Chapter 27
“You have to use your heart, not your head.”
Easy for Kieran to say. He’s had magic his whole life.
Me?
Three hours in, and I’m already wondering if I should have picked money as my reward instead. Having magic for a day sounds like a grand prize anyone who’s not stupid would jump head-first at. But is it, really? According to Kieran, the Fae spend years mastering their magic.
What kind of an arrogant ass am I to think I could do it in a day?
So far, I’ve tried lifting a twig, materialising a coin out of thin air, and changing the colour of a leaf. The twig wobbled. A quarter of the coin showed. And the leaf was just blown away by the wind.
“Gorgeous, you need to calm down,” Kieran says, his voice soft and maddeningly gentle, eyes amused like he wants to mock me but also adores me to bits. He steps closer, fingers brushing mine before taking my hand. “Winding yourself up will only make it harder.”
“But I only have a day—no, only twenty-one hours now.” I sigh, frowning at Kieran. Still looking as annoyingly dashing as ever, he lifts his other hand to my nose and brushes it with his thumb.
“Are you just going to do this all day and all night without sleeping? Why don’t we take a break for a while and get some dinner?”
“But that’s more time-wasting.”
“You’re really incredibly relentless sometimes.” Kieran lifts a brow. That word earns a grin from me. “But I adore you for it.”
He says a few words, and the ice in my heart melts into a pool of water. Just like that. Kieran once told me I could ask anything of him, but he doesn’t realise how he could easily do the same and I’d surrender even whatever tiny piece of my soul I have left.
“You’re just trying to distract me.”
His smirk confirms it. “Well, it worked. And you’re still adorable.”
Gods, this is unfair.
He has three-hundred-something years of dating experience. Probably already knows every trick in the book to make a girl smile.
“You’re too much.” I tug on his delicate suit, pulling him closer—then rise on my toes to press my lips against his, soft and sweet. Kieran blinks at me when I pull away. “But I also can’t get enough of you.”
That makes him laugh. Kieran isn’t the only one with cheesy lines.
I don’t remember what I was like when I fell in love with Declan. Was I this crazy? Did I feel like the world spin every time we kiss?
What kind of magic did this Fae cast on me?
With Declan, it was comfort. It was safe and security.
With Kieran, it’s fire. Wild and dangerous.
The kind of love that hits you out of nowhere. The one people say is the best kind, but only a rare few ever get to experience it in a lifetime.
Maybe it’s the moon.
Maybe the magic.
Or maybe it’s just the high.
But I can’t help but whisper, “If I only get a few more days with you … it’s enough for this lifetime.”
Kieran goes still for a full minute. Then slowly, his hand reaches to brush a strand of loose hair from my face. The autumn breeze is cold and utterly lonely. The sky above turns deep orange and violet. The moon shimmers overhead, swallowing the light as the stars flicker.
Yet, he’s the most beautiful thing I see.
“Easy for you to say.” Kieran breathes, every word etched with the same pain reflecting in my heart. “If the rebellion doesn’t kill me, then I’m cursed to remember you for the rest of my eternal life.”
“Don’t.” I swallow, trying hard not to choke on my own words. “I won’t hate you if you forget me.”
Kieran exhales, pulling me into such a crushing hug that I can barely breathe. “I will.”
For a while, I can’t say anything. I’m scared that if I do, it will sound like a goodbye, or I’ll break down in tears and spend the next hour uncontrollably sobbing.
I knew what I signed up for.
I knew what the cost of loving him was.
And I don’t want to waste what could be our last hours together in pain.
“Let’s get dinner,” I manage at last. “We can go again later.”
“You’re not planning on sleeping tonight, are you?” Kieran knows me well.
“It’s a full moon,” I say, biting my lips. “I thought you Fae get especially … frisky on nights like this.”
“Which is exactly why I’m trying to get you home.” He laughs, all sunshine and mischief.
