One
I sprang into action, calling up staff in order to ask them to prepare rooms for our incoming guests along with making sure there would be something available to eat, as they were flying through dinner.
Tanyn also sprang into action to warn castle security of incoming crafts along with arranging with Uly to provide a detail for Gayle to keep Cormac away from her, even if they were in the same building.
I decided not to comm any of them, since they’d be there soon and I could ask them directly what in all the hells was going on.
We had dinner.
And Tanyn, Nayden, Uly, four warriors and I were standing outside on the edge of the landing bay when Gayle’s craft landed.
The RS agents with her spirited her out and to us. Then, since another craft—obviously Cormac’s—was hovering, waiting to land, with Uly in the lead, surrounded by the other four warriors, we whisked her inside and up to her room.
Along the way, I introduced, “Gayle, honey, this is Uly, one of Tanyn’s best friends and, not incidentally, a total badass.”
“Totally like you,” Uly said under his breath.
Gayle didn’t say anything.
Not a surprise, she was visibly freaked.
I’d arranged for Gayle, Aleece, Laura and Aleksei to have rooms in Tanyn’s wing of the castle, and Cormac and Bainon would be on the opposite side.
This wouldn’t keep a fae and a sorcerer at bay should they want to get to their females, but it was all I could do.
Gayle’s room was a study of silvers and grays.
Like she did as we hurried through the castle, she didn’t even glance at it.
She drifted to her ass at the edge of the bed and stared at the floor.
The level of my concern elevated alarmingly, and I shot a look to Uly, when he said, “We’ll be stationed in the hall.”
I nodded.
He walked out and closed the door behind him.
I sat on the bed beside Gayle and put my arm around her.
“You’re good here. I’ve got you,” I murmured.
“Why does he keep doing this?” she asked the floor.
I had no idea.
Though, I was pretty damned pleased the male was going to be in yelling distance from me, because I was going to bloody well find out.
“Have you eaten?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“Are you hungry?” I went on.
She shook her head again.
“Do you want me to get you one of my nightgowns and a sleeping draft so you can get some sleep?”
“Laura commed and told me she packed some things for me before she and Aleksei took off. They’re bringing them.” She finally turned her head and gave me a wan smile. “Anyway, I couldn’t sleep in one of your slinky numbers.”
I faked being offended. “Why not?”
“I’m not a sexpot like you.”
She didn’t give herself enough credit.
Then again, her sexy was a different brand than mine.
I was about to make a quip, when we heard a male’s roar outside.
She jumped, her eyes flew to the door, her face filled with pain and longing…
And…
I lost my temper, because I knew that roar came from Cormac.
“Stay here,” I ordered, taking my feet.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“Calm that asshole down,” I answered, swept out and said to the guard outside her door, “Don’t let her leave that room.”
“Yes, Ms. Truelock.”
I strode swiftly down the hall, turned the corner and did a stutter step at what I saw.
Nayden, Tanyn, Uly and two other guards were holding Cormac back.
They looked like they were failing.
To say the princes of all the realms were quite something was an understatement.
There was a reason their gene pool rose to their respective thrones.
Tanyn’s power was lean and lethal. The sheer, quiet, calm force of his confidence was what gave you the clue that you did not mess around with him.
Bainon was much like that, except giving off a more easygoing manner.
Aleksei and Cormac were of different sorts.
Their builds were as powerful as their magnetism.
In other words, they were huge, built males, and in Aleksei’s case, it would come as no surprise his shifter creature was a massive, terrifying dragon.
Cormac was even bigger than Aleksei when Aleksei was in human form.
He was simply terrifying.
Gorgeous. With brown and gold hair and bright green eyes.
But terrifying.
I did not have a mind to his terrifying.
I marched right up to them and snapped, “Calm the farg down.”
Perhaps mostly out of surprise, Cormac stopped pushing against the males’ hold and stared at me.
If it was surprise, he came out of it quickly and stated, “I will see Gayliliel.”
“She’s fine,” I assured.
“I will see her.”
“You need to chill,” I ordered him. “You’re harming her.”
His head jerked. “Harming her?”
“Are you seriously that obtuse?” I demanded.
“I’m her mate. I must see to her safety,” he said through his teeth.
I had a lot to say to that, but I wasn’t going to get into it right then.
“Well, you’re here, she’s here, she’s safe, and for now, you need to settle down,” I said instead. “We can all sit down and talk tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” he asked like I was daft. “She’s in danger.” He paused to glower at Tanyn. “And you lot brought her directly to the eye of the storm.”
It sucked, but this was true.
“She’ll be safe here,” Tanyn asserted.
Cormac scoffed.
