Normal #2
I was ready for bed, fresh-faced and in a nightgown covered in my long cashmere robe.
And I was making my rounds.
First up, Aleece.
I knocked on her door.
“Come in,” she called.
I went in.
She was in a cami and sleep shorts, sitting cross-legged in the middle of her bed, her shining hair up in a ponytail, a lapcomp open on the bed in front of her, a tablet in her hand.
Apparently, even a princess’s duties never ceased.
She looked a lot younger than her years, almost girlish, something I’d never thought about the carelessly stylish, always together Aleece, Princess Royal of Night’s Fall.
“Just checking to see you’re okay,” I said as I wandered in.
She gave me a half smile. “That’s sweet, but I’m all right. I mean, I’m still pissed some male made crucial decisions for the both of us and I’ve been unknowingly living under a spell for over a decade. But, whatevs…right?”
“Right, I suppose,” I replied, sitting on the edge of her bed, and I indicated her lapcomp with a dip of my head. “Have you made a decision?”
She shot me a rueful look. “I fear if I insisted on going my own way, I would be worrying you all. And I’m not a fan of living in danger or upsetting someone, even if I’m ticked at him.”
I shared her rueful look.
“It’d also upset Aleksei, not to mention Dad, Mom, Tim,” she continued.
She was right about that.
“So yes. I’m in for the duration, and now I’m trying to decide what I can hand over to Tim, what Mom might be able to make, and what I need to do,” she concluded.
“I hope you know, if you need to talk about it. Any of it…” I let that trail.
The rueful expression left her face. “Thanks for that. But honestly, in the end, it is what it is and there’s nothing I can do about it.” She granted me a whole smile. “I mean, I’d never say this to him, but it can’t be denied, destiny didn’t deal me a bad hand.”
No, it didn’t.
Bainon was very easy to look at, and the more I was around him, the more I liked him.
“It’s just…” she continued. “I mean, I get that I was very young when he realized we were bound. And as such, he was really young when he made the decision. So part of me can see why he’d make it. But the adult me is totally not cool with him making it without saying boo to me.”
“The adult and the young me would feel the same,” I concurred.
“It’s also after the fact, and I can’t say it doesn’t give me some relief, but still, it ticks me off that I had to live for years thinking there was something wrong with me.”
That comment surprised me.
“Something wrong with you?”
“I never connected with males. I mean,”—she grinned—“I connected.” Her grin quickly died.
“But it was never…right. It never went deep. Even though I knew Mom and Dad were not fated mates, they still fell in love. And I suspected they were going to try to arrange something for me, shove me in the path of some rich baron or count or something. But, like I said, I was beginning to think there was something wrong with me.”
And this comment made my insides feel funny.
“I’ve known Bainon for as long as I have memories,” she carried on. “I think some part of me knew I had a mate, it was him, and that was what kept me from feeling anything other than wanting other males to get in my pants, you know?”
“I know,” I forced out.
“And it explains why he’s never been with a female for very long,” she continued, and now a dark look was coming over her face. “He went through a lot of them, but he did it in a way it was clear none of them were serious.”
“Knowing his mate, how could he do that? Be with other females, I mean,” I asked, not expecting her to have an answer.
“He’s already told me, it was so difficult to know I was his, and he had to remain distant, therefore he alternately memory spelled himself, or spelled himself the way Gayle has done.”
“Memory spelled?”
“Spelled himself in a way that would cloak his connection to me.”
“Just the connection?”
She nodded. “Not him knowing me, our history, just our connection.”
I was impressed. “That’s some mad magic.”
“Aleksei tells me his sorcery is off the charts. Anna didn’t have a lot of interest in practicing the craft, so she isn’t a very proficient witch. But Bain has apparently eclipsed even Dagsbrun in his abilities.”
Dagsbrun was known as an unwands-being (that being, he didn’t have to hold a wand to access his magic, like fae didn’t—and this was an indication of the amount of power he held, which was to say, it was a whole lot of power). It was also common knowledge he was a highly proficient potion maker.
Aleece kept talking.
