by Shae Ford
“I never thought it would take so long,” Uncle Martin said with a sigh. His decanter sat before him, unopened. The way the glass bent around its amber contents made the sag of his frown impossibly steep, and his eye impossibly large. “I never imagined that Aerilyn would have any trouble — she has the perfect birthing hips!”
“Yeh,” Declan grunted from the hearth.
“Can we please not discuss my wife as if she’s some sort of … pasture animal?” Lysander mumbled.
He dragged his hands down his face — something he’d done so often in the last hour that his skin had actually begun to stay red. His wavy hair stood on end. The sleeves of his white tunic were rolled up to his elbows, the buttons at his collar undone. His trouser pockets were considerably rumpled from where he kept drying his palms.
His stormy eyes traveled to Thelred, who shook his head firmly. He stood before the door, arms crossed. “Don’t do it, Captain.”
“Just for a moment?” Lysander pleaded.
“No. The desert woman is in there with her, and the forest woman said she’d come get us if something happens. There’s no point in you hiking up there, Captain. The midwives won’t let you in, and you’ll only get upset.”
Lysander’s fists clenched at his side. “I outrank you, cousin.”
“That won’t stop me from kicking you in the shin if you rush over here. Remember what happened last time? You limped around for a good half-hour.”
“Yes, well, you’ve got a rather unfair advantage,” Lysander said, glaring at his peg. “It’s like being kicked by a tree.”
“Don’t worry. Your mate will be fine,” Eveningwing called. He sat cross-legged atop the polished desk, grinning to either ear. “I sense it.”
“Oh, well, as long as you sense it, I don’t know what I’ve been worried about,” Lysander muttered, throwing up his hands.
Jake sat rigidly in the desk’s chair. He drew his nose from his book long enough to add: “Actually, there is something to be said for having extra senses.”
“Yeh, like the way the birds go to roost before a storm,” Declan agreed.
“You know, my wife had a cat that always seemed to know when I was coming home,” Uncle Martin mused. “He was an orange tabby with a penchant for butter cookies —”
“I can’t take it any longer!” Lysander burst. His eyes were wild as he charged for the door.
Kael tackled him around the legs, quickly earning himself a boot heel to the chin. Declan planted an elbow in the middle of Lysander’s back. No sooner had they managed to calm him than Uncle Martin swooped in and began lashing them all with his cane, yelling:
“Run, Captain! Now’s your chance!”
Eveningwing leapt into his feathers and tried to scare Uncle Martin back. After a few unsuccessful dives, Thelred finally stomped over to try and wrestle the cane from his father’s grasp — thrusting his wooden leg in like a wedge between them and swearing magnificently when the cane struck true.
Jake hardly glanced up from his book.
Sometime in the midst of all the chaos, the library door creaked open. Elena’s dark eyes roved across the whole tangled, yelling mass of them, and she scowled. “What in Kingdom’s name is going on, here?”
“Never mind about all this,” Jake said, snapping his book shut. “Have you got some news?”
Declan shifted so that Lysander could stick his head out from under the pile. “Please tell me you’ve heard something. I can’t bear it any longer!”
“It’s finished,” Elena said.
The room went so deathly quiet that Kael could actually hear Lysander’s tongue as it scraped across his lips. “Is Aerilyn …?”
“She’s doing well.”
“And … and what about …?”
She shrugged. “You have a son.”
The library erupted in cheers.
They jerked Lysander to his feet and pounded him heartily upon the back. He seemed dazed as Eveningwing swooped to brush him across the shoulder. He stumbled forward when Declan ruffled his hair. The good captain likely would’ve sunk back to his knees, had Kael and Thelred not grabbed him under the arms.
“A son,” he whispered, his mouth opened around his smile.
Uncle Martin rushed straight for his decanter. “Well done! Well done and congratulations!”
Lysander took the small glass of liquor they shoved into his hands and tossed it back in a single gulp. They cheered as he strode purposefully out the door.
