44. All at Once

Spiderwebs and blood pepper the gardens. I run to Damian, desperate to touch him. Desperate for the cut on his arm not to be real. My arms, my legs, my hopeless heart… I shake all over.

"You're married!" My fist collides with his chest. I want to scream and scold him for not believing in himself. In us. "How could you not believe in us?"

He captures both of my hands in his, steadying me. "Hold on. I'm technically married, but only until midnight. In Faerie, no consummation means no marriage. The ritual is incomplete, and the spell will wither as soon as the clock strikes twelve." He gives me a moment to digest the news before he grazes the angle of my jaw with his thumb.

No consummation…Of course!

It's new to see him like this. All of him. All at once. He's terribly beautiful.

A hint of tenderness pierces the hard king's exterior, and I let out a small cry when he crushes me to him for a very public, irrevocable kiss.

It's different from the sum of all the other kisses we've shared. More confident. Damian curls a hand around my neck and tilts my chin up, swallowing all my questions and grievances until the all-encompassing need to yell at him tapers down.

After a long, passionate kiss, he draws back and relaxes his grip on my waist with a nervous laugh. "Welcome to Faerie, Cecelia."

"Cece, this is Damian, my— The Shadow King."

A puddle of blood stains her dress, but my fearless little sister squints at my lover like he's not at all intimidating. "I know. We've already met."

My eyes bulge, and my gaze darts between them. "How?—"

"Do you love her? Truly?" she asks with a solemn edge to her voice.

"I'd burn the world down for her," Damian responds with the same verve, raising goosebumps all over my body.

Air whistles out of Cece's mouth, and she looks down at her hands for a moment. "I believe you."

The scar in the middle of her palm shines under the Morheim moon, and I snatch her wrist to take a closer look. "What did that witch do to you?"

Cece breaks down in a quiet, regretful sob. "Esme said I had the genes to be like you, so she offered to do a little spell… She fed me her blood in my morning coffee, and I fed her mine. It made me feel stronger, somehow. She said that it would only strengthen my ties to Faerie. To you. She lied. I thought Fae couldn't lie!"

I wrap her in my arms, and her head weighs heavily on my shoulder. "Don't blame yourself, Cece. She wasn't Fae, after all."

Damian's breath catches in his throat. "And how long did it go on?"

"Months, really."

His lips press together. "You're bonded with her now, but don't worry. The next time we draw her out, she won't share my magic anymore." He squeezes my hand. "We'll figure this out, I promise."

Jo inches closer to us. "My king…" his voice waivers, and he averts his gaze. Considering his acrimonious relationship with One, the scene that played out on that altar must have shocked him quite a bit. He clears his throat. "Awaiting your orders, Your Highness."

Damian's gaze flicks over to his hunters. "I'll be back in a moment, kitten. Let me just make sure we're safe." He walks away to take stock of the damage.

Lori runs over to me. "You really know how to make an entrance, Old World. Well done." I move to squeeze her close, but she chokes on a pain-filled gurgle. "Careful." The frantic edge of her voice reeks of suffering.

My eyes dart down to the half-healed bite mark. "We have to take care of that wound."

"Baka flew to the infirmary to get supplies." Her attention falls on Cece, her clear eyes wrinkling at the corners. "Hey, Lil' Bit. Welcome to Faerie."

"This is Lori. She's my best friend." I clasp both of their hands.

Cece opens her mouth in mock outrage and brings her free hand to her chest. "I'm not your best friend?"

We all laugh. The three of us are together and safe…just the thought warms my body from head to toe.

"I was terrified for you both, earlier. Let's get you some water and a comfy seat before Baka works her magic on this venom," I say.

Lori's gaze falls to something behind me, and she hooks her arm around Cece's."By the spindle, she's right. You're almost as pale as me, Lil' Bit. Let's get something to eat while your sister teaches her royal boyfriend a lesson." With a wink, Lori ushers Cece away.

Damian returns to my side. "A lesson, eh?"