The word home sounds lovely from his mouth.
So I lean in and press a kiss on Kieran’s neck, painting him the picture. “I don’t think we need to be home for that.”
“Oh, Little Star,” he murmurs, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear as his lips graze my cheek. “You’re in for a wild ride—pun absolutely intended.”
One minute, my heart is splintering. The next, Kieran has me laughing like crazy, and all the ache fades away like it was never there.
I squeeze his cheek, the obsidian ring on my left hand glowing faintly in the moonlight. “Let’s get food first.”
Dinner didn’t take long.
I can’t say the same about dessert. That got … deliciously out of hand.
By the time we returned to the River of Vows, the moon has risen high above us.
Wine stains our blood. Laughter echoes in the air.
Our hands haven’t left one another once.
Kieran had to fix my gorgeous fake wedding dress—ripped when he sprawled me across the desk in his office.
His jacket is now wrinkled and hanging on my shoulders, his shirt mostly unbuttoned, giving him that even more dangerous, undone look.
“Could we not have done this inside?” I ask between laughs.
“You know damn well what we’d be doing inside.” Kieran chuckles. “And I’m not about to let an amateur with magic blow up my bedroom.”
“Okay, fine.” I roll my eyes but smile anyway.
We move from the bridge to the gazebo. Kieran clearly did something to it, because I don’t feel even an ounce of the cold—or perhaps it’s the alcohol that keeps us warm on this autumn night. I take my daggers out and try to concentrate.
“Remember, you have to feel it to wield it,” Kieran reminds me before stepping away to give me some space—or maybe he doesn’t trust me not set the gazebo on fire.
I close my eyes for a moment and let my mind wander to what my heart desires the most. It should be easy to say that my biggest desire is to enchant my daggers—but when Kieran is standing less than a metre away, it’s hard to think of anything else.
I breathe in deep, focusing on the weight of both daggers in my hands.
The magic is there—I’ve felt it all night. It flows slowly through my vein, hums quietly under my skin, and pulses in my chest.
I can do this.
I can do this.
I can do this.
And then—I feel it. A rush. Something deep inside me rises like a beast awakened by moonlight. And when I open my eyes again, my hands are glowing—golden and violet. My breath catches.
The glow fades a few second later, but not without leaving its mark—two faint traces of light, one on each dagger.
“Wow,” I whisper, turning to Kieran, who’s already watching me like a proud boyfriend. “That was awesome!”
“You did it.” A gorgeous smile paints across his lips.
I drop both daggers and throw myself at him, pulling him into a kiss until we’re both breathless—Gods, it must be the moon. The reason for this relentless yearning for something that’s already mine—something that’s standing right in front of me.
“I did it!” I laugh.
“Now,” Kieran says, glancing at the daggers on the ground. “What exactly did you do?”
Hmm. “That’s a good question.”
“What?” He laughs, breathless. “Please tell me you know.”
“Well …” I pause, pulling away to pick them up. “I sort of … just asked for them both to have powers that might give me an edge in the trials.”
“Oh, dear Gods.” Kieran drags a hand over his face, even though he can’t seem to stop laughing. “I should have known giving you magic would be dangerous. My love, you can’t just wish for vague power. You have to be specific, otherwise it could backfire spectacularly.”
I swallow, pressing my lips together tight.
Well, he should have warned me, in that case. He knew I was a walking red flag.
“Let me see.” Kieran holds out his hands for the daggers. I pass them over. He flips them around a few times, storm-lit eyes narrowing, studying them carefully. “Don’t be alarmed. I’m just going to test them.”
“How?”
Kieran answers by slicing a shallow cut across his finger with the moonstone blade. Just a tiny thread of blood. Then he does the same with the twilight glass.
I gasp, instinctively grabbing his hand, and without intending to, something in me flares. The magic rushes out. And in the blink of an eye, the cuts are gone.
“Oh, look at that.” He blinks. “You just healed me.”
