Storm Princess 3: The Princess Must Reign

by Jaymin Eve

  “Not until the others are healed. Baelen is safe. I will wait my turn.”

  “Your ruling on this is also wise.” She bustles away again and I have a feeling this old lady is going to become my advisor. I’m not sure how I’ll feel when she tells me my decision is unwise. That day is bound to come. It’s impossible to get everything right.

  I wait as the line of injured gargoyles grows shorter. Rhain emerges whole and bows low to me before he flies away. The female with the injured throat returns with tears in her eyes to tell me that her husband was killed in a mine two years ago but she’s going to the orphanage to find her children now. I wait for all of them to heal until the moonlight changes color around me, deeper, darker, and only Baelen and I remain on the cliff.

  The Priestess is the last to leave. “Come to the palace when you’re ready. There’s a lot of work to be done. Not least, you will need to deal with the clan leaders.”

  “I will.” It’s a simple promise but carries so much weight. There are mines to be closed, families to be reunited, homes to be rebuilt, so much damage to be undone.

  She places her hand on my arm before she takes flight, a gentle gesture, the first she’s shown me. I’m certain I won’t see this soft side of her again. “It’s time to heal Baelen Rath.”

  3

  I stand on the cliff with all my emotions raging through me and they scare me like hell. Finally, I can heal Baelen and I’m suddenly afraid of so many things. Right now, he’s a shell of storm power. His heart still sleeps. He looks and acts like my Baelen, but what will happen when he wakes up? Will he remember any of this? Will the Storm’s power return to me or stay with him? There’s also a lot he doesn’t know because he was trapped in the Royal Residence all this time. How will I tell him everything that happened in the mines while he slept?

  Mostly I’m afraid because we might finally have the chance to be together and I’m terrified something will rip it away. What if he’s wrong and his heart is gone?

  “Marbella, I’m here.”

  With those simple words, all my fears disappear. “Then I don’t want to wait another moment.” I lead him forward, forcing myself not to touch him as he strides beside me.

  The entrance to the deep springs beckons, a wide, tall ingress into the mountainside. Delicate web lights the way inside, leading down a pathway that descends into the mountain. At the end of it, we reach a cavern sparkling with glistening web made of all colors, not the usual cerulean blue. A set of stone steps leads us down to a deep pool of water set within the floor.

  A rhythmic drip echoes around the cavern and it surprises me to see single droplets of water falling from the same spot on the ceiling far above us, especially because they appear to form out of the stone itself instead of flowing from somewhere else.

  I try to remember what Elyria told me about the springs—that it is the only water source flowing directly from Earth’s surface. I’m not really sure how that works: it’s certainly not dripping from the sky. Very strange. But it’s a mystery that will have to wait.

  Baelen follows me to the pool’s edge where we find more steps that will take us deep into the water. I notice for the first time that since we entered the cave, his feet don’t burn the ground anymore and his steps are slower. His eyes are dark coals, the fire in them almost gone out.

  “Baelen?”

  He exhales. “I’m okay, but I’m glad we’re here. I don’t think I can maintain this shell much longer.”

  A wash of panic spreads through me. I will dive into this pool right now if I have to. I splash down the steps, urging him to come with me. The water is cool and very still. So is the air around us—perfectly still but not stale. I step further in until I’m waist deep. The stones rise as I move deeper into the water, positioning themselves above and beside me where I can see them from the corner of my eye.

  Baelen’s feet disappear under the surface, followed by his legs and waist. The water rises as he displaces it, lifting to my armpits. I wade further into the pond until it’s level with my shoulders, while Baelen follows me. He’s so tall he’ll need as much water as there is.

  I bite my lip as he immerses to his neck. We’re both wearing our armor and it feels ironic that we’re dressed exactly like the last time we saw each other, when we took the form of gargoyles and fought each other by mistake.

