Chapter 16
YOU’RE MINE
So… there’s a third prophecy. Yippee. I held out hope that it was Mom’s and it gave me some clue how to avoid the whole ‘dying’ in Noctavara thing, but I make Thane go through what he’s heard over the years again to make sure.
And because I can sense through our growing bond that he hasn’t decided how he feels about the two of us being fated mates, or the fact that I knew instantly and only told him now.
I did explain why: that I couldn’t trust a bandit right away, that I needed to focus on finding Rafe, that when I got to know him, he made it clear that fae don’t have bonds and I needed to figure out what that meant for us.
He’s not mad. Just… confused, I think, and trying to make sense of his whole world flipping upside down in an instant.
I try to make a joke, telling him how I know that feels—reminding him of my run-in with a snare trap—but decide it’s better if I get confirmation on the prophecy.
At the very least, it’s a distraction for Thane, and, well, I do need to know.
Unfortunately, everything he told me before is all he knows.
I try my best to quote the line I heard Mom say—something about ‘her broken wings’ only breaking a curse when ‘her own heart stops’.
.. though I clean it up a little so I don’t freak him out by mentioning the possibility of me dying in Noctavara—but apart from the wings possibly meaning butterflies, they’re not the same.
So, yup, three-prophecy Alana over here. Excuse me while I puke.
I’m not the only one. Thane’s golden skin takes on a greenish tinge for a few seconds there, but right when I begin to convince myself that the idea of being my mate for eternity is making him sick, that crooked smile of his returns right before he swipes his thumb over my cheek in a gentle caress.
“If it’s Fate, it’s Fate, and I’m not about to go up against it. But I told you I’d get you to your friend, Alana of Sombra, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
I leaned into his touch, allowing myself to enjoy it even as my instincts work to hold my essence back.
I so desperately want to give him my essence, to give him everything that I am, that I could ever be, but if I do that right now when he doesn’t really understand what a mate bond is… yeah. Not a good idea.
Doesn’t mean I’m not tempted, though.
According to Thane, we have maybe half a day’s walk left before we get to the Gilded Court.
So long as we don’t get waylaid by any other dangers, we should be in the center of Noctavara, where most of the fae live on the outskirts of the queen’s palace, sooner than I expected given my scare with the slavers.
The way I see it, though, maybe it’s better that the journey is almost over. I’m not a seer. I have no idea what’s going to happen, only that it seems like fate has done everything to lead me to the moment when I confront Queen Celeste.
Do I want to? No. Do I like the idea that, based on two different prophecies, we’re both in trouble?
My heart might step in trying to break a curse—which has to be the curse on Noctavar—while my arrival in this world is supposed to be the end of the Celeste’s rule as queen.
We might neither of us survive, but I can’t stop now.
Not when I’m so close to (hopefully) finding Rafe.
I’m still going. In fact, part of me was determined to walk through the night, hoping to avoid slavers and soldiers as the sun sets in Noctavara, and hope that Celeste’s seers don’t ‘see’ my impulsive reaction.
But that’s only part of me. The other half? The essence of Alana that knows this could be my last night with my mate… when he suggests we start searching for a hidden clearing in the woods to settle down for the night, my heart jumps at the chance before my head tells me to hold on.
It doesn’t help that my cunt sides with my heart.
If this is the last night we heave… well, I’d like Thane to be my mate, even if he’s not ready to finalize the bond.
If he’s willing to share his cock with me, letting me know what it’s like to be his for one moment in my suddenly way-too-short of an immortal life, I want him to.
I want him.
My mind made up, I walk beside Thane, Binx hopping excitedly in the space between us.
If I had any worry that I was making a mistake, my soul-pet’s reaction…
telling me that it’s about time… smashes them to bits like ash along the shore of the lava pools back home.
Just like how he nudges Thane and I together to kiss, he’s ready to use his powerful legs and claws to climb a tree in Thane’s place so that my mate can lie down with me.
Can he tell what I’m thinking? I’m intimately aware of every breath he takes, every inch he moves, and I’ve caught him reaching below his belt more than a few times as we headed deeper into the golden forest. As night falls, the sun fades to the same silver moon that lurks constantly in the Shadowed Woods—the spot in Noctavara where Celeste first arrived, conquering the natives with her magic, before building her base of power in the bright sunlight.
