Page 86 of Fate

“You have not been discharged,” Oberon called, and she could hear the hobnails of his boots against the cobbles as he came nearer to them. “Not from my tutelage. You, therefore, cannot seek another master until I have done so.”

Lucian turned his head, his steps slowing, but not quite ceasing. “You’ll forgive me,” Lucian answered, the spacebetween them necessitating a louder voice, but he did not give it. “I have become rather shaken of late. It seems not everything you have told me has been... accurate. I have a master willing to teach me. And if you wish to bring our family squabbles before the Hall, I, of course, will have to answer. But until then...” He kept moving.

And Firen could well feel the glares that followed them, the threats that Oberon longed to make but could not—not when there were others about that might hear them. Would hear. If he lost his temper as he had and hurled each word with all the force of his displeasure.

They turned the corner. And Lucian stopped, leaning against the stone wall for support as he closed his eyes and looked thoroughly pained.

Firen did not hesitate. She didn’t ask if he was all right, did not ask if he wanted to go back and smooth things between them. Instead, she wrapped her arms about him and held him as tightly as she could, until his breath levelled and he held her in return. “I’m sorry,” she breathed, because she was. Not for anything she’d done, but because of who his father was. And neither of them could help that.

“It doesn’t matter,” he answered, but there was a catch in his throat, and there was a shudder through him that betrayed just how much of a lie it was.

She didn’t correct him. Just laid her head against his chest until he stopped shaking, and let him be the one to stand straighter. To pat her shoulder as if she was the one he’d been indulging, and she let him do that, too.

“Registrar,” he reminded her, tapping the map still clutched in one hand. “You were leading us.” She hadn’t been, but she smiled anyway, and did her best to embrace the excitement she’d felt earlier.

She smoothed her map and her skirt, and wiped briefly at her eyes in case she had shed any of the tears that Lucian wouldn’t. “Right.” She hesitated, knowing he wanted to get moving. To set it all aside. “Lucian,” she murmured, because she was going to let it go. She wasn’t going to pester and would simply add all this to the top of her list to talk about when they were home again together.

“Firen,” Lucian sighed, and she shook her head firmly before he could put her off.

“Just one thing. Then I’ll leave it.”

He grunted once, and looked at her as if he fully expected some chastisement, and she hated it. Hoped that came from a lifetime before and not what she’d done since they’d known one another. “I’m proud of you. Very much so. I just... needed you to know that.”

He opened his mouth once then closed it again, too surprised at the turn of her thoughts to offer anything he’d already decided upon. Which was all right. She’d keep her kisses and the rest of her thoughts to herself. There was always later. With privacy and tangled limbs to make it all the easier to talk.

“Registrar,” she repeated, and it took five steps before Lucian caught up behind her.

Took another two before he placed his arm about her waist to keep her close as they walked.

Just because.

And if the Registrar thought her smile too wide or her manner too agreeable, she kept those complaints to herself.

So that was all right, too.

9. Market

Firen had expected a room. Perhaps furnished. But just a bed and room for their trunks, and that was all.

When she’d admitted that to Lucian, he’d given her a look. The one that suggested she was willing to put up with far too little, and he did not share her agreeable disposition.

Not just anything would do.

They were handed keys. And another map. This one with all the assurances that the names were accurate, few as they were.

Because others had family homes to move into. Others had...

It didn’t matter. So their neighbours would be few—that was not necessarily a bad thing. She had to work to keep from floating when she saw the Registrar add their names to the lodging paperwork.

It felt... official.

Not that it hadn’t been. Mating needed no confirmation. It was private and known, and that was all that was necessary.

But seeing their names put together, written in dark ink with promises that all other papers would be amended as quickly as possible to maintain the utmost in accuracy...

Her wings fluttered. She couldn’t help it. And her toes might have even lifted off the ground if Lucian hadn’t brought his hand to her shoulder and pushed downward, looking at her as if she was a fledgling he’d been given to mind.

She smiled at him, and she meant it to be an apology, but she was too excited for it to be anything but what it was. A grin.A flutter in the bond that she was happy and he should be too, and it didn’t matter what the room looked like, so long as it was theirs and his father couldn’t fuss about it.

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