  He closes his eyes, shutting off from me. It’s not just his eyes, but his whole body. Every part of him shuts down, suddenly empty. It’s like watching a lamp go out. He’s gone. Completely gone. It’s even worse than after he first paused himself. I can’t even hear his heartbeat this time. As soon as he immersed himself in the water everything stopped.

  His armor reflects light from beneath the surface, a reminder that he’s not okay. There’s no sudden sign or explosion of power, nothing to indicate any change in the water… or in Baelen.

  “Please heal.” I wait as he remains still and immersed, watching the cut of his jaw and high cheekbones, the scar running the length of his face, and his eyes that I’m desperate to see, to have him look back at me with his whole self. “Please.”

  I wait for the longest time.

  He doesn’t move. There’s no indication he’s breathing.

  I wait for so long that I can’t keep watching for a sign. I close my eyes, burning with tears I haven’t shed yet: tears for Cassian and the miners who didn’t make it, tears for Elyria because she’s so broken, tears for Elise and my Storm Command because they’re imprisoned, and tears because… if Baelen doesn’t come back to me… if I’ve lost him…

  “Marbella.”

  My eyes shoot open. Hot teardrops leak from them. “Baelen?”

  He contemplates me quietly as water swills around his shoulders. His jade green eyes follow the shape of my face from my braided hair to my pale eyes, my nose, my chin, and back up to my crimson lips. He takes in every detail, every change, his lips parting slightly and a tiny crease appearing between his eyebrows.

  “You’re awake. You’re… finally awake.” I can’t say anything else. My voice catches and sobs rise out of me. I can’t hold them in anymore. Damn, it must be this water. It’s drawing every emotion out of me, so strong that I can’t move except to ugly cry every bit of sadness, tears pouring down my cheeks and dripping into the pond.

  He’s here. Finally, he’s here.

  Without taking his eyes off me, he undoes the straps keeping his armor on his chest and pulls it over his head, pushing it away across the surface of the pond. The deadly cuts in it make me cry harder. But he isn’t bleeding. He isn’t hurt anymore. He’s healed and he’s here, lifting his arms out to me.

  “Marbella, come here.” He doesn’t wait for me to answer, pushing through the water until he’s directly in front of me, rising up out of the water a little as he reaches the shallow side where I’ve stayed, churning the pool around us.

  “Come here, baby. I’m not letting you cry alone.”

  I want nothing more than to launch myself into his arms. “What if…” I sob and hiccup between words. “I hurt you? I can’t… take that… risk…”

  His lips part. His image blurs through my tears, but the curve of his mouth makes my heart do backflips. “Something tells me you can’t hurt me. Not ever.”

  He slides one arm around my waist and another around my shoulders before I can think twice, drawing me closer. “I’ve waited long enough to hold you.”

  All my emotions pour out of me at that single touch. All it takes is the brush of his bare skin across the back of my neck, the briefest graze of his fingers through the loose hair at the nape of my neck for the first time in seven years. I feel everything at once—raging grief, despair, and an opposing sense of overwhelming happiness. I want to scream and weep and sigh all at the same time.

  He drops a gentle kiss on my forehead and a bolt of lightning shoots through me—lightning coming from him. The storm hasn’t returned to me with his awakening. Maybe it never will. Maybe I’m okay with that and maybe I�
��m not, but right now I don’t care. I just want him close to me. If he felt the lightning, he doesn’t flinch, slowly drawing me closer to his chest.

  “You’re hurting,” he says. “I’m here. Let it out.”

  I do. All of it. I wrap my arms around him and let myself feel every moment of fear and helplessness when Howl pushed me around, every threat Howl made against the females in Harem Hall, the moment when I realized that Baelen and I were connected only to have to sever the connection, nights of freezing in the mines, being subjected to the gloating Elven Command and hearing them talk about imprisoning my friends, and finally, watching Cassian die. I sob all of it out against his chest while the water laps around us, and he strokes my back and my hair and kisses my forehead.

  He brushes his thumbs across each of my cheeks, gently wiping the tears streaming down them, kissing the salty trail. “Even your tears are like diamonds,” he says, startling me.

