“I can’t accept it,” she said. “It’s too expensive.”
He chuckled and removed the diamond pendant of the wolf running with a shining ruby twinkling for the eye. He unclasped it and lifted her hair with the back of his hands on either side of her neck, dipping his head forward to latch the necklace while she continued to protest.
“Nikolai, I know that you’re no longer earning wages from the Glass Tower. I won’t accept something so extravagant. The cloak was unnecessary as it is. Now, we can take this back to the jeweler in Hiddleston. I’m sure he’ll understand.”
He finished latching it on her neck, then cupped her face and pressed a swift kiss to her lips, delving deep with his tongue.
She gripped the fabric of his coat at the shoulders and held on till he was finished, which wasn’t for several minutes.
“It is a gift, Sienna. You will accept it.”
“It’s too much.”
“It isn’t enough.” He brushed his thumb down her cheek and across her lips. “Nothing will ever be enough. But I will give you what I can. And you will accept it. This makes me happy.”
“But the expense—”
“Sweetheart,” he said on a chuckle. “Do you remember that I spoke of my father with a smallish estate in the east the other night?”
“Yes. I remember.”
“He left it to me, of course. And I might’ve exaggerated in its smallish state.”
“Really? How much exaggeration?”
“It’s not small at all. It’s rather large.”
Sienna quirked a brow. “How large?”
He glanced up at the sky as if measuring. “I’d say about the size of Winter Hill. But with larger gardens.”
Sienna’s mouth went slack. “You’re joking, aren’t you?”
“No.” He shook his head. “My father was well respected and earned the respect of King Grindal. The king compensated him for his loyalty when he retired from the king’s guard.”
Sienna brushed that wayward lock of unruly hair that always seemed to fall over his brow. “I’d love to see it one day.”
“You will. When this war is over, I plan to marry you and take you there. I know you prefer the forest, but I’d like you to see it all the same.”
Sienna’s chest clenched as her face slackened for the second time. “Marry?”
His lips firmed and brow pinched together. “Unless…that is, if you want to stay here and keep things as they are, I’ll understand. I’ll stay—”
She leapt up and wrapped her arms around him with a laugh, her hood slipping to her shoulders.
He folded her in a tight embrace, molding her to his body, and dipped his face into her hair.
“Would you like that?” he asked on a husky whisper.
“I’d love that.” She nuzzled into his neck. “You want to marry me,” she said as a statement not a question.
They remained wound together. “My father had a chapel built on our land. There’s a wall of glass behind the altar so that moonlight would bathe my mother when he married her there in their midnight ceremony.” He pulled away, piercing her with his burning gaze. “I would like to marry you there.”
He tucked a lock of her hair caught in the morning breeze behind her ear, tracing the shell with his fingers. She shivered.
“Will you marry me there, my love?” he asked so sweetly her stomach fluttered.
She placed her hand under his coat on his heart to feel the strong beat. “Yes. I will marry you there.”
“Good.” He smiled.
The distant howl of a hart wolf pulled their attention to the east.
“Did you get your letter away?” she asked, remembering why he’d gone to Hiddleston in the first place.
“Yes. I expect we’ll hear back from Marius and Arabelle in two weeks’ time. I just hope he doesn’t change his mind before then.”
“He won’t.”
After Allora and Dane had buried their brother somewhere in the heart of Silvane Forest with the burial rites of their clan, Dane approached them one evening to tell them he would join the Black Lily. Sienna had seen that look in a man’s eyes before. In Nikolai’s when he vowed vengeance against Volkov. Dane needed justice for his brother’s death. And the Black Lily needed strong, powerful men like him. The fact that he could shift into a vicious, deadly hart wolf at any moment was an advantage they’d keep between themselves and Marius and Arabelle for now.
Allora and Bron had come by every evening at dusk in wolf form since the battle in the forest. They patrolled and watched for another invasion from the Glass Tower. But none came. Their sunset visits at the cottage served to say all was well.
“I hope Riker is healing well there.”
