Page 4 of Conquering the King of Storms

Dove squeezed my hand, and I glanced over at her, surprised to see that the glow had faded from her eyes. She gave me a small smile, and I returned it, squeezing her hand too.

More guilt flooded me.

It seemed like she had been close with her uncle and his friends before the magic corrupted them. Now, not only had everyone she knew gone crazy, but they’d all ended up with mates, and a fae guy’s mate was pretty much his entire world from what I’d seen. That couldn’t be an easy change for a little girl to accept. Kids needed stability, not insanity and random new unhealthy relationships.

“You’ve got a little mud here,” I told Dove, brushing at the side of my nose with my finger.

She reached up to her face, dragging her fingers over the hardened crust of mud, and her lips curved upward as she let out a tiny giggle. “So do you.”

“Really?” I feigned outrage. “I had no idea.”

Another giggle escaped her, and I winked at her.

“Is that my little bird?” Tariq exclaimed behind us. “Have you pushed past the magic over your mind?”

Dove spun around, and her face lit up. “Flame! You’re back?” She released my hand, bounding over to the massive king and throwing her arms around him. He scooped her up off the ground and set her against his hip like she was a toddler rather than a six-year-old.

“Of course.” He tickled her side, and a laugh escaped her while they both grinned. “Now that Ivy is mine in every way, we’ve got to focus on getting the family back together, right?”

“Right.” She was beaming.

My chest ached.

I was happy for her… but hearing him call himself and the other kings a family was a mind-fuck for me. My dad had been an awful drunk, and my mom had abandoned me with him when I was young. I’d thought I was going to have a family in my fiancé, Steven, and then that had become really, really toxic.

Things between us had never been great. I liked to pretend they were, and I told myself that they would get better in time, if I put in enough effort, but they’d never gotten better. Being whisked away to Bluhm had saved my life in a lot of ways.

Dove, Flame, and Ivy chatted behind me and Margo as we continued hiking through the mud. Our kings followed at the back of the group, their eyes still glowing.

My mood soured as I walked, until a breeze blew through the trees, rustling my hair. An invisible hand slowly stroked the back of my neck, and I shuddered at the sensual touch.

“Soon, you’ll be in my arms,”the wind murmured. Or maybe it was Storm—I had no way of knowing whether it was him, or the magic that possessed him, or what.

Goosebumps stretched over my arms.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” I whispered back, though I had no magic to put the words in.

“What?” Margo looked over at me.

My face was so hot that it was probably as red as a damned tomato. “Didn’t say anything.”

She shrugged.

I was literally losing my mind.

“My lips will touch every inch of your skin,”the wind said.

Another shudder accompanied the drag of a hand over my left thigh.

I couldn’t do this.

“Could Storm get us there faster?” I blurted out, stopping and spinning to face the fire king. He wouldn’t answer me directly, because of their insane cultural rules, but Ivy would repeat the question for me. She was used to it.

I pressed, “In the earth city, he was hovering off the ground. Can he do the same for us, so we don’t have to hike through mud anymore?”

Flame didn’t so much as look at me.

I understood the significance of not impeding on another fae’s claimed mate, but… come on.

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