“I’ll work on my end too. Maybe Kaelen will let me have a personal Guardian if I go to him with these things you’ve heard? I mean, it’d only be one, but—”
“I call the days you’re horny,” Jacob quips, making Eve laugh softly. “What?”
“Around you guys, I’m always horny,” Eve replies, her mood lifting as she snuggles against the four of them. “So when would the others get a chance?”
“Hmm . . . well, Noah, guess it’ll suck to be you then.”
Before Noah can reply, Cole feels Eve shift, and a soft snore tells them that she’s asleep. They hold her for a few more minutes before slipping out of bed and putting their clothes back on.
Sneaking their way back toward the barracks, Cole communicates over their Link. Regardless of what Eve says . . . stay prepared.
I agree, Tyler adds. If trouble strikes, we get her and we take her from the castle. Even if she objects.
Chapter 10
Eve
“Do I have to wear a dress?”
Daelera chuckles as she tightens the laces underneath my breasts, making them lift and at least giving me some cleavage. “Eve, while His Excellency might allow you to be casual around the palace, today you’re going to be leaving and touring the city in an imperial procession. This will be the first chance for the people to see you, and it is important that you look the part of an imperial guest.”
I sigh, shaking my head. “If you tell me I’m going to be riding a horse in this ridiculous thing—”
“Oh, no, open carriage,” Daelera reassures me. “Quite comfortable, I hear. Tell me, last night, I came by to check on you and the door was locked and there were . . . noises. Was everything okay?”
Daelera’s question has me immediately blushing, and I cover my mouth, trying to suppress a girlish giggle. “Yes. Uhm, please don’t say anything because I don’t want them to get into trouble, but I was with my men last night.”
“All of them?” Daelera asks, lifting an eyebrow. “I always assumed it was a rotation or something. Calendars and days of the week, so nobody gets jealous.”
I laugh softly. “We’ve discussed it, but we’ve found organic is best. And sometimes, I need all four. Please don’t say anything to Madam Bird?”
“Why should I?” Daelera asks with a chuckle. “I’ll just open a window. The room reeked of sex when I came in this morning. But if I’m going to do that, do me a favor and be more discreet? You’re ruffling a lot of feathers in the servant’s wing.”
“Why’s that?”
Daelera blushes. “Because unlike the Lunarians, in Solarian lands, it is not the women who take multiple lovers but the men. You are upsetting the apple cart.”
I hum, then nod. “I’ll try.”
“Thank you,” Daelera replies, giving me a grateful look that has a wide streak of naughtiness in it too. “Uhm, if I may ask . . . do your Guardians ever, you know, play together for your entertainment?”
I laugh, relieved. “We’ve joked about it, and I’ll admit it’d be hot to watch. I mean, they’re all built so well, and yeah, two hot guys making out would certainly get my juices flowing. But no. Not that they wouldn’t if I asked, I think, but because everything we do together is mutual. When we touch, when we have sex, every act is because all parties involved want it.”
“And if, say, Cole decided he wanted to explore his feminine side with Tyler?” Daelera asks, and I laugh. “What?”
“You just picked the two whom I would least expect to be in those positions,” I reply. “Cole is very, very masculine. Actually, all of them are Alpha males in their own way.”
“Yet you’re the Alpha of Alphas,” Daelera points out. “You’re interesting, Eve. Very interesting, indeed.”
“Thank you.”
“Do you think it has something to do with your . . . unique background?” Daelera asks, stopping me. “Sorry, I don’t mean to offend, just . . . we Fae have a highly sexual side, and there are sexual demons who make us look nearly chaste. Do you think, well . . . you know?”
I nod, grinning. “I’ve thought about it. But you know what? I don’t really worry about it or care anymore. I am who I am, and I love that I’ve got my men with me who love me as me. What percentage of me is what and whether there’s some sexual magic running through my veins don’t matter.”
Daelera escorts me down to the courtyard of the castle, where Kaelen’s waiting for me. He looks resplendent in fitted white trousers and a gold tunic, every bit the young monarch ready to show off his people. “Good morning, Eve! That dress looks . . . you honor my kingdom by wearing it!”
