Page 50 of Courting the Fae Captain
I looked back at the females, right as the whip crashed down on the first one’s back. Another scream rang out as a new line of blood snaked across her pale skin. As she raised her head of golden hair, as she held out a hand to the other female frantically straining at the hands holding her back, I knew.I knew before she turned her head to reveal the face of the female who sang to me, told me stories, looked at me with a love and devotion I’d never truly let go of. The strength in my bones gave out as my body melted against my will.
Raithe caught me, his face the picture of concern as he held me close and tucked me to his side. He didn’t ask, he just waited patiently as I collected my thoughts and pawed at my eyes before the tears could fall.
“You’ve seen your mother,” I said quietly. “And now I’ve seen mine.”
His face paled, his grip on me tightening. “Aeris…”
I shook my head. “We need to leave. I need to get out of here, Raithe, because if we stay for one more minute, one more second, I’ll do something stupid and fuck this whole thing up.” I locked eyes with his and saw the fury burning bright. The same fury that burned through my blood.
“We will save them, Aeris.” He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear as he said the words that were anything but gentle. “We will tear this fucking place to the ground.” Then he lifted me in his arms, surrounding us in shadow, and retreated downthe corridor toward the exit with determined speed. I didn’t look back as my mother’s screams rang out once again. Nor did Raithe, as his mother shouted and snarled at the guards while she was forced to watch her friend endure more pain. Every time the whip cracked, I flinched, but I didn’t look back.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
‘What is greater than love? Even the strongest foe cannot cleave through the bonds of fate. Even the most stubborn of Fae cannot deny what resides in their heart.’
Fake It Till You Make It: Romance Edition
“All this time,” I said once we were back at the cove on the mainland and tying the boat to the mooring point. “I have been so angry at her for leaving for so long, and she was trapped there all this time.”
“You couldn’t have known,” Raithe said gently as he gave me a hand up out of the boat. “You were a child, still innocent to the ways of our world and the people in it.” He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “When we are young, we look for monsters in the darkness. We often miss the ones hiding in the daylight.”
Monsters like my father.Bothour fathers.
“Growing up, I always thought she’d chosen freedom over me. I thought she’d left me to rot under his care. Now I’m theone who left her to rot, even as they actively tortured her in front of us.” My fingers curled, and my shoulders slumped. The tears came thick and fast, streaming down my cheeks before I could stop them. “At first, I mourned her loss, then I resented it—her. How could I have been so wrong?”
Raithe’s hands moved to my shoulders, his touch firm, though they shook with the slightest tremor. His ocean eyes raged, and I knew he was only holding himself together for my sake. “Perhaps you were wrong, but you now have the tools to make it right. We’ll be back for them. We will fix this. Together.” He wiped my tears. “You’re shivering. Come, there’s somewhere I want to take you.”
I hadn’t even realised I was shaking, but he was right. My body quivered with cold even as the contents of my stomach lurched, as if by a wave made of guilt and rage, crashing over and over. I didn’t protest as Raithe took my hand and guided me from the wooden docks over the slippery rocks of the cove.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked after the maelstrom of my thoughts became too much, and I needed the distraction.
Raithe’s answer was a purr. “You’ll see. It’s not much further.”
I wrinkled my nose as he led me into a tunnel, different from the one we’d used to get down here. The air was clear, if still salt-scented, and I breathed it in deeply, trying to calm my mind. I needed a hot meal and a bath. I needed to free our mothers. I needed to rip my enemies limb from fucking limb as I?—
“Oh,” I breathed as the tunnel opened into a small cavern. Glowworms gleamed from stalactites and stalagmites throughout the space, making the chamber look like a glittering starry night. Small pools of water littered the floor, with one larger crater dead ahead that had steam rising from its depths. “Raithe, it’s beautiful,” I said under my breath so as not to scare the glowworms.
“I come here to escape reality once in a while. It has always served as a place to think—and to bathe.” He shucked off his clothes, the muscles in his back and powerful thighs rippling as he removed his garb and waded into the pool.
I stared at the male before me, closer to how I imagined a god than any Fae I’d ever seen. As he settled into the water and rested his arms around the smooth, rounded edges, his short hair curled up from the steam, and his eyes closed in momentary bliss. It occurred to me how ironic the Rite truly was. That I had been forced to fight for something I did not want, and was now fighting, in part, to lose someone who wasn’t really mine.
I wanted Raithe to be mine. I didn’t know when exactly it had happened. Maybe it was when our powers combined, but I had a feeling it was before even that. I didn’t know why such things mattered at all, considering the weight of the tasks placed on our shoulders. Perhaps it was the looming threat of death that put things into perspective. Perhaps it was because, despite that threat, I had never felt more alive than I did now with him. I looked at the magic of the place we were in and the person who had wanted to share it with me.
With Raithe, I felt empowered and vulnerable all at once. Like he saw the deepest parts of me and had understood, truly, deeply understood the inner turmoil tucked away in a locked box in my chest. Or perhaps it was simply that when I was with him, I felt free. I could imagine a freedom spentwithhim. He had pried me open rib by rib and found a space to curl into by my heart. Warm and safe. My eyes found his from across the cavern, staring at me with a mix of curiosity, longing, and pain. The cold sapphires of his eyes burned as he gazed at me, and I felt myself drawn to their depths. My shadows stirred without prompt, floating up in swirling tendrils around me. His own answered, flooding the floor in a soft, rolling wave that caressed my power with gentle tugs.
It felt … intimate. Like we were crossing some kind of line I didn’t want to go back from. Like I was scooping his very essence from his soul and bathing in it. And I didn’t want to stop. Never wanted to stop. Maybe it was because we were both hurting, but I needed his comfort. Needed his steady hands on me and his distracting gaze.
I thought about the moment our power touched in the apothecary—at the notion I’d never heard of power melding together in such a way. At the same moment, something Sherai said popped into my head when she’d joked about one of us being the captain’s true mate. I’d read about it, of course, but I’d never given much thought to such a thing, given the rarity. But it couldn’t be … could it?
Raithe watched me carefully, and he could have been a statue for how still he was. How silent he breathed.
“Raithe,” I breathed, unsure what I even wanted to say.
“Come to me,” he demanded in a primal purr.
Something inside me delighted at that command. I stripped off my clothes and untied my hair, basking in the way he drank in every detail. No part of me was embarrassed or afraid. It just felt … right. I stepped over the lip of the pool and waded towards him, the water deliciously warm and soothing.
I stopped just before him, my breasts on full display, my hair now free of its braid and fanning around me. And I knew that he saw all of me. Not just the vessel but everything inside, too. All the chipped edges and the jagged holes. All the trauma and the pain. But every precious memory, too. Everything that shaped me into the person I am today and the person I could be.
