it tried to nibble on me a time or two, but truly, how could a seven year old be expected to know the difference?”
“Your brother did, and didn’t it strike you as odd that it didn’t give you snot candy?”
Flicking his wrist as if to dismiss her, but all done in good humor, he rolled his eyes. “It may have crossed my mind, but that was secondary to the find. I thought its nose was plugged up was all.”
Nixie covered her mouth with her hand, trying in vain not to laugh at him for that one. “Oh God, Robin, you are a mess.”
“Aye, well, that was the lesson that finally taught me to watch and listen and not just stumble into things blindly, so there was a silver lining in all of that after all.”
Heart warm and smile cramping her cheeks, she nodded. “Oh, honey, you do make me laugh.”
~*~
“Tomorrow,” he whispered with heart in his throat.
She nodded. “Tomorrow, Robin. Twenty years.”
“I will not come to you tomorrow.”
She frowned. “You won’t?”
“No.” He shook his head. “For I wish to make certain that when you step out of his prison, you will be greeted by the splendor that my Queen should have.”
She smiled.
Nixie couldn’t understand why she’d fought her parents for so long to come to Kingdom. Back then, she’d not wanted any part of immortality, any part of living a life without end, she couldn’t fathom it and the fear of the unknown had made her set her heart and mind against it.
But now…now everything had changed.
And just like Danika had promised her once before, that eventually someday she’d come to love Kingdom even more than Earth, she had.
Because on Earth these twenty years with Robin would have never happened. She’d have never known him. By the time she’d emerged from this prison he would have aged and so would she, any life they could have built would have been nothing more than unrequited dreams.
But now here he stood, her beautiful warrior, his skin as golden as when she’d first met him. His body as powerful and strong, as was her own.
They would meet as equals, as partners in every sense of the word.
Robin walked toward the portal. After tonight, they’d never again be separated. Turning back to look at her, he lifted his hand in farewell. “I love you, my pet. Always.”
And then he was gone.
~*~
The next day just as the sun was soon to set, a beautiful fairy came to visit the lovely Maid Marian.
Onlookers watched in awe as the fairy lifted her wand and, with a smile of wonder and joy, told the princess that her curse was finally lifted…
Chapter 20
Nixie stepped through the portal that Jericho had designed for a hunky thief twenty years ago. A portal that, till now, she’d never been able to pass through.
And Nixie went to him not as Marian, or a genie, but simply a woman. She left all her clothes back in that lamp, because to her, this was like a rebirth of sorts.
She smiled when she landed in his room.
They’d known this night would eventually come, and Robin—it seemed—had wasted not a moment in planning for their reunion.
His room was a massive thing built of stone and wooden rafters. Thick beeswax candles lined the polished mahogany desk. Royal banners and paintings lined the walls. Plush, colorful carpets were laid out on the floors. In the center of the room was an enormous bed covered in furs, and sitting cross-legged on it was the man himself, wearing a broad smile and nothing else.
He’d taken off his
ring, so that she did not stare at Crispin’s face, but his own. His blue eyes blazed like hottest flame as they moved slowly down her body.
Then without speaking a word, he crawled off that bed. His muscles flexing and pulling like a jungle cat’s, smooth and graceful.
In twenty years he’d not aged a day. His body was still the same sculpted monument it’d been when she’d first met him.
“My pet,” he purred when he came to a stop just inches in front of her.
With an inarticulate cry of joy and sorrow, Nixie wrapped her arms around his neck. Robin scooped her up, kissing her lips as he moved them over to the bed, laying her down gently.
And though the hunger between them had raged hot, his touch was tender. Gentle. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he began to slowly kiss and suckle his way down her neck.
She moaned, flexing her hips so that his thickness pressed against her heat.
“An eternity to have you,” he groaned. “I wish to go slow, my love, but—”
She gasped when his teeth latched on to her nipple hard, making her come nearly undone. Clawing at his back, she maneuvered her hips, forcing his length deep inside her.
“Slow later,” she growled, writhing in time to his masterful strokes.
The night echoed with the sounds of their now frenzied mating. Her blood, her skin, hell, even her hair, it all tingled, it all sang. Her body came alive under his touch.
“I love you, my beauty. My pet. My glorious, wondrous genie.” He mumbled against her neck as he pumped his hips harder, bucking against her so powerfully that she had to hook her ankles behind his back just to hang on.
But she didn’t care. Nixie only wished that she could crawl under his skin. Could stay inside his warmth forever.
Her head spiraled with blackness and stars. Their breathing became nothing but grunts and long, labored moans of ecstasy.
“Love you too,” she whispered in between nipping at his flesh, “so much. Always. Forever.”
“And ever, and ever, and ever.” He laughed, and so did she, but they never stopped their attempts to slip into one another’s souls.
