Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty

Gossamer in the Darkness

Satrine

Hawkvale

DalwinCastle

CottishwellRegion

“If you’re nice to Valentine, she’ll bring you peanut butter,” the Winter Princes of Lunwyn, Sjofn Drakkar, known to those close to her (which I now was) as Finnie, said. “And marshmallow fluff.”

“Nice to her and give her diamonds.”

“Or emeralds.”

“Or pearls, rubies, sapphires or gold, she isn’t picky.”

They all laughed.

“They all” encompassed Cora, Circe and Maddie, otherwise known as Lady Ulfr, the wife of the head of the most powerful House in Lunwyn. Her husband, incidentally, being the dude with the kickass name of Apollo. The man Loren had mentioned those weeks ago he was partnered with in some business ventures.

I mean, there was pretty much no better name than Loren Copeland (in my opinion). That name screamed badass, vigilante rock star (again, in my opinion).

But “Apollo Ulfr” was pretty danged cool too.

And Finnie’s hubster’s name was Frey Drakkar.

That rocked as well.

What rocked more was that the dude commanded elves and…

Wait for it.

Dragons!

There were a couple of those beasts up on the craggy cliffs just north of the castle right now. The first time I saw them, I kid you not, I nearly passed out. They were mammoth, scaly, scary AF.

And insanely awesome.

As a gift from Frey and Finnie, they were going to do something after the wedding and I…could not…wait.

Update: Cora, the Gracious was from my world. Dahksahna Circe was too. As were the Winter Princess and the Lady of the House of Ulfr.

Yep.

All of them.

Although that seemed rather a coincidence, as far as they knew, we were the only ones. And Valentine kept an eye on these things. It had just been so long since anyone had traveled between worlds, she wasn’t paying as close attention as she used to, and Mom and I slid under the radar.

“She’ll also bring you letters from people you love,” Circe said, regaining my attention.

“Yeah, those are the best,” Cora noted softly.

I bet they were.

However…

“Will Valentine bring people to visit, if you pay her, of course?” I asked.

“Yes,” Circe answered. “Dad has come several times to be here for important things for the kids.”

“And my mom and dad have been here too, not loads, but our babies know their grandparents from both worlds,” Cora said, but then she warned, “We have to be really careful though. My this-world parents are around too, and we have to handle it so no one who shouldn’t sees them both together. Things could get a little freaky if people were to figure it out.”

“And dangerous,” Circe put in. “The other me lives in New Orleans. She’s hitched to the other Lahn. They’ve never visited because she never wants to return, but also because all hell could break loose.” She grinned. “I mean one Lahn is enough for any world.”

We all laughed because she told no lies with that. Her guy was a lot, and fortunately it was all good.

But…yeah.

Loren had cautioned me about that before he told me I wasn’t the only one from my world living in this one.

It had been another Loose Lips Convo where he went on for a while even though I got it.

Queens and princesses and wives of powerful Houses were from a parallel universe. If that got out, considering how magic was looked at in this world, and just how crazy it was on the whole, shizzle could get real and quick.

“Do you go home?” I queried.

Update Number Two: Mom and I had gone back.

Our trip was okay, but fast, and mostly sad. Furthermore, if Valentine wasn’t with us and she didn’t do some of her mojo, I’m not sure we would have been able to convince folks we hadn’t lost our collective minds.

But in the end, it was good-bye, and not an I’ve Decided to Be a Beach Bum in Thailand Good-bye where we were far away, but they could send emails and do Facetime and had an opportunity to visit us and get some authentic tom yum goong in the process.

It was a serious good-bye.

And those always sucked.

The women glanced at each other like they were trying to decide who was going to deliver the bad news.

It fell to Finnie, who I’d found out had been there the longest.

“First, it is really important that no one learn about that world,” she said carefully. “So going back and forth, us there or people we love here, isn’t the smartest thing to do. For any of us. Second, Loren might feel differently, but we’ve all been separated from our guys in one way or another. So, although they could come with, a total and complete absence like that, of one but especially both of us, could be noticed. It’s been decided amongst us that it’s better not to court that danger. It also must be said that it takes an extreme amount of magic to travel between worlds. Valentine is powerful. She goes back and forth like it’s nothing to her, but it is. She doesn’t have a neverending reserve of power. And she does take payment, but really, even if she hides it, she has the kindest heart you could know, and one of the fiercest. In the end, no diamond is worth the magic she expends to bring us something from home. It’s a sacrifice for her. One she makes because she cares for us and looks after us. So please, be aware of that.”

