35. Malachi
“Now, now, now,” I said the moment my body shifted shape.
Every second away from Ciara was a second too long. Lorcan reached for the Veil, and it sprang to life beneath his glowing palm with ease. Did that mean he was stronger than Ciara, or had Sir Axis fixed the spring? I wanted to hope it was the latter.
Lorcan grinned as though he sensed it was the latter.
“Take me to her.”
I didn’t need to tell him twice. We stepped into the Veil, and he closed it at once as soon as Pepper was by his side. Where a fated mate should be. Where my fated mate should be. Ciara was mine.
The Veil parted in the atrium and the scene before my eyes made me angry. I stormed across the cobblestones and pushed between Sir Axis and Ciara.
“Don’t touch her,” I growled the words while facing him.
He rolled his eyes. “Fae fated mates are such a pain in the ass. All this don’t touch her. Relax. She was only going to give me a thank you kiss.”
My fist flew at his jaw before I even registered I was going to punch him. Ciara grabbed my arm and hauled me back. Sir Axis worked his jaw side to side.
“Like I said, don’t touch her,” I gritted out through clenched teeth.
“Yeah, yeah.” Sir Axis waved us away. “Now I’ve helped you, it’s your turn to help me.”
“I realized you weren’t doing this out of the goodness of your heart.”
“I have plenty of goodness in my heart.” He folded his arms over his chest.
“You’re the one who caused the problem. Why would we help you?” Ciara said.
“What?” I growled.
“A good friend of mine, Saltine Woodswillow, can predict the future, so when she tells me to do something, I do it.”
“No questions asked?”
“Of course, I ask questions, I’m not stupid.” He sneered. “There are good reasons why I altered your spring to get your father to leave the Summer Court. She never predicted the way the connected magic had become warped to turn it into this big of a problem.”
“Unfortunately, I believe him. Saltine used to be our witch seer.” Ciara leaned over my shoulder. “How can we help?”
“You need to convince the King to lift the lock on the Veil. To connect the two worlds as they once were. The Fae need to come back to Earth and rule,” Sir Axis said. “To fix Earth too.”
Ciara’s hair brushed my arm as she shook her head. “That might be impossible.”
“Impossible but necessary.” He waved to the spring. “Even without my influence, the spring will languish again if you keep the two worlds apart and this will have all been for nothing.”
“What else do you want from Ciara?”
He smirked. “When the young girl Vanya reaches adulthood, I need her to help me return her to the Spring Court.”
“It’s a two-for-one deal. Wherever Ciara goes, I go.” I folded my arms.
“Obviously.” He rolled his eyes. “But it’s Ciara’s shadows I need.”
“Why do you need shadows to return the girl?” Ciara asked. “Did you steal her?”
“I would never do such a thing.”
Sir Axis appeared offended.
“Then why?”
“She’s special. The Elves like special things. I’m protecting her until she can find her future fated mate in the Spring Court.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m a good guy.” He shrugged. “Because Saltine’s visions need me to.”
Was he a good guy? He might have been an asshole to us, but he’d helped us. Perhaps he wasn’t as bad as I thought he was. If he was only trying to get the Fae King to lift the lock on the Veil and reconnect Earth and the Summer Court as they once were for the greater good, could we be angry with him? And I knew from stories that the King had held Saltine in great stead. The expression on Lorcan’s face said he believed him too.
“Now, who’s taking me back to Vanya?”
“I will,” Lorcan said. “I trust Saltine’s visions. She helped Father and I defeat the Trappers. She wouldn’t have orchestrated this without good reason.”
“We will,” Pepper said.
And there was the love of fated mates staring me in the face. It was the same love and devotion Ciara and I had. All this time they had fated us to be together and we’d been too close to see it. Well, I wasn’t too close now. Now the spring was flowing, our future was brighter, and we had time to mark each other as fated mates.
My power throbbed in my palms.
I couldn’t wait to mark her as mine.
But more than that, I couldn’t wait for Ciara to mark me as hers.