Eighteen
Calypso
Standing in the middle of the most opulent bedchamber I had ever seen, I shivered as I watched my husband. He slept where he fell, crosswise on a luxuriously soft bed large enough for multiple large fae. Elegant limbs akimbo, he still managed to look graceful in a trick that defied logic.
Dropping his second shoe to rest next to the first one, I surveyed the room looking for something to cover him with. Finally, I spotted a couch tucked in the far corner. A throw hung over the back.
I fetched the throw, and by the time I returned, Azulin had turned on his side and curled into a ball. I covered as much of him as I could before stepping back from the bed.
Closing my eyes, I rotated my head to work out some of the tension in my neck.
What kind of family had I married into? A mad and cursed former king for a father-by-marriage, a twisted and power-hungry mother-by-marriage, and then there was Oran. Despite his sarcastic approach to interacting with his brother, he wasn’t as cold as he seemed. Afterall, he cared for their parents.
Still, what had Grizzlemunch said? If your brother hadn’t sworn not to take the throne— If Oran ever did decide to rebel, I suspected at least some of the fae would join his cause. He was charismatic. Probably more so than Azulin.
However, Oran’s behavior toward Azulin and me hadn’t indicated any subterfuge. On the contrary, he had been very supportive. Or at least, he appeared to be.
I shook my head. In this world of tricksters, it was hard to tell what anyone’s motives were. Crossing to a chair near the bed, I sat and pulled my legs up to my chest so I could hug my knees.
At least at home—no, I shouldn’t keep calling my old village home. It wasn’t my home anymore.
Before I met Azulin, I knew how each person in my world saw me. None of them loved me. True, the children had been carelessly affectionate in their own way, but I wasn’t deluded enough to believe they were attached to me. My sister’s lies and manipulation saw to that.
And my sister and her husband had been open in their opinions that I was only useful because I could work. When I had severely sprained my ankle two summers ago, they had threatened to throw me out if I didn’t keep up my part of the workload even while healing. Even while injured, my conversations with the adults in the village had been about the tasks they required me to do and how I needed to move faster.
In contrast, Azulin clearly possessed some affection for me. I suspected he would remain a strange combination of known and unknown personality facets for quite a while. Only time would reveal all of him to me. However, in our short acquaintance, he had consistently shown me he valued me as a person.
Not only had he offered me a place to live, a role in his world, and the protection of his name, but he had offered me friendship. It was a precious gift that I had every intention of protecting.
But the more I saw of his world, the more I was coming to understand the gravity of what he had done when he married me.
I was his weak link. The chink in his armor. The vulnerability anyone could use to get at him and do serious damage. Horror shivered through me.
What had I done by pressuring him to marry me? The last thing I wanted to do was hurt him, but that was exactly what I had done. Moisture flooded my eyes.
Azulin stirred on the bed. His handsome features tightened, and he frowned. His outflung hand stretched toward me across the bedding. Palm up with fingers slightly curled, it was almost like he was reaching for me. But when I glanced at his face, he still slept.
He was my world now. My place was by his side, and I needed to figure out how to function there, not as a dependent, but as someone who could stand on her own feet and support him. Someone who could defend and protect him. I had to be stronger, faster, and more dangerous than his enemies. But how could I do that in a world where any fae could attempt what the former queen had just tried?
I shivered at the thought of being a will-less vessel for some fae’s schemes.
“Calypso?” Azulin’s sleep-roughened voice called me from my musings.
I lifted my head to encounter his dark eyes glinting from beneath lowered eyelids.
“You’re thinking too loud,” he protested. “Come to bed.”
I glared at him. “You never told me you could hear my thoughts.”
He groaned and flung his arm over his head. “I can’t hear them, but I can sense your mood. And based on the knot in my chest, you’re tying yourself in snarls.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll try to stop.” I took a slow, steady breath and tried to ease the tension in my hunched shoulders.
“I have a better idea.” Azulin moved over in the bed and patted the space next to him. “Come, let me hold you so we both can sleep.”