She paused there, probably because all that was important, and she needed me to acknowledge it, so I nodded to her.

Then she continued.

“And last, our men know what we’ve given up for them. Our worlds and everything we know, which is a really big deal. It hurts them to think we pine for it, when we don’t. I love my friends.” She smiled. “I love fluffernutter sandwiches. But I love Frey more than anything on two worlds. And I can’t say I don’t experience nostalgia every once in a while, but there’s nowhere I’d rather be than here, with him.”

“Yeah,” I whispered with feeling.

“It’s up to you, of course,” Cora chimed in. “We just ask that you be very, very careful.”

“Kingdoms depend on it,” Circe added.

“And think of Valentine,” Finnie concluded.

“Yeah,” I repeated.

There was a knock on the door.

“Yes?” I called.

Idina stuck in her head. “It’s time to get ready, Lady Satrine.”

My heart jumped with happiness.

“I’ll be right there,” I told her.

She shot me a huge smile and ducked out, closing the door.

I looked to Finnie. “Please tell me they breathe fire.”

She shot me a huge smile too. “Oh yes. They breathe fire.”

“Awesome,” I whispered.

Circe shifted forward, lifting up her coupé glass (obviously, since it was my wedding day, and I was sitting around, gabbing with my gals, we were drinking champagne).

“To savages in savage lands,” she toasted.

Cora sat forward and raised her glass. “To men on horseback.”

Maddie did the same and offered, “To breeches and boots.”

Finnie mirrored her friends and said, “To love that spans worlds.”

It was my turn.

My glass high, I offered, “To gossamer in the darkness.”

Joyous, knowing smiles before we all clinked.

And then we all drank.

* * * *

“Idina,” I called when I made it to my rooms after leaving the women.

Well, not my rooms.

My rooms were our rooms.

It was just that, I’d asked one thing of my world from Loren for our wedding, and that was that he wouldn’t see me until our garland was wound around our arms before we walked to the altar at the temple.

So last night after dinner, I left him and slept in these rooms, which Idina had set up to be Get Ready Central, and he went to ours.

He had not liked it, like really, and that was sweet.

But he was Loren.

I’d been right those many weeks ago, he couldn’t deny me anything.

So he gave me what I asked.

“Idina?” I called again when she didn’t answer.

And she again didn’t answer.

She, and Mom, and obviously Mary, were self-appointed Wedding Planners Extraordinaire. Therefore, she was probably off doing something wedding related.

But she’d be back because my hair had to be done, and no way would she fall down on that job.

Mary, by the by, had been filled in about everything, and to say she was shocked was an understatement. But in the end, Edgar being a dick times two, and this spanning entire worlds, wasn’t surprising to her. She had adored Corliss and was glad to have a version of her, even if she couldn’t have the real thing. And she regarded me as a bonus.

Plus, she was an extreme patriot and would do nothing to endanger the kingdom, so she’d vowed in her inimitably dramatic way to keep her mouth shut.

And obviously Ansley knew, because Tor and Loren let him in on it, and his fealty to crown and country was even stronger than Mary’s. But more, his son was in love with a parallel universe chick, and in his way, he was too.

In other words, we were good on that score.

FYI, Ansley requested us to delay the wedding another two months, because, after the goings-on at the magistrate’s court, Mom and I got super-famous and super-popular, and Ansley and Loren already were. This meant Ansley was getting some pressure to make this a grander, more political affair, and as such, since it took forever to get anywhere in this place (they didn’t even have trains), we needed to give time for the invitations to go out, and more time for people to show up.

Loren wasn’t a fan.

But, shades of that aforementioned fealty, I could tell Ansley struggled with not doing what was requested by his king for his country, and it had to be said, just to be polite, so I talked my man around.

I could wait. I had him. And I knew he wasn’t going anywhere.

