22. Ra

Chapter 22

Ra

Earthshine, could you please tell my mate that if he doesn't stop showing off that sexy ass of his, I'll take a bite out of it?

Was it mature to use the vast sentience of the magical Stronghold to tease his fiancé? Probably not. Was it satisfying as fuck to watch Mica stutter over his words to the Fire Lord before subtly adjusting himself? Absolutely.

Excusing himself from his conversation with the human leaders, he strolled over to Mica and nestled himself in under his arm, satisfaction thrumming through him as Mica extended his wing to wrap around his shoulders.

"Always such trouble," Mica murmured into his hair, kissing his temple.

"You did suggest I should practise speaking to the Stronghold silently," Ra pointed out.

The Fire Lord Tyson was giving them a strange look as they spoke, or rather, he was giving Mica a strange look.

"I can't say I believed the rumours until I saw it for myself," Tyson said.

"Which bit didn't you believe? The relationship or the mating?" Ra asked, wary given the Fire Lord's tumultuous history with his brother Bast.

"The bit where Lord Mica looks like he has actual emotions," Tyson said.

Ra smirked and sent a calming wave of reassurance to his mate who was bristling at the Fire Lord's tone. "Just imagine how far he'd be willing to go to defend his people with all those feelings," Ra said, keeping his voice carefully upbeat so he wouldn't cause any political issues with the warning. He wasn't going to let anyone think there was a weakness to exploit.

"Touché," Tyson said, inclining his head.

The official greetings passed in a whirlwind of more such empty flatteries and thinly veiled threats and, before he knew it, his mate had disappeared to get ready and Elysia was directing him and Bast toward the new ballroom for the wedding ceremony. The addition to the day's programme had caused more than a few murmurings and raised eyebrows, but there was no better way to show what their mating meant for the shift in the Earth Court than to hold a human ceremony in the midst of what had been an almost exclusively elemental event until a week ago.

Bast would be walking him down the aisle to ‘give him away' as a symbolic display to the gathered elementals of Ra's loyalties shifting from the Soul Court to the Earth Court. He'd balked at that at first until both Bast and Mica had reassured him that neither expected him to choose one over the other. They were family. This was just about maintaining appearances for the delicate political balance between the courts.

"You ready for this? It's not too late to back out," Bast teased.

Anticipation and adoration rumbled down the connection between Ra and Mica that was now so deep he sometimes had to check whose emotions he was feeling at any given moment.

"I can't wait to be his husband," Ra said, his thumb stroking over the ring on his finger.

As the doors swung open and he finally saw the gathered crowd in the chamber ahead, tears gathered in Ra's eyes. At the far end of the aisle, Kaia's māmā Ana waited to perform the ceremony as celebrant, her back straight and her chin high as she stood before the gathered world elite. To Ana's right on Ra's side, Tir and Kairon stood where Bast would join them as his best people. They were all dear friends, but he had also wanted to send a message by having an elemental, a ceptae, and a vampyr standing by his side as he married the Earth Lord.

On Mica's side, Serena and Elysia were standing and, to Ra's surprise, so was Zee. Apparently, he wasn't the only one who'd decided to send a message to the gathered elementals. Some might say it was strange to be influenced by politics in this choice, but that was who they were and who they needed to be together in order to rule an elemental court. It also made his heart ache with pleasure that Mica had managed to include another of his friends in the ceremony.

The tears started falling for real when the Stronghold made the first notes of their song reverberate throughout the space and Ra realised that, rather than it being the recording he'd arranged, his mate was playing the hauntingly exquisite melody himself at a piano at the front of the room. Their eyes met across the length of the space and both Mica's mark on his arm and his collar at his neck warmed as earth magic stroked across his skin in greeting.

Kaia's slight form stepped out ahead of them as Bast tugged him gently to continue walking. Her electric blue and cream feathers flashed in the air as she preceded them. Sparkling flowers and birds streamed from her fingers to wend through the seats and flit above the heads of the guests as she wove her magic. Every single one was a shining replica of the native flora and fauna of Aotearoa. She was sharing the plants and birds of her home with the gathered world leaders and giving him this piece of his former life as he started his new one. They were illusion, not real, but they were even more beautiful for being so transitory—forming like miniature fireworks that drifted in the air before fading from view.

