129. Summer
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Nine
Summer
I lurch awake, blinking down at the stranger who looks up at me expectantly.
I frown at my clothes, noticing that I’m now wearing soft white pajamas, and I am no longer covered in the grime of battle.
The stranger taps a rune on my wrist. It’s one used to cleanse, and warmth swells in my chest. He cared for me.
When I see the light creeping into the room, I curse and grab my phone from the bedside table. I press the button to call Alice, and she answers on the third ring.
“Hey.”
“Hi. I’m sorry I didn’t call earlier. I passed out. How are things?”
Alice snorts. “I also passed out and didn’t call you, so we both get a pass on this one.”
I exhale, my shoulders slumping, and the stranger idly strokes my thigh. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” Alice says, and from her voice I can tell it’s the truth. “You were doing things here? In my name?”
“What?” I ask, pressing a kiss to the stranger’s chin before slipping off him and standing up.
“Countryside nobles arrived late last night, coming to pay their thanks and pledge fealty. They said someone helped them, and a seer saw a fae helping me gain favor. It seems they have always been skeptical of the lies, given they started when I was a baby with squishy fangs. They say they knew my mother,” she says, her voice quavering.
Alice has never mentioned her mother to me.
Obviously, I always knew she had one, but I never knew what happened to her.
If she’d wanted to tell me, she would. “You helped with crops? Providing runes to help increase their bounty? You sent the supplies they needed to rebuild their homes?”
“I didn’t know if you’d ever want to take your realm back, but I wanted you to have the option,” I say, pacing a little.
Alice makes a small, choked sound. “You’re making me into an emotional little bitch, and it’s very rude of you.”
My lips twitch.
“How did you know they were sympathetic to the cause?” she asks.
“I didn’t. I didn’t know any of that, but the stranger knew of a village to the south of Dr?culea that has been mostly ousted, though no one knows why.”
“Thank you, and tell him I said thank you for everything,” she says, the emotion clear in her voice. “How’s Mira?”
“Alive,” I say. “Not sure how she’ll be once she’s conscious and Rafe tells her about the deal, though.”
“And you?” Alice asks. “The stranger?”
I glance at him, and he smiles at me. He’s still lounging in my bed watching me, and while I said no to sleepovers, I fell asleep sprawled on top of him, and I’m happy he’s here.
“He’s okay. Currently in my bed.”
“A sleepover? Summer Tuatha De Daanan!” Alice gasps.
I roll my eyes. “It was accidental.” The stranger chuckles, and I throw him a look.
“She passed out on top of me,” the stranger says.
Alice snorts, having heard him. “The truth comes out.” She sighs. “Anyway, the countryside nobles are going to be good for helping me outside the capital, and I’ll most likely pick a few of them I like the most to form the ruling council for me while I’m at school.”
“Have you spoken to Headmaster Emrys?” I ask.
“Yeah, this morning.”
“Okay, that’s good. I miss you already, so come back soon, okay?”
“I know it’s a dull place to be without me.” I hear Alice’s smile and the softness in her voice. She misses me too. “Now get back to fucking the stranger.”
The stranger chuckles, and my cheeks heat a little .
“We’re not—” I start to protest, but she ends the call, and I pull the phone away from my ear and look at the screen. “Bitch.”
“Because she knows you?” the stranger asks, rolling out of bed and prowling toward me, cupping my cheek.
“Does she? You and I are not fucking,” I say, glaring up at him.
He smirks. “But she knew why you were passed out on top of me, even if she’s wrong about how far it went.”
“Maybe you should fuck me and prove her right,” I say, glancing at his lips.
“Is that the only reason?” he growls, grabbing my hips and pulling me against him.
I arch against him, wiggling a little. “Well, no?.?.?. but none of my other tactics appear to be working.”
“Is that the truth? Or am I resisting so that for our first time you can look at me, feel my skin, and scream my name?”
“Fuck,” I whisper, my core throbbing. I lean in, but then a door slams down the hall, and I frown, glancing at my bedroom door.
I pull away from him and open my bedroom door to see Mira storming down the stairs, Rafe on her heels.
“I said I don’t want to talk about it, Rafe,” she says. I glance at the stranger before following them out. “Especially when you’re leaving me for two fucking years.”