“It is beautiful, and thank you for providing it for me,” I reply, giving him a little curtsey. “And of course, Daelera, who makes me not look like a fool in this.”
“She is one of the best,” Kaelen replies. “Shall we?”
The carriage is waiting for us outside the front gates, and like Daelera promised, it’s open-topped but even more beautiful than something from Cinderella, all white with gold trimmings. The four horses that stand at the front are easily the equal of any horse I’ve ever seen, their heads held high and almost haughtily as they toss their manes. “Seems those four know they’re hot shit.”
Kaelen laughs. “That they do. Unfortunately, even in this realm, horses do not live anywhere near as long as Fae, but these four are all direct descendants of a line that goes back all the way to my father’s coronation. So they’re spoiled babies, but very well-bred spoiled babies.”
I can’t help but smile as we sit back, and Kaelen notices me shifting around. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” I reply, feeling the ache in my ass from Cole’s hard fucking last night. Somehow, even from on our sides, he was able to put a delicious bruising on my hips. “No. I have to admit something to you and beg your forgiveness. Last night, I . . . I had my Guardians in my room. I’m a little sore downstairs, in a good way.”
I sit back, preparing myself for an outburst of rage from Kaelen. I mean, my men are living the way they are because he ordered it, and while we may not like it, we just went and broke his rules without even talking with him about it.
Instead, Kaelen leans to the side, almost studying me. “They mean that much to you, do they?”
I nod, quivering inside. “They do. If you’d asked me a few months ago if I could love so completely that I’d be willing to give up my life, I’d have called you crazy. Only my sister was that deep, that close to me. Now, I can’t go a day without thinking about all four of them. Even now, I miss them. While I was eating breakfast, I could imagine Jacob making some wiseass remark or Noah consuming a plate roughly the size of this carriage. I miss Tyler’s warm affection and Cole’s calm leadership through all this. They’ve all been there for me, and somehow, I find myself not knowing where my soul ends and theirs begin.”
Kaelen strokes his chin, then sighs. “If that’s the case, how can I be upset with you? I wish I could have someone I could share such an intense bond with, but I have seen it before. My mother and father . . . they’d go whole days without speaking because their Link was so intense that they didn’t need to speak. They could communicate to each other across kingdoms, and I remember . . .”
Kaelen’s voice fades, and I watch him fade back into his memory before he smiles. “I was just about your age, only twenty-five, actually, so a little younger. It was a short period of peace, and they were both back in Solaria, enjoying some time where they could be husband and wife, not emperor and empress or warrior and warrior-priestess. I was studying, pushing hard on some magic studies that my mother had deemed essential to my education. But my parents were so deeply involved over their Link that I started to get echoes. I finally had to go to both of them and demand that they start talking aloud before they kept me up all night with their incessant chatter!”
I laugh. It’s funny to think about a harried student that frustrated. “I hope that one day, I can feel that Link again with my Guardians.”
“Not to worr
y. I will make sure that your men are well taken care of,” Kaelen says, but before I can ask what he means, the palace walls open and I get to see the city of Solaria. “Ah . . . here we are.”
I blink, stunned at the simple charm and beauty of the city. I’d gotten a bit of a view over the past few days, but seeing it up close, I’m struck by how wonderful it is. There are elements that seem to borrow from so many classical cultures, with houses that look like they came straight from some amalgamation of Asia next to stone monoliths and sun-drenched gardens that don’t have any comparison from Earth history.
Solarian clothes are different from what I saw in Lunaria or the Vale, either. The men’s trousers are a little looser, narrowing to almost skin-tight at the knee and tucked into calf-high boots, like the Solarians are a nation of horse riders. Considering the amount of equine flesh I see around the city, I wouldn’t be surprised.
“When I first landed in the Fae realm, I got lost in the outer parts of Lunare,” I comment as we pass a school. The children mob the fence, cheering Kaelen as we roll by, waving to me. They’re a mix, Fae, human, and halfling, all of them beautiful. They’re smiling, they’re well-fed . . . they’re happy. “It was nothing like this.”