I moved to the window and looked out.

It was now nearly winter, and we were in Dalwin Castle, which was situated on the northeastern cliffs of Hawkvale. Loren told me we were parallel to Bellebryn, which was at the same latitude, just on the western coast.

I probably didn’t have to say, castles were da bomb-diggity-bomb-bomb.

Talk about fairytale.

It had turrets and banners and moats, the whole shebang.

It was everything.

Adding to the ambiance, it was chilly and crisp here. I’d always been a fall and winter girl (I lived in Phoenix, so fall and winter were the best), and Loren told me Hawkvale didn’t have the fierce winters that Lunwyn did. Sometimes there were only dustings of snow in the northern regions, but in the central and southern ones, the temperature changed only slightly.

So I thought it was perfect the seat of his House was here, where it got cold(ish), and I could wear long sweater gowns that clung to my body and made my man hot and hungry (so sometimes, I didn’t wear those gowns very long before he took them off).

I stared at the Riven Sea that, miles and miles east, led to The Mystics, and as such, reminded myself how beautiful this place was, with its glittery, gray rock cliffs and that blue, blue ocean that was so clean and clear, it was a blue we didn’t even have in my old world.

I also saw Frey’s galleon, The Finnie, anchored out there.

And the Premier of Fleuridia’s ship, which was smaller than The Finnie, and strange to me, because I’d never seen anything like it. The only way to describe it was sleek and chic and rad.

There were a few other ships anchored, because our guest list had gone from around seventy-five, which was what could fit in Dalwin’s private temple, to over five hundred, which was what fit in the temple in Castledge, the large-town-almost-city just down the coast.

This was my life, this magical world filled with glitter and castles and galleons, kings and queens and dukes, flowers and hats and blue, blue seas.

In a couple of hours, I was going to be a Marchioness.

I was going to miss my friend Holly, and the Aunt Mary I knew all my life, and tons of other people and things.

But I smiled at the vista before me knowing the girls were right.

I was about to become Satrine Copeland, Marchioness of Remington, the future Duchess of Dalton.

Far more importantly, I was officially about to become Loren’s.

This world was his.

And there was nowhere else I’d rather be.

* * * *

Loren

“It’s fucking ridiculous,” Loren muttered.

“Calm down, man,” Croft ordered, but his voice was filled with amusement.

Loren seared him with a look.

Which, of course, made Croft burst with laughter.

And his other brothers besides.

“What reason could there possibly be to separate a man from his woman on the eve of their wedding?” Loren went on grumbling. “They’re madder in her world than they seemed when I visited, and they seemed unhinged when I was there.”

“It’s as if he thinks she’ll flee,” Middy said to Holt.

“I would flee, laying my eyes on this bloke,” Holt replied. “He’s a foul-tempered bastard. No one would think he’s imminently to marry one of the greatest beauties in our land.”

Loren’s brow went up and he asked dangerously, “One of?”

“Right, the greatest beauty,” Holt muttered, his lips quirking.

“Fucking hell,” Marlow whispered.

Loren turned to Marlow.

He then turned in the direction Marlow was gazing, which was out the windows.

And there she was, his father assisting as she alighted from the carriage.

Her gown was mostly white, an odd choice, but on Satrine, it was incredibly fetching. The long-sleeved top was netting stitched with the finest embroidery which made it seem like her very skin shimmered and was adorned with flowers. The skirts fell in full, gathered sheets of tule, with an underskirt in dark gray that gave it depth and made it interesting.

And on her head was a wide, graceful hat, a large rosette at the front, the brim lined and double-edged, dropping cheekily over one eye, but it was much longer in the back, dipping down like a veil. It was the most graceful, stylish hat Loren had ever seen.

Her lips were bright red.

And the wedding garland she carried draped across both palms was rife with velvety black roses that looked as if they were snipped after a rain, and there were tufts sitting amongst the blooms of something Loren didn’t know what it was, but it was webby and delicate and shimmering and ethereal.

At sight of it, he felt his chest seize.

She carried him, or how she thought of him, in their garland in her hands.