If I squint a little, we’re back where Thane and I met, only instead of me wanting to escape the fae bandit, I’m itching to get closer to him.
As though he can sense my need for him through the bond he doesn’t quite believe in, he adjusts the bulge pushing against his leather trousers, before lengthening his stride so that I don’t notice.
Oh, but I notice. Thane… I notice.
Eventually, we stop where the trees thin just enough to give us space to stretch out. Over our heads, the stars shine through the canopy of leaves, each one sharp and white against the growing dark.
I suck in a breath, waiting, hopeful as he shifts off his cloak, dropping it to the dirt instead of holding it out to me. At that moment, I know he’s mine if I want him—and I do.
Binx darts around the tree, presumably to mark it as the ungez’s for the eve.
Really, he’s giving Thane and me some privacy before he disappears up into the branches.
I promise him a pouch of snacks as soon as I can, and my soul-pet just chitters and disappears, retreating as though allowing this moment in time to belong to a new bond rather than one that is decades old.
And then Thane turns to me, his eyes heavy-lidded, his lips firm, the hollows of his sculpted cheeks on display… he gazes down at me, and I completely forget about Binx, about Rafe, about prophecies as I take the first step toward my fae.
“You shouldn’t look at me like that,” he says lightly, but there’s nothing light in his expression.
I cock my head. Sometime after we escaped the slavers, Thane removed the glamour on my horns.
No reason to bother hiding them when other details made it obvious I was a halfling demon—and possibly the one spoke in the Prophecy of the Gilded throne—but I liked to think it was because of how he enjoys seeing the small, dark points standing out from my colorless skin.
His eyes go right to my horns, a soft groan escaping him as I move just a little closer. “Like what, Thane?” I whisper, my voice husky, and my heart in my eyes.
“Like you’ve already decided something,” he replies.
I swallow, the bond tugging me even closer. “Maybe I have. Maybe I’m just waiting for you to consider what I told you and make a choice of your own.”
When he sees how near I am, he doesn’t dance away. That alone feels like an answer. Like he’s waiting to see what my next move will be…
I close the last of the distance first. I just…
it feels right. Like this is my seduction, and the only way that Thane will let this happen is if I take the lid.
If I choose him. Is it instinct? Is it bond?
Is it because I’m Shannon’s daughter and I’ll always go after what I want as soon as I realize that I want it?
I don’t know. I only know that, tonight, Thane Aurex will be mine.
My hand brushes his wrist, tentative at first, then steadier when he doesn’t pull away from me. His skin is warm beneath my fingers. His breath quickens, his exhales blowing my yellow hair away from my face.
“Alana,” he murmurs, like a warning. Or a plea.
“Tell me to stop,” I whisper, then wait.
But he doesn’t, and that’s all I need to get the nerve to rise up on the tippy-toes of my boots to engage him in a kiss that I’ve initiated.
It’s not rushed. It’s not careful either.
It’s a holy meeting blessed by the Sombran gods—mouth to mouth, tongue to tongue—like we’re both finally confirming something we’ve been pretending not to feel all along.
His hand comes up to my waist, curving it around me, pulling me close as he takes over the kiss.
There’s wonder in the movement of his lips against mine. Surprise, too. Plus the faintest tremor of disbelief, like he’s discovering something forbidden and beautiful all at once.
When we part, it’s only because breathing becomes necessary again.
He rests his forehead against mine, eyes closed. “This,” he says softly, “is a bad idea.”
I smile, even as my heart races. “You didn’t stop me.”
His laugh is quiet and rough. “No,” he admits. “I didn’t. And I won’t, my demoness.” He hesitates, and then, in a deep, throaty voice that goes straight to my cunt, he adds, “My mate.”
I gasp. It’s one thing for me to consider Thane mine, but for him to agree? I clutch his jaw, digging my claws into his perfect golden skin, showing him just what I think about that with the force of another kiss.
I break it as quickly as I started it, ready to tell him that I’ll only truly be his mate when we get down to the physical act of his body slipping inside of mine when something catches my attention out of the corner of my eye.
For a heartbeat, I see the glowing white movement and think it has to be Binx. Only Binx is nestled securely in the branches, his face buried under his paws, and the flicker I saw is just about head height.
Thane’s head height.
It’s a butterfly.
No.