"Thank you, K-Bear. That was stunning," Ra whispered when they reached the end of the aisle.

"Thank you to you and Uncle Mica for everything you've done for me," Kaia said, flashing them a huge smile as she casually dropped in her adoption of Mica as part of her found family before taking her seat in the front row.

Everyone and everything faded from his awareness as his mate, his fiancé, the love of his life, stood from the piano to come join him, taking a moment to wipe away the tears on his cheeks gently with his thumbs before wrapping Ra's hands in his own.

As they stood vowing to love and honour each other into the millennia ahead surrounded by the people they loved most in the world, the last ache of any pain between them finally faded to nothing but memory. There was only room for love in their future.

The private gathering after the ceremony was the perfect chance to hug his whānau tight and take a moment to get control of the tears of joy that kept threatening to slip free, and the long night of dancing that followed soon had him breathless and laughing.

"Mmm … are you ready to head upstairs?" Mica asked when he finally took a break to lean against the wall and people-watch.

Tugging his mate close, he frowned a little as he watched Kairon and Nerida arguing on the other side of the room. What was that about?

"Is it rude to leave all our guests here so I can finally make love to my husband ?" Ra asked back, but he was still watching his vampyr friend with concern.

"They'll be fine," Mica said, gesturing to Elysia to go and play peacekeeper before the flashes of blood-red and sea-blue magic surrounding the pair could become something more troublesome.

The plant mage quickly made their way to the Water Lady and had her pulled clear and dancing before any violence could ensue. Kaia did the same for Kairon. Finally satisfied their wedding night wasn't going to unexpectedly turn into a cage fight, Ra turned his face up to his husband and mate and pulled his head down into a long and filthy kiss.

His moan turned into a laugh of surprise as Mica scooped him up into his arms and headed toward the nearest balcony. Realising the couple was about to leave, their guests made way for them with cheers and catcalls.

"Carrying me over the threshold?" Ra asked with a grin. "I think it might be a bit late for that, given we broke in our new bedroom well and truly last night."

"I did not need to hear that," Bast joked from nearby as he and Hel came to bid them farewell.

Ra snorted. "As if I haven't caught you and Hel in the elevator more times than I can count."

"Mmm … the elevator, huh?" Mica asked, a thrum of arousal coming down their connection.

"Maybe once the guests leave, love," Ra said with a smirk.

Bast smiled at them. "We just wanted to come and wish you all the happiness in the worlds in your marriage and your mating. We're going to miss you so much, but I knew when you left that you weren't likely to come home."

Mica put him down for a moment so he could pull Bast and Hel into a tight embrace. "I'll miss you too, bro. The Soul Court will always have a place in my heart, but Mica is my home now."

"As he should be," Hel said, sharing an understanding look with her mate.

"Welcome to the family, brother, and congrats," Bast said, turning to Mica and drawing him into a hug.

Ra smiled as he felt Mica's surprise through their bond. His mate wasn't used to the kind of family and open affection they had back in the Soul Court, but he was going to make sure the Earth Court became just as welcoming.

"The other courts are going to misconstrue this and think we're allying against them," Mica warned, but he didn't pull away.

"The other courts are going to have to find a way to accept the other peoples of these melded earths just the way we have," Bast replied.

"Well … maybe not quite like we have," Ra added, his eyes back on the way Lady Nerida was glaring across the room at the vampyr Kairon.

Hel shrugged, a wicked grin on her face. "You never know."

"As fun as it is to speculate on the sex lives of the other courts, I'd rather be enacting my own," Mica said, scooping him back into his arms.

With a final wave of farewell, Mica carried him out into the night to fly their way up to the tip of the Earth Spire where they could finally find the privacy to celebrate their marriage the way they'd been desperate to since the moment they'd said ‘I do'.

As music and happiness thrummed through the structure and echoes of Earthshine's content seeped out into the earth to further heal the broken lines of power, they lost themselves in each other.

The potential for a mate bond between them was something fate had decided, but they had chosen this. Chosen each other.

And he would keep choosing Mica over and over again for the rest of eternity.