Chapter Seventeen. Fallon #2
Dropping the reins entirely, Etan reached around me to capture my chin between his fingers and turn me to look at him.
“Do you still think me your villain, Sunfire? Or has your opinion of me already begun to change? If you can see the truth of who I am this quickly after our rough start, then maybe you should believe our people are capable of that, too,” he said, his voice low and tinged with seduction and something dark.
Like a promise of games to come, his eyes burned as he stared down at my mouth.
I hesitated, trying to determine how much I wanted to offer him in my response.
“I don’t think you’re a villain, Etan. I think you play one very well, but there’s something softer hidden beneath those sharp edges.
I don’t know if our goals align or if we’re going to survive one another, but you’re not the man I thought you were. ”
Etan’s slow smile was addictive, transforming the harsher lines of his face into a thing of beauty.
“Every time I think I have gotten to the bottom of your depths, you surprise me yet again,” he murmured, leaning forward to kiss me briefly.
He picked up the reins in the next moment, continuing our walk to the gate without another word.
“It’s Etan!” one of the guards yelled to the man who stood beside the wheel to draw up the gate.
There were smiles on their faces as Etan guided Thunder into the village and immediately stopped in the center of the courtyard.
He dismounted quickly, going to the guards and allowing them to hug him and clap him on the back with a friendly familiarity that would have caught me off guard only two days prior.
“Welcome home,” one of the other guards said, but his eyes strayed to me where I remained atop Thunder.
I straightened my back, feeling the weighted assessment in that stare, and didn’t dare to dismount until Etan told me to.
As much as I might not have been able to trust the Fae male with my heart, I knew my safety mattered to him and that was something I could rely on in these situations where I knew no one.
The guards couldn’t have possibly known who I was, so I hoped the appraising look was because my hair was probably a mess from our journey. “Who have you brought us?” the guard asked Etan with a curious look in his eye and a raised brow.
Another guard smacked the one who had spoken, nodding to me respectfully as Etan grinned and made his way back to Thunder.
Reaching up, he gripped me around the waist and waited for my subtle nod of permission before he plucked me off the horse and brought me to stand beside him.
“This is Rheaghan’s niece, Fallon. We’re to be married as soon as we return to Vallania. ”
I didn’t miss the careful phrasing of my introduction, reframing my heritage to serve our purpose best.
“The lost Princess?” the guard asked, bowing his head in respect, though there was a certain skepticism in his expression. I couldn’t blame him, given who that meant my mother was.
“Yes. Fallon was once called Maeve. Hopefully you will not judge her for the proximity to her mother any more than you did Rheaghan,” Etan said, the words scolding, but he lessened the sting by reaching out and resting his hand on the other man’s shoulder.
“Give her a chance, and she’ll prove to be more like him than you could ever imagine.
But first, I need to take her to the sea. ”
He took my hand in his, guiding me through the village streets. The buildings had been made out of warm-toned clay, the two- to three-story structures surrounding us as we walked the streets. The wall and gate behind us must have been at least five stories tall.
The ground beneath my feet was a different kind of sand than we’d encountered in the desert, tan in color instead of the red earth that had made me stumble.
This sand was packed down to form streets that were lined with people selling goods from stands.
They smiled as we passed, greeting Etan by name in a way that I would have expected for Rheaghan.
Reverence laced every word they spoke, but it also came with a familiarity that accentuated the way he greeted each and every person by name.
I wondered just how far Etan’s deception went, if the court at Tar Mesa and Mab’s loyal followers were the only ones who did not know that he wasn’t as loyal as he seemed.
These people did more than just honor him as their King’s second-in-command, and the one who was likely to fill the role as their ruler now that he had passed, but I couldn’t help but wonder how they kept that secret from Mab.
Did they know that Rheaghan was gone? I swallowed at the thought of Etan having to be the one to inform them of the loss.
It made a little of my excitement for the ocean sink deep in my gut with dread.
But Etan’s energy was potent, his broad smile as we emerged from the streets and stumbled onto the open sands of the shore pulsing off him in waves.
He pulled me down to the water, kicking off his boots with a laugh as I did the same.
He released me long enough to let me get them off without falling on my face, taking my hand once again when I was done and ignoring my hesitation.
There were giant boulders within the water, huge rocks that jutted out from the turquoise depths as Etan’s feet splashed in the shallow tide.
I sucked back a breath as the refreshing water lapped at my feet, gathering my dress up in my hands to avoid getting it wet.
Shells adorned the sand at my feet, whole and intact in all shapes and sizes, as Etan pulled me closer to him.
His stomach touched my chest, his smile overjoyed as he reached down and scooped me into his arms. I lost sight of the shells as he turned me, and I had to crane my neck to keep my stare on the water instead of the sun burning bright in the sky above.
Squealing as Etan carried me farther out to sea, I looked back toward the shore to watch a crowd of Sidhe gather to watch us. The smiles on their faces were playful, matching the mischievous grin I found on Etan’s face when I turned back to look at him.
“Etan, don’t you dare!” I screamed as the water lapped around my back as he strode deeper, sending a chill through my middle as it touched my belly.
With a deepening grin, Etan leaned down to kiss my forehead. “Don’t I dare do what, Sunfire?” he asked, his suspicious smile confirming everything for the brief moment before he tossed me into the water.
I held my breath, sinking below the surface with my eyes open.
The salt stung, but I couldn’t make myself close them as I took in the fish swimming all around us in every color imaginable.
Holding my breath, I stayed beneath the water as long as I could before I touched my feet to the bottom and stood, and then I surfaced, sucking back a lungful of air and flinging my hair back out of my face.
“I am going to kill you while you sleep,” I sputtered, my warning doing nothing to dissuade him as he swam farther out.
I didn’t dare with the dress I wore, knowing it would be entirely possible for my legs to get tangled up in it and have it weigh me down.
I hadn’t done much swimming in the spring in the tunnels, mostly using it to get clean or seek out a partner or two when I wanted pleasure.
“I can think of no better way to go than having your face be the last thing I see and drifting off only to never wake,” he said teasingly as he swam back toward me.
Taking my hand in his, he guided me back to the sandy shore and the Sidhe who waited there.
Some had moved into the water, dressed in clothing that looked like it was intended for swimming.
I’d never seen anything like it before, and children frolicked and danced on the sand, playing in the shallow water as we walked out of the ocean.
“Hello, Etan!” a young girl said, grabbing him by his other hand and tugging him to dance with her.
He spun her with a flourish as a handful of Sidhe and Lliadhe played music on the edge of the beach.
I watched, standing alone and not knowing the steps to the dances that they all did, until another girl took pity on me and came up to me, pointing to my head.
“I like your braids! Can you do mine?” Smiling, I nodded, sitting on the sand and having her lower to the ground in front of me so that I could braid the hair back from one side of her face.
Someone brought me a cup filled to the brim with wine, and after a nod of approval from Etan, I took my first sip and sighed in contentment.
I watched Etan with his people as I worked and drank, listening to the little girl chatter about how her mother wasn’t very good with braids, and she always had to wear her hair down, my mouth twisted into a smile the entire time.
The sun started to set on the horizon, but in spite of the fading light, the mood and festivities on the beach continued like there wasn’t a care in their world.
There was lightness here, a contrast to the darkness of the tunnels and Tar Mesa that went much further than just the sun shining down on us.
It seemed so strange to sit in the knowledge that these people had peace like this, when people in Tar Mesa and Nothrek were fighting for their lives every day.
I sat in that, letting that peace wash over me as girl after girl took a seat in front of me and chattered while I braided. I could only hope that one day, I’d find a peace like this for myself.