by Amy Sumida
That was how Torin found us.
I would have felt awkward about it if I hadn't been so distraught. There I was, trembling in the arms of a man who had declared his intentions to take me from Torin. It must have looked pretty damning. But Torin wasn't an idiot. He came crashing into the clearing on horseback, took one look around, and then focused on me.
Banning had lifted his knife, but hurriedly lowered it when he saw who it was. I witnessed it all through the corner of my eye, still too upset to remove my head from the security of Banning's chest. I felt Banning tense beneath me and stand, taking me with him.
“Give her to me,” Torin said with cool command, and his voice was enough to gain my attention.
“Torin,” I whispered.
Torin's eyes widened when he saw the state of me, and he seemed to forget Banning altogether. He leapt from the saddle and rushed over to me. One of his warm hands went to my cheek, and the other smoothed the hair back from my face. His throat convulsed harshly before he spoke.
“Are you hurt?” Torin whispered. “Did they hurt you, Elaria? Tell me.”
“No, I'm okay,” I said shakily. “I've just been here alone, tied up for hours. I wasn't sure anyone would find me.”
“They just left you here?” Banning asked.
“No.” I looked at the horses. More horses than people in the clearing. “They . . . they tried to . . .”
“But they didn't?” Torin asked before I had to finish saying it.
“No.” I took a deep breath. “I was afraid and angry that I could be so easily restrained. The rage just boiled up, and I screamed. Something happened. There was a light. I closed my eyes against it. When I opened them, the men were piles of ash.”
“You burned them with your rage?” Banning whispered in awe.
“I think the relic did.” I shook my head. “I can stand now, Banning. Thank you.”
“All right.” Banning reluctantly lowered my feet to the grass. “Are you sure?”
“Let go of her, Banning.” Torin took my arm and carefully eased me over to him.
“I'll let her go when I'm good and ready,” Banning growled, holding tight to my arm.
“You'll let her go now or I'll remove your hand with my sword,” Torin snarled back.
I started to cry again, falling limply forward, and both men reached out to catch me.
“Damn it all,” Torin cursed, and swept me into his arms, yanking me out of Banning's grasp. “See what you've done?”
“What I've done?” Banning scoffed. “You're the one acting like a barbarian.”
“The horses,” I moaned before they could start fighting again.
“What's that, sweetheart?” Torin asked me.
“The horses.” I turned to Banning. “Can you bring them back with you? I don't want them left here alone.”
“Of course,” Banning said immediately.
“Thank you.” I gave him a look that expressed both my gratitude, and my hope that he would back off. I couldn't handle a fight between Torin and him. Not right then.
“You're welcome, Elaria,” Banning sighed, and then nodded. “I'll take the horses with me to Evervale, and let the others know that she's been found,” he said to Torin.
“My thanks.” Torin set me into the saddle of his horse, a massive black beast, and then swung up behind me. “I'll take Elaria home.”
Torin swung us about and set off at a gallop, racing through the forest like we were being chased by demons. I didn't care. I felt safe again, and that was all that mattered. I snuggled in against Torin, burrowing my face into his tunic, and inhaled his scent. It settled me further, and I kept my face pressed there, my cheek to his heart, so I could keep breathing him in.
I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I recall is being carried up the stairs to Torin's bedroom. He went straight to the bathroom, and set me on a padded stool as he ran some water in the bathtub. The tub was porcelain, stark against the rest of the dark room, and set down into a pedestal that filled the entire far end of the room. Behind it was a short ledge, and then a wall of windows, but the drapes were pulled shut.
I blinked more awake, pulling my eyes from the silver curtains, and caught Torin staring at me. He was crouched beside the tub, one hand trailing in the water to test the temperature, but he was focused on me.
“What?”
“I've never known such fear,” he confessed in a whisper. “Panic. The threats against your life made me angry, but I wasn't truly afraid until today, when they took you from me. They took you.” He slammed his fist into the water, sending it splashing up in a torrent and making me flinch. “Just snatched you away, and there was nothing I could do about it. I wasn't even there! And I wasn't even the one who found you.”
“Torin,” I whispered, “I'm okay.”
“I let you sway me.” His chest was rising and falling rapidly. “I let you go out into a dangerous situation alone. Never again, Elaria.”
He began removing my clothing efficiently. The shoes went first, then my dirty tunic. Torin helped me stand so he could get my breeches off, and then he pulled off my underwear. All with a grim expression. It was the most awkward strip ever. When I was completely naked, he picked me up, and laid me gently in the water, being careful to hang my long hair over the edge of the tub.
“Torin.” I finally spoke when it became evident that he wasn't going to. “I was just a little shaken. I'm all right now.”
“They could have raped you.” He set a hard stare on me. “Is that not what you were trying to tell me? They were going to rape you, but the relic helped you defend yourself?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Never again will you be put in such peril.” He stood and fetched a comb from the counter behind him.
Torin's bathroom left the castle's onyx walls bare, no tapestries or silk to cover them. Just polished onyx everywhere- walls, ceiling, and floor. What wasn't onyx was silver, and what wasn't silver was mirrored. It seemed like Torin's savage expression was reflected everywhere. Magnified in the stone.