I peel the mask from his face, and graze the faint scar splitting his right brow. "You look…"

He's the same man I've come to know, and yet—not. An iridescent silver ring frames his golden irises, and I bite back a nervous giggle.

He looks absolutely bewitching, but I'm not going to let him get away with his stupid decision to send me away. "I can't believe you agreed to marry that witch—even for a moment. And just so you know, if it weren't for Cece, I'd already be dead."

He shakes his head. "No. Morrigan promised not to touch one hair on your head."

"But my father made no such promise," I say with a hint of regret.

Something dark and dangerous clouds his features—the kind of look I'd expect to see on Two's face. He catches me in his arms, holding me close. "I was dumb, and you were right. Is that enough?"

"No, but it's a start. You can make it up to me, later."

He leans down, his breath hot on my ear. "Oh, I intend to grovel." His gruff tone reeks of sex, and the dark promise shivers through me. He runs his nose along the slope of my neck. "But Morheim is only just beginning. There's much to do if I want to keep my crown. Vicious royals to appease…"

Right.The first night of Morheim is the kick-off of a realm-wide hunt that lasts a little more than a week. The Shadow King is supposed to lead his hunters through the different Fae lands and slay the nightmares that escaped the sceawere, but all I want to do is crawl into bed with him, barricade the door, and never come out.

I pick the golden circlet from his head and hold it in front of his face. "This crown?"

"Burn that one. It's just metal. When I make you my queen, we'll use the real ones."

My stomach flip-flops at the certainty in his voice. "Real ones?"

His enigmatic smile quickens my pulse, and his brief mention of a proposal dispenses a fresh boost of adrenaline in my blood. I didn't have enough time to iron out all his revelations—not completely. I used to be so worried that the Shadow king would force my hand…

I could kick and scream and blame him for everything, but I love him without question. How I wish I'd been the one standing on that altar with him earlier, and spared us all this trauma.

I skim the lapels of his evening coat. "You lost the bet with my father."

"Yes, but I don't need Demeter's magic to survive anymore. Morrigan's curse is broken."

I search his gaze, trying to see past the Shadow King to the men I've come to love. "What was the deal exactly? Can you tell me now?"

Now that I know his secret, I have trouble believing he ever wanted to destroy my people. I graze his cheek, and he pecks my palm with his lips.

"In exchange for healing your mother, I asked your father to allow mirrors into your country, but he refused. By connecting your people to the sceawere, I hoped to recruit all the shadow seeds from your world. It would have brought me so much magic… So instead, I proposed a gamble. You were to come and live with me and decide your own people's fate. I was supposed to convince you to stay here permanently to win."

"What— That's all?"

His lips quirk. "If I'd told you on your first day that I intended to pepper mirrors across your kingdom and keep you in Faerie with me for good, you wouldn't have found it so innocuous."

I force myself to consider the bet through the lens of my old beliefs. Mirrors would have been perceived as a threat for our entire way of life. A shortcut to ruin.

Damian holds me close to him, his hands hard at my waist. "If I'd been able to reach my seeds, so would the other Fae courts. It would have opened the doors to a different future for Demeter. A future your father didn't want. But I was running out of time and toyed with the idea of treating you so badly that you would flee. It would have triggered an early victory."

"I bet Two came up with that plan," I grumble.

"Well… Yes." His lips twitch, and he taps the space over his heart. "He's in here, you know. We're all here… It's a complex feeling."

I kiss the back of his knuckles. "You're all exactly where you're supposed to be."

My eyes settle on Cece, Lori, and Baka near the entrance of the tunnels; the sprite is already tending to Lori's bite. While Baka works, my sister observes her wrinkled skin and flapping wings with her bottom lip tucked between her teeth. A bottomless curiosity burns in her gaze.

"We have to find a way to break the spell that links Morrigan to Cece."

Damian's throat bobs. "The only way to break a blood bond is for one half of the bounded duo to stab the other straight through the heart."

"But that means—" A quiet sob quakes my body.

"I'm sorry, kitten." He places a soothing kiss at the base of my ear. "But your sister will have to kill the phantom queen, or she'll live and die with her."