When the midwives finally agreed to let the rest of them come up, Kael walked at the back of the line. He hadn’t spent much time around infants, and wasn’t entirely sure if Aerilyn would want them all crowding in. But the moment he saw her smile, he knew it would be all right.
Her golden brown hair was knotted loosely at the top of her head. Little strands escaped their clasp and matted against her neck. Pink crossed her face in a sunrise of color. But she was positively beaming.
“That was, and without a doubt, the most horrible, painful, satisfying thing I’ve ever done,” she said when Kael reached her.
He wasn’t sure what to say. He had no idea about anything she’d just done — other than what he’d read in books. And he doubted if any of that would’ve been at all comforting. So instead, he crouched at the side of her bed and held her hand while the others met the baby.
No man in the history of grinning had ever worn a more ridiculous grin than Captain Lysander’s. He passed the little bundle in his arms to Thelred — whose stern expression actually gave way for a moment, melting into something that wasn’t quite as harsh as usual.
When it was his turn, Uncle Martin bounced the little bundle in his arms and said, with his most mischievous grin: “A handsome lad, indeed! With a little help from your dear great-uncle, we’ll have the ladies tripping on their skirts to swoon over you.”
“You’ll do nothing of the sort. I won’t have you teaching him your tricks,” Aerilyn said firmly. “He’s going to be a perfect gentleman.”
Uncle Martin’s mustache bent as he pursed his lips. “Gentleman, eh? The problem with gentlemen, my dear, is that they keep the company of unicorns and griffins. Gentleman,” he scoffed, grinning down at the bundle. “A mythical creature if ever there was one.”
A few minutes more, and the baby had made nearly a full circle around the room. The only one who hadn’t held him yet was Declan — and that was only because he flatly refused to. “No, I shouldn’t be holding such tiny wee things. I don’t want to hurt him.”
“You will not hurt him,” Nadine insisted, holding the bundle out.
Declan kept his thick arms firmly crossed. “He’s too tiny! I don’t want to clod it up.”
“What have you named him?” Kael said, when their argument showed no signs of ending.
Aerilyn bit her lip, and her gaze went to Declan. “I want to thank you for walking me around all those days.”
“It was a small thing,” Declan insisted, leaning away as Nadine tried to hand him the bundle.
“No, it was an important thing. You were so very kind to me … and I’ll never forget the stories you told me about your little brother.”
He went silent immediately.
“That’s why …” Aerilyn took a deep breath, “well, we’ve talked about it. And Lysander and I have decided that we’d like to call him Dante.”
Declan’s eyes disappeared beneath the cleft of his brow. His chin turned to the bundle. “Your little one? You want to name him …?”
Lysander smiled. “Yes — if that’s all right, of course. We wouldn’t want to do it without your approval.”
Slowly, Declan’s arms slid from his chest. Nadine placed the little bundle in his meaty hands and he held it, unflinching, for several long moments. “I think that’d be a grand thing,” he whispered finally, his voice unusually gruff. “A mightily grand thing.”
*******
The celebrations went on long into the night. His companions were still toasting in the library when
Kael finally plodded up to bed.
His room was bright and warm. The covers were folded back neatly and the window was opened a bit, letting the cool breeze in. Though it all looked very inviting, Kael knew better than to simply fall into bed.
He checked behind the bath and in the shadowed cleft of the hearth. He even stuck his head out the window and glanced down either ledge of the sloping roof. There was no doubt in his mind that Elena planned a swift revenge for how he’d thrown her through the spell room wall. Yes, he knew very well that she would be coming for him.
He just wasn’t sure when.
The space beneath his bed was impenetrably dark. He was crouched on his hands and knees, trying to decide if one of the shadows looked a bit suspicious when he felt something creep up behind him.
It hadn’t made a sound, but there was a fullness in the air at his back that hadn’t been there before. He felt the weight of eyes on the nape of his neck — felt them drag down between his shoulders and all the way to the soles of his boots. And he knew he would have to act quickly.
