Page 17 of Beyond Fate

Damon liked hearing about Casimir’s race. It expanded on what he’d learned so far from Raidh and Elvine. He also liked hearing his mate talk. Casimir had a slight accent, causing him to pronounce some words with a lilt.

“Then why don’t you use...that word for mate?” Damon shook his head. He wasn’t going to remember the words his mate used, let alone how to pronounce them correctly.

“Nétya,” Casimir pronounced slowly, emphasizing each syllable.

“I’m not dimwitted.” Damon grinned. “That one is easy to pronounce. It’s all the other words you use that trip me up.”

“You’ll grasp the language in time.” Casimir winked.

Damon’s gaze traveled down his mate’s body, his eyes feasting on all those honed muscles, which were even bigger than his own. He was dying to wrap his fists in that long hair as he fucked the warrior into exhaustion.

Casimir looked Damon over in the same needy way. “Méityah are born, but no one knows if their child will be a guardian until the mark appears.”

Giving Damon his back, his mate pulled his long hair aside. It was more than just a mark. Covering his entire left shoulder blade was a tattoo of beautiful fairy wings with intersecting swords piercing them.

Well, it looked like a tattoo, but Casimir had said it just appeared when he was a child. It wasn’t something he had chosen to have permanently etched onto his skin.

“That’s how you know you’re a guardian?” Damon couldn’t stop himself from reaching out and touching the tattoo-looking mark, and then he jerked his hand back when the tiny wings of the mark fluttered. “Is that supposed to happen?”

Casimir smiled. “If my mate touches them, then yes. The are a part of me, like my larger wings are.”

With a wide grin, Damon touched them again, and once more they fluttered. “Am I crazy, or can I really feel them moving under my fingers?”

It wasn’t just a sensation of skin moving but of wings fluttering under the pads of his fingers. Freaky, but cool as hell.

“They’re moving,” Casimir confirmed. “And to answer your earlier question, if you’ve spent your entire existence in training and then at the king’s side, you can’t call your mate nékah if you’ve never been given the opportunity to search for them.”

“Nazaryth called you another name too, but I can’t remember what it was. I swear it sounded like bestie.”

“Béskym.” Sadness filled Casimir’s eyes. “It means commander. I was born the commander of the Méityah. The wings on my back are green, while those of all other guardians are blue.”

Damon dropped his hand. “If you’re a guardian, why are you here and why are you being hunted?”

No one was going to touch a hair on Casimir’s handsome head.

“We are taught to obey the king’s every command and protect him with our lives,” Casimir explained. “Over two thousand years ago, King Emrys instructed his guardians to kill the entire council over a disagreement. Eight of the guardians defied him, refusing to slaughter innocent people. When we did, the king condemned us to death. We fought our way out of the realm and have been in hiding ever since.”

His mate had been in hiding for two thousand years? Jesus. Casimir had said he’d stayed on the move because he was being hunted. But for two thousand years? That had to be a lonely-ass existence.

“Elouan is a guardian, a loyalist, and he just found me and tried to execute me.” Casimir gritted his teeth. “But as a backup plan, he paid vampires to drain me dry. That’s the battle you just found me in. He said he only paid five, but there was a swarm of them.”

Rage boiled in Damon. The keeper had created a portal for him to leave the underworld, and Damon emerged just above the raging battle below. It was the intoxicating scent of fae that had caught his attention and alerted him that his mate was somewhere in the chaos. “I stumbled on the battle from above, but I had no idea what was happening. I just saw you surrounded and acted on instinct.”

Casimir sighed, closing his eyes briefly. “I honestly didn’t think I’d make it out alive. As you can see, I have bite marks all over me.”

“Where?” Damon slid his eyes over his mate’s body but for a different reason this time. Casimir’s skin was flawless and beautiful, but Damon couldn’t see any fang marks or any kind of fang hole anywhere.

With a perplexed scowl, Casimir examined his left arm and then his right. “I felt my skin being pierced repeatedly. I even felt my flesh being torn at my neck.” He pressed a hand at his neck, pulled it away, and frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“Let me check.” Damon scooted a little closer, brushing his mate’s soft hair aside to examine his neck. Then he drifted his fingers over smooth skin. “Nope, don’t see any tears.” He slid his hand over his mate’s shoulder before he pulled it away. “We’re already bonded, but it’s my saliva that gives my mate healing properties. I’m just as stumped as you are.”

Casimir looked down at Damon’s knees as he said, “I don’t have any magic that might explain why the marks have disappeared. Before we escaped the realm, the king yanked out our magical abilities, leaving us as powerless as humans.”

If Damon could get his hands on King Emrys, he would beat the living shit out of him before ending him. It already sounded as if Casimir had gotten a raw deal in life. Then the king had to go and strip away his magic? That only made Damon want to protect him even more.

“Maybe one of the abilities inside of me passed something on to you when I fed from you right after I woke up.”

“Possibly.” Casimir nodded.

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