Chapter 17

SEVENTEEN

Cassia

My men struggle down the hall as we slowly follow Lady Grave into the castle. I want to help them. All of them. But I can't. At least not the human way. Without another thought, I pull the dead to me, giving them my command and in an instant, my princes are being carried down the hallway. I'm sure in any other state, they wouldn't appreciate it, but they say nothing now.

"Which way to your healers?" I ask, realizing that's where we should be headed.

"This way," Lady Grave says, and then we're racing after her.

We weave through hallway after hallway until we enter a room that branches into multiple other rooms. A half a dozen fae stand there wearing gray gowns, their hair pulled back in matching styles. Their hands are twined together, and their gazes are our doorway, as if they've simply been waiting for us to arrive. Like all of this was planned hours before. Within seconds, they launch into action .

"Each room has been set up for each of the princes," one of the women says, speaking to the dead rather than me. "Follow your healers."

"Cassia needs tending to also," Prince Zane says.

I glance down at myself and see my clothes stained by blood from where my mother attacked me. Then I return Prince Zane's concerned look. "I'll be okay."

"You'll take care of yourself," Prince Forrest barks.

They all nod in agreement, looking uncomfortable in the arms of the dead. I realize they're not going to budge on this, even if adrenaline is making it so my wounds don't hurt, no doubt. So I nod and smile. "I'll have them fix me up."

As my men are carried into the different rooms, my heart feels like it's being pulled in four different directions. To my surprise, Prince Forrest looks back, battered and bruised, but his eyes intent. "Go with Sulien. He needs you the most right now."

It's the permission to do what my heart couldn't decide, and I race after him. Two healers are standing over him as two undead step back. They begin removing the torn shreds of his clothes, and I circle around them to his head. My fingers tangle into his hair, and his eyes open.

"You shouldn't see me like this," he whispers.

"Why? Do you have an embarrassing secret tattoo?" I whisper with a laugh that ends on a sob.

He turns his head closer to mine, and I press my forehead against his own. His breathing is so harsh. I've never heard a fae like this. Can he be healed? What if he can't?

"You're going to be okay," I whisper, and something shifts. The threads I've felt connecting me to the dead are there, but there are also new threads now. They're different, far more powerful, and I feel them running between me and my men. They're blue, bright, and vibrant, but I don't know what they do.

"To the tub," one of the healers says.

I step back as Sulien is lifted into the tub by the dead. He's lowered into the water up to his chest. His eyes are closed once more, but pain mars his expression. The healers grasp things from baskets beside the back and begin to sprinkle them into the water, murmuring words.

"Death is powerful. Death is absolute. But this fae is not yet ready for the dead. He must stay here. Amongst the realm of the living. Until he's called home." They keep going, and then their words become chants. One of the women begins to run water over his face, and strange scents fill the air. Medicinal scents, not pleasant ones.

Another healer is suddenly at my side. She pulls up my shirt and begins applying a sticky substance to my wounds. When she glances up, she smiles. "Your Majesty, these should be healed within hours. They're deep, but not deathly so."

When she's done, I thank her and return my attention to Sulien. They're still chanting, still adding things to his bathtub, so I stay still, giving them space, as time ticks away.

Soon, the blue thread calls me to him. I don't know what I'm doing when I reach into the water and begin to wash his face, washing away the dirt and blood, revealing the extent of the bruises and cuts. Tears fill my eyes, but I keep going, even as I feel the power that blossoms from my touch. My finger traces a particularly bad wound, and it fades to a scar before my eyes.

My heart races. I touch the bruises and cuts on his face, and they all fade. Not disappear, but fade .

It'd comfort me, if not for the way his breathing seems to fill my mind. So unsteady. So wrong. And absolutely frightening.

Unable to stop myself, I reach down into the water and let my hand rest on his chest. I listen to the wrongness of his breathing, and I tug on the power of the blue thread. It's unsettling, like trying to get a strange animal to obey my command, but I'm patient, knowing what it can do if it wants. Healing, apparently, is something I can do, but it's not nearly as easy as controlling the dead.

Then his breathing grows less labored. Slowly, painfully slowly, it calms until his breath is that of a sleeping man. My eyes open, and I stare at his stunning face. The harsh lines. The dusting of a beard. The beauty that is this man, and the gentleness I know that lies beneath it all. I've known him all my life. How is it that it took me this long to realize that I love him?

One of the healers kneels down beside me. "The spell… he should sleep for a time, but we'll continue his healing."

I glance at her. She's the youngest fae I've seen in the House of Death. "Will he be okay?"

She surprises me by smiling. "He will be. But like most things, you just need to give it time."

It reminds me of my own words. How often did I just need more time to face something? Maybe this time I have to be ready to give that patience to someone else.

"Would you keep an eye on him if I go to see the others?"

"You have my word," she promises, and there's power in her words.

I rise and go to the next room, not even sure who I'll see. Prince Forrest is lying in a tub, not so different from the one Prince Sulien is in, only he's awake, and the women are standing over him, still weaving their spell around him. I kneel at his side, and he reaches out. His big fingers brush my cheek, and he pulls them back to reveal tears. When did I start crying?

Without a word, I pull closer to him, holding back a sob. "I'm so sorry."

His hand slides into my hair. "Don't be sorry. Just be here with us."

He kisses the top of my hair, my forehead, my jaw, and finally my lips. It's a tender kiss. One that's so strangely familiar. How many times had we kissed in our shared dreams?

Our kiss breaks. I whisper, "I missed you."

He laughs.

"What?" I ask, frowning.

He shakes his head, still smiling. "You have no idea how much I've waited for someone who misses me."

