Chapter Nineteen

We're both naked, Clíodhna and I, and I wish more than anything that we were alone. I long to bathe each burn, to kiss it, and watch it heal beneath my touch, but I know that first aid is far more beneficial in moments like this.

"I cannot quicken your healing, sister," says Aoibheall, and I eye her nervously. I'm still not confident in where I stand with her just yet. "But I can offer you my congratulations for passing the trials." She turns to me and I fight not to take a step back. "Not many would have succeeded as you, and many more have failed, so for that you have my respect."

I'll take the respect of a fae queen, no matter how begrudging.

But I want my fae queen more than I want to talk to her sister. "Clíodhna?"

"Yes kitten?" She sounds oh so very tired, and I want to gather her up and make her rest.

"You're coming with me." I nod towards the others, and then turn away, clearly dismissing them. If I'm to be the a fae queen's lover, I'm going to have to project confidence, and I'm starting on it early.

I lead her over to the room where she ravished me earlier that evening—it seems like forever ago now— and as I close the door behind us, I drop to my knees.

Clíodhna sits heavily on the bed and looks at me.

The burns have not yet faded, and her hands are bandaged because they were so raw it almost made me cry to look at them. But she is mine, and I am hers.

I sit at my feet and rest my head gently against her knees, avoiding tender areas. I know she can't stroke my hair, can't really even touch me the way I know she longs to, but the position brings comfort to us both.

We've been so busy wrestling with these trials, that I'd forgotten what it felt like to just be with her. My brain quiets, and the world and all its troubles melt away into nothingness.

There is nothing in all of existence but us, of this I am sure.

"Come," my fae queen says. "Come kitten, Janet, my love. Come to bed."

"Yes," I say. "Yes, my queen."

The End