24. Chapter 24 #2
There was a restless energy humming beneath my skin—too much blood in my veins, too much breath in my lungs.
I told myself it was the urgency of duty.
The lonely crown hovering over my head like an executioner’s axe.
That this feeling had nothing to do with the fact that Lunette would be here soon, but not soon enough.
The guards posted outside Reina’s apartment barely had time to straighten before the doors flew open on a clumsy burst of telekinetic magic. My secondary gifts hadn’t listened to me properly since leaving Selmont either.
Reina shot up from her desk, magic ready to cut us into ribbons.
“Hello, Aunt!” I announced, loosening my grip on Cam’s arm at last. He was probably bruised in multiple places at this point from my enthusiasm.
Reina studied me for a long moment, expression wary. She turned to Camrick and asked, “Is he drunk?”
“Hasn’t had a drop,” Camrick replied, pleased.
The sharpness in her shoulders eased, just a fraction.
She nodded, forgiving the frankly criminal intrusion but not backing down.
“Don’t bloody burst into my room again. I almost attacked you.
Why—by the forgotten gods—are you carrying a children’s book, Owain?
Are you certain he hasn’t been hitting the whiskey? ”
I grinned and laid the book on her desk. It felt good to tell them what Lunette had said about us not being Shadow Fae at all, at least not as we understood it. Reina took the news well, barely reacting to it, really.
She sat back down and folded her hands into her lap.
“We aren’t the same, Owain. I came to public life as a grown woman when Amara caught your father’s eye.
You had the court’s attention as a babe in arms. A new name isn’t a redefinition for me.
It’s like using a title in a different language.
For you, it’s everything.” She fell into thought for a moment, finger tapping the book.
“A woman living alone in the borderlands had this treasure?”
I looked at Camrick, realizing I’d left out one very important piece of information about Lunette in my brief discussions with Reina since returning. “Aunt, Lunette is…Fae.”
Reina raised one eyebrow.
“Very Fae,” Camrick said, sketching out pointed ears over his own with his fingers.
Her eyes widened. But then Nisien walked in, interrupting whatever she’d wanted to ask. Nisien had spent the intervening time entertaining the nobles and soldiers, officially in the name of diplomacy, but underneath it all, I think he was just being a good friend.
With everyone gathered, I finally outlined our reasoning and strategy for escorting Lunette to the Tir. As I saw it, my logic was perfectly sound, my decision practical. I hadn’t suggested once that I go myself. I had to remain in the Tir for the stability of the court.
Yet when I finished, Reina was pacing and her fingers were twisting the material of her skirts like it was the only thing keeping her from twisting my neck. Nisien’s gaze grew keen, too keen, a flicker of calculation and amusement dancing in his eyes.
“So?” I asked.
Reina’s temper finally detonated, cheeks flushing, eyes going black.
“This might save your brother,” she snapped, voice ringing off the stone walls.
“But, Owain—do you not realize that this will turn out the exact opposite of what you’re hoping with Lunette?
Don’t try to pretend this isn’t partially about seeing her again!
Berian’s condition necessitates her immediate attention, but it doesn’t make her yours to requisition! ”
I opened my mouth to argue, but I was distracted by Cam slipping into Reina’s chair at her desk.
For a heartbeat, I thought he was dodging Reina’s fury.
But he started frantically flipping the pages until he landed on the spread filled with black swirls.
His brow furrowed as his index finger traced a line near the bottom of the page, tapping once. Twice. Like he was solving a riddle.
Reina’s fingers let go of her skirts at the sound, clearly annoyed. Nisien walked closer to peer over his shoulder, tilting his head at the page with an expression I couldn’t read. Something in my chest went very, very quiet—braced for impact.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Cam said to Reina, his voice a low rumble as a smug grin crept across his face. “I’m only trying to support my brother in reclaiming his lady. I think he has an excuse for how insane he’s acting.” He waggled his eyebrows like the bloody jester he was.
This had the opposite effect on Reina from what he must’ve hoped.
“What?” I snapped.
Reina said, “Even I’m getting irritated with your grandstanding, General Allard. Speak.”
Cam stood and rocked from side to side on his feet like an agitated puppy, barely containing himself. His hands came up to clutch at his chest in a dramatic display worthy of the stage. “She’s his mate.”
Every shadow I owned went completely, utterly still, like a held breath. I grabbed the arm of the nearest chair just to stay upright.
I had to sit down. I stumbled into the chair I was holding onto, falling heavily into it. The strange pull tying me to her seemed to grow impossibly tighter, like a bow drawn back and waiting.
Any denial I might’ve voiced strangled itself in my throat as something inside me clenched with absolute certainty. Shadows coiled beneath my skin, pressing, closing around my vocal cords, commanding my silence.
Cursed gods, my magic, my heart…together, they howled that he was right. Part of me had suspected, probably even known that she was my mate, but I hadn’t put a label on it.
Nisien didn’t look surprised. His expression held the quiet satisfaction of a man watching the last piece of a puzzle fall into place.
“It says right here that the mate bond is exaggerated for Nocthel,” Camrick said. “Heightened instincts. Possessiveness. Protective responses dialed to madness. I’ve never seen him act like this. He’s losing his mind because of weird Fae shit.”