Chapter 25

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Ossian stood in the center of the east wing archway with a single red rose in his hand. Fresh morning sunlight created a glow around his coppery curls, and the aura emanating from his flesh shimmered like a second skin made of a thousand tiny golden stars. Though barefooted and dressed casually in his tight buckskin trousers and white linen shirt, he still looked like a prince—a king—to me.

"Ossian," I whispered, breathless as always at the sight of him.

Before becoming completely befuddled by his ethereal beauty, I had the good sense to shift my foraging bag with my cat from where it rested against my right hip to the small of my back in preparation of our embrace. I didn't like keeping secrets from my mate, but I also had no intention of giving Sawyer up.

As I neared, the golden haze of our bond flooded into me, warming me inside and out against the December chill that pervaded the castle. I stopped an arm's length away, swaying from the stupor of his presence. Half the gemstones on his necklace twinkled now, but maybe that was them just catching the morning light. It certainly shone in his jewel-green eyes, the corners crinkling as the fae king smiled down at me like a benevolent god. He didn't move to touch me, instead lifting the rose to my forehead and caressing it down over the bridge of my nose, over my lips, and down to my throat where it came to rest against the center ruby there.

"Do you like my gift?" he asked softly, as if not to break the quiet spell of the morning.

"I love it," I whispered, straining forward onto the balls of my feet. "I'm sorry I don't remember you giving it to me. I really need to listen to you about the fairy wine."

"Yes, you do." Maintaining his distance, he offered me the rose. When I took it, his hand melded over mine. With a soft smile on his face, he gestured to the great hall with jerk of his chin. "Come along, love. I have something special for you this morning."

The grizzly bear was already behind a copper-colored force field when we entered, and while it roared and beat itself against the magical shield, we heard nothing. Instead of bringing me to the trestle table, which was surprisingly already set with covered dishes, he led me to the wall of windows. Across the forested ravine, the waterfall caught the dawn and sparkled like molten crystal. The wide stone bridge into town was quiet of traffic, save for a few bluejays who used it to preen themselves between flights for insects. Ossian released me but continued forward until his reflection appeared in the glass. His broad shoulders squared as his hands linked behind him, chin lifted in the rays of the morning sun.

By the Green Mother, he was so beautiful.

"With your success, Meadow," he began, still facing the waterfall, "my time here is coming to an end. I've been trapped in this realm for so long that it hardly seems real. But it approaches, and I find myself reflecting. Reevaluating my purpose. I realized I never told you how I came to be here."

"You didn't," I murmured, risking a step closer. The sun blazing in his copper curls and against his bronze skin gave him such a radiant appearance that I couldn't help but want to touch him and absorb some of that divinity for myself. To be joined with him and that marvelous light.

He glanced over his shoulder at me—a fleeting look filled with pain. "It was love."

Blinking as the sun crested the trees and blazed fully into the great hall, I frowned. Why would love make him so sad?

"Relationships between high fae are strained and tenuous," he continued, returning his gaze to the waterfall. "A balance of power must always be maintained, for the good of Elfame, you understand. There are enough threats in that realm that we needn't add to it by warring amongst ourselves. The Blight had returned to our shores, you see, an ancient evil, and now more than ever, we needed to be united. And yet, for love, what wouldn't you risk?"

I crept forward another step, reaching out and touching the hands clasped behind his back. He didn't move to return my touch, but he didn't shrug me off either. Ossian inhaled slowly, letting his shoulders deflate with his exhale.

"Her name was Shannon, the high fae heir of the River Court, a lesser fiefdom in the Court of Tides." The corner of his mouth lifted as he thought of her, and I fought a stab of vile jealousy that lanced through my gut. "She was stunning—dark hair down to her feet, blue eyes, skin like moonlight. She was also kind and stubborn and fiercely protective of her court and people. We were to be wed, our union fortifying our two courts and the eastern borders of Elfame against the Blight."

Tension returned to the fae king's every muscle. "But she was stolen by another."

With him lost in thought and glaring at the window with an intensity that would eventually melt the glass, I ventured, "By whom?"

"My brother," he forced out, every syllable laced with venom. "Callan. He was selfish, putting his own needs above the court, above our realm itself! You see, when high fae marry and consummate that marriage, their powers join and amplify. Shannon and I were going to fight the Blight with that new power, rid our lands of its taint, but Callan…"

Ossian was trembling now, reliving the betrayal, and my own thoughts turned inward. To Lilac. My cousin by blood, but my sister in every way that truly mattered. She was as gorgeous as this Shannon and could have had any man she liked, and often did. Including Jeremy Rook.