  He pulls back a little as I stiffen, the corners of his mouth lifting into a smile. “You don’t know what you look like now.”

  The Phoenix said I was luminous. I thought it meant I looked happy, or relieved, or just plain alive, since death was on the cards.

  Baelen drops a kiss on the end of my nose and brushes his cheek against mine. His breath caresses the side of my mouth. “You are a thousand times more beautiful than the moon—and trust me I know because I met her.”

  “You met Incorruptible?”

  “She came to see me while I waited for you.” His lips brush the soft skin beside my ear. The water swills around us with every movement. “You finally called me and she told me how to leave my heart behind.” His forehead crinkles. “Sort of like the ancients did when they gave their lives to become the world around us.”

  I gasp, finally understanding the risk he took. “You told me you were okay. But if we hadn’t healed you in time, are you telling me only your heart would have remained?”

  He blinks gently at me. “The Priestess wasn’t overreacting. You were hurting. The Queen’s heart would have wiped out everyone in that Court by reacting to your emotions. I had to act. No matter the risk. I was the only one who could.”

  He saved me—all of us actually—from a threat I didn’t even know existed until it was over. I place both my hands on his chest, pulling back.

  “No, Baelen, the risk is never worth it. If you had died, then I would have completely lost myself. I would have raged like a thousand storms.”

  “I’ll remember that,” he says before he drops a kiss on my lips.

  The touch is so brief that it’s over before I realize it began. My skin tingles where his lips touched mine.

  I let the lap of water carry me closer to him, drowning in the sensation of his thumb brushing against the side of my neck. He tilts his head down to mine, waiting for my lips to find his. The water lifts me upward and our mouths fit together so perfectly.

  Finally, I can kiss him like I’ve wanted to for seven long years.

  My mouth crashes against his, never wanting the contact to end. He holds me, supporting my back, sinking lower into the water so I can wrap my legs around him while his kiss asks for more and more from me. I gasp for air when the contact breaks, my head tilting back as he trails kisses down my throat and back up to my lips. I try to press closer, my hands running through his hair and across his back, following every line, every muscle of his body.

  I can’t get close enough.

  I hate my armor right now.

  He pauses, his breathing not quite under control, taking a moment to study my face, my eyes, and my lips.

  “Baelen?” I break the pause by brushing my lips across his.

  “Marbella.”

  I tangle my fingers in the back of his shirt, tugging upward. I hate his shirt. I hate the armor he’s still wearing from the waist down. I hate everything between us. “Please?”

  His response is a throaty growl. His gaze is so intense I feel like he could burn through the Elyria thread my armor is made out of. He probably could. His eyes aren’t filled with flames anymore but he still controls all of the Storm’s power. I sense it in every move he makes, the way he’s controlling it, holding it back.

  While one of his hands continues to support my spine, the other brushes the neckline of my armor. He doesn’t take his eyes from mine as he asks, “How does this come off?”

  I shiver, abandoning any attempt to keep my breathing under control, embracing the intensity of everything I’m feeling right now. I release his shirt and slide my legs away from him so that I can find my feet at the shallower end of the pool a little further away. I tug at the neckline of my armor, undoing the hidden clasps at the neck and down the side. From there, it’s a simple task of peeling it off my arms, torso, and then my legs.

  He catches up to me, churning through the water, and stops me before I can start, catching my fingers in his. “Let me, baby.”

  I want to rip the damn thing off, but he takes his time, sliding it off my shoulders, his hands following the armor’s path down the outside of each of my arms as the water swills around us.

  Finally, he slides my armor to my waist but his eyes remain on mine. I crave his hands against my skin. As if he hears my thoughts, his palms graze my ribcage, his fingers splaying out against the curve above each of my hips. His hands are so big they reach from my hipbone all the way up my ribcage.

