Chapter 14
“Bossy as always, princeling.” I watched Dion disappear into the bedroom and how he shortly after reemerged. In his hand, he held a small box, which he handed to me. The way he wrung his hands right after I’d taken the compact container revealed more than I was ready for.
Our conversation had been awkward, and we’d only scratched the surface of what we should have discussed, but—well, what would unwrapping every single hurt, every lie, and broken promise change?
The two of us had messed up, and ranting about all our misgivings and wrongdoings for hours wouldn’t repair anything.
Only time could heal those wounds—if our friendship was strong enough from both ends.
What had surprised me most was Dion’s apology.
Yes, he’d said sorry directly after all his secrets had come out in the Mystic Library in Amalach, but somehow, one given with a clear head outside the heated situation was worth so much more.
Also, I suspected he wasn’t even remembering his impromptu confession of guilt anymore.
To stop my thoughts from spiraling, I directed my attention to the ornate box in my hand.
The small container was a masterpiece in itself, carved from a wood whose light red hue sparked my suspicion that the piece was a Galantan craft, since trees of such a color didn’t exist in Ivreia.
My fingers trembled slightly as I lifted the elaborate lid and peered into the chest. My eyes narrowed, and all the progress I’d made in softening toward Dion vanished into thin air. “Princeling—”
“No, hear me out. This isn’t what you think.”
“Looks like jewelry to me. The kind I despise.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.”
“Not much room for a misunderstanding here.”
“But how can you dislike something you simply misinterpret?”
“Then enlighten me.”
Dion placed his ass—his perfectly sculpted ass, godsdammit—on the table across the chaise.
“After the Rite of Binding, it’s customary to wear jewelry to cover up the divine marks because they are considered something immensely intimate that you don’t allow just anyone to see.
Since I wouldn’t want us to wear the set symbolizing our sham marriage, I went into the ruins of the Galantan royal residence in Amalach to retrieve this.
My grandfather had always kept some parts of the crown jewels there, and luckily, what I searched for had still remained where the treasure had been left.
Most of my grandfather’s riches are incredibly gaudy, but knowing you, you’d go for something not too flashy.
If you want my opinion, this will suit you very well, provided you’re willing to wear the neck cuff.
If not, a scarf or a piece of cloth would also be acceptable, as long as you cover the mark. ”
Dragging my glare back from Dion to the golden choker lying on a bed of dark green velvety fabric, my vision blurred for a moment—I was spiraling.
The matching bracelet was nestled in the middle of the larger circular piece.
In the back of my brain, I vaguely remembered that Dion had once mentioned that we humans had modeled our wedding jewelry after the Galantan tradition to hide the divine patterns of bonded Wielder and Amplifier under finery, and admittedly, I preferred this old fae custom over the Ivreian matrimony laws.
The meaning between the two acts couldn’t be more different.
One protected something special that no one had the right to see, and the other was a blatant display of possession.
As I pondered about similarities and differences, my gaze was caught by a round pendant dangling from the choker, and I couldn’t stop myself from brushing the pads of my fingers over the six sparkling stones encased in gold.
“There are rumors that these gems had been a present from each of the six ancient fae tribes to an ancestor of my family long before I was born. Our family chronicle mentions how finishing crafting these took almost ten winters, as my forefather was hard to satisfy. He never found an Amplifier, though, nor did those coming after him, so the set has never been used before.”
“According to your chronicle.”
“Yes, and I tend to believe that this is the truth. As you can see here, the middle of the pendant has a slight indentation, an empty socket for a seventh stone. In your case, a black jewel should be added since you’re a darkness Amplifier.
The other six gems symbolize all the magical elements, which is quite fitting, wouldn’t you agree? ”
“Because I carry all predispositions.”
Dion’s fingers joined mine as he nodded, tracing the precious stones before settling his hand on mine. “I haven’t managed to find a gem worthy of you yet, but I plan to redeem that as soon as possible.”
“It’s gorgeous.” Nothing but the truth. And the closer I inspected the beautiful gemstones, the more I perceived.
The red one glowed and burned with an inner fire, the blue precious stone flowed at the slightest movement as if liquid were trapped inside, the green shifted its hue with the tiniest change of angle, the yellow gem appeared to contain a miniature tempest, the white one radiated brightness, and the black jewel was darker than everything I’d ever seen before.
“Would you grant me the honor of wearing my gift?”
Without an ounce of hesitation, I nodded. The prince had been correct when he’d confronted me about letting my prejudices get in the way of what felt right.
Faster than I could blink, Dion had picked up the golden choker and held the treasure in his hand. Despite all the differences between the customs, my throat tightened for a moment as I remembered the last time he’d attached a cuff around my neck months ago, before traveling to Marsia.
From the expression in his eyes, the fae recalled the same. When he reached over to brush my hair to the side, a trickle of wrongness creeping down my spine made me quiver, and Dion halted his approach.
“Bad memories?”
“No. No, nothing like that. But you—you’re all wrong.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“Your face.”
“What is wrong with my face now? You've never complained before.” How he touched his cheek in confusion made him appear younger, almost boyish.
“Maybe I’m pedantic, but when you wear that mask—”
Dion’s eyes widened as he finally realized what I’d been trying to convey to him. “Oh. You mean my Glamour? Well, I figured you would be more relaxed if you had time to get used to the thought of me being fae without reality being rubbed in your face the whole time.”
Yes, I was more comfortable with his human appearance at the moment.
He was right, but my sensitivities didn’t matter now.
This was about customs, something that, according to my friends, fae took seriously, and since the rite had wanted him to wear his real face, we’d better obey the same rules in this extension of the ceremony.