Kael spun with a cry, fists raised and feet set beneath him — prepared to shoulder the first blow … but it never came. He stared at the black-clad figure in the doorway and realized it wasn’t Elena who’d crept up behind him.
It was Kyleigh.
Her pony’s tail hung loose. Strands of raven hair had escaped their bonds and fallen across her eyes, but not even the shadows could dull their flame. They blazed as they locked onto his. Her chest rose and fell quickly, as if she’d just sprinted a great distance.
He realized that must’ve been exactly what she’d done. “I thought you said it was too dangerous to go winging about the Kingdom?”
Her mouth bent into an amused half-smile — a smile that somehow made him lose track of his feet. “I suppose I might’ve broken a few rules.”
He forced himself to look severe. “Well, it wouldn’t be the first time. What were you doing in the desert?”
“That,” she growled, creeping forward, “is none of your business.”
Before Kael even had a chance to be worried, she attacked.
His feet left the ground and his back thudded onto the bed. Kyleigh’s lips moved against his. Flames burst inside his chest. The pressure of her body twisted the fires, forced them closer to the surface. They lapped against the under-edges of his skin and melted them together.
Two white-hot lines seared him on either side when her hands slipped beneath his tunic. They bumped along his ribs; the flames roared more furiously than ever before —
“Wait.”
Kael grabbed her wrists, halting those burning lines. Her lips paused at his throat. He groaned when she pulled them away. He hated himself for drawing her hands out and holding them clasped at his chest — safely above his tunic. But it was what had to be done.
He loved Kyleigh with his every beat, his every breath. Her touch mended his all his rifts. She stretched to the very corners of his soul. He never wanted her to have to worry about anything — not even Fate’s will. So Kael planned to bind himself to her.
They would be whole in flesh and law, in blood and spirit. They would be so bound that she would never doubt again. He didn’t want her to be afraid. He wanted to prove that he was hers completely, that she had every right to love him.
So he took a deep breath and said: “Marry me.”
She raised her brows. “You mean … like humans do? With a ceremony and toasts and people gawking at us? Ugh,” she said when he nodded. “I can’t think of anything I’d like less.”
When she bent to kiss him, he shoved her up and out of reach. “I’m serious, Kyleigh. I want to marry you.”
“Are you worried about defending my honor?” she whispered with a grin that made the fires swell up. “Oh Kael, that’s so … barbaric.”
He was absolutely determined to marry her, no matter what she said. Kyleigh sank down very heavily against his arms. She was trying to break his will — and he knew that if their chests touched again, it would be broken quickly.
With no small amount of effort, he flipped her over. He tried to ignore the swell of pink that blossomed down her pale throat, tried not to be devoured by the fires in her eyes. He held her wrists tightly — and tried to ignore the way her blood thrummed against his fingertips.
“I’m not worried about defending your honor.”
“Oh?”
“I’m worried about my honor.”
Her lips bent into a smirk. “What if I promise to be gentle?”
That wasn’t at all what he’d meant — a fact he had to remind himself of when he bent involuntarily for her lips. He was losing the battle with his heart. He knew he’d have to think quickly. “How else can I be sure you’ll stay?” he said, hoping desperately to knock her off her guard.
She frowned. “You know I’ll stay.”
“Do I? How do I know you won’t leave the second you’ve gotten what you want from me?”
Her lips pulled back from her teeth in a snarl. “I hope for your sake that you’re only joking, whisperer.”
“Am I?”
“You know I love you.”
“Then you’ll have no problem proving it.” Kael leaned back, watching as the blaze in her eyes took on that dangerous edge — the one that thrilled and frightened him all at once. He knew then that he had her.
“Fine,” she growled. “I’ll marry you.”
He wasn’t going to let her off that easily. “I’m not sure I want to, now.”
“Why not?”
“You’ve hurt my feelings.”
