Chapter 11
It felt like all the air had been stolen from my lungs and then pumped back in. I gasped a huge breath and shot up, feeling my hair, my arms, my legs. Madden sat up beside me, and we stared at each other in shock. It had worked.
It had worked.
Blood and fire, it had worked.
I let out a cry as Madden’s arms came around me, and I smelled his ashy scent, felt his hard muscles with my hands, ran my fingers through the tangles of his brown hair. Everything felt more real here. More delicious. More solid.
“You did it,” he whispered. “You broke your curse.” He looked down at his heart, no wound there. “And you saved my life.”
For the first time since I’d met him, he smiled. An actual, genuine smile that curved his lips, his brown eyes so bright, so full of wonder and hope . . . and something else I didn’t recognize in this moment. He crushed me with his body, bringing me in for a fierce hug.
I never wanted him to let me go.
“I told you she was back,” a voice said.
I turned to see the three faeries floating in front of me: Ephira, Shira, and Elexa. Fire flickered from their bodies, their bright eyes glowing.
“The son of a bitch actually did it,” Elexa said, and I bit back a laugh.
Nothing had changed, it seemed.
“We have to hurry,” Ephira said, “before she finds us. We’ve kept you hidden, afraid she’d come to kill you, but luckily she’s been distracted trying to keep control of Gilraeth. With luck, she won’t even know you’ve broken the curse.”
I looked around the dim cave. Madden sat up and pulled me up as well. “Where will we go?” I asked.
Ephira smiled. “Why our home, dear.” She gestured deeper in the cave. “You two can go rest while we scout out the area, make sure everything is safe. Then we’ll need to come up with a plan.”
I hopped down, Madden coming beside me. “I’m ready.” I looked into each of their eyes. “Thank you for taking such good care of me, but I won’t run or hide, not anymore. I’m ready to face her and take back the fire court.”
Pride shined in their gazes.
A dragon roared in the distance, and Ephira jumped. “Oh, I hope she hasn’t already found us.” She shooed me and Madden. “Go, you remember where we live?”
I nodded, the path clear in my mind.
“Good,” she said, already fluttering off with Shira and Elexa. “Go now. There’s food, and you know where your room is. We’ll be there by tomorrow morning, and then we’ll make our plan.”
They disappeared around a corner, and I faced Madden. “Well, come on, then, Mercenary. Let’s go.”
We arrived at the faeries’ home outside the cave, made of rock and rubble, stones stacked on top of each other, a wooden door leading inside with a chimney on top, smoke lifting out.
“This is where I lived in the year after the sorceress killed my parents. I hid out here, every day afraid she’d find me.”
I opened the door and pushed inside, the room was small, with a hearth, a table and chairs, and a bed in the corner.
“The faeries let me sleep here, but they don’t actually live in the house with me.
They live in the caves. But they visited daily to take care of me, to help me heal after I saw my parents’ deaths at the hand of the sorceress. ”
I turned and faced Madden, slipping my arms around his waist. “I spent so long being afraid.” I looked up at him. “Do you think my people will forgive me?”
He kissed my nose. “There’s nothing to forgive, Princess. You’ve done no wrong.”
Roasted meat, prickly pear, cactus, along with plums and tarts, sat on the table.
It had been so long since I’d felt hunger, but now my stomach rumbled, and I was ravenous. My gaze flicked to Madden, to his golden-tan skin that glistened under the firelight. And I wasn’t just hungry for food. It had been a long time since I’d felt a lot of things, done a lot of things.
I swallowed. The first time I’d had sex had been with some guard my parents employed. It hadn’t been anything spectacular, mostly just something to scratch an itch.
“What’s going on in that head of yours?” Madden looked down at me.
I snapped to attention, my spine straightening, cheeks flushing.
“Nothing,” I said as Madden lead me to the table. “I’m just not used to being here, to feeling so much. I forgot how much everything can be: my emotions, my hunger, my fatigue, just”—I splayed out my hands—“everything.”
He nodded. “I can’t imagine not feeling any of this for that long.” His gaze lowered to my breasts, currently pushed up and popping out of the tight bodice I wore. Fiery hells, I wanted out of this thing as soon as possible.