“Marius will be sure he gets all the care he needs.” Nikolai was silent a moment, his heart heavy ever since they’d put Riker on a ship with Ivan two weeks ago. “I did receive other news while in Hiddleston.”
“What is it?”
“King Dominik’s wife Queen Lana died in childbirth. It was a son.”
Sienna gasped. “No.”
“A stillborn son.” He squeezed her reassuringly with a brush of his lips at her temple. “So it seems you needn’t fear your prophetic nightmare, love.”
Sienna nodded, but didn’t feel any relief in the death of the northern queen and her infant son. She sighed heavily, turning her thoughts back to Queen Morgrid. “Why don’t you think the queen has gathered her forces and attacked again?”
“From a military standpoint, I’d say she knows there is a formidable force living here in the forest that she doesn’t yet understand.” He tipped her chin up with one finger and traced the line of her jaw. “The Legionnaires who escaped will tell her of the red witch setting flame to her enemies as if she were burning parchment. As long as we remain here, you are protected. By the hart wolves, by the forest, by me…and by you.”
“But we can’t stay here forever. Arabelle needs us.”
“No,” he replied, taking her hand and guiding her toward the cottage. “We’ll wait for word from Cutters Cove. Then we’ll join the fight again. Friedrich suspects there may be allies among his people in the north. He plans to discover where his uncle and the queen are hiding and building his army through enslaving entire villages.”
“I hope he finds them.”
“He will. Friedrich may seem all charm and good looks, but the man is resourceful. He mentioned a spy around his castle, a schoolteacher, who may actually be on the side of the Black Lily. But he isn’t sure and must be cautious with his uncle always on the watch.”
“Well, till we’re needed, we’ll stay here,” she said on a sigh.
A pang of dread settled in her gut. The last time she’d left the forest, she’d been burned at the stake. Nikolai squeezed her hand and stopped in the doorway. Wrapping his fingers around her nape, he perused her face in a slow sweep, his intensity speeding her heartrate.
“Your life will never be in danger again,” he ground out with such strength, she shivered. “I will not allow it. Never. Again.”
The pain Nikolai had endured when she’d died in his arms was more than she could fathom. She couldn’t imagine the agony she would feel if harm ever came to him.
“I will shove a blade down death’s fucking throat, and I”—he squeezed her nape, edging her closer till his lips were a hairsbreadth away—“I will always take care of you.”
She did not argue or protest such a promise, for if there was anyone who could stare death in the face and defy its mere existence, it was Nikolai. She gentled him with a soft kiss and a sweep of her fingers into his hair.
“And I will take care of you.”
“I know you will, my fire witch,” he said adoringly. Then more softly, “My love.”
“Let’s not talk of death, Nikolai.”
Another grazing of lips, his gaze growing darker.
She touched her fingers to the wolf pendant at her throat, cherishing him more than he could know. “Take me in
side and show me life.”
And so he did, sweeping her into his arms where he preferred her to be. He shut the door on the cold world and the danger, the future peril, the battles yet to come. He held her close in their bed, beneath him, and as he drove inside her body showing her the sweetest part of life, she saw in the spark of his blue-fire eyes the promise of a future wedding in a lovely chapel at midnight. With that promise in her heart, she could face anything. With Nikolai, she finally found the right path, the only path. The one where she walked at his side.
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Acknowledgments
To every reader who steps into the world of fantasy romance with wide eyes and an open heart, who longs for the lovely escape into a supernatural adventure, who cheers for love to conquer all, and who for a moment, despite the darkness, believes in the hope of happily-ever-after. To you I say, thank you.
About the Author
Juliette is a multi-published author of paranormal and fantasy romance. She calls lush, moss-laden Louisiana home where she lives with her husband, four kids, and black lab named Kona. From the moment she read Jane Eyre as a teenager, she fell in love with the Gothic romance—brooding characters, mysterious settings, persevering heroines, and dark, sexy heroes. Even then, she not only longed to read more books set in Gothic worlds, she wanted to create her own.
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The Red Lily (Vampire Blood) Page 27