He was certain her glare had never burned quite so fiercely. “I’m sorry,” she said through her teeth. “How can I make it up to you?”
He shrugged. “Well, I suppose since you’ve wounded me so severely, the only way I might trust you again is if you do the asking. Go on, Kyleigh,” he whispered, fighting desperately to hold back his grin, “ask me to marry you.”
A look of such absolute horror crossed her face that he nearly laughed outright. She snarled as his grin broke free and tried to shove him away, but he held her down. “Marry me,” she growled at last.
“I don’t think that was very sincere.”
“Fine. I’m going to sincerely pummel your arse if you don’t say you’ll marry me. How’s that?”
He tsked, reveling in how dangerously the fires glowed. “I’m afraid I’m not convinced.” It took every ounce of his will to get to his feet. When she tried to follow, he shoved her back onto the bed. “You can stay here for the night. I’ll sleep across the hall —”
“No,” she groaned.
He stopped in the doorway. “Yes. When you stop glowering and ask me gently, with love,” he added when she bared her teeth, “then I’ll consider marrying you. But until then, I’m afraid you’ll just have to wait.”
*******
He tormented Kyleigh for days on end.
Every time she asked to marry him, he would refuse. It grew steadily more difficult to shrug and say he wasn’t convinced — especially when that burning edge in her eyes made him want to forget the whole thing and pull her into his arms. But no matter how she teased him, he was determined to wait.
Things weren’t quite ready, yet.
Declan, Nadine, and their horde of redheaded children sailed back to the plains. Thelred took them on his way to pick up another shipment of goods — along with a list Kael had given him for the wedding.
He had enough coin from his time among the merchants for a few heads of cattle. Brend sent a whole herd, along with his congratulations and a roughly scrawled note insisting they were a wee weding presant.
“Where are we going to keep all these bloody beasts?” Thelred called down from his ship.
Kael wasn’t sure. He’d only wanted a few — and he doubted if even Kyleigh could eat a whole herd. “You’re always going on about how difficult it is to get red meat in the seas. Why don’t you sell them at the chancellor’s castle?”
Thel
red nodded slowly. “Yeah, all right. It’s probably safe to go back by now.”
Kael had no idea what that meant, and he didn’t have time to find out.
The giants had sent along everything he asked for: all of the ingredients Bimply needed for her cakes and cookies, as well as a few baskets of chickens. There were also plenty things he hadn’t asked for — like a mountain of fresh-baked pies and several barrels of malt beer.
“Well, you ought to stop helping people,” Thelred grumped when he saw the surprise on Kael’s face. “They’d be much less inclined to give you things.”
With all of the items on his list delivered, Kael figured he could have everything ready by week’s end. He’d only have to survive Kyleigh a few more days. Little did he know just how daunting a task that would be.
She asked him to marry her again at dinner. When he refused, Aerilyn shrilled that he was being completely unreasonable. She held little Dante in one arm and slapped Kael angrily with the other. Lysander and Uncle Martin threw gravy-soaked biscuits at him, and Thelred — though he knew full well what Kael had planned — exploded a mixed berry tart across the back of his breeches as he ran out the door.
Kyleigh found him in the library a few minutes later. She was armed with a soaked rag for the stains — and a new marriage proposal.
“No,” he insisted.
She scrubbed absently at the gravy splotches across his chest. Her hand pressed down a little more firmly than necessary and moved in slow, agonizing circles. “Very well, if you’re certain …”
“I am,” he croaked.
“Then I won’t trouble you again tonight.”
Her kiss was every bit as firm and agonizing as her scrubbing. He likely would’ve given in, had it lasted another moment. But she released him just before his resolve could melt.
He cursed himself silently as he watched her stride out the door.
Sleep didn’t come to him that night. He stared at the pattern of the shadows across the ceiling and tried to forget the pressure of Kyleigh’s lips. But even though his mind was consumed with all he had to do, his fingers kept returning to where they’d touched.