“I don’t understand why you won’t just explain it to me. Is it a secret?” Rafe asks with a low growl in his voice.
I follow them downstairs, seeing the embers sparking at the ends of -Mira’s long, wavy hair.
“And I don’t understand why you would make a deal with the devil, but here we are.” I stand on the stairs, watching them. Rafe looks up at me, frowning.
Mira grabs a bottle of water and stomps back upstairs, leaving a wave of heat in her wake as she passes me.
We all flinch when she slams her bedroom door behind her.
I glance up the stairs, watching with wide eyes as the door sparks with flame and creaks before settling.
She’s obviously used some sort of phoenix rune to seal it.
Rafe pushes past me, his large body almost toppling me. The stranger snarls protectively and steadies me as Rafe slams his fist on her door. “Mira!”
“Go away, Rafe,” Mira growls from behind the door .
He bangs the door again, and I go back upstairs to the landing.
“Rafe.”
“Mira!”
“Rafe, maybe give her a minute?” I say, placing my hand on his arm.
“She can’t come to Hell,” Rafe growls, pressing his forehead to her door.
I nod.
“She’s from Pyrrhos, but she won’t tell me why she can’t come via there.”
I know part of the reason, and I glance at the stranger who also knows, but it’s not our place to tell him. It’s not our story to tell.
The stranger walks to me and places his hand on my hip.
“Rafe,” I say, looking back at him.
“What?” he says, slamming his fist against the door again.
“Just give her a minute.”
Rafe sighs, closing his eyes. “I don’t like it.”
“Well, I’m sure she doesn’t like that ?you’re going to Hell.”
“I didn’t know she wouldn’t be able to visit,” Rafe snarls, lifting his head from the door.
“Would that have stopped you?” the stranger asks, his hand tightening on my hip. “From making the deal?”
Rafe doesn’t answer, but we all know it wouldn’t have changed anything. Rafe presses his back to the door and slides down it to sit on the floor. It reminds me of when Connor did that last year after his brothers stood outside his room recording the sounds of us having sex at some stupid party.
I sigh and squeeze his shoulder before going back to my room.
The stranger closes the door as I sit on the bed before coming to sit next to me.
I feel comforted in the way the mattress dips beneath his weight.
Brushing my fingers over the halo, I twist it around my wrist until I find the small dent, lost in thought.
“What is it?” the stranger asks.
“Were we right to do it?” I ask, still looking at the halo.
“To fight?” he asks, wrapping his arm around my back and pulling me against his side.
“It was the only way for Alice to gain her birthright,” I say with a small nod. “But Rafe’s going to Hell and the dark fae?—”
He cups my cheeks and turns my head to face him.
“And Alice now has a home. A home that you gave her. Rafe made a deal, and as stupid as it was, I would have made a deal ten times worse to save you.” I blink back tears, and he leans in to press his lips to my forehead.
“You made the right choice, but it is a bittersweet victory.” The stranger drops his hand, and I look back down at the halo.
“It’s a heavy choice,” he says, brushing his fingers along my hip.
“There is no other result that could have been but this one.”
I nod, a tear sliding down my cheek. This summer, I will be without Alice.
There is a possibility I could go to Dr?culea, but it wouldn’t be fair of me to pull her away from her work, and now I will also be without Rafe.
The stranger scoops me into his arms and sits me on his lap, nuzzling his face against my head.
“I’m here, princess.” The tears start to fall in earnest, and he digs his fingers into my hair, pressing my face into his neck. “I’m here.”
“I know it’s stupid, but I feel like I’ve lost both of them,” I say between small hiccuping sobs. I’ve been alone before. Truthfully, I’ve been alone most of my life, but to be alone now? Knowing what it feels like not to be?
“I know, little fae.”
“I don’t want to be alone again.”
“I’ll be here.”
He’s right. I do have him, and I have the Morningstars.
I even have Mira, though I don’t know her all that well yet, but if she’s Rafe’s, then she is also mine.
It’s comforting to know that I will never be alone again.
Not with him here, not with my family in Eden, and even if Alice and Rafe are physically gone, I know they will always be with me.