Chapter 40
Callum
Even in sleep, Seren is still in motion.
Like she’s got too much magick in her, too much life in her to stay still. Her eyelids flutter, her expression constantly shifting at whatever dreamland she walks through. She even murmurs sometimes, little fragments of words I can never quite catch before they’re gone.
Lying with her in the peace and safety of early morning hours, I let myself savor it.
Today, we’ll head back to Faerie and face the fae queen.
Today, our hunt will end.
Tomorrow…
I’ll be damned if I know what will happen tomorrow.
Perhaps my star is right.
Perhaps the fae queen will be generous, willing to accept Elijah’s letter and ring. Perhaps we’ll leave her court with riches that will truly fix all our problems, give us the time and freedom to figure out what a life together might look like.
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
There will be no telling until we actually go and find out for ourselves, so for now I curl myself deeper into the furs and pull my witch back into my arms.
She sighs and melts against me, trusting me now, even in sleep.
Doing my best not to wake her, I press my nose to her rumpled blond curls and inhale. Witchmagick and a scent that’s all Seren—fresh and bracing like the air at dawn, like a wild wind whipping through a spring forest.
I want to lose myself in it.
I want to stay here all morning, all day, for weeks, months, however long I can get with her. I was already gone for her, but after last night…
After last night.
Seeing Seren so bold, so fearless, filled with so much conviction and tenacity even in the face of all my worry, was a bright spark in the darkness.
How could I ever resist being swept away by such a temptation? I think I can be at least half-forgiven for putting aside my responsibilities and concerns.
My mind lingers over all the details.
The fierce, blazing look in her eyes as she bared herself to me, as she kissed me with wild abandon and demanded my full attention, demanded I get out of my head and be there with her.
The heady command in her voice when she got me right where she wanted me, when she mounted me, more wickedly beautiful than anything I’ve ever seen.
And the way she took my knot.
Impossible, the heat and the slick of her. The way she stretched around me. The sounds she made when we locked together, when I rutted into her and—
Fuck.
I can’t let myself think about it.
I can’t let myself dwell on it, or there’s no way I’m letting either of us leave this bed.
Not for a fae queen’s fortune.
Not for anything.
I’m saved from the mire of my thoughts when Seren stirs. She blinks herself sleepily awake. It must take her a moment to remember where she is and everything that waits for us today, because for the first few seconds after waking, she’s radiantly happy.
Half-lidded, spring-green eyes look up at me as if she’s just as content to be sharing a bed with me as I am with her. Her lips curl into a lazy, satisfied smile, and she nestles closer to me.
“Good morning,” she murmurs, voice thick and husky with sleep, and my throat’s too tight to return the greeting.
My silence ruins the moment.
It allows enough space for the truth to worm its way in, for both of us to realize this little paradise we’ve made ourselves isn’t going to last.
Seren’s smile fades. Her eyes grow more alert. She pulls away from me and sits up, looking toward the balcony open to the morning sun.
The space she leaves behind is cold. I’d give just about anything to pull her back to me and forget the rest.
“We should get ready,” she says, already moving to slide out from under the furs. “No point in putting it off any longer.”
She’s right.
Every moment we wait, more hunters are likely to put the clues together and look to the human realm. Elijah isn’t safe, the whole of the human realm isn’t safe if there are any intrusions through the Veil, and we’ve got the best chance at stopping that from happening.
As for the possibility of winning a fortune?
It seems small compared to everything else.
With dread sitting heavy on my shoulders, I follow her out of bed and reach for my armor, no part of me even remotely ready to face what’s coming next.
Every single step we take in Faerie feels wrong.
The magick is wrong. The hungry, watchful fae are wrong. Being here is wrong.
Almost as soon as we step through the Veil, fae start coming out of the literal woodwork. Materializing from behind trees, out of the canopy, and rising from the forest floor, they line the winding path to the queen’s bower.
Seren’s hand twitches toward the dagger at her waist. Her eyes scan the forest, taking note of the fae, who seem to be multiplying by the moment.
“Do you think she told them to stand down?”
There’s no need to specify the she, and truth be told, I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t have attacked otherwise.
“Seems like,” I mutter, hand never leaving the hilt of my sword.
We’re both well-armed—courtesy of Finn, who wouldn’t hear of us leaving court to come to Faerie without raiding his absent father’s armory.
But how much good steel and witchmagick will do against a court of fae who’d no doubt do their cruel queen’s orders gleefully, I don’t know.
Their restraint holds all the way to the bower. Like some grim, macabre crowd watching a parade of two doomed souls, they keep their unnerving eyes on us all the way to the mouth of the tunnel leading into the queen’s court.
“Watch the sides,” Seren says with grim humor, and the memory of just what those tangled vines and branches can do makes my stomach turn.
Without a conscious thought, my tail reaches for Seren. Banding firmly around her waist, I tug her closer, and though she makes a small, grumbling noise in the back of her throat, she doesn’t move away.
Small victories.
I release her when we reach the heart of the bower, only because we’ll both be able to fight better if we’ve got full control of our limbs and bodies.
Even more fae wait here, the same crowd who came to watch their monarch make her challenge to the hunters.
Today, though, they’re silent.
Eerily, hair-raisingly silent as they watch us pass beneath the great domed canopy of death, all the way to the foot of the dais where the queen waits and watches.
Her eyes narrow as she takes us in, no doubt wondering what madness brought us back here without her heart. Her lips curl into a cruel, humorless smile, showing rows of sharp, pointed teeth stained a deep, rotten red.
My stomach falls to my feet and my heart leaps into my throat.
We never should have come here.
I should have fought harder, I should have done more to convince Seren this idea was cursed from the start.
Barring that, I should have just locked us both up somewhere, consequences and my mate’s ire be damned.
Anything. I should have done anything in my power to keep us from this place.
But there’s no time to undo it, no way to fix it, nothing that can be done except to stand here and meet our fate.
“Two hunters I see before me,” the fae queen says, voice brittle as dry autumn leaves. “And no heart. Tell me, why have you come to my court empty-handed?”