Chapter 25
REDVYR
“No! It isn’t happening.”
“By the gods,” Jessamine fumed angrily, pacing in our tent where Bezaliel and Tessa had joined us. “You are a stubborn male.”
“Call me whatever you like, but you are not sacrificing yourself.”
“Please explain to me exactly what you intend to do.” Bezaliel broke through our argument, which had been going on ever since they walked in and Jessamine explained her plan. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
“She’s going to use herself as bait,” I bit out angrily. “And one of those fucking creatures could kill her or carry her off or seal her into an earthly tomb like they’ve done to Bes and Saralyn.”
Jessamine stopped her pacing and faced Bezaliel, ignoring me entirely.
“I have the gift of a syrenskyn. It’s hard to explain, but I have the ability to lure others to me with magick.
A seduction of sorts. It’s possible that I could seduce one of them and make them open the cell.
When I’m wielding my syrenskyn magick, my claws can inject a deadly poison, so I can defend myself. Contrary to what others may believe.”
“Or,” I snapped, striding to loom over her, “he will see that you are a juicy morsel for his master and abduct you.”
“And if he does,” she snapped back, her face heating, “he will open the chamber and allow you all to attack, kill them, and set us free.”
“Infuriating woman.” I shook my head. “It’s too fucking risky.”
“What other choice do we have?” she asked, throwing her hands in the air.
I turned away, fuming with anger, unable to even look at her.
But then I caught the hopeful and desperate gazes of my closest friend, my chief, and his dear mate, our healer who had already done so much for our clan.
An oppressive silence fell between us, my jaw clenching so hard I thought I might crack it.
“Let us give them some time to talk, Tessa.” Bezaliel didn’t look at me with those pleading eyes a moment longer, knowing exactly what I was risking and unable to ask it of me. Even though Jessamine was right.
The pair left quietly while I remained still as stone, arms crossed, tail lashing angrily.
I felt her draw near. When she slid her arms around my waist from behind and pressed her cheek to my back, I wrapped my tail around her ankle.
Even while furious with her, I wanted to draw her close and touch her and keep her near me. Safe.
And just like that first time my temper flared when I killed the dryad stag, she soothed my spirit, calming my soul with her soft touch. How could the gods bless me with such a perfect female and then ask me to risk losing her?
“We must try,” she whispered.
“And how exactly do you plan to do this? You’re going to strip naked in the woods and summon your magick and then seduce one of these foul monsters when they show up? If they show up?”
“They will return for the children. Of that, at least we can be sure.”
“You didn’t answer my other questions.”
She paused, still holding me from behind. “Yes. That’s exactly what I plan to do.”
Pulling her arms from me, I whirled around. “Are you mad? They may descend upon you then and there and mount you like the monsters they are rather than save you for their master.”
“I am a powerful syrenskyn. I have used this magick before.”
“It may not even work on these golems. They’re monsters, abominations. Not men.”
“They’re made of flesh and bone.” She smoothed her hands up my chest. “We must try, Red.”
Her imploring gaze broke me. I knew she was right. I hauled her into my arms and pressed my mouth to her soft hair.
“I can’t lose you, Jessa. You’re my whole heart, my entire soul.”
“You won’t. You’ll all be hiding and waiting. Ready to attack.”
“How? They’ll scent us on the wind.”
“We’ll come up with something to disguise your scent, but it’s probably better if it’s not all of you. Only your best warriors. Too many will be too risky.”
Pulling back, I cupped her beautiful face in my palms. “How did you become such an expert tactician?”
She shrugged. “It’s common sense.”
“I don’t like it,” I told her.
“I know.”
“I hate it. It makes me want to claw and bite something.”
She bent her head to the side, revealing the slope of her elegant throat. “You can bite me.”
Staring at her perfect pale skin, my mouth salivated.
I wanted to sink my teeth there, to ensure she could never have anyone else but me.
That no man would ever touch her with my scent on her skin.
But I couldn’t be that selfish. The gods gave her to me, but she hadn’t given herself to me. Not permanently.
“Sit with me.” I took her hand and guided her to the bed of furs.
When I paused for too long, trying to find the words, she said the most ridiculous thing in the world.
“You don’t want to give me your mark. Is that it?”