I eyed him warily. We had shared a bed for over a week now—for sleeping and nothing more. I had become accustomed to him being there, but now I was too tense to sleep.
Amusement brightened his eyes. “I don’t bite.”
“I know. Well, actually, I don’t know,” I admitted. “I’m more concerned that I will keep you awake.”
“It can’t be worse than it is now with you over there tying both of us up in worries, and me unable to do anything about it. Come, wife. Let me hold you and reassure myself you are whole and safe. It will help me rest.”
Reluctantly, I climbed into bed to lie next to him. Azulin pulled me into his arms, so my back was snug against his chest, and promptly fell asleep with one of his arms wrapped securely around my middle.
Sleep took longer to find me. My mind worried, but gradually, my thoughts grew sluggish. The vine coiling my arm rippled as his magic flowed around me, and my body relaxed into his embrace. Warm and content, I hummed softly.
“You are purring, wife,” Azulin murmured sleepily. His breath tickled my ear as he nuzzled my hair. “I like it.”
I didn’t bother to reply as I slipped into sleep.
“She escaped!”
I opened my eyes and struggled out of sleep. Groggy and disoriented, I sat up. Alone on the bed, I could still feel the lingering warmth of my husband against my back, but he was already across the room standing by the open door.
Oran stalked past him into the room, and a wave of his magic washed over me as he swung around to face Azulin. “Someone had to help her escape. There was no way out of that spell from within once I sealed it.”
Azulin closed the door and locked it before turning to face his brother. “I assume you’re speaking of our mother.”
Fear unwound in my gut as I realized what was unfolding. I took a few slow, steady breaths to calm my racing heart. Tana had escaped. She could follow through on her plan to use me as her puppet.
“Yes! She’s gone. Father is locked in his rooms with his usual attendants. The guard is scouring the grounds, and the staff is searching the palace.” Pacing the room, Oran thrust his hands through his hair.
“Are all the staff accounted for?” Azulin asked.
Cautiously I crawled to the edge of the bed. Hopefully, if my feet were on the floor, I would feel slightly less vulnerable.
Oran frowned. “I don’t know. I didn’t think to check.”
“How much of the estate did Mother control?”
“All of the household. She said running the house gave her purpose.” Oran groaned and threw himself into the chair next to the bed. “I’m a fool.”
Azulin glanced toward me. “You’re not alone in that. We both trusted her.” He moved across the room, closing the gap between us. I stood and tried to wrestle down the panic in my gut.
“Never again.” Oran glared at his brother. “I will never do so again.”
“Agreed. However, the important task now is to figure out how far her influence went among the staff.” Azulin reached my side and caught my hand in his. A cool wash of magic overwhelmed me, smoothing the edge off my panic. I wasn’t alone. Azulin would protect me. Placing himself between his brother and me, he tucked our joined hands behind his leg.
Oran groaned. Shoving himself off the chair, he straightened wearily. “I’ll gather the staff and order a headcount.”
“Are there any staff members you can trust to handle a truth spelling?” Azulin asked.
Oran paused and frowned at his brother. “I can think of one. You aren’t proposing we interview them all, are you?”
“I am.” Azulin met his brother’s agitation with cool resolve. “I need to know if this is an isolated grab for power or if Mother is somehow connected to the leaking of my true name.”
Oran opened his mouth as though to deny their mother was capable of such things but then caught himself. Instead, he nodded. “The interviews will begin in the library within the hour. I assume you’ll wish to be present for them.”
Azulin squeezed my fingers gently. “We both will. My wife won’t be leaving my side.” His expression said I wouldn’t be leaving his sight for a very long time.
“Understood.” Oran turned on his heel and strode to the door. He unlocked it and pulled it open but hesitated before exiting. “I am willing to submit to a truth spell if you wish.”
Azulin shook his head. “No need. We’ll figure this out together.”
Oran nodded. “Together.”
∞∞∞
Azulin
Calypso hid her fear well. Her expression was calm and her motions unhurried as she crossed the room to retrieve her shoes from next to the bed.
However, thanks to our mate bond, I was acutely aware of the fear coursing through her.
