38. A Mind-Reading Spell
thirty-eight
A Mind-Reading Spell
I awoke to the smell of freshly made coffee somewhere close to my head.
My entire body was abuzz with feeling. I was sore, I was fulfilled, and above all I was exhausted.
I felt like half of my soul had been scooped out of my body and given to someone else—Lucais, probably.
In exchange for it, he’d given me one of his white shirts to wear overnight.
I felt the buttery soft material shift against my skin as I rolled over, surfing the waves of his natural cologne.
When I opened my eyes and sat upright, I searched the room and found him standing by the large arched window closest to me. The daylight was bright enough to confirm that it was morning, although I had no way of knowing the precise time.
The window was almost floor to ceiling in height and about as wide as his shoulders.
The chiffon curtains had been pulled back, though it made very little difference when the only view he had was of the endless and impenetrable fog.
Even so, he stared out of it as if he could see through the mist to whatever corner of his realm lay beyond; and, for all I knew, maybe he could.
“How are you feeling?” he asked without turning around. The High King’s voice, though tender, startled me. As he circled back to study me, he brought a mug of steaming hot liquid to his mouth and nodded towards something over my shoulder.
I glanced behind myself to find an identical mug waiting for me, levitating in thin air as if it had been placed on top of an invisible table.
Propping myself up on the pillows and bringing my knees to my chest, I claimed it, shivering as the warmth spread from my fingertips all the way through to my toes.
The enlivening aroma made my mouth water, so I took a sip of the coffee while I pondered how best to answer his question.
“I feel strange,” I said at last. “Because I still feel like me, and I kind of expected that I wouldn’t anymore.”
Lucais padded over to me barefoot. He was shirtless, wearing only a pair of loose grey pants that hung low around his hips, and the bed dipped as he sat down as close to me as possible on the edge of it.
I had half a thought to find Wrenlock, certain that I’d felt warmth from both men throughout the night, but he wasn’t in the room with us.
“He’s coming back,” the High King assured me. “As for feeling different…” One side of his mouth pulled up in a roguish smile, but there was a touch of bashfulness in his golden eyes. “You remember how we said we’d be friends today?”
I nodded slowly, taking another sip of coffee.
He cocked his head to the side, biting his lower lip. “How do you feel about tomorrow instead?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…” Lucais’s soft laugh was unsteady. “I’m afraid that you fell asleep quite early. That was our fault,” he hastened to add. “We wore you out before you and I were able to fulfil the requirements of the mating bond.”
Forgetting that I was holding a mug full of hot coffee, I dropped my hands into my lap, and half of my drink splashed over the side.
In an instant, Lucais waved his fingers in the air, and the caramel coloured liquid froze like an ice statue before it could splash all over the blankets across my lap.
He followed it with a circular motion of his wrist, reversing the entire accident.
I watched in awe as it splashed back into the mug, and he gingerly reached over to take it from me before setting it back atop the invisible side table.
I blinked up at him, heart racing. He was slowly but surely letting me see more of his magic at work, and it was mesmerising. More than that, even. It was humbling. And terror-inducing.
“What do you mean?” I questioned faintly. “I know that I didn’t imagine last night happening. I’m sure I have at least a hickey to prove it—”
The High King laughed and reached out to stroke a finger down the side of my neck, lingering over the spot where Wrenlock had bitten me hard enough to leave a mark.
“Bookworm,” he crooned. “We certainly engaged in an array of very pleasurable activities last night, but there was one particular thing that we didn’t do, and that one thing just so happens to be quite essential if we want the mating bond to take effect. ”
Understanding washed over me with the flush of pink that touched my cheeks. “You didn’t…” I trailed off awkwardly, staring down at his crotch. Beneath the light fabric of his pants, I saw the immediate twitch of his cock springing to life at my attention, and the colour on my cheeks deepened.
“Oh, no, I did.” He grinned like a fiend when he saw the expression on my face. “Around the same time as you, actually.”
My heart skipped a beat, sparing one for the space between my legs that throbbed once at the imagery of Wrenlock getting Lucais off while I came apart on top of him. “But not…with me,” I hedged, uncertain.
