Page 37 of Bonds of Blood
“What? Stop it.” I thumped him in the chest, waiting for him to laugh. “You’re joking. Are you joking? It’s just tomatoes and hot sauce.”
“If you say so, little human. Some day I’ll take you around the courts of the Verdance. There’s much to see and do. And drink! The sweet fruit wines of the Court of Summer, the crisp vintages of the Court of Winter.”
“But I thought you said everybody hated everybody else back there. You sort of made it sound like it was a kill-or-be-killed kind of thing between the courts.”
He straightened up and blinked at me, suddenly very serious. “Not if I have a most interesting human curiosity at my side. If the elements can be united, as you summoners love to do, why not the four seasons? And you’ll be the key to showing that it’s possible. Someone who has harnessed the elements — who has commanded a goddess of Earth! The next grand summoner of the Wispwood.”
“Oh, stop it. You’re just making fun of me at this point.” I scratched my cheek, giving him a little smile. “Do you really think so? Me, a grand summoner?”
“Unprecedented, didn’t you hear? Or so Dr. Fang and the headmasters said. No summoner has ever summoned a goddess before.” He sat up, flexed his muscles. “Though I don’t know why they didn’t notice your talents earlier. You’d already summoned a god, after all.”
I sat up, too. “When? Oh. Did you mean — get over yourself, Sylvain.” I smacked him in the chest, and he smacked me back, laughing as he dragged me down against the sheets. My playful prince, boyish and brash, beautiful in every way.
“But couldn’t you imagine it?” he asked, his chin buried in the crook of my neck. “Grand Summoner Lochlann Wilde. The better of the Wilde grand summoners. Someone to stamp out your father’s brutal legacy, cast light on his darkness.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Don’t be silly. It takes a lot more than a god’s favor to become a grand summoner. I mean, think of all the work. What about you? I really have no issue with the possibility of dating a king. Imagine it. How would it feel to become King Sylvain of the Autumn Court?”
He made a scoffing noise. “Oh, let Yvette handle that. My sister would make a much better monarch. And you’re absolutely right. I couldn’t fathom all the effort. You know what? Fuck diplomacy. Yvette’s better at it. Still, though. All those muscular, handsome servant boys they would give me.”
“Quit it,” I said, weirdly getting jealous over his purely hypothetical bevy of beautiful fae men. “Fine. I’m perfectly happy being the underachiever in the family.”
He snorted. “Oh. As am I.”
We lay there and chuckled to each other, both accepting that we were much too lazy for such lofty aspirations. But who knew what the future held?
“So,” Sylvain said. “All these adventures we’ve been on, through the elemental oriels, through the very Verdance itself. Where do we go next, little human? The cosmos is enormous. There is so much left for us to see.”
I smiled at nothing, seeing galaxies, seeing the Wispwood, then seeing only the inside of our bedchambers. “For now? Right here is just fine. Let’s stay right here, Sylvain.”
He hugged me tighter, squeezed me gently in his embrace. “As long as you’re content, oh summoner. Your wish is my command.”
The hardest lesson I had to learn as a summoner, I learned from watching my father. Baylor never knew when to stop, never content with collecting more eidolons to the point that he had to enslave his very own wife. And even then Marina wasn’t enough, and he had to control me, too.
A fae prince, my friends, my family? Gods, I had everything I needed, right here at the Wispwood. Oh, and my evil father behind bars? Perfect. Everything was just as it needed to be. Sylvain was right, wiser than he thought he could be. As long as I was content.
I took Sylvain’s arm, wrapped it around me, kissed the back of his hand. I had plenty. I had more than enough. And I truly couldn’t be happier.
Once upon a time, the human world distrusted the fae, saw them as the enemy. In the arcane underground, tales of the fae were meant as warnings, painting them as cruel and wicked creatures. The truth was different. Better. Best. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined ending up with a fae man, and a truly wonderful one, too. Sylvain was my everything. My eidolon. My lover. My prince.
Sometimes, faerie tales do come true.
* * *
As one story ends, another begins.