“Lunaria’s policies on racial separation are something I wish I could change,” Kaelen says in agreement. “But the Council rules give each of the kingdoms a lot of autonomy. My opinion in Solaria is that I think it’s better that educated subjects are happier, more productive. More importantly, they have a chance to make their lives better.”
The city is organized and logical, with ruler-straight roads and efficient, hard-working city workers who make sure the streets are clean. Even more importantly, the average Solarian citizen walks with pride in themselves and in their city that I didn’t see in the outskirts of Lunare. I didn’t even see that in Haven. As I watch a group of workers scrubbing the stone façade of a house, another thought crosses my mind. “Kaelen, do your buildings have indoor plumbing?”
“Of course,” Kaelen replies. “What, did you think the palace was special?”
“No, just . . . different,” I reply, thinking of Lunare and the Vale. “The Vale had some, but not every building.”
Kaelen nods. “Lord Wintersong is working hard, but he doesn’t have the same riches I do here. I will also admit that some of it is magic. I don’t really have to worry about where to dispose of the sewage. It’s taken care of. Much better than having to deal with it organically.”
“Now that’s a secret for the ages,” I reply, shivering when a shadow passes quickly over us. I look up, noticing that there are clouds in the sky. It must have been one of those. We pass a large square in the middle of the city, and I hold up a hand. “Wait, what’s all that? Looks like the whole state fair is coming to town or something, there’s enough stuff there for a whole new city.”
Kaelen looks over, grinning. “Ah, the Festival of the Nine Brothers. I’m glad you’re here at this time. It only happens once a decade and is the largest festival in the Solarian calendar.”
“What is it?” I ask, and Kaelen grins, rubbing his hands together.
“In ancient Fae mythology, the Sun God was sailing his barge across the sky when he spied a beautiful Fae girl. He was so obsessed with her that he offered his family anything for her to become his lover. Well, the girl had nine brothers, who after talking with their sister agreed, on one condition. They would, for nine years, get to drive the Sun God’s barge on its daily rounds. Now the Sun God thought this was a pretty good idea. Nine whole years with no work, and he’d be able to have this beautiful girl as his? Who would pass that up?”
I laugh, nodding. “Good point. But usually, these stories have a bad ending.”
“Not quite,” Kaelen says. “But the brothers weren’t quite as adept as a god when it came to controlling the solar barge, so they were messing quite a few things up. Long days, short days, a week of eclipses . . . it got so bad that the people complained to the Sun God. Some people say they nearly dragged him out of his marriage bed where he was happily creating a line of demigods with his bride, just to demand that he do something. Faced with a couple of thousand pissed-off Fae, he had to take the barge back. But there was a bit of a happy ending. The girl ended up going with him. She’d fallen so deeply in love with him that she told her brothers they were idiots and ran off to the heavens with the Sun God. So the Nine Brothers became almost patron saints of foolish love and are the mythological patrons of Solaria. The festival . . . well, I’m looking forward to maybe having a chance to show you around as my guest.”
“While that does sound nice, I’m sort of hoping I could do it as a date with my Guardians,” I reply, to which Kaelen nods. “Really?”
“Of course. I mean, from what little I know of your story, it seems that those four have a touch of the Nine Brothers in them. Can you tell me more?”
I happily agree, and for the next two hours as we tour Solaria, I tell Kaelen about how my Guardians came into my life. I try not to leave out too much of the bad stuff, since I want him to understand just how vital each of my men have been to me, but I also make sure to include the little things that make them each so individually precious.
“So Tyler, he’s officially gone nuts over this shawarma, and we’re sitting around the apartment when he just goes feenin’ like I’ve never seen a man go over a food before in my life.” I laugh. “He practically shoves a whole pita in his mouth and somehow, he ends up with the sauce in his eyebrows, of all things. Jacob looks over and just laughs, saying, ‘Tyler, looks like you just took a money shot!’ and it had me rolling laughing.”
Kaelen laughs. “So they each play a role for you?”