His smile was coy. “Not exactly, no.”
I took a few deep breaths, weighing up my options.
If the bond hadn’t been solidified, that meant there was still time for me to change my mind if that’s what I wanted to do. But if I didn’t want to back out, then we had to start it all over again, and I wasn’t sure I’d survive it.
The way Lucais had felt inside of me was all-consuming and lethal.
It was hard enough to look him in the eye after he’d fucked me with his tongue and pulled me apart at the seams, so to lose myself completely with him would surely feel a million times more intense—and a million times more unforgettable and inescapable.
“How many times does it need to happen?”
“Just once. Each. Together. Preferably around the same time.”
I pushed my shoulders back and straightened my spine, letting my knees fall to the sides so I was cross-legged beneath the blankets. “Okay, then,” I agreed. “We’ll be friends tomorrow, and we’ll finish this today.”
One night to get it over and done with would have been ideal, but one entire day wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Steeling myself, I untangled my legs from the blankets and moved towards him.
“Down, girl.” Lucais laughed. He took the hand that was reaching for his erection and brought it up to his mouth, placing a kiss over my knuckles. “You just woke up. Your safety net hasn’t come back yet. And you need something a bit stronger than coffee to replenish your strength.”
I rolled my eyes, but I fell back onto the pillows and conceded.
The High King didn’t ask me what I wanted to eat. Much like he had done with the coffee and tea, he simply took it upon himself to make it—and make it bizarrely accurate to my tastes.
He summoned a large tray of food so close to the breakfast spread the House used to send into my bedroom.
It was filled with pancakes, waffles, assorted fruits, and golden syrup; there was a plate with thick slices of toast, paperdove eggs, sticks of butter, jam, and another pot of perfectly brewed coffee, complete with a pitcher of milk and cubes of sugar.
Lucais sat with his legs crossed on the other side of the bed, facing me across the breakfast tray.
My eyes bounced back and forth between the food and his unreadable expression while I tried to untangle specific memories from the haze in my brain.
“You…” I began after a few moments of his expectant silence. I extended a finger in the air between us, then hesitated, biting my lip. “I don’t know if this sounds unhinged, but”—I frowned at the food, then flicked my eyes up to meet his curious gaze—“you were sending me food at the House.”
The High King’s mouth twitched, evidently against his will. He reached for a sprig of grapes and popped three into his mouth in quick succession, chewing thoroughly before he responded. “Was I?”
My brow creased. “Weren’t you?”
“It’s possible.”
“I thought that it was the House. This whole time…” I trailed off, staring blindly at the foggy window over his shoulder.
He shrugged, bringing my vision back into focus.
“A strong enchantment can absolutely take on a life of its own,” the High King told me.
“I enchanted the House, but over time, it’s become far more independent.
It has a mind of its own.” He buttered and cut a slice of toast, handing one half to me.
I took it, my mind still reeling. “The House takes most of my suggestions on board, and it wouldn’t survive for long without me, but I don’t have total control of it. ”
I shook my head slightly as I recalled that the House had locked my bedroom doors but still allowed him to come in through the balcony, which I’d thought was absolutely preposterous behaviour at the time.
“For example,” Lucais went on around a bite of toast, “the interior design. The House alters its own décor and layout to suit the guests. Did you notice that your bedroom bore a striking resemblance to your bookstore? I certainly did—because I had nothing to do with it. That was the enchantment, observing you and adjusting the House’s layout to suit the parts of your identity it was able to perceive.
The problem is that it changes the entire building to fit the new design.
” He rolled his eyes. “The whole time you were there with me, I couldn’t find a single fucking thing in my own bedroom. ”
I stifled a laugh. “And the Forest?”
“The Forest,” Lucais said tightly, a scowl overcoming his face, “is a perfect example of a faulty spell.”
I put a hand over my mouth to conceal a smile. “So what went wrong then?”
“You’re better off asking what went right . And the answer to that would be absolutely nothing.” He dusted breadcrumbs off his fingers over the empty plate, and I took the opportunity to take my first bite of toast, chewing patiently as I waited for him to speak.