On this thought, his throat closed, something happening at his eyes, and there were cuffs on his arm and slaps on his back as his brothers left him to take their places lining the aisle opposite Cora, Circe, Idina and Maxie. The line of honor they would stride through to the altar, where Corliss and Ansley would await them and stand with them as they were wed.

The only reason he tore his gaze from her was when he felt a slight pain in his shoulder at how hard he was being gripped.

He shifted his attention to Marlow, who was gazing at him with feeling and meaning.

And his tone was gruff when he said low, “I forgot how to dream, until now, witnessing one come true for you.”

“Brother,” Loren whispered.

“Glad as fuck she makes you happy, gladder still you’re letting her.”

Then with a squeeze, his friend disappeared.

And she walked in.

They locked eyes.

It was not lost on him that his father, her mother and her sister, who had arrived with her, all came to him and touched him in different ways, murmuring their greetings and well wishes before they rushed to take their places in the temple.

But it was only Satrine he paid any real attention.

As their family faded away, she finally came to him.

“Hey,” she whispered.

Loren gazed down at her and said nothing.

“We need to wind this around our arms and get this show on the road,” she prompted when he didn’t speak or move.

“This is lovely,” he whispered.

Her expression grew soft, but her eyes, as they had been from the moment she entered the atrium, shined bright with the depth of her love for him.

A bright so bright, it drove deep into his soul.

He allowed that to settle before he lifted a hand, pulled that remarkable hat off her head, and sent it flying.

She cried out in surprise.

“But it has to go,” he finished.

She stared up at him for but a brief moment.

And then his soul exploded with radiance as his bride filled the vestibule with laughter.

* * * *

He had his hands full of her ass and his gaze full of her beauty, bouncing as it was on his cock.

He lifted up to sitting, and then he had her arms around his shoulders and her lips on his.

“Baby,” she breathed.

He pulled her off his shaft.

“Loren!” she snapped.

“Knees,” he ordered. “Offer yourself to me.”

They were in the shadows, but he didn’t miss her eyes catch fire.

Then, facing the head of the bed that sat along a bank of arched windows that had a view to the now-stormy sea, she positioned her exquisiteness before him, offering her ass and her cunt.

Loren took it, his fingers curling into that glorious flesh, his cock pounding into her sleek wet.

He raised a hand to his mouth, sucked in his thumb, then returned it to her ass, slipping his thumb into her hole.

She reared back into his cock, emitting a soft whimper of pleasure, as he knew she would.

She loved him inside her, any way she could take him.

“Fuck me, sweeting,” he growled.

She did, he watched, stroking her hole, and when he knew from the clutching of her pussy that she was close, he pulled out.

“Honey,” she begged.

He turned her to her back, covered her, and entered her again.

He laced their fingers on one hand, wound his others in her riot of curls, and she circled him with her legs.

The look on her face, the feel of her sheath, the sounds she was making, the intermingled smell of their bodies, he was going to lose control.

And he always wanted her to climax first, of course, but tonight, he wanted them to climax together.

He shifted a hand between their bodies, moving it down to her clit.

He touched her.

She whispered, “Husband,” as she climaxed under him, around him, for him.

And at that word, Loren lost it, and he went with her.

The room exploded in light as the dragons outside their windows blazed fire through the air above the Riven.

And the stone of their room turned incandescent all around them with the flash.

But it was only her for him, and him for her in their wedding bed as Satrine accepted his seed, and he accepted her love, and in her ear, he whispered, “Wife.”

* * * *

Buttersnatch

Hawkvale

Newton

Oxblood Region

Some weeks later…

They’d cornered him.

He squatted like a rat and stared into the fog, breathing heavily.

It didn’t take long before they formed through the dark and mist, still mounted on their powerful steeds.

Six of them.

Six tall, handsome commanding men, staring down their noble noses at him cowered in an alley.

They were led by the king.

Buttersnatchstared in shock up at the mighty Noctorno, knowing it was his end and feeling a strange sense of pride he would meet it at the edge of a royal blade.

“Fancy serving your king?” his monarch asked.

Buttersnatchblinked into the fog.

Another, stranger sense of pride stole through him, and he was surprised at how strong it was.

This meant he straightened from his squat.

Only to bend forward and bow.