While Jeremy hadn't stolen my heart like Ossian had, he'd been my first crush. The first boy who'd ever made me blush, who'd chosen me over anyone else. And to someone who lost their individuality from living with what seemed like a hundred people every minute of the day, who was constantly compared to everyone else, to be singled out as special was intoxicating.

And Lilac had beguiled him simply because she could. Because I was the gifted one and she was the pretty one, and we mustn't ever cross over into each other's "zones." It would've been akin to my mother suddenly deciding she was the family's cook instead of Aunt Peony or for Buck the Livamprian to suddenly take over combat training. Lilac was the one everyone thought was beautiful, who everyone preferred in a sexual sense, and to lose even one boy like Jeremy to someone else? Unthinkable.

I shook at the memory of my loved one's treachery, Ossian's grief and pain and fury amplifying my own through the bond.

"I was usurped," he hissed out, teeth gritted. " Betrayed . Then banished here, cut off from the magic of Elfame. The portal between our realms was cursed with an impossible requirement—that a witch should be the only one to summon it. It granted false hope, for no witch had ever been strong enough to command fae magic."

Ossian turned toward me now, his anger replaced with gentleness. "Until you." The backs of his knuckles brushed against my cheek, fingers straightening to hook behind my jaw. "I was destined to die in purgatory, until you, Meadow Ní Violet."

He took a step closer, consuming my vision. Nothing existed besides him, not while he cupped my cheek and stroked the rubies of my necklace along my throat. They warmed under his touch, and a fiercer desire bloomed in my heart.

"I'd thought to one day return to Elfame and fight for Shannon, to reclaim what I had lost, but then you came into my life. My mate."

My body thrummed in response to his words, the golden haze of our bond almost overpowering me. It was obsession. I strained towards him. I had to touch him, to consume him, to feel his hands roving over me.

"And in my quest for home, I've done you a great disservice."

My heart faltered. "Wh-what?"

He wet his lips, running his thumb over my mouth. His breath hitched, clearly warring with the desire to kiss my upturned face or answer my question. Ossian's jewel-green gaze flicked from my mouth to my eyes, and my own breath caught at the passion and possession raging there.

"I never asked you to come with me. Not formally," he whispered, voice hoarse. "Meadow, do you love me?"

"Of course! You've stolen my heart, Ossian."

"Then come with me." His hands slid down my arms and brought my hands, one of them still clutching the red rose, together in front of me. Then the fae king knelt. A moment later, he produced a silver ring with a ruby the size of knuckle bone. "Come to Elfame as my queen, Meadow. As my bride."

With his words, the rubies warmed at my throat and the golden haze hit me with such euphoria that I gasped, "I will!"

Behind the copper-colored shield, the grizzly bear went wild.

Ignoring his prisoner, the fae king smiled and slipped the ruby onto my finger. "Then seal your promise with a kiss, love."

But it was Ossian who snatched me into his arms and crushed a kiss against my mouth. My lips parted for his tongue, my hands hooking around his neck to keep him fused against me. By the Green Mother, I didn't want this embrace, fierce and bruising as it was, to ever end. My heart beat at a frantic rhythm, demanding more, more , egged on by the golden haze and the heat of the rubies.

Ossian grunted when I broke away from him to yank open the ties of his shirt and dig my teeth against the muscle of his chest. My tongue dragged across his sternum to his heart on its course towards more sensitive flesh.

Suddenly his hand knotted in my hair, wrenching my face upwards. His jewel-bright eyes were savage. "If anyone is going to maul anyone, it's going to me . I am the King of Beasts, after all."

Then he stooped, hands sweeping over each butt cheek before they clamped down hard. I squeaked as he hoisted me up, slamming his hips between my thighs. Before I could protest at the pain, his mouth was on mine again, and the golden haze was consuming me like a forest fire. His lips left a trail of their own fire as they traveled down my neck, his teeth nipping sharply.

"Ossian, be gentle," I whispered hoarsely even as I dragged my hands through his copper curls, raking my fingernails against his scalp.

"No," he growled.

I stifled a yelp as my butt landed unceremoniously on top of the trestle table, the discomfort immediately forgotten as Ossian kissed me again, blasting me with another wave of that golden haze. By the Green Mother, it was glorious to be so fiercely desired by him. I clawed once again at his shirt, desperate for more of his touch no matter how I found it. From his hands on me to his chest pressed against my face, I wanted to feel all of him.