The ferocity in his face made me shiver, but when he crouched behind me, his touch was tender. Torin began to run the comb through my hair, carefully untangling it. I sighed and reached for the soap. We both worked silently, me washing my body while he combed my hair. Then he washed my hair, using a silver bowl to pour clean water over it when he was through. His hands were stroking, soothing, but every time I looked at his face, I found him scowling.
Finally, I was clean and mostly dry. Torin swept me up, and carried me back into the bedroom, where he laid me gently on the bed. That's where his gentleness ended. He stepped back and flung his clothes away, then climbed onto the mattress with me, staring at me like I was prey.
“Torin?” I frowned.
“I was in a panic, Elaria,” Torin told me again. “I searched everywhere, until I finally found your trail. Then I come upon you and him together. He held you as if he'd done so a thousand times before.”
“Torin . . .”
“And you looked like you belonged there.” He loomed over me, slid his knee between my legs, and shoved my thighs apart.
“I was upset,” I pushed at Torin's shoulders, but he kept angling closer to me. “He was comforting me.”
“You're mine. I am the man who gives you comfort, not Banning,” Torin whispered harshly, right before he covered my mouth with a passionate kiss.
I melted into his desire, but his words were triggering a stubborn response. “No, I'm not.”
“What?” Torin pulled back to stare at me.
“I don't belong to you.”
“Of course you do.” He scowled. “You love me, you said so.”
“Love isn't about ownership.” I tried to ease away, but he slid inside me, and I groaned.
“Is it not?” Torin began a steady rhythm, driving harder and deeper with each thrust.
“I told you before.” I clung to his shoulders even as I tried to rebuke him. “You can't cage
a spellsinger.”
“I've done it once already.” He bit at the tender skin of my neck, making me arch into him.
“I would have freed myself eventually.” I clawed my hands into his thick hair.
“No, my darling.” Torin smiled against my neck. “You wouldn't have, and you won't now. You're mine.”
“No,” I said simply.
Torin snarled and pounded the mattress with a fist. He pulled out of me, sitting back on his heels to glare down at me.
“I will have all of you or none of you, Elaria.” His massive chest rose and fell with deep, forceful exhalations. “Just admit that you're mine.”
“Why?” I eased up on my elbows. “Why this need to possess?”
“You told me you're enslaved to the relic.” He waved an angry hand at the collar. “Yet you will not submit to the same bond with me?”
“Oh gods.” I shook my head. “Why do you have to use words like 'submit' and 'enslaved'? The relic is different; it's not a man. It's a tool that I must use to keep us all safe.”
“It's not different.” Torin leaned over me again. “You have given yourself to it. Now I want you to give yourself to me. You already have.” He laid his palm to my sternum. “I can feel it. Why won't you admit it?”
“It's too much, too soon,” I looked away from him. “We barely know each other.”
“Oh, is that it?” Torin grabbed my hips and slid inside me again. “That's the excuse you're going to use? You know, as well as I, that time has nothing to do with knowing someone, especially not with people like us.” He moaned as he ground his way deeper. “You know me, as I know you. You couldn't love me if you didn't.”
“I won't be a possession, Torin.” I grabbed his jaw to get him to stop his sensual attack, and see how serious I was. “You still don't know what love is.”
He laughed. I scowled harder.
“A possession?” Torin's hand slipped up over mine. “You could never be that to me. When I say that you're mine, Elaria, I mean that I own your heart, as you own mine.” His hand clenched, pushing my fingers more firmly into his face. “That you will not allow another man to touch you because of the love you bear for me. Just as I will not be intimate with another woman because of the love I have for you. We belong to each other, an equal enslavement.” He released my hand, and when I eased my grip, he kissed my palm. “There is no master here.”
“Equal enslavement?” I whispered as he began to move inside me again.
“Words have power; you know that.” Torin trailed kisses over my face. “I crave the magic of your voice. I need to hear you claim me, as much as I need to claim you. So I will say it first, if it makes it easier on you. I am yours, Elaria.”
“You are?” I looked over his striking features, outlined in silver moonlight, and felt the cage settle around my heart.
“I am,” he vowed. “Now say it to me, little bird. Bind us together.”
“I'm yours.” I put a musical lilt to the words without thinking about it, just something I did when I was happy, and my magic responded, lifting up and pushing through the relic.
The collar glowed softly between me and Torin, and we both stared down at it in surprise. An enchantment rose, a warm glimmer that coasted over our skin as our bodies strained toward completion. It sank into our flesh, and as it did, I saw an image of Banning. My hand was reaching out to him, but I knew it wasn't the same hand I held Torin with. It was Fortune's hand. As the vows between me and Torin settled into place, Fortune's hand faded, and so did the image of Banning. The relic was completing the spell I'd begun with Torin the day I'd first claimed the collar.
“We belong to each other.” Torin's voice rumbled between us, shivering with magic and setting the spell.