I was insulted on Tanyn’s behalf.
Tanyn was Tanyn, that was to say, completely unaffected.
“She will be far safer at the other end of the realms,” Cormac stated. “Far from the bullshit that keeps occurring up here.”
Another good point.
“And with me,” he added.
That was debatable.
“I must see her,” he pushed.
“She is sister to me,” I shot back. “And as such, you must know, my male will not let anything happen to her. But she can’t hear you shouting. You say you’re her mate. Well, she’s yours too and hearing your distress distresses her. So, like I said, chill.”
For some reason, that got to him (and if I wasn’t wrong, it was around the time I shared he was distressing her).
He drew breath into his nose and scowled at me.
But he chilled.
“Come with me, Mac,” Tanyn said. “Let’s get you a drink.”
Cormac hesitated, then he took off with Tanyn.
Nayden followed them.
Uly followed me.
“Well done,” he murmured.
“Do you have someone?” I asked.
“Someone?”
“Someone special.”
“Yes. I’ve been seeing a female for some time. Her name is Estra.”
I stopped, he stopped, and after I ticked my head in the direction we came, I inquired, “Do you understand that behavior?”
He seemed to be weighing something.
He weighed it and I understood why he had to when he replied, “I wasn’t here. But Nayden told me Tanyn was coming out of his skin when you two were separated after you had your tiff.”
An unexpected bolt of electricity shot through me at this revelation.
“I love Estra. I’m thinking of asking her to marry me,” he carried on. “And yes, it’s difficult to be away from her. But it’s not like that.”
“Thank you for answering,” I said, now distracted by what he’d shared about Tanyn.
When I began to walk again, he stopped me by catching my arm. “Did you hear me? About Tanyn?”
“I longed for him when I thought we were over,” I whispered my confession, and watched Uly’s eyes darken to black. “I honestly think it’s a miracle I was able to get out of bed in the morning and face the day like a normal person.”
“You must know, I’m heartened to hear this,” he replied.
“I’m glad for you. But there’s something going on here, Uly.”
His lips tipped up. “Yes. You and my brother are falling for each other.”
Yes.
We were.
But I had the sense it was more than that.
A good deal more.
Aleksei and Laura weren’t the first fated mates I’d been around. And yes, the connection was always palpable. Yes again, they always seemed more at ease when they were in each other’s company than when they were not.
But this was…
Fucking crazy.
“I need to get back to Gayle.”
He nodded.
I hurried back and found she’d taken off her shoes and was curled up in the bed much like how Laura and I had found her all those weeks ago, the morning after the Midnight Masque, when we learned that Cormac had rejected her.
I climbed into bed and pulled her in my arms.
“I calmed him down,” I told her. “We’ll all talk tomorrow. I’m going to contact the medi-unit to mix you a sleeping draft. Are you okay with that?”
“I think that’s the only way I can sleep, so…yes.”
I gave her a squeeze and got up to pull the cord to call a member of staff (the castle still had the old-fashioned bell pull system).
A staff member came up, I made my request, she told me she’d comm Drydyn at the steward’s cottage and have her come in and mix the draft, and when it was ready, she’d deliver it.
“Before you go, what’s your name?” I asked.
She seemed startled by the question before she said, “Yorna.”
She was one I’d seen before, so I said, “Nice to finally meet you properly, Yorna.”
She bowed her head (thank gods, no curtsy), blushed prettily and took off.
I went back to Gayle. “We’ll wait until Laura gets here with your things to take the draft. You sure you don’t want a snack or something?”
“I couldn’t eat anything. My stomach is in knots.”
Farging Cormac.
“Okay, honey,” I said gently, got back into bed with her and held her.
Fifteen minutes later, the draft arrived along with a beautifully carved glass pitcher of water and a matching glass.
I asked for this to be put on her bedside table.
Twenty minutes after that, Laura was let in and trailing her was a large hover case.
I didn’t get into asking why she and Aleksei were there.
After we exchanged hugs, we got down to helping Gayle get ready for bed, giving her the sleeping draft, and I told her where Tanyn’s chamber and Laura and Aleksei’s chamber were if she needed us.
When we got her tucked in, and her eyelids were drooping, we extinguished the lights and headed out.
That was when I got into it with Laura.
“I’m sure Gayle’s Denti-Clean didn’t need the True Heir and his True Bride bringing it personally,” I noted on the way to her room.
She glanced at the guards lurking in the halls, and asked, “Where are Aleksei and I sleeping?”
I caught her hint and took her there.
Only when we were behind closed doors did she say, “Okay, since the attack on Sigil, Aleksei has been off.”
Uh-oh.
“Off?”