Chapter 17
Fawn sat on the edge of the bed, staring at Cassandra. The serpent never blinked, and she couldn’t tell if it was a reptile thing or if Cassandra was simply a staring contest champion. Familiar s only spoke to their bonded, but earlier the serpent had sort of nodded at a yes -or -no question.
Fawn decided to give it a go. “Do you live in the palace?” Nothing. “Do you help the king kidnap people regularly?” Cassandra ignored her, slithered to the door, and coiled into a neat pile.
“She can’t hear you,” Braddock called through the door. “Snakes don’t have ears.” If they did, would Cassandra bite him for calling her a snake instead of a serpent? It seemed insulting.
Fawn hopped off the bed and opened the door. The serpent moved faster than a lightning strike and wrapped around her like a rope. Fawn screamed and struggled against the familiar ’s crushing hold.
Braddock waved his hand in front of Cassandra’s face to get her attention and gestured for her to let Fawn go. The familiar ’s forked tongue flicked out. I’m going to be squeezed to death . Braddock signaled again, and the serpent reluctantly released her.
Fawn scurried closer to him, never taking her eyes off Cassandra. “Why did she do that?”
“She thought you were trying to escape.” He eyed her. “Were you?”
“No, I was coming to talk to you,” she said, exasperated that she had so little freedom she couldn’t even walk from the bedroom to the sitting room. “It’s hard to hear through a closed door.”
Braddock thought for a moment. “Everyone wants to talk to me. You couldn’t help it.”
“I’m sorry your cousin found out about me the way she did,” Fawn said. She could tell that Dean hurting Cali hurt Braddock too. The two must be close, but if Dean said he sent a letter ahead of time, he did. “His fiancé was a surprise to me too.”
Braddock grunted. “Figures. For someone smart, he can be a dumbass.”
“People are really calling me a whore?” Despite her anger-induced fit earlier, she wouldn’t actually leave Dean.
She knew him well enough to know he’d never let her.
A secret part of her she’d never admit felt a thrill at the prospect of someone wanting her desperately enough to chase her to the ends of the world.
Braddock shook his head to toss his hair over his shoulder. “They won’t be for long.”
“Telling someone the truth doesn’t make them believe it,” she lamented. “They’ll say what they want if it’s juicy enough.”
“They won’t be saying much of anything,” he muttered under his breath.
The fabric of her dress tickled the inside of her elbows.
She growled with frustration, knowing the feeling would only get worse if she didn’t find something else to wear.
It didn’t matter that she’d been wearing this dress all day or that she’d worn it a million times.
She needed it off before she ripped holes in it with her bare hands.
“I need to see Naomi.” She could help Fawn take the sleeves off without ruining the dress. Plus, Fawn wanted to make sure she’d settled in okay.
Braddock shook his head. “Your mate will lose his mind if he comes back and you’re gone.”
That sounded a bit drastic. “I’ll be quick,” she promised. “I need help with my dress. I can’t wear this.” She held out her arms.
Braddock walked to the dressing room and emerged seconds later with a dress. “Here.”
Another wool dress with long sleeves wouldn’t help.
She’d never had this happen with her dresses, but right now the sleeves were intolerable.
She’d struggled with sensory issues all her life.
Different textures and certain sounds set her on edge, and it felt like she would burst out of her skin.
And sometimes something that never bothered her before made her skin crawl for no reason. And she fucking hated it.
“I need Naomi’s help taking these sleeves off,” she explained. “No one is going to hurt me if you and Cassandra are there.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “You’re right. Everyone knows I’d win in a fight.” Nudging Cassandra with the toe of his boot, he indicated that they were leaving.
Cassandra wrapped around Fawn tighter than before. The confinement only heightened the need to be free of her dress. She struggled against the serpent’s hold. “Let me go, please.”
Braddock grabbed Cassandra’s neck and the familiar hissed, her fangs extending. He motioned for her to let Fawn go again, and to Fawn’s amazement, she did. “What are you, a snake charmer?”
Braddock puffed out his chest. “All animals listen to me. It’s a gift.”
Fawn doubted it, but Braddock’s confidence still impressed her. She wished she possessed that level of self-assuredness.
“We need to be quick.” He led Fawn down the hallway and around the corner to Naomi’s rooms. Dean had set her up on the royal floor, and it endeared Fawn to him more.
No one answered when Braddock knocked the first time, so he tried again, the sound echoing down the empty halls. “She might have gone to eat dinner,” he guessed.
When did I eat last? She’d have to rip her sleeves off herself, and silently mourned the future loss of her dress.
It was her favorite, and she had little hope it would come out unscathed.
She’d wanted to save it for visits to the Mountain Kingdom, and Naomi’s sewing skills far outweighed her own. “I’m hungry too.”
Braddock steered her back toward Dean’s rooms. “We can ring for a maid.”
So much for getting out of the rooms for a while.
Dean sat across from Lilith in her cavernous home, scanning the paintings on her walls. “I’m hurt I’m not up there yet.”
Lilith floated across the room to her favorite chair and took a seat. “You will be with time.” She waved her hand. “Ask your question.”
Dean leaned back and rested his ankle across his opposite knee. “Why tell me to marry Cali when you knew Fawn was alive?”
Lilith tutted, the sound befitting the older woman she disguised herself as around non-royals. “I never said that.”
Dean scoffed. “You told me I had to get engaged so I could live a happy life.”
“I did,” she agreed. “I never said you would marry your betrothed.”
Damn her and her riddles. “Stop being cryptic and tell me why.”
