Chapter 10 – Neve
NEVE
“We have a perfectly suitable room in which to be alone together,” Vale muttered, his eyes closed at my request as I guided him.
He wouldn’t be so grumpy if he knew what I intended. After all, we’d been wishing for alone time for weeks, and yes, our quarters at the castle would have done well enough.
But for our first time together, I did not want well enough. I wanted magic. The sweet Princess Bavirra had shared with me a place she claimed held just that.
“You’ll come with me, and you’ll like it,” I told Vale in a faux stern tone, and as I’d hoped, his lips twitched into a smile.
The prince might be one of the most revered warriors in the kingdom, but I’d learned that he didn’t mind a female in charge. In more ways than one.
I spied the door the princess had detailed in hushed whispers at the dinner table. A grin spread across my face. “A few more minutes and we’ll be there.”
“Fine,” he breathed.
Beneath the cloak I wore, a silver silk dress with two slits riding up to my hip bones slithered across my skin.
The dress was one I’d never have purchased for myself, but Princess Bavirra had thought I’d needed something special for tonight.
At dinner, she’d covertly sent a servant out for a dress that would bring a prince, a battle-blooded warrior, to his knees.
I’d dressed in our private bathroom, with the door shut, so he would not get a sneak peek.
And while the dress wasn’t exactly to my tastes, after wearing regular clothing for weeks, I delighted in the feel of luxury.
In the softness. The delicacy and beauty.
I couldn’t wait for Vale to lay eyes on the dress. I wanted him to rip it off my body.
I dragged him down the final hall and opened the door to be met with the garden surrounding the castle.
Despite being inside a mountain, the dwarves seemed to love flowers and trees as much as they did metal and gemsmithing.
The royal garden overflowed, and in the center of the greenery, I spied the vibrant purple leaves of a Drassil tree.
As it was night, the sunshafts and mirrors positioned above brought no light down on the holy tree. Still, in the darkness and the stillness, it was magical. Beautiful, despite the thinning of the leaves and the slight droop to those that remained.
My heart clenched as I remembered that many of the Drassils were suffering, just as the people did. Perhaps Vale or I could offer to infuse magic into this one before we left. Help it as the dwarves had helped us.
Vale sniffed. “Are we outside?”
“As much as one can be beneath a mountain,” I replied.
“The plot thickens.”
“You never know what you’ll get with me.”
He barked a laugh as we entered the garden. “Isn’t that the truth?”
Once I’d been a ‘commoner’ to Vale. A female he’d married for honor. Then I’d learned I was much more, and my hopes and dreams for my future shifted. To include him. He was the moon and the stars and all that I ever could have dreamed of. All that I wanted.
Tonight, I planned to tell him as much. I hoped that this night would assuage all his doubts. That we could make our marriage last a lifetime. I wanted him for that long.
Will he still think of his fated? The thought filtered through my mind, and not for the first time.
Despite the occasions when we’d been intimate, no soulmate mark had appeared on our bodies. Would it appear tonight? Sometimes to be sure, fae needed to join in the most intimate of acts, the one that could result in creation, for the mark to appear.
“There are stairs. Follow me and go slow,” I said as we reached the spot Princess Bavirra had detailed.
Pushing aside vines and bushes, Vale and I climbed the stairs—about two hundred steps, cleverly hidden from the view below. I hoped Bavirra was correct in thinking that only she and her past lovers knew of this place. To be interrupted in my plans would be frustrating.
“We’re here,” I said when we reached the top. I edged him into a small crevice on the mountain’s side. Vines draped the side of the wall. The princess had made certain no one would find her hideaway unless she allowed it. “Won’t be long now.”
“Nearly tripped three bleeding times going up those stairs.”
I rolled my eyes. Like most of the dwarven masonry I’d seen, the stairway had been expertly carved and smoothed. “Stop being dramatic. I had you, and you know it. I’ll always have you.”
Again, his lips formed a small smile. Try as he might to act grumpy about being dragged from our chambers, I knew that secretly he was intrigued by the outing I’d planned.
“Through a curtain of vines.” I pulled the vines aside and led him into a tunnel. The ceiling was tall enough to allow Vale passage without ducking, and the stone floor had been worn smooth.
“Is that water?” Vale asked.
“It is. I’ll let you know if we come across a fall to avoid.”