“So now I have to deal with him spelling me without me knowing, and we both know how fucked up that is. Also, I have to deal with Dad and Aleksei having this intel and not telling me. And facing a life with Queen Delanta and Princess Anna in it, which does not fill me with glee.”
Queen Delanta was two very steep steps down from Tatra in the imperious department, but she was still an elitist bitch.
And Princess Anna’s apple did not fall far from that tree.
“You’ll get there, because bottom line, like you said, destiny didn’t deal you a bad hand.”
She shrugged.
Then she reached out and grabbed my hand, gave it a squeeze, and let it go before she said, “Thanks for checking in on me.”
“Again, always here to talk.”
“And thanks yet again.”
I got up. “Now I’ll leave you to it. Goodnight.”
“’Night, Cat.”
I left her room and went down the hall to Gayle’s.
I knocked.
She opened the door just enough to look out, but when she saw me, she fully opened it.
“Hey,” she greeted.
“You doing all right?” I asked.
“No ill effects from the spell, so you can stop worrying, even if it’s sweet you are.”
“Okay then. So it’s obviously working.”
She smiled, and on the one hand, it was nice to have my Gayle back to the Gayle I knew.
On the other hand, knowing it was the effects of magic didn’t thrill me.
“Tomorrow, can we talk?” I asked.
“What about?” she asked back.
I wanted to show her Selediel’s portrait, but I didn’t want to do it right before she was going to bed.
“History,” I prevaricated.
“What?”
“It’s not a big deal.” Okay, that was an outright lie.
“Okay. But I have to deal with my bosses and my schedule first thing. Can we do afternoon?”
“Sure.”
“Mega.”
“All right. I’ll let you be. Love you. Sleep well.”
“You too.”
I moved away.
She shut the door.
I left Laura and Aleksei alone, just in case they were engaged in activities they didn’t want interrupted, and I headed to Tanyn’s bedchamber.
He wasn’t there.
Then again, he was doing his rounds of Bainon, Sirk and Cormac, so he might be a while.
Thus, I grabbed my tablet, climbed into bed, and had just started reading when Tanyn strolled in, Hurley, who had been absent for the evening’s festivities (I had learned the pup loved being outside), trotting at his side.
Hurley rushed to me.
I set aside the tablet so I could bend over the side of the bed to give him a full body rub.
When I lifted away, I had a king in my face, kissing me.
He ended it and said, “Be right back.”
With that, he (and Hurley) went into the closet.
I nabbed my tablet again.
He (and Hurley) came back.
I watched him in his pajama bottoms round the bed. I did this because it was a good show.
I also did it feeling something new.
Something I liked.
I liked it more when Tanyn got in beside me, stretched out, and he turned right to me, wrapped an arm around my hips and tipped his head back to look up at me.
Lilith, he was beautiful.
“You want to read for a while?” he murmured.
“Is that a nice way for you to say you want me to ditch my book so we can have sex?” I teased.
His gaze warmed, but his lips said, “No. It’s my way of asking you if you want to read for a while.”
I set my tablet on the nightstand, shifted down in bed, turned to him, and since his arm never left me through these movements, it was right in position to pull me closer.
“I kinda can’t wait for this to be our normal,” I noted.
“Pardon?” he asked.
His big hand was moving over the silk covering my back, but in a soothing way, not in a starting-something way.
“Me, lying in bed, waiting for you to be done doing your kingly duties and coming to me so you can just be my Tanyn.”
Mm-hmm, yes.
I slipped the “my” in there.
Lightning crackled in his eyes.
And that was my reward.
“Without threats of fisticuffs in the antechamber and rogue dowager queens on a rampage, that is,” I added.
“Yes, it will be nice when all that shit is done.”
“Since it’s not. I talked with Aleece. She’s coming to terms, and she’s decided to stick with our quartet. She’s still going to put Bainon through it, I fear. But she’s coming to terms. And I talked with Gayle. No ill effects from the spell.” I hesitated for effect. “So far.”
“That’s good.”
“Thanks for taking her back.”
His hand smoothed over my ass, and he used it to pull me even closer. “No problem, baby.”