Page 52 of Crowned By the Fae King

It was more than his reflexive command healing, and more than me getting better at parsing his body language. I was accessing some core part of Cass. Maybe that was the "soul" of "soulmates"—but I didn't think it was a normal part of the soulmate bond. If wild magic settled into familiar ruts of the soul, though, emphasizing the monstrous or empowering mages, maybe it had spent six weeks carving the magical link between me and Cass wider and deeper.

"I'll go get him," I said, my voice sounding dreamy and faraway. "We can make our own entrance."

I didn't wait for the man's response. Instead, I leaned into the siren lure of the Court, and stepped through a doorway to my soulmate.

Moonlight filled my eyes. The chill mountain breeze stirred my loose hair, playing across my skin like a lover's breath. I turned, one hand on the stone of Cass' throne – the throne whose back I'd just stepped through – and caught sight of him.

If I was a waterfall, Cass was the mountain from which I fell. Moonlight gleamed off heavy silver body-chains strung across his rugged body, the chains connected by small metal plates with dark gems set in each. Sleeves cut like armor covered his arms and ended on armored epaulets. Gauntlet jewelry covered his fingers, ending in claws. Dark leather snakeskin pants clung to his powerful thighs, and the broadsword hanging off his hip looked more deadly than decorative.

Vaduin had put his hair up in a whorl of braids, with loose tendrils dangling down to soften his strong jaw. It did nothing to soften the tense expression on his face, nor to distract from the sinful way those body-chains draped across his taut shoulders.

"We're late, your splendor," I purred at him.

Cass' attention snapped towards me with predatory aggression that sent a thrill down my spine. For one adrenaline-hot moment, I thought he might pounce on me like a hungry mountain lion, but Cass' brain caught up to him. His ears dropped and eyes widened, and then, in a dazed voice, he breathed, "Oh."

Even though I knew the picture I made – having stared in the mirror for long enough – I still bit my lip, my skin prickling with something a lot like stage fright. I struck a pose, trying and failing to look casual about it, and said, "How do I look?"

His throat bobbed. Cass took one step towards me. "Spectacular," he said, his voice rough.

"Yeah?" I asked shyly. "Not too much like a feral cat someone stuck in a magic dress?"

"No," he said. "You look a Queen. Like you were born to be a Queen." My cheeks heated from his embarrassment as he gestured to himself. Gleaming chains swung from cuffs on his ears, drawing attention to the ruby drops dangling from his lobes. "Unlike me."

"It's true, you're not very queenly. All that testosterone really does you in on that front," I said in a fake-comforting voice, still taking him in. I was going to have to find some way to express my appreciation to Vad for bullying Cass into wearing an outfit like this. If anyone was going to spend the night possessively ogling their soulmate, it was going to be me.

"Quyen," he said with mild exasperation. "Look at me. It's like someone trussed up a bull in a vault's worth of jewelry and expected to turn a cow into a fae lord. If Vaddy hadn't called due a favor, I…" His shoulders sagged. "Fuck. I really don't want to be the center of attention. I feel like a laughingstock."

I pushed off the back of his throne and walked over, the glamored mist drifting behind me in pale veils and my legs stepping through the skirt with every pace.

Cass' eyes dropped to my bare thighs. I felt him swallow.

"I'm pretty sure Vad dressed me for you, and you for me. You don't look like a bull in jewelry. You look…" I paused, trying to think of a comparison that wouldn't sound bad to him. "You look like one of those ancient-times warlords," I said at last. "Someone so powerful and dangerous that he can dress like the idol of a god, and know that everyone looking at him will see it as a message instead of thinking he's just some rich pretty-boy they can take advantage of. Vad knows what he's doing."

I came to a halt in front of him and reached up, standing on my tiptoes to tuck a strand of hair behind his ear without touching his skin, then traced my fingers down along the dangling chains of his earrings. "I especially like these on you. It's my favorite faery style I've seen so far." Trembling pleasure ran down the edge of my ear, an echo of his own anticipation of touch.

Cass shivered from it, and turned away. "They feel far too delicate for someone like me," he said, his voice rough. "This is something Vad could wear, but me? I don't know what he was thinking."

"I really like it, but if you don't want to wear it, don't wear it. There'll be more revels." I smiled at him, my heart hurting for him.

I didn't understand why he disliked his looks so much, but I understood being self-conscious. When puberty had seemingly forgotten me and left me with A-cups and twiggy legs while my friends turned into bombshells, I'd hated wearing anything that would let people see my body. As I'd learned to love my body for the things it could do, and as age and exercise had helped me fill out, I'd gotten over it, but maybe Cass hadn't had a chance to learn to live in the body he had.

"Vaddy called in a favor," he reminded me, sounding tense. "Wear it, let you see me in it, dance at the revel in it." A muscle in his jaw tensed. "He surely knows full well that if I flee once I walk into the revel dressed like this, it will be far more of a spectacle than for me to simply remain."

I downgraded my thank-you gift to Vad from something valuable to a gimlet stare. The last fucking thing we needed was the entire palace emoting a self-conscious desire to hide in the middle of the coronation revel.

"Well, luckily, you won't see anyone looking askance at you tonight, so you don't need to worry about being a spectacle," I said, putting a hand on my hip.

He raised a brow. "No?"

I shook my head, leaning into my best imperious voice. "Not at all. I'm taking you up on the offer of possessive ogling." When he rocked back, I flashed him my teeth. "Your eyes will remain on me the entire night."

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. One ear cocked forward, and he purred, "Will they."

"They will." I leaned a little closer, tilting my chin up so I could regard him through my dark lashes. He looked stunning in the light of the near-full moon, washed in silver with his wings gleaming in deadly promise. "Not that you'll have far to look, since you'll be spending the night dancing with me."

That smile grew sharper. "Will I."

The inhuman warmth of his body radiated against me. I wanted to lean into that heat, and didn't. Cass deserved to get to choose.

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