Vale feared little, but he’d told me once that as a youngling, he’d nearly drowned. To this day, he despised going underwater, but Princess Bavirra had assured me there was no need to do so in her sanctuary. Not unless one wanted to.
The tunnel proved uneventful, though, and when we reached the first opening, I stifled a gasp. According to the princess, there were three chambers off the main passageway, but the first one was her favorite. In one glimpse, I understood why.
A cavern opened through the rock opening, every single wall glinting with assorted gemstones made of pure fire.
Thanks to Princess Bavirra enjoying this pool often, faelights hung in the air like burning coals.
Their illumination refracted the light off the stones, bathing the entire cavern in oranges, reds, and yellows.
“Have we reached your destination?” Vale asked when I’d been silent for too long.
At the bottom of the cavern, a pool large enough for six to bathe in welcomed us. A serene waterfall fed the crystalline bright blue pool, and in the water’s depths, those same gemstones glinted. I could not wait to jump in.
“Open your eyes.”
My husband did so, and my wonder reflected in his expression, the light within the rock gleaming in his beautiful eyes as he took in the cavern.
“How did you learn of this place?”
“Princess Bavirra told me about it! Isn’t it astounding? She claims there are private pools like this in many places beneath the mountain, but this one is her favorite.”
“She shared it with you because . . .”
“I think she’d like to be a true friend. Let’s get a closer look.”
I led the way down the steps, and Vale’s heavier footsteps followed.
When I reached the bottom, I spun, looking up again, taking it all in.
Isila was a world of enchantment, and though I’d grown up wearing a collar and tied to a tiny radius in Sangrael, I’d seen more of this world now.
Much of it was lovely, breathtaking, and defied imagination.
Few places, though, had stolen my breath so thoroughly as this cavern.
I turned to the prince, the fae I’d fallen in love with, though I had yet to say as much.
His dark eyes met mine and I couldn’t fathom why no one saw Lord Leyv Riis in him.
Red hair aside, Vale’s eyes, his muscular frame and size—and most of all, his kindness, seemed to have been inherited from his father.
Maybe from Queen Inga too, though my impressions of the queen were few and not all positive.
In my eyes, the queen’s saving grace was that two of her children were some of the best people I’d ever known.
“So, you lured me here, wife. What will you do with me now?” Vale asked.
In answer, my fingers went to the tie of my cloak.
I loosened the knot and allowed the cloak to drift from my shoulders, down, down, down.
It pooled on the floor, revealing the silver dress that left little to the imagination.
Already, my nipples puckered against the silk, aching for Vale to take them in his mouth.
“Fates, Neve, you nearly stopped my heart.” He took a step closer, his expression ravenous.
Before he touched me, though, my wings spread, and I took off. I flew until I was above the crystalline water and spun, a laugh spilling from my lips as Vale let out a long groan.
“Why do you tease me so?”
I faced him. “It does my heart good.”
He scoffed, which made me chuckle.
“I’ll ask the same of you, husband! Why haven’t you disrobed and joined me yet? The pool is inviting, is it not?”
“Not as inviting as the stretch of your legs.” Vale shucked off his cloak and then did one better, pulling down his britches. His long tunic remained covering his malehood. Soon enough, I’d rectify that.
The prince leapt into the air, dark wings beating as he joined me, suspended in midair above the water. Before I teased him more, Vale snatched me and pulled me close.
“Got you,” he growled, his hands pinning down my wings.
“Am I your prey?” I relished the thought despite my past of being prey to every vampire in sight. If I had to be someone’s quarry, I’d be his. And I’d enjoy it.
“Prey? No, you have done what the strongest of warriors could not. You’ve felled me so thoroughly I don’t think I’ll ever rise the same again.” He drank me in, and in his eyes I saw an entire universe. Our universe, one we would make together. “You’re my wife. My queen. And the love of my life.”
“Vale.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I love you too.”
“Thank the dead gods,” he murmured as his lips found mine.
In all the kisses I’d received and given, none have ever affected me like this. None were so simmering. So desirous and controlling. Not like, if he stopped, the entire world might shatter.
His hands, wrapped around me, drifted up and teased along the tops of my wings. The membrane tingled, lighting me up inside. I arched into Vale, wanting more of him.
Stars, I wanted all of him. I wanted it now.
My plan came rushing back, and unable to help myself, I smiled against his lips.