I laughed. “Jessamine. I have wanted that from the first time I watched over you, when you were laying in my tent at my hunting camp.”
“You have not. You hated me then.”
I snorted. “Female, that is an unholy falsehood.”
“Then why haven’t you given me your mark?” she asked softly. “We’re mates. You said so.”
I nodded, holding one of her hands in both of mine, my body angled so that I could look at her.
“Once I bite you, my scent will remain on you forever. If you change your mind and decide in a year or two, or ten, that clan life isn’t what you want for yourself, that you’d prefer someone of your own kind, a more comfortable life in Morodon, you will never have another male.
They will never want a female with the smell of another embedded in their skin. Especially a beast fae.”
“I thought that beast fae mated for life.”
“They do,” I assured her. “That’s what I’m telling you. I will have no other. And no other will have you once my mark is on you. It will spoil any chance you have of seeking another life elsewhere.”
“But I want my life with you. Here. I don’t want a life elsewhere.”
My heart lifted at her confidence, but she was a skald fae. And a princess at that. I knew that she’d been raised with comforts and riches that we did not have. While she enjoyed clan life for the brief time we had been together, a lifetime was an entirely different thing.
“I simply want to give you time, to give you the choice to choose me. To choose the clan of Vanglosa. Once it’s done, there’s no going back.”
She frowned as she stared down at our entwined fingers. “How long do you think I need to make this decision?”
I had already thought about this a great deal.
It pained me to give her time. The beast inside me wanted to push her down and embed his fangs in her right now, this very instant.
But I would not be a tyrant and take without a thought or care like my father had done to my mother.
I would not become a male like him, a beast fae with no honor.
“When we return to Vanglosa, you will give me your answer. If,” I hesitated, taking a breath, “if your answer is what I hope for, then we will be bound at the kella’mir under the sacred tree of our clan.”
She nodded, staring down where I held her hand. “I wish winter was over now.”
Pressing the back of her hand to my mouth, I whispered, “It pleases my heart to hear you say so. I want to be sure you feel just as certain at the end of winter.”
“I had no idea you were such a patient male,” she teased, smiling up at me.
I laughed. “I am not. Not at all.” My smile slipped. “But I will not become my father and force my female into a life she does not want.”
Her brows knit together. “What happened with your father?”
For the first time in my entire life, I wanted to tell someone. No, I wanted to tell her. If she knew my harrowing past and still accepted me, it might absolve me of this guilt that weighed on me so heavily, this wrongdoing of my father’s that followed me like a ghostly shadow.
“My father made the greatest mistake a beast fae, especially a beast fae lord, can make.” I met her gaze, owning my father’s sin before it left my lips.
“He met my mother at the end-of-winter gathering of the clans at J?hl Tundra. She was the daughter of the lord of the Bolgar Clan. She was beautiful and coveted by many males. My father believed she was meant for him.”
I paused, my throat thickening the closer I got to mentioning the damning offense he committed.
“My mother was in love with another, a warrior named Gunlyn of her own clan. Father knew this. Gunlyn and my mother planned to consummate their bond at the winter gathering. It is a custom, with many choosing that celebratory moment to couple and discover if the gods have blessed them as mates.”
My memory drifted, remembering my own mother telling me this story. I’d found her crying more than once over the years as a boy. She would then hide her tears and tell me it was nothing. But one day, when I’d reached my final teen year and was to become a warrior of our clan, she told me the truth.
“But before Gunlyn and my mother could do so, Father took her into the woods and mounted her, against her will. She was not his mate, but his lust and desire for her to be his queen was too great.” I cleared my throat and turned to look away, watching the flames lick up in the pit next to the bed.
“He threatened her, saying that if she didn’t keep quiet about the fact that knotting hadn’t occurred in their coupling, he would kill her beloved. ”
“Oh, Redvyr.” Jessamine’s pained whisper was awful. I couldn’t bear to look her in the eyes. Especially since I wasn’t done yet.
“My mother protected her love, Gunlyn, and bound herself to my father. It took her many years to conceive me, and I was their only child. But on the day of the kella’mir that made me an official warrior of the Vanglosa clan, she pulled me aside from the celebration.
She hugged me and gave me her blessings, told me she knew I would one day be a lord that everyone would respect and love, and then she left. ”
I closed my eyes, wishing I could change history, go back and stop her.