We cried out in ecstasy, both of us clinging to each other through the pleasure of physical and magical completion. When it was over, I knew the memories of that other me were gone. Banished by the relic's blessing on this relationship. One tie broken while another was made stronger. Something inside me mourned, but that was soon banished too.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Five days later, my bond to Torin was tested, and surprisingly, it wasn't by Banning. Banning had actually backed off a bit since my abduction. He continued to give me brooding looks in typical blooder fashion, but he never said anything to me about our past. I was beginning to wonder if he had felt the separation of the relic's spell as well.
On my end, Banning looked the same, as gorgeous as ever, but there was no ache in the depths of my chest. No nagging feeling that I was forgetting something important. I had already forgotten, and released it. There was peace in that.
There wasn't any peace in her arrival though.
Royals had started to show up in Onyx with their armies. Our allies. The monarchs were given rooms in the castle, but their armies had to make do with camps in the courtyard and the surrounding area. There simply wasn't enough space in Onyx Castle.
I was standing around the war table, in a meeting with Torin, his advisers, Cerberus, Banning, the royals who had already arrived, and their generals, when the Snowflake Obsidian Queen swept into the room. She was blonde to the point of being colorless, and her skin matched her hair. Delicate, almost frail looking, she was one of those women who made men want to take care of her. But her eyes were black, and they stared out at the world with a severity that revealed her true nature. She was a queen of the Shining Ones, after all; she had to be powerful. This woman didn't need a man for anything except pleasure.
“Queen Oonagh”-King Declan of Alexandrite was the first to spot her-“greetings. You look lovely as ever.”
“Thank you, King Declan,” Oonagh nodded regally, her riot of curls, piled high on her head, swishing forward with girlish charm.
Then she turned to Torin and I saw him tense.
“King Torin,” Oonagh purred.
“Welcome, Queen Oonagh,” Torin nodded, “We're happy to have you with us.”
“Of course.” She sidled up close to him, wedging between me and Torin, even though I'd been only inches away from Torin. “We've always supported each other. I wasn't going to abandon you now.”
I hadn't moved back for her, which meant that she was pressed against me. Tight. Ridiculous really. I lifted a brow at Cerberus, across the table from me. He was barely containing his mirth. Cer knew I wasn't a woman to back down when someone tried to intimidate me. In fact, I was quite the opposite. I wasn't about to let anyone push me around, not literally or figuratively.
I leaned forward and whispered in Oonagh's ear, “You're standing on my dress.”
“Oh!” Oonagh exclaimed.
She was so startled that she lurched sideways and nearly fell. The Alexandrite king was behind her, and he steadied her, giving me a gleeful look in the process. Instead of being pleased by King Declan's help, Oonagh appeared perturbed that Torin hadn't been the one to assist her. In fact, both Torin and I stared at her calmly, as if waiting for her to do her next trick.
“I do apologize,” Oonagh finally said, the words sounding brittle. “I didn't see you standing there.”
It was one of those snide remarks that you're just supposed to let slide in polite society. You didn't actually call a queen a liar to her face, not even when it was obvious. But I was a queen too, wasn't I? And I liked calling things as I saw them.
“You didn't see me?” I lifted a brow. “You didn't see me right here, standing two inches away from my man? You must have at least felt me since your back was squishing my breasts flat . . . and that's quite a lot of squishing, in case you haven't noticed.”
“Your what?” Oonagh made a disgusted face at me, ignoring my comments about her being pressed intimately into my chest. “What did you call King Torin?”
“My man,” I smiled brightly at her. “My lover, my boyfriend, my sweetheart. The keyword here is 'mine', so back your scrawny ass off my man before I break it in two.”
“Oh damn!” Cerberus laughed. “You go, El!”
/> The rest of the room went silent, watching us face off with a mixture of horror and delight.
“Who is this cretin?” Oonagh looked to Torin with shocked revulsion. “Are you going to allow her to talk to me like that?”
“Queen Oonagh”-Torin's lips were twitching as he slid his arm around my waist-“this is my . . .” He at me and smiled brilliantly as he said, “My woman, Queen Elaria.”
“Feels good, doesn't it?” I smiled up at him. “Feeds into those barbaric inclinations of yours.”
“That it does,” he agreed as Oonagh gaped at us.
“Queen of what?” Oonagh finally asked. “I don't know this woman, but I'm fairly certain she isn't one of us. Is she queen of some tiny island in the human world?”
“She is the Queen of Song.” Torin cocked his head at Oonagh. “I would have thought you'd heard of her, and of my relationship with her, by now.”
An irritated look crossed Oonagh's face. “I hadn't believed such base rumors.” She looked me over. “I suppose she's pretty enough, but I had expected the witch warrior to be more . . .”-she frowned-“more.”
“Pretty enough?” Banning growled. “Elaria is the most beautiful woman in all the worlds.”
The room went silent again, and I turned to gape at Banning. He didn't falter, but met my gaze steadily before looking back at Oonagh. Banning's stare was hard, daring her to dispute his claim. The Snowflake Obsidian Queen was sputtering, and I was still gaping at Banning.
So I guess he hadn't felt that separation spell after all.
“And who are you?” Oonagh hissed at Banning. “Another lout with bad manners?”
“Banning Dalca, Gheara of the Kansas Gura,” Banning continued to stare at her.