Instead of waiting for my answer, Dion changed in front of me. Gray eyes transformed into sparkling amethyst ones as the human man turned into the fae male, who still made me uneasy.
As I openly inspected his flawless skin and how his higher cheekbones ever so slightly altered the structure of his face, I also analyzed the change in the angle of his glowing eyes before my attention brushed another alien feature.
Something almost like a compulsion overcame me.
I lifted my hand and gently ghosted my index finger over the tip of Dion’s pointed ear.
With fascination and the hint of a smile on my lips, I examined the small flutter running through him and the light twitch of his ear.
My fingers moved on their own accord, driven by my wish to coax the reaction out of him again, but before I could repeat the motion, Dion enveloped my wrist with his hand, feathering his lips over my knuckles.
Both his skin and his lips were cool and smooth, as if marble had come alive and gained a velvety texture.
It was my turn to shudder.
“Cautious, Nayana. Or I’ll get the impression you want to start something here.”
His voice was deeper, somehow darker, and he observed me, a predatory expression written on his features, his head canted as so often before.
Gods, Dion was more than intense on a normal day, but in his actual form, he was something else, something more.
One thing was clear. His fae appearance would require some time to get used to.
And when I spotted the honed peaks of his canines behind his feral grin, I failed in withholding an embarrassing wince. The sound simply rolled from my throat as I not only caught up with what he’d been hinting at but also couldn’t stop staring at the wickedly sharp cuspids.
Why I was so enamored with stupid pointed teeth, I couldn’t even begin to understand, nor why blood had flushed my cheeks deep red.
“Noted,” I said, and my voice sounded a bit squeaky, much to my dismay. No one should have the right to be so absurdly attractive, and yet the giant fae prince—who was indeed a few inches taller without his Glamour—was very real as he rose to his feet, choker in his hand.
This time, I didn’t object as Dion gathered my hair gently into one of his hands and carefully arranged the tresses so my locks wouldn’t disturb his mission, but then he growled for some unknown reason.
When wearing his human disguise, he often made an impulsive impression, followed moods on a whim, fussed about everything, was territorial to the maximum, and barely veiled the feral predator hidden beneath civilized skin, but all these mannerisms were more pronounced without magic concealing the truth about him.
My best guess was that the absence of his Glamour caused him to drop the rest of his act, and he simply stopped pretending to be something he wasn’t.
And although I hadn’t been granted much time yet to observe his true self, the small glimpses, together with all the quirks he’d displayed during our travels, allowed only one conclusion—fae were peculiar creatures.
To my surprise, Dion let go of me once more and didn’t react to my inquiring look.
Instead, he sat down on the chaise and, as if he’d already figured out what this action did to me, flashed his canines again.
And not only that. His dimples came out to play too, and for a brief moment, I simply forgot to breathe.
Another question answered—his dimples weren’t limited to his human appearance.
“Better. Now, I won’t break my back from crouching over you.”
How I found my voice would forever stay a mystery to me. “Complaining about your height, princeling?”
“Never.”
An icy shiver ran down my spine when Dion brushed his fingers over the dark mark around my neck. “While this suits you, it’s only mine to see.”
“What do you mean?”
“Haven’t you listened to me? It’s considered scandalous among fae to flaunt your binding marks, comparable to a human leaving their house while flashing their genitalia for the world to behold.”
That was a comparison I wasn’t willing to dwell on, given how long I’d walked around with my divine symbols on display.
“It’s fascinating. Feroy’s men broke three knives before finally accepting they couldn’t cut the mark out.
And that I refused to tell him what the design represented drove him insane. ”
Dion tensed when I so casually mentioned my torture at the merchant’s hand, but instead of commenting, he took a deep breath, relaxed, and placed the golden choker around my neck. His touch was a whispered caress as he deftly closed the piece of jewelry.
The pendant with the multicolored gems nestled over my throat, and I didn’t need a mirror to know that my marks were completely covered.
A shiver traveled through my body as Dion’s breath ghosted against the shell of my ear from behind. “Now you.”
Hopefully, the fae sitting in my back wasn’t detecting how my hands trembled as I reached for the bracelet, just like I’d done back on that clearing in Iolesia.
Dammit, I needed to get a grip on myself.
Only because he’d apologized once didn’t mean I wasn’t still angry at the prince, no matter how much pretty jewelry he gave me or how weirdly magnetic his presence was.
With fresh resolve, I inspected the bracelet.
So far, I’d missed that another set of six stones adorned the gold.
While the jewels were arranged in a circle around the empty socket in the middle of my pendant, these were lined up along the bracelet in two groups of three, with an empty space between them. “This is a true matching pair, Dion.”
“That was the intention of the one who commissioned the set.”
“It’s curious. If someone described our jewelry to me, I’d assume the pieces to appear flashy and over-the-top, but that’s not the case.”
Dion’s arm rested on my waist as I took his hand from behind and brushed the sleeve up to his elbow. A pang of satisfaction warmed my chest as I noticed that his skin pebbled under my touch. Two could play this game.
A scrap of black silk was tied around his mark, and I didn’t hesitate in opening the knot. When his wrist was bare, I examined his divine design, the darkness moving beneath his skin, and I had to admit how beautiful the pattern looked.
Shaking myself out of this stupor, I covered the symbol with the wide bracelet. “I never thought gold would suit you, but this does.”
“Thank you. Although I prefer my jewelry on you.”
Dion’s voice and expression were almost revered. When he tucked me into his chest, my back to his front, he rested his chin on the crown of my head, and a sense of safety washed over me.
A feeling of home.
Funny what exhaustion and adrenaline could do.