  It’s not enough. I take both of his hands in mine and shift them upward to cover my breasts. Baelen blinks at me in surprise. Then he breaks into a smile, kissing me fiercely as my skin burns with every movement of his palms and his thumbs and… heavens…

  He takes a deep breath and disappears under the surface, drawing his hands all the way down my body, making me shiver. He pulls my armor off my legs at the same time and I dip in the water to release the garment from beneath my feet. My clothing floats to the surface but Baelen stays under for another few seconds. Sensation floods me everywhere that he touches my calves and thighs before he emerges, his hair slicked back, water rushing off him as he breaks the surface. He shakes his head side to side, splattering me with water droplets.

  I gasp in surprise. His scar is gone. The scar I gave him the night I became the Storm Princess. It’s… completely gone. The springs have healed it.

  “Baelen, your—”

  He doesn’t let me finish, pulling me to him. I forget whatever I was going to say as my body responds to the intensity in his eyes and the demand in his kiss.

  I tug at his shirt. Off. It needs to be off.

  He helps me pull it over his head, helps me remove his armored pants, pushing them away across the surface. Our clothing now dots the surface of the springs like multi-colored lily pads. I expected to see a myriad of scars across his chest and back from the battle he fought in the arena in what feels like a lifetime ago, but it looks like the deep springs have healed those too.

  He gathers me toward him and I’m not prepared for the swell of emotion I feel now that I’m finally able to touch all of him. I shiver as my body presses against his, skin to skin. We’ve been through so much to get here. Almost lost each other so many times. Almost didn’t make it…

  His expression becomes very serious as he draws back with a question in his eyes: the question he never fails to ask me. “Marbella Mercy, may I have your permiss—”

  “Yes.”

  I take advantage of the water to lift and wrap my legs around him and draw him to me. He doesn’t wait and I don’t want him to.

  Our bodies join and my world spins.

  The entire time we’ve been in the springs, the heartstones have remained quiet above me and Baelen has kept his storm power in check. Now, both ignite.

  The air above us glows with diamond light and the water blazes crimson red. Lightning and deep magic clash in the sudden swell, water droplets rise, and lightning curls around us in ribbons. Baelen holds me tight while I wrap my arms around him, neither of us moving, both waiting to catch up with everything we feel.

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nbsp; I can barely form words, but I need to tell him... “We waited such a long time to be together. No matter what happens, I will never let us be torn apart again.”

  In answer, he whispers, “We will have this again. Not just today.”

  Finally, he moves. He ignores all the power crashing around us, focusing only on me and our joined bodies, kissing every part of me that he can reach, pulling me closer every time. Sensation floods me and every emotion I’ve felt for him rushes at me: every cry, every laugh, every battle, every time Baelen protected me, every time I protected him, all of it slams into me. Baelen senses my emotions and in response, power builds in his eyes. Water suspends around us. Droplets hover mid-air. I was already drowning in all the sensations he’s sending through my body but now he lets go. Thunder thuds through me. My world shifts.

  Our bodies crash against each other and that’s all it takes. My world explodes in waves that threaten to tear me apart. Baelen holds me together as he crashes against me, sending lightning rippling out from us. I cling to him in the center of the pond, shaking with the force of what we created.

  He holds me tight as we descend, both of us breathing hard, his lips finding mine as he kisses me over and over. “Marbella, you are everything to me. I would wait a thousand years to hear your voice, kiss your lips, walk beside you.”

  I kiss him back, sighing against his mouth. “I love you, Baelen Rath.”

  A smile breaks across his face, lighting up his eyes. “I love you, Marbella Mercy.”

  We stay that way for a long time, floating in the water, tangled up in each other, before he shifts me so I rest in his arms. I stretch against him, already missing the connection between our bodies. Before now, he was always in control. Always careful. But for the first time, here in this place with me, he truly let go. I smile, grin actually. “Promise me you’ll lose control like that again.”

  His answer is to run his fingers across my shoulders, my collarbone, and all the way down to my hips underwater. “Without a doubt.”