Page 39 of Crowned By the Fae King

The world sprawled out beneath me, hungry and wanting. Pines. Mountains. A pack of wargs, voices lifted in song.

Hello, old friends, I thought. I knew that song. I'd been that song, once, and walked right into a tree about it.

"Opals," Cass said, his voice going harsh and guttural.

"Opals," I breathed back, remembering the shine and flashing colors. The ones I'd brought with me sang to me, shattering my awareness like a prism shattering light, flinging brilliance and shadow through the world.

Cass growled, the deep warning of a predatory animal. It wasn't a sound that could have come from the throat of a man. That shadow of a beast was part of my soulmate, fangs bared and golden eyes gleaming in the darkness, fur standing up in a ruff.

Show me.

The tunnels were gone, but I remembered where they'd been—remembered crawling through them, the earth pressing in on all sides. It embraced me now, welcoming me, cool and endless, eternal sleep beckoning.

Cass' heart beat against my spine. Cass' breath heated my skin. I didn't lose myself.

There. I found one sleeping form in the stone, buried with the opals, and another, and another. Right arm reaching, air at my fingertips—there!

Relief flooded me. "He's okay."

"Quyen," Cass said with purring amusement, "you built him far more than a cairn."

My awareness drew back with his, through the heap of stones I'd built up around his hand… and then through stone after stone, at least six feet of them, fitted together like a roughstone wall.

"Oh," I squeaked, my blush hitting me like a semi truck. "I, um, I had no idea I could do that?"

He chuckled, the sound wrapping around me. "It seems I'm not the only one affecting the landscape. But he's safe. Come back to me."

Warmth against my chest, a flame held in my arms, almost enough to make me forget the price. Small hands in mine. Every breath and shift of my body controlled, the yearning pressing against my skin with reckless need that couldn't be allowed to run rampant.

Like the forest. Like my power.

Beasts howling at the moon. Wings and fangs, blood and saliva—

Cass squeezed my hands and let go, breaking the skin contact. It threw me back into my own body with a sense of dislocation. I wavered, almost dizzy, but I stood, because Cass didn't want me in his lap anymore and I was still so wrapped up in his emotions that I acted on them without thinking.

"I think I can put that on a map," Cass said in a rough voice. His wings chimed as he resettled them. "Given the barrow you built your friend, I'm confident he'll be safe until we can get the Jackal Court breakers to that location for extraction."

I turned to look at him, having to work to make my eyes focus. I blinked, squinting to clear my vision, then tried out a smile. "That's good."

His mouth tilted up into a boyish smile. "Feeling better about things, I hope?"

"Better enough to face down dinner, and whatever useless crap we have to endure tomorrow," I said with a grumble.

He tilted his head, one ear turning like he was listening to the room. "Let's stay up late tonight and cancel the promenade tomorrow morning," he suggested, offering me a hopeful smile. "I ought to put the dragon mews back into one piece, anyway, and maybe we could have breakfast together?"

"You'd like to?" I asked, perking up.

"Take a meal one-on-one with my lovely soulmate?" Cass asked with an innocent expression. "Surely. It seems like a pleasant prelude to the evening revel, for which Dani assures me our outfits are spectacular. Even your dress for the coronation didn't rate 'spectacular' from her, so," he added with a smirk, "I'm greatly looking forward to seeing you in your revel gown. The price is getting trussed up, myself, but I expect it's a price worth paying."

I waved my hand at him, as if wafting off the compliment, though a glittery sensation scudded across my skin and lodged in my chest. "A few minutes of admiration hardly seems worth spending hours doing all of that."

Cass flashed me another bright smile. "Would you feel better if I spent the better part of the night possessively ogling you? It's a bit outside my typical repertoire, but I'm pleased to ogle if it would set you at ease."

Blushing, I stuck my tongue out at him. A flash of heat thudded into me, Cass' surge of desire catching my breath in my throat and making my pulse throb. It vanished a moment later, my soulmate locking down his physical reactions, and I let out a sharp breath. "Danica told me possessiveness comes with the soulmate bond."

"It does," he said, shrugging with shoulder and wing. "Generally, the possessiveness and focus increase until soulmates find their balance and everything falls into place. Faery can be… insistent."

"Does it scare you?" I asked, feeling my skin prickle from anxiety that wasn't mine.

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