“You cut yourself!”
“Just a tiny bit,” he says softly, hand rubbing my back like that’s supposed to make me feel better. “Did you think I’d let you walk into the next trial, not knowing when your daggers will play a trick on you?”
I exhale sharply, arms crossed. “Well?”
“This one will flare when you’re in danger,” he says, handing back the moonstone dagger, then holds up the twilight glass one, inspecting the blade “And this one is … actually quite impressive. It draws energy from anyone it cuts.”
My brows hit the gazebo roof. “Like their strength?”
“Or maybe even their magic.” He shrugs, smirking like it’s not even a big deal that I now have another tiny deadly weapon.
“Oh, that’s fun.” I glance at them both in my hands, eyes flaring in amusement.
“You know what else is fun?”
“What?”
“Sleeping,” Kieran says, rolling his neck. “I’m exhausted. Can we please go home now?”
My heart flutters every time he says home.
Damn it, I’m in love with my fake husband.
“One more thing,” I say, sheathing the daggers back onto my thigh and ankle. Kieran frowns, but I don’t give anything away, only offer him a hand and lead him back to the bridge.
We’re standing out in the cold. Bats flutter in the nearby trees. Stars flicker above, thousands of them.
Yet something in my chest is tight and warm.
“What are we doing here?” Kieran asks, glancing around. His wings look insanely beautiful in the bright moonlight.
“Close your eyes.”
He arches a brow. “You’d better be naked when I open them.”
I hiss. “You just said you were exhausted.”
“It’s an expression.” He laughs, eyes squeezing shut, fingers lacing with mine. “I can be wildly awake when you’re in my bed.”
“Shhh!”
Kieran sighs, finally shutting up.
Now, I pray that I’m not too nervous to ruin this —I close my eyes, reaching inward, searching for that source of power again. This time, I focus only on him.
I breathe.
And I concentrate on the one thing I want to give.
When I open my eyes, a cold, metal object sits in my palm—an obsidian ring, shimmering like the one he gave me. Matching. Equal.
Entirely ours.
I slide it onto Kieran’s finger. He frowns as he opens his eyes.
Then his smile turns bright as moonlight.
“Hey, it’s the crap you promised to give me,” he says, holding up his hand. I punch him gently on the arm.
“It’s not crap! I concentrated very hard, you know.”
“I know. I know.” He laughs, pulling me into an embrace, wings folding around us like a cocoon. “I love it. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” I murmur, trying not to blush but probably failing miserably.
How did I go from having a dead boyfriend to exchanging rings with a fake husband?
“Now we have to kiss to make it official.” He says that as if we haven’t been kissing all evening.
But do I object?
Heck, no.
Kieran officiates our fake wedding with a kiss so hard my knees go weak. I hold on to his wrinkled shirt with one hand, the other on the back of his neck, kissing him back like it’s some competition I refuse to lose.
I love him.
I love him.
Gods, I really love him.
When we finally break apart, a cold wave of magic pulses through my chest. My fingertips crackle like lightning. Kieran tilts his head, eyes glancing down at himself, then back to me like he feels something, too.
Something just … shifted.
And I have no idea what.
“Did you just shoot me with your weird power?” he asks.
My eyes widened. “I hope not.”
“Huh,” Kieran murmurs.
We both stare at each other, confused. The cold in my chest already fades away. Kieran scratches his head like he’s just been handed a riddle he can’t solve.
Whatever it was, we’re still breathing. That’s good enough for me.
“Let’s go home.”
That pulls Kieran’s attention. He nods, wrapping me tight in his arms.
A few seconds later, we’re back in the warmth of his house. The same moon hangs in the sky, its silver glow casting shadows across the mountains.
“You know what else people do on their wedding night?” Kieran asks, voice low and teasing.
I already know the answer… especially when he starts unbuttoning the rest of his buttons.
Exhausted, my ass.