“They do, but that’s such an understatement,” I reply. “It’s like each of them fulfills me completely, but at the same time, in a different way. Tyler’s a dyed in the wool romantic. He’s the type who’ll show up with a rose clenched in his teeth after climbing a tower with nothing but his fingers and his guts. Jacob’s the sarcastic one. He always knows how to cut the tension even if it’s usually in a naughty way. We’ll be in the middle of a fight for our lives, facing the forces of Hell itself, and he’s going to make some dick joke or something that’ll help me to not be so scared. Noah’s my rock. Nothing shakes him and his massive strength. It’s like being loved by an intelligent giant. I’ve never felt more like the proverbial little woman than when I’m in his arms. And I swear he could hold off a comet strike with one hand if he needs to. Then there’s Cole, who is, no offense, the noblest man I’ve ever known. You ever need someone to take over the throne for you before you have children, give him a call. He’ll love and lead your people well.”
I worry as I keep going, telling Kaelen about each of them and revealing their good and bad points. I’m not trying to make him feel bad, like I’ve got perfection that he could never measure up to, but he never judges. He just takes it all in, accepting that I love my men and that if I’ve got a little rose tinge to my vision, that’s nothing that can be avoided. He even occasionally asks a question when he doesn’t understand and just absorbs it all. He even looks a trifle envious when I finish with how we’ve discussed what it would take for us to have a child and how it wouldn’t matter who the DNA father is because our baby would have four Daddies.
“Of course, if I can, I’ll have a dozen children, three by each of them,” I tell him sheepishly. “We don’t know for sure, but it seems my lifespan’s going to be like yours, and I’ll have the time.”
“Most Fae, more for population control reasons, stop after two or three,” Kaelen admits, “figuring there are enough ways to share pleasure without producing children. But there’s no reason I can think of why you shouldn’t. Your DNA should be totally compatible, and if you love the children, that’s all that counts.”
“Yeah . . . gotta figure out how to pay for them though,” I say with a laugh. “Kids are expensive, and can you imagine a few hundred years of changing diapers?”
Kae
len laughs, shaking his head. “It’s good to be the emperor. I have servants for that.”
We keep going, and I fill him in more on our adventures. “And so we stepped through the Veil . . . and you’ve heard the facts on the rest.”
“Wow. They really have come to mean so much. No wonder you’re able to love them all so completely. It’s . . . rare.”
“So Daelera noted,” I reply. “Obviously, not all kingdoms are female-led?”
“No, but you’re also quite unique and special,” Kaelen says fondly. “Yes, my kingdom is more male-oriented, and it’s usually men who, if they have multiple bonded partners, are the ones in charge, but you . . . it’s almost a perfect star. Or maybe a pentagon. All five of you are equally the number-one of the group.”
“Something like that. We’d all lay down our lives for each other,” I assure him, and Kaelen nods. The carriage leaves the city, going through a dense patch of woods to the south of Solaria. As we do, I keep seeing shadows in the trees, reminding me of the first shadows I saw of the Dark Rider, but it must be my imagination. He’s gone, after all . . . right?
Still, by the time the carriage stops in front of a large devastated patch of land, I’m chilled to the bone. “What is this place? It’s the first creepy sight I’ve seen in Solaria.”
“This is ancient Solaria,” Kaelen says, getting out of the carriage and helping me down. His driver waits with the carriage while we walk, and he points out the evidence, turned over stones that have worn away through the centuries and more. “When Solaria was first built, the castle was separated from the town because the King at the time didn’t want to be domineering over his subjects. Then came the first Great Demon War and what humans brought.”
“I thought—”
“Oh, I don’t blame the humans who live with us in Solaria. That’s like blaming modern Italians for the devastation of the Roman Empire’s wars of conquest,” Kaelen replies. “But those early human wars, and the weaker Veil between realms . . . it not only let a demon army in, but it also turned the Fae against each other. Ancient Solaria was razed to the ground in one of those attacks. We barely survived.”
Guardians of Moonlight: A Reverse Harem Fantasy Romance (Guardians of the Fae Book 3) Page 7
