Chapter Twenty #2
I sigh. I don’t want to sneak out of here. There’s no arguing about it, though; no point in talking about it, really. I said I’d get Ophelia home, and that’s what I’m going to do. The rest I can sort out later.
It might even be easier once I’m back home. Sam will help. Everyone knows he and Kieran are soft touches, really, at least when it comes to us. And they have their mates, so I know they’ll help with mine.
And if not… I can do it alone. Ophelia will help me. Felix, too. If they don’t want a mage here, then I doubt they’ll take any more kindly to a necromancer, which is exactly the kind of environment in which Felix does his best work.
Lark kisses just under my jaw. “You’re thinking hard.”
“If I wanted—If you wanted…” I frown, trying to find the words. “If I could come back and visit you, would you want me to?”
Lark is quiet. He doesn’t rise up to look at me, and I don’t dare twist around to look at him. What if he doesn’t want it? What if this is all—the soulbonds must be strong, and he’s going through a lot, and I already said this was a bad idea—
“Yes,” he says firmly. “Even though that is a terrible idea, you understand. I would do my best to keep you safe here, but there would be fae who would quickly come to know who you are to me. And I could never—We could strengthen our bond, but I have no idea how that might affect the crowns.”
My heart flutters. “You’re going to do good work here, aren’t you?”
Lark does move at that, pushing up so he can look me in the face.
He frowns. “I will try,” he says slowly.
“I must confess that I never cared before. When I was a prince. It doesn’t mean much here; for a while, I wished to join the Unseelie court, but my parents, then—Well, they thought it a terrible idea. ”
“And then?”
“I already knew my soulbond would be in your realm. I think that is the only reason my parents had Iagan at all. So few fae have more than one child and three is basically unheard of. We live too long for that. But he… He found his soulbond before I did. After Ronan, and when Ronan found his, he was already a vampire.”
“Tamesis,” I say.
“Yes.”
And Tamesis was already obsessed with Vasile, his turn and former vampire crai, so I can’t imagine he cared about Ronan at all, soulbond or not.
“I started travelling to the human realm more often after that. The veil was not strengthened until a couple of centuries ago, so it was much easier back then, but even now… Ronan, Iagan, and I were powerful. And more importantly, none of us have ever much cared for rules.” Lark flashes me an almost sheepish smile.
“I would leave any chance I got. I did not find you until you were twenty or so. It was harder to pinpoint where the bond was leading before then.”
“Ronan had already…”
“Yes. I was relieved to find you. My father was dying. My mother was pressuring me to prepare myself to wear a crown. My fate. Suddenly my fate, though it had never been that way before. I was the most level-headed, she said. The fairest. Ronan was gone and Iagan too tightly controlled. She said the court agreed that I should rule.”
I hum and wrap my arms around him a little more tightly. Lark relaxes into the touch. “What did you do after that? After you found me?”
“I went to the witch. I gave her my magic, and I didn’t care about her terms because I did not fathom a situation where I would willingly return here. That was the important part. I had to be willing.”
“But you don’t want to be here.”
“Wanting something and being willing to do it are two entirely different things.” Lark sighs.
“Anyway, it matters little. I fled. My mother tried to drag me back, but when she realised I had truly forfeited my magic, she gave up. I think she turned her attention to Iagan for a while, but he had spent too long evading her grasp, and his power is what feeds the part of the veil that keeps high fae precisely where they are.”
“It does?”
“Hm. And now, here I am. I think… Oisin is not entirely wrong. He wants to make radical changes, but I think he will settle for less.”
“Probably.”
Lark smiles at me. It’s a smile that makes me think of when Felix and Ophelia and I used to sneak out of our dorm in the middle of the night, either to raid the kitchen or to escape out into the trees.
“We won’t settle for less,” Lark murmurs. “If they want me as a ruler, they may have me, but I will give them nothing else they want.”
I run my fingers through his hair. “Ophelia says the Seelie took her.”
“I can understand desperation. Oisin says they have been dealt with, and I believe him. Why blame the rest of them when I can help them instead?”
I swallow down what I want to say. I’m not going to be here to see it.
Even if I come here, if we can’t strengthen our bond, then I’m going to live a normal life, with a normal lifespan.
Another sixty years, if I do everything right.
Lark drops a kiss to my shoulder again and then rests his chin on my chest. It’s a little pointy. I shiver and he huffs a laugh.
“Come,” he says, and I shiver again for an entirely different reason. Lark’s eyes sharpen, but he shakes his head. “We should at least clean up if you don’t plan to rest.”
“I’ll rest,” I reply. Lark climbs off me and the sudden loss of his body heat is unpleasant. What’s more pleasant is the way he takes my hand and, when I’m standing, pulls me close.
“Clean first,” he murmurs, eyes sliding over me. “I would not like to wear you out too much before tomorrow.”
I snort and kiss him, revelling again in the fact that he simply lets me. Wear me out… I want that. If it’s the last time we’ll have this, I want all of it.