“You’re not alone, Calypso,” I said. “Oran, Ghost, and I will protect you until we find her.”
“I know.” She bent to slip on her shoes. Her hair fell over her shoulder in a curtain of curls, hiding her face. “But what then?”
“Pardon? What happens when we catch my mother?”
She lifted her head and pinned me with a frown. “No, what happens when the next fae comes along and tries to enslave me?”
“They won’t be able to. You’ll be protected.” Moving closer, I reached out to brush back a curl that had fallen against her cheek, but she stepped back, moisture filling her silvery-gray eyes.
“How? You said yourself that she got through the protection spell on my ring.” She studied my features intently.
“There are ways—stronger enchantments, tighter security, a bodyguard—so many ways you can be protected.” I was more concerned about her withdrawal than protecting her at the moment. “I will do everything in my power to make you safe.”
“What about you?”
“What about me?” I frowned at her in confusion. “I’m not the one at risk here.”
She closed her eyes briefly with a sad smile. “Azulin, she tried to control you through me. I wasn’t the aim of her plot. You were.” She gazed up at me.
“Oh, dear heart, don’t worry about me. I can defend myself.”
“But you can’t—not completely. I’m a weakness.”
“No.” Everything in me ached to reach for her, but she was the one who had moved away. “Don’t say that.”
“But it’s true.” The moisture in her beautiful eyes grew.
“No. It isn’t. You make me stronger.”
That made her pause. Confusion flickered across her features. Her lovely brows drew together. “How?”
Pressing my advantage, I inched closer. “You freed me. While I was cursed, my magic wasn’t my own. Portals?” I formed one behind me without breaking my attention from her face. “They wouldn’t form, or they would open to unexpected places. And my ability to cast basic spells would come and go. Sometimes in the middle of the spell, it would explode in my face.” I snapped the portal closed.
“With each moon cycle, I grew weaker and more dangerous as my magic raged out of control or snuffed out completely. Before the labyrinth, I was contemplating isolating myself completely just to protect those around me from the effects.”
Taking a step closer, I gazed down at her, praying she wouldn’t back up again. “Then I met you.”
“A helpless human needing saving?” Calypso didn’t move except to lift her chin further so we could maintain eye contact.
“No, a reason to keep fighting.” Brushing my hand down her back, I let it settle on her waist, not restraining or confining. If she resisted, I would release her. My magic warmed at the connection, my mating mark rippling pleasantly. “I was ready to give in,” I admitted. “Sunk under a never-ending avalanche of work and expectations, drowning in responsibilities and a battle with untamable forces from both within and without. I was ready to give up.” My chest ached at the memory of my struggle with despair. “If Grizzlemunch had suggested I step down in favor of my brother, I would’ve handed everything over just to have peace. But it wouldn’t have helped. The curse still reigned.”
Calypso leaned toward me, her right hand coming to rest against my chest, over my heart. “I’m so sorry.” Her silver eyes glowed as her magic answered mine’s call, offering comfort and reassurance.
“That was then. Now, you’ve freed me from my curse, which is a debt I cannot repay.” I lowered my head to press my lips to her smooth forehead. “Your sacrifice returned power and control to me.” I breathed in the delicate scent of her skin, warm and familiar. “And most precious of all, you have offered me friendship and companionship. Two things I have sorely lacked.”
“You had Ghost,” she protested softly as she leaned into me.
“It isn’t the same.” I nuzzled her ear through her hair. “He isn’t as lovely as you are, wife.”
“I’m hardly beautiful by fae standards.”
Despite Calypso’s softness as she relaxed in my arms, I heard the insecurity in those words. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, love, and physical beauty can be deceptive.” Straightening so I could caress her jaw, I guided her head up so our gazes met once more. “Your beauty comes from within.”
A delicate flush darkened Calyspo’s cheeks as she searched my features. “I have been told fae tend to lie.”
“Never to you,” I promised, stroking her bottom lip with my thumb. “I have never lied to you and swear to always tell you the truth.”
Then I kissed her, endeavoring to prove the truth of my words in action.