Page 80 of Atop the Faerie Throne
“Kidnapping my subjects doesn’t seem like a great way to endear yourself to them,” I point out.
He chuckles under his breath but doesn’t make any promises. The conversation slows, and when I finally protest that I can’t eat another bite, he quickly and efficiently clears his own plate.
As he eats, my attention returns to the small box on my lap, but I don’t bring it up as he pushes the dishes away, his arms coming to wrap around me.
I’m not nervous, but maybe now isn’t the right time. I could give it to him later, perhaps, or save it for some other occasion.
“Are you going to unwrap that, little queen?” he asks. “Or just play with the ribbon all evening?”
“It’s for you,” I admit. “Don’t you remember? You never got to open it at the lantern festival, but Bree picked it up in the chaos and kept it safe.”
One white eyebrow climbs. “Am I allowed to open it? Or are you planning on making me wait for the next festival?”
Biting my lip, I hand it over. “It might need some explaining.”
But Caed is already tearing into the paper like a savage, leaving the ribbon I frayed with my worrying fingers abandoned on the tablecloth as scraps fall around us.
When he lifts the lid and finds the pile of large, silver rings within, he stops.
“Are these…?”
Swallowing, I launch into my explanation. “I know you gave up your armbands for me, and each one had a lot of meaning. So, I thought I would get you some without iron. Ones that mean something to us.”
Without a word, he lifts the first one, a thick band decorated with reliefs and etchings of mushrooms.
“A lot of awful things happened in Fellgotha, but you saved me over and over.” My voice gets quieter. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea? “The mushrooms reminded me of the bitterblues.”
His throat bobs, the band glinting in the light from the candles on the table as he twists it this way and that, examining the workmanship. Still silent, he slips it over his mate-marked arm, watching as the enchanted metal shrinks to fit his muscled bicep perfectly, then reaches for the next.
“Eels,” I manage. “For Pavellen. When you walked away from my fever because I told you no.”
Another tiny throat bob, and it joins the first, both of them resting over the pale lines left on his blue skin by their predecessors.
The next has tiny suns all over it, and I don’t have to explain that one. Siabetha is forever my least favourite place in Faerie. But it’s also where he saved me, followed my insane rescue plan, and rescued Bree without judgement…
That one goes over his curse-marked arm, as does the next, which has decorative lanterns on it to represent our first date in Illidwen. My eyes skip over the fifth band in the box, catching instead on the faint ink smudge in the second frame of his tattoo. It hasn’t changed much since our mating ceremony.
Drystan is trying, and yet thoughts of Beltaine consume me, until I realise Caed hasn’t moved for several minutes.
“Snakes?” he finally asks.
“You survived a nathair’s kiss.” I flick a discarded scrap of wrapping paper from my lap. “And Drystan said that you did everything you could to fight the compulsion. I’m pretty sure you had the option to knock out Bree and take me, but you chose to leave him alive, knowing what might happen.”
He faced a pain worse than death, because it gave me the best chance of escape.
“I got that one later,” I continue, nervousness keeping me talking when it’s not really necessary. “Lore tracked down the merchant in Illidwen and purchased it for me. If you don’t like it, I can get it changed to something?—”
Caed’s lips crash down on mine, the liquorice and almond taste of him laced with tears.
“You love me,” he says, as he pulls away. “I can feel it. You actually…”
The mating bond has outed me, I realise, but I can’t regret it.
“I have for a while,” I confess, pretending not to notice the sheen in his eyes, or the crackle at the end of his words. “Didn’t you notice?”
I’m sure I wasn’t very good at hiding it. Jaro certainly guessed quickly enough.
Taking the band from him, I slide it up his arm, letting it tighten magically into place, and leaving my hand there long after it’s secure. The feel of him, warm and comfortable, is tempting me, even after Drystan’s and Jaro’s efforts to wear me out.