With a growl, he shucked his shirt then paused, allowing me to shamelessly grope his sculpted body. The feel of him was incredible. The taut bronze skin, the definition of the muscles, the flawlessness of his complexion. Ethereal and unhuman in its perfection.

When he'd deemed I'd stroked him enough, he caught my hands and kissed them. "Lie back now, love."

I did as he bade, trembling with anticipation. His blazing jewel-green eyes held my gaze as his hands swept under the hem of my woolen gown. At the touch of his warm palms against my bare thighs, I jumped, forcing myself up onto my elbows. His grip tightened, and a feral smile came to his mouth. Backlit by the blue flames of the fireplace, he seemed more animalistic than I'd ever seen him before.

The King of Beasts indeed, preparing to devour me.

"I said lie back," he ordered. One hand left my thigh to press against my chest, forcing me back down.

Then that hand dragged sensuously down my sternum, fingers splayed wide to graze my breasts, then over my stomach and lower still. A pleasured growl like a hum emanated from my fae lover as I began to quiver.

"Close your eyes," he purred.

There was nothing but the sense of his touch then, the thundering of my pulse in my ears, the golden haze of our bond lulling me with warmth and the need to submit. Both of his hands were under my dress and on my thighs once more, stroking with long, languid and unhurried movements. Teasing me.

"You like this, don't you?"

A pitiful whimper escaped me as I began to squirm, rocking my hips, impatient for those thumbs to climb even higher. The golden haze permeated everything, reaching for every part of me.

It met resistance in two places—that hollow piece of my heart that had yet to heal, and the oak tree of my magic core. The cat silhouette upon its trunk flared warningly, and the chain mail net locking away the canopy of the tree shivered and brightened, repelling the haze like mist before a wind. Why was a curse reacting that way?

"You smell incredible," Ossian whispered, stroking harder but no closer to where I was most desperate to feel his touch.

Thistle thorns, I couldn't stand it anymore. My ardor was waning, and not just because of the conflict warring inside me. My eyes snapped open, and I was a heartbeat away from sitting up and demanding he quit playing around, when I noticed something strange. While he stood against the table between my legs, his hands moving under my dress, his attention—his full attention—was focused on something behind me.

The bear.

Ossian's mouth was curled into an ugly sneer, a condescending glint in his hard eyes as he taunted the bear with his hands on my body.

"Meadow," he hummed.

It was alarming to hear his voice convey one emotion while his body language towards the bear screamed something else. He projected lust and ardor down at me but only imperious triumph at the bear. He was… gloating. He was turning my body into putty and using my arousal to infuriate the grizzly.

"Spread your legs for me wider, love. Let me—"

"What are you doing?" I shouted.

Ossian's hands froze as his gaze snapped down at me, and I saw pure hatred there. Only for a second, quickly replaced by dread. The golden haze of our bond slammed into me, forcing me to submit, to forget, but I was having none of it. That hollow part in my heart ached, and I realized with a start that his declaration of love and marriage hadn't healed it like it should have. He wasn't what I was missing.

I kicked him in the chest, shoving him away as I scrambled back across the table, practically hurling myself off the other side. I straightened my dress with a yank and adjusted the shoulder strap of my foraging bag like I was putting on armor.

"Meadow, love, it's not what you think," the fae king began, raising his hands in a supplicating gesture.

"Shut up!" I screeched. "Just what was that?" I chanced a glance at the corner of the great hall where the grizzly raged silently behind the copper shield, then back at the fae who'd been tormenting him. "Is that how you get off, Ossian? By… by making love to your fiancée in front of your enemy? That's sick ."

"Meadow," he said sharply, the big blue gemstone at his throat glowing brightly.

"Piss off, Ossian," I spat, and I marched myself right out of the great hall. As soon as I was clear of the double doors, I broke out into a sprint. I didn't stop running until I was at the end of the east wing hallway and in my bedroom with the door closed and locked behind me. Then I staggered to the bathroom, sloughing off my foraging bag and bracing my hands on either side of the toilet seat. "Thistle thorns, I think I'm gonna puke."

"Join the club," Sawyer's queasy voice rose from the foraging bag, his head wiggling free a moment later. "I've already done that. Twice."

"That… that was you stopping me back there, wasn't it?"

His ears flattened as his shoulders squared. "It looked like something you'd regret."

My stomach churned, and I rushed out, "Thank you for having my back," before I retched into the toilet.

"Always," the little cat said.