Page 38 of Crowned By the Fae King

"Our Court," he said, almost in a murmur, without any censure at all. Cass resettled himself on the ottoman, moving to make me space. Every inkling of sexual desire vanished as he spread his legs. Nervousness took root instead, Cass' control and Cass' emotions indelibly part of me. He looked up at me, brows slanting. "If you're certain, then I'm willing. I didn't—" His breath caught in his throat. He had to swallow, a half-despairing expression flitting across his face. "I didn't expect you to want to touch me ever again after seeing that."

I wasn't certain about any of this. It didn't matter, though. I'd made my decision, and I would follow through, even if it was overwhelming. "Give me a little credit, splendor. I'm your soulmate, after all," I said, and set my hand in his.

Even with everything about him flooding into me, Cass' obliteration of our sex drives made it easy to sit between his legs, and to scoot back until my hips were flush with his groin and my legs were pressed against his thighs down to my knees. He was so big, his abs against my back like a wall and his powerful body surrounding mine. He was—

—exhausted and frightened and aching with hope, controlling his breath and his heart and the way his blood wanted to rise. Balanced against the weight of his bronze-feathered wings, looking down at his soulmate, trying not to demand anything of her—

—a world unto himself.

I leaned my head back against his chest. The warmth of his body soaked into me, hotter than any human man, radiant heat that melted all the tension out of me. My lungs were so much smaller than his, but he was built like a bird, and he breathed like one. We fell into a rhythm, even our heartbeats matching pace, our bodies falling into complete alignment.

"Are you doing alright?" Cass asked, his deep voice vibrating through me.

I knew he had to know already. Even if the control went one-way, he'd been aware enough of me during his ascension to the throne for our soulmate bond to form. But I liked that he was asking, so I murmured, "Doing good."

Cass set his hands on my thighs, palms up. "Focus on your memories of him," he said, pitching his voice low. "Remember him, and remember where you found him."

He sounded like a zen master opening a meditation session. It settled me, drawing me down into that place of deep calm and focus.

I slid my fingers through his, and let Mercy flood into me.

Animism

Abeating heart at the center of the world.

Stone holding sparks of life, flooded with magic, as much a living thing as the man holding me.

The maids singing in the laundry, two cats squabbling over a patch of sunlight, the sun-warmed stone, the mountain beneath, the trees cracking open the bedrock, a lingering songbird warbling his music to a wood that couldn't listen, motes of dust floating on a chill autumn breeze—

"Remember who you are," Cass murmured.

Feathers shifting, a heart beating too hard against my chest, the dusky scent of a woman's skin—

"Not me," he said. "Keep hold of yourself, Quyen. Remember. Don't get lost."

His nose ran through my hair. His breath warmed my scalp. His lips pressed gently to the top of my head in a quiet benediction.

"Your splendor," I whispered. "I get it. Why they call you that." My voice shook.

The Court clamored for me, every rock and leaf and sunbeam. The deer in the woods, the water tumbling down steep ravines, the people in the city at my feet—

Cass' lips turned up against my hair. "Better," he murmured. "You're a natural."

Tremors ran through me, leaving me trembling. Talking was helping.

A woman in ecstasy, her lover's fingers buried inside her. Three children running through the streets, screaming with laughter. A horse shying from a snake, the snake's agony as a heel broke its skull, a man's fear and anger as he defended his livelihood.

"Seven weeks of this," I got out. I was breathing too hard. My bones creaked where I clung to Cass.

"Three hundred eighteen years before I was safe to casually touch anyone but a master healer," he said, with the same slow confidence. He nuzzled my hair again, wrapping his body around me, keeping me safe. "Yet even I have to fight not to lose myself to the Court."

Mercy's beating heart, slow and steady, warming my spine.

My north star. The center of the great wheel of the world. No matter how lost I got, I would always be able to find my way home.

I'd proven that already, hadn't I?

I pressed back against the strong wall of my soulmate's body and let the tension drift away. "Far south, and a little east." I inhaled, remembering the late-afternoon sunlight streaming over me, warming the stone, a lost man's hand in mine. "Cliffs. Trees. Opals."

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