He has, hasn't he? I picture that little boy in the woods. The day he got his scar. The fact that no one was there to show him love or affection. The fact that no one comforted him. My Forrest really has waited a lifetime for this.

The happiness in his brilliant green eyes takes my breath away. "Good. Now, never make me miss you again."

His deep laugh comes again. "You know, I'm trying really hard not to talk about our children."

I kiss him. "Maybe get everything… fixed first."

He gives a low growl. "Nothing used for making children is broken , my queen."

It's strange how much his words warm my soul, but I pull back from him. "Can I check on the others? "

"Please," he says, and I can tell he means it.

Rising, I slip next door. Prince Cobar is lying in a tub, but the healers slip out of the room when I enter. I'm not sure if he was less injured than the others, or if I took so long with Prince Sulien and Prince Forrest that they're simply done with him now, but I don't care. I'm glad to be alone with him.

His gaze finds mine. "I just have to hang out now, letting the waters do their job."

For some reason, I feel shy, lingering in the doorway of the room. "Do you want me to come in?"

He smirks. "I want you to join me in this bath, but there's no telling what the waters would do to you. All we need is for you to grow a dick, and then that would complicate things."

This man. He's always going to make me laugh.

"Is that dick-growing water?" I tease, slowly making my way in. "Did you lose something I wasn't aware of?"

He snorts. "Don't worry, I have no need of dick-growing waters. I mean, if it gets any bigger, we're going to have to do some seriously creative things to get it to fit."

The man might not be far off on that. Still, I laugh. "You make my world so much better. You know that, right?"

"You do too. For me."

My heart feels heavy, seeing the bruises on his face, chest, arms, and neck. Bruises, and the scars from cuts, probably from those damn undead. They certainly know how to hurt a person. I just can't believe they hurt some of the people most important to me.

"I don't know what I'd do without you." The words come out easily, and I mean them. I can't imagine a world without Prince Cobar in it. The silly man is going to have to take better care of himself.

He grins in response. "Good thing you'll never have to know."

I move closer, letting my hand trail across the edge of the tub. "I don't know a lot about being mates, but does it make you feel like your world finally has color? Like all you want to do is be with me? Hold me? Love me?"

He leans up, then winces, breathing hard. "Why?"

Our gazes lock and I have an overwhelming desire to twirl his curls around my finger, yank him closer, and kiss him. "Maybe that's how I feel."

"About us ?" He seems to be having trouble catching his breath.

"Maybe. So, is that how it feels?" I sit on the side of the tub.

He reaches up and pulls me down for a kiss that's incredible. Soft, sweet, and everything that I'd expect from Prince Cobar. Then he draws back, just an inch. "That's exactly how I feel."

We kiss again, and I realize that I hate these tubs. All I want to do is lay with my men. Have them all around me and never let them go. But the tubs don't exactly allow that.

"Have you seen everyone?" he asks, panting.

"Not Prince Zane," I confess.

He smiles. "You know, you can drop the title. As our wife, you don't need to address us so formally."

Shit. He's right. It's actually kind of silly that I'm calling them "prince" this and that, but it's going to take some getting used to.

"Good to know," I say, trying to wrap my mind around the idea that I can really just call them by their names now.

"Now, go see Zane. He needs you."

It's kind of incredible. Was I scared about having four husbands? Now, I can't even imagine having one. They might be a handful, but then they do things like look out from each other and melt my heart.

I rise. He catches my hand and kisses it.

It's hard not to smile as I leave the room and slip next door, but my smile instantly vanishes when I see Prince Zane alone in a tub, his eyes closed. My heart starts to race for completely different reasons. Did the healers help him?

I hurry to his side and press a hand to his chest.

His eyes snap open, and my breath rushes out. We just stare at each other for a long minute before my hand on his chest starts to feel strange. I move to take it away when his hand catches mine and puts it right back.

"I was worried about you," I whisper.

"I was worried about you, too."

We kiss. Without a thought. Without hesitation. And the chill of his lips reminds me so much of him, like the scent of a loved one, that I find my free hand tangling into his hair, tilting him the way I need.

I'm breathing hard, remembering how fragile he is as I pull back. "Sorry."

"Never be sorry for kissing me," he says.

"I need all of you to be okay."

He smiles, one of his rare smiles. "We're going to be okay. We have you."

We're in an enemy castle. They're wounded. They were just tortured. He's completely insane.

I shake my head. "That can't be all you need. "

"It is," he says simply, and I believe him.

Just believing someone so easily is foreign to me. The only people I trust this much are my father and grandmother, and yet, I trust these men the same way now. I don't know if it's because of all we've been through, or if it's because of our mate bond, but the reason doesn't matter. I believe him, and he believes I'm all he needs.

It's official. I'm crazy about them.

I sigh. "You know, you guys are going to need to ease up on being so charming and sweet or I'm not just going to fall head over heels for you, but fall all the way down."

My words make his face glow. "Maybe we'll try to be the assholes you first met every so often to save you from the bumps and bruises."

"That would be nice!" I exclaim, then grin.

This. This feels right. Being reunited with the princes. Knowing we're mates and that all the lies and secrets are gone between us. Now, all we need to do is get married… something I'm oddly ready for.

A little while later, the healers come back in and tell me that they need to do more work. Work that would be better done without me. Zane protests, but I'm not about to do anything to slow down their healing, so I promise him it'll be fine, then head out.

Outside, Lady Nova and Lady Grave are waiting to show me to my room. I don't want to go. Being near my men is exactly what I need, what I've always needed and never known. But knowing that loving them means doing what's best for them, I go, feeling like I'm leaving my heart behind with each step I take.