“Because you need Cali, or your mate will die.”
Dean shot to his feet. “What the fuck did you just say?”
Lilith’s expression rarely changed, but her nose twitched with annoyance. “Don’t speak to me that way. I understand you are upset, and I’m sorry I cannot tell you much.” To her credit, she sounded sincere. “You cannot make Cali leave.”
His jaw dropped. “I’m not staying engaged to her.”
Lilith dipped her head in a slight nod. “Correct, but nor can you ask her to leave the palace. You need her here.”
“I’ll lock her in the dungeon if she so much as looks at Fawn with disrespect.”
Lilith shook her head. “You cannot.”
Dean scrubbed his hand through his hair. To hell with his appearance. “I’ll have to tell Fawn who you really are to explain why my ex-fiancé gets to keep living in our home.”
Lilith’s eyes glazed over for a few seconds. “You cannot. Do not allow Cali to disrespect Fawn, but do not hurt her either. She stays, and your mate cannot know about me. You need to think of a reason to placate Fawn.”
“I won’t lie to her, Lilith. That’s a shitty way to start out a relationship.”
“You’re a good man, Dean, and you don’t deserve the terrible things you’ve endured. But if you don’t do as I say, Fawn will die.”
Dean stared at the floor. How in the fuck would he navigate this?
“I have something for Fawn.” Lilith stood and disappeared into another room and returned shortly with two dresses. “She needs these until you can get her more.”
Lilith’s cryptic ways and indifference irritated the shit out of Dean, but he sensed she had a good heart and that she didn’t deserve the hand life had dealt her either.
He accepted the clothes and bowed slightly to the Fate. “Thank you.”
Dean walked into his sitting room and froze. Braddock should have been guarding the bedroom door, but the space stood empty. “Braddock?” He threw open the door to their bedroom and felt his heart rate kick up. Where are they? “Fawn?”
His chest heaved, and he dropped the bundle of dresses on the floor. What if something happened? The person trying to kill her could have sent another assassin and overpowered Braddock and Cassandra. The only thing keeping him from completely losing his shit was that there were no bodies.
Rushing into the hall, he yelled Fawn’s name, praying she’d… what? Walked up and down the hallway for fun? Air sawed in and out of his lungs as rage battled fear. Cassandra . He closed his eyes to connect with his familiar when the sweetest voice he’d ever heard interrupted him. “Dean?”
Fawn stood at the end of the hall looking beautiful and unscathed with Braddock and Cassandra at her side. Dean ran forward and scooped her into his arms. “Fuck.”
She slid her arms around him and hugged him back. “I’m okay,” she soothed, sensing he neared the edge of insanity. “I went to see Naomi.”
Still clutching his mate tight, his icy grey eyes stared daggers at Braddock and Cassandra. “I said she couldn’t leave. I thought—” He stopped to calm himself. “I thought another assassin had been sent.”
Braddock crossed his arms. “There would have been bodies on your sitting room floor if they’d tried.”
“I wouldn’t have let anything happen to her,” Cassandra added. “You cannot hold her prisoner while you are away.”
“I won’t chance her safety,” he replied out loud for all to hear, then to Fawn, “I’m sorry, darling. I shouldn’t have left.”
“What makes you think she’s safer with you than me?” Braddock huffed and Cassandra added, “I’m insulted.”
Dean hugged Fawn tighter, terrified she’d vanish if he let her go.
“I’m stronger than both of you combined.
I can glamour her invisible if need be.” As a royal, his glamour worked on non-royal fae.
If he wanted them to see nothing but air, they would.
Non-royal fae’s glamour only worked on humans and animals.
Fawn wiggled until he loosened his hold enough for her to tilt her head back. “Braddock told me no one can beat him.” She quirked a smile just for Dean like they shared an inside joke. “You can’t keep me locked away. I’ll go crazy.”
He knew she was right, but his brain couldn’t let the fear go. “You won’t leave my side again.”
“That’s not logical,” she countered. “There will be times you’re needed that I can’t follow.”
“No there won’t,” he countered. “I’m not leaving you, and that’s final.”
Braddock and Cassandra stayed quiet, letting Dean and Fawn battle it out. The stubbornness in his mate’s eyes made him proud. He liked that she stood up for herself… or he would if it didn’t impair her safety.
“And if Lilith calls you again?” She lifted a sharp brow. “Or do I need to use the bathroom?” He smirked and she playfully swatted his back. “Dean Hawthorne, you are not watching me relieve myself.”
“I’ll stand outside the door,” he suggested. “You’ll not win this one, darling.”
Braddock and Cassandra had slipped away while Dean and Fawn had their little spat. Fawn blew out a long breath and Dean grinned over the top of her head at the annoyance and affection swirling down the bond. She might not like the idea, but she couldn’t deny she liked that he cared.
“I need to eat,” she said, changing the subject. “Naomi didn’t answer. I think she’s at the dining hall.”
“That’s where I planned on taking you when I returned.” Dean planted a kiss on the top of her head, wishing it were her lips instead. “I’d like you to meet our guests from the Garden Kingdom as your first diplomatic duty.”
Fawn groaned. “I can’t. I need to get out of this dress, and I don’t have any others without sleeves.”
He let her go and threaded his fingers through hers, needing constant contact. “Lilith sent me some dresses for you.”
“That’s nice of her.” Fawn’s brow wrinkled. “She must have figured I only had heavy wool.” Something like that.
He led them to their rooms, retrieved the crumpled dresses from the floor, and handed them to his mate. “Get dressed, darling. It’s time to introduce you to your staff.”