Though, with how Madden was currently looking at me, the hunger in his eyes, maybe I never wanted to take it off again.
He sat down and popped a piece of bread in his mouth, and I joined him at the table.
We ate in silence, both of us lost in our thoughts. I wondered what awaited me once news spread about my curse breaking.
Well, one thing awaited me for certain: Helena. I’d have to face her if I wanted to take back my kingdom—and I did. I was rightful queen, and my people deserved to have more than some power-hungry shadow person lording over them.
I still didn’t know why Sorrengard sent Helena here, what their endgame might be, but it didn’t matter.
I wouldn’t let her take over this entire court.
And then what . . . would she go after the rest of the continent?
The earth court? They’d be an easy target with Liliath’s stepmother in control.
I couldn’t leave my friend there by herself, a prisoner, just like I’d been.
But I also had to focus on taking back my court, rebuilding before I gallivanted off somewhere.
Elwen would have to fend for themselves for now.
But soon, soon I would come for Liliath.
“Princess, there’s something I want to—” Madden said at the same time as I said, “Can I show you something?”
I gestured to him. “Go ahead.”
He shook his head. “No, it’s okay. Of course you can show me whatever you’d like.”
I smiled and leaned over, grabbing his hand, tugging him from the table and out a little door in the back. Behind the stone house was a little rocky clearing.
The sound of trickling water filled the silence, and soon we walked into another cavern, this one lit by a brilliant sky above, visible through a large opening in the ceiling.
Madden sucked in a sharp breath, and I settled in a sitting position. He sank down beside me and we looked up at the stars that decorated the sky, the big round moon glowing bright.
“It’s beautiful,” he said.
“I’ve missed this. I used to come here all the time, my little escape when everything felt like too much.”
He grabbed my hand, and we both lay onto our backs, staring up at the glittering sky.
Madden rubbed circles into my palm with his thumb, his touch flooding me with warmth, my inner thighs aching with a need I wanted to fill.
I turned to him, and he faced me, letting go of my hand and tracing the contours of my face with his finger. For all his strength, he had the gentlest touch. I closed my eyes and reveled in the feel of it.
I still had no idea where we stood. We hadn’t talked about the future. I didn’t know if there was a future.
“How did you break your curse?” Madden asked.
Nerves fluttered in my stomach.
“You still haven’t told me how.”
I sighed. “I had to be ready to come back here. You can’t leave the curse until you’re truly ready, until you’ve dealt with your demons.” A flush crawled up my neck. “You made me realize I was ready. No one else accepted me, no one else was willing to push me, to challenge me. To love me.”
Madden’s mouth parted. “But I was—I do.”
I sucked in a breath, not daring to hope but unable to douse that spark inside me. Was he saying . . .
“I love you, Seraphina. I don’t know what”—he gestured between us—“this looks like in the waking world. You’re a princess, and I’m—” He looked away. “Well, I’m not worthy of you.”
“Don’t.” My voice was rough. “Don’t you dare say that. You’re more worthy than any of the men that came before you, all of them so narrow-minded and pompous. Thinking they deserved me, had a claim to me, just because of their status. Never even trying to get to know me.”
“How could they not want to get to know you?” He reached out and pinched a strand of my hair between his fingers. “I’ll never understand that. Fucking idiots.”
He let go of the hair and leaned forward, pressing his lips to mine. Gentle, nothing like that fervent kiss in the water. I kissed him back, letting his lips part mine, his tongue slip into my mouth. A groan escaped me, and his hand came to my face, cupping it so tenderly.
He leaned back, all his delicious warmth leaving with him, and I practically growled. “Do you want this?” he asked.
I exhaled the word out on a single breath. “Yes.”
And then he was on me. His body heavy, his erection stiff. A moan released from my lips as his hands skated down my bodice. We both sat up as he started undoing the laces in the back of my dress, his fingers deft and quick.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’ve had some practice at untying a dress.” I smirked.
His gaze snapped to me, those brown eyes alight.
He came to his knees, and I did the same, then he spun me around so that my back was against his chest; his breath skated across my ear, his teeth nipping at it before he said, “The reason I’m so good at this is not from practice.
It’s from need. I need to see you, to feel you, to have you. ”