Page 52 of Courting the Fae Captain
“We will be unstoppable,”Raithe said. I stumbled as his words swept through my mind. We had discovered this telepathic connection almost immediately after he’d claimed me, and as much as I loved the ability to communicate like this, it was going to take some getting used to. Not to mention the shadows that had done a thorough exploration of my body last night and well into this morning. Gods. I clenched my legs together as a ripple of excitement wandered through me at the mere thought.
Raithe seemed to know the effect he had on me.“Say the word and I can be there in five to do it all again.”
I snorted.“Snoop. You and your shadows can stay put, thank you very much. I don’t think I could handle the extra action right now.”
“Yourbodysays otherwise,”he replied with some amusement.
Oh, he was so right.“Can you really sense that?”I wondered in awe.
His answering chuckle sent a jolt of happiness through me.“I can sense your general mood. Whether you’re feeling happy or sad. If you feel threatened or scared. The bond is still settling, and you are young. With time, you will get used to its power.”
I scowled, not wanting to wait that long. But I suppose I had only just begun to wield, and the gods had seen fit to gift me my mate at such an early point in my life. I smirked as I crunched through the powdered snow dusting over the earth.“So, how does it feel to be a cradle snatcher?”
“I … what?!”
I laughed out loud. It was the first time I’d ever heard him so perplexed. I could just imagine the look on his face.“Well, your mate is a hell of a lot younger than you. It should be downright illegal, really. I mean, I’m dating an old male.”
“OId?!”His disgruntled tone only added to my statement.“I happen to be one of the most powerful males in the Shadow Court and one of the most influential. I am in my prime.”
“Uh-huh. Keep telling yourself that, buddy.”
“If you consider me old and yourself as young, then you can think of this as an exercise in learning from your superior. I have so many things to teach you, little lark. Starting in the bedroom. And if you insist on being such a naughty girl, I’ll be sure to exact a fitting punishment. For now, I have some villagers to appease and a rebellion to plan. Go back to picking herbs whilst the grown-ups do their job.”
Oh, teasing or not, there would be no getting away with that.“Sure,”I replied sweetly.“I’ll pick something to help in the bedroom, just to make sure your old male parts can keep up with someone so spritely.”
“Someone so young has no business with my old male parts,”he replied sassily.“But I’ll allow it. Later…”His laughterechoed down the bond, then tapered off as he focused his mind elsewhere. Or maybe he just went out of range, if that was a thing. There was so much I still had to learn, starting with what the limits were on our powers. Given we both commanded shadows, what could we do if we used them against our enemies?
I tugged my cloak tighter around me and nestled into the thick fur of the hood as I walked through the castle gardens. Winter felt fully upon us now, with the first snows having finally fallen. They had been late this year, but the rivers and lakes would soon freeze over, and even the hardiest of herbs and flowers would give way to the winter frost. The only plus side was that, this close to the sea, the winters were more temperate than those of the Bone Court to the north-east.The castle gardens were more than strictly organised rose bushes and the like, but a vast stretch of woods up until that first wall that surrounded the entire property, the one I’d managed to sneak past that day in the cart. Surrounded by trees and flora, I could almost forget I was trapped in a vicious Wedding Rite.
I spied a sturdy black willow tree and hefted my satchel off my shoulder, plopping it into the snow. The peeling bark would serve quite nicely for medicinal stores over the season. I slipped my dagger from my boot and set to work, prying the bark gently from the trunk in long, vertical strips. I was so ingrained in my work that I didn’t realise for some time the forest had gone silent. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled, and I turned just as someone lunged at me with a blade. I ducked as the weapon embedded into the trunk, the owner swearing viciously as they tried to pry it from the bark.
Panic flared through me, and then Raithe’s voice was roaring in my mind.“Aeris!”
My shadows rippled out, clouding over the ground around me as my attacker turned. Declan’s upper lip curled as hesnarled at me, the pale blue of his eyes like ice. Murderous and hungry for blood.
“You again,” I snarled while I shifted stance.
“Me,” he responded as he abandoned the sword ingrained in the bark and charged with an axe forged from dark magic. I’d forgotten how fast he was. A mistake I paid for in blood as the tip of his axe nicked my shoulder. I cried out, holding a palm to the wound as I evaded his onslaught.
“Aeris!”Raithe cried again, his voice edged in panic.“Hold on. I’m coming.”
“I’m okay! It’s Declan. He’s come to finish me off.”
“Not if I finish him first,”Raithe promised.“He’s a fucking dead male.”
I whirled around a tree as Declan came at me again.Fuck.I tried to remember everything Raithe and Jaren had taught me over the last weeks and use it to defend myself. But my cloak was too heavy and my steps were laboured and slow from the biting cold and little rest I’d had the night before. I was a sitting duck, but I wasn’t helpless.
“It doesn’t have to be like this, Declan,” I said as I kept the obstacle between us. “I won’t tell anyone about Melania. What you do is your business.”
“You’re right,” he said gruffly. “And my business is for me alone. One word from those poisonous little lips and you could ruin me. I can’t take that chance.”
I stepped out from behind the tree with my hands up. “Be reasonable. I’m stuck in the Rite with a slim chance of surviving. Who would I tell? And let’s say I do survive; your conquests will be of little concern to me. You can remain my father’s Bloodhound. I will be Lady of the Court and never see you again.”
“You will be Lady of Nothing,” he hissed. “Even with such power, you will always be nothing compared to your malebetters. I should have taken you the night of the party. I should have squeezed your slender neck until the air stopped flowing to your lungs.”
I dropped my hands and grinned as I grabbed the neck of my tunic and the edge of my cloak to pull them to the side. His eyes widened as they saw the bite mark—Raithe’s claim—still proudly etched on my throat. “No, Declan. You should have died. You’ll wish you had when I’m through with you.”
His mouth thinned as I dropped my hands and unleashed my shadows to their full extent. They flew at him, lunging at his arms and legs. When he sliced through one, another tendril would appear, and another, as he hacked and slashed.Soon, the sun was gone, and the world was filled with a darkness of my own making as my shadows raged around him in a tornado of power. A crash sounded beside me, and I realised it wasn’t just my shadows at all but Raithe’s, too.They dispersed, restoring my vision of the forest until it was just Declan before me, lashed down to the ground with multiple shadow bindings. And beside me … Raithe could have been a nightmare from another realm. Shadows formed smoky wings at his back, the membranes so incredibly lifelike and detailed for something intangible. His black clothes and thunderous eyes only added to his demonic countenance. His gaze shot to me, assessing my shoulder briefly, before flicking back to Declan.
