Three

Chapter Three

This was going to be a hard sell. Emma watched as Lachlan parsed through the information she was giving him, as he struggled to understand. But he was trying, and that meant something to her. He wasn’t the arrogant Fae king that she’d expected. At least, she hadn’t seen that side to him yet. He was driven and she suspected that there was a great deal of passion hidden in that delicious physique of his.

If they had met under different circumstances, Emma absolutely would have been interested in him. But waking from a magical trance to discover they were ‘married’ and she’d been sucked into the political machinations of a Fae court? Not so much.

Lachlan was staring at a spot on the table so intently, she wondered that it didn’t burst into flames. She could practically hear the gears turning in his brain as he tried to figure out his next step. His hands were resting on the table, so she reached across and grasped one. He blinked, staring up at her with a guarded expression.

“Hey, it’s going to be okay,” she said. “We’ll figure this out.”

“I wish I believed that.”

When she went to pull away, he clasped her hand gently. Something in the gesture moved her. She thought she saw the slightest glimpse of vulnerability in his eyes. He glanced around at the room, then shifted in his chair, looking profoundly uncomfortable.

“Do you want to get out of here?” she asked, smiling.

“Please.” He pushed back from the table and stood, towering over her. Emma almost felt as though she was standing beneath an actual oak tree.

She stood next to him, craning her neck to look up at him. “You really live up to the hype, you know that?”

“I have no idea what that means,” he said, but he was smiling, too.

“What do we do with those?” She gestured toward the pile of jewelry on the table that was probably worth more than her house and everything in it.

“Leave them for Finn and Hayden. I’m sure they’ll take care of it.”

“Do you think they’ll take care of my coat, too?”

Lachlan looked over her head at something and nodded. “It’s done.”

“Excellent. I want to be somewhere else.”

Lachlan was still holding onto her hand, so she gripped it tighter and headed out of the restaurant, pulling him behind her. If they were going to do this, they were doing it her way. She didn’t want Lachlan getting stuck with a woman who expected to get wined and dined at a fancy place. The last thing the world—their worlds—needed was another person only interested in power for themselves.

With Lachlan, Emma had seen a spark of something else. Potential. He was open to learning how to love someone. That went a long way in Emma’s book. She wanted the person who won his heart to deserve it.

A sharp pang stabbed through her chest at the thought. She scowled, rubbing her chest lightly, willing it to go away. The feeling persisted, though. It must be some sort of side effect of them both sharing the magic of the Wheel of the Year. It absolutely was not anything like disappointment or jealousy. She looked back at him over her shoulder as they made their way through the people chatting in the restaurant’s entry area. He was staying close, using his incredible bulk as interference to clear a path and keep people from bumping into her.

Yeah. Keep telling yourself that.

The wooden door swung open as they approached. A surprised doorman stumbled forward to grab the handle. Emma smiled at him as they passed. They hurried down the stairs, into the brisk mid-April air. Emma shivered and rubbed her arms, dropping Lachlan’s hand.

“I should have thought better about ditching my coat,” she said. “I just had to get out of there.”

“Me, too.” Lachlan took off his jacket and swung it over her shoulders.

She glanced up at him, surprised at the thoughtful gesture. Weren’t fairies supposed to be totally self-absorbed? There was even more hope for him than she’d originally thought. She was about to thank him, but stopped herself.

“I would thank you, but the stories I’ve read say that fairies don’t like that,” Emma said. “Does that apply to you?”

“It doesn’t bother me one way or another. Thanking us is a way of establishing a connection. If we accept the thanks, it can create an unwanted link. If we ignore it, as I usually do, nothing happens.”

“Noted. I appreciate the jacket just the same.”

“For the record, I wouldn’t mind if you thanked me.”

His lips were pulled up in the slightest smile. Little tendrils of heat spread through her, wrapping around her bones and lighting her up. Was he saying he wanted them to be bonded? She turned and started walking down the sidewalk, kicking herself mentally. Lachlan followed.

Of course, he wanted them to be bonded. They already were. If she thanked him and he accepted it, that would be one more link. He might say he wanted to learn how to fall in love with someone and gain their love in return, but Emma was pretty sure there was part of him that still thought the entire matter would be so much easier for him if she fell for him and became his magic booster.

There was no way she was letting herself be roped into that situation. She wanted mutual passion, to be someone’s everything. She definitely deserved better than to be someone’s tool.

From what Hayden, Finn, Ava, and Jack had described of their own experiences, that sort of outlook wouldn’t work anyway. Lachlan had to fall in love, whether he wanted to or not. The sooner Emma could convince him that he would be able to do so on his own, the sooner he would cut her loose and then she could be done with this madness. Except, Hayden and Ava would still be caught up in it.

Emma scowled as she tried to think of a way to help them, or even convince them that they needed help. Fairytales seldom ended well for the humans involved. At least, the original stories didn’t. Just because Jack and Finn seemed loving and attentive now, didn’t mean they would stay that way forever. Especially since they were talking about eternity.

Hayden was immortal now. Finn had inadvertently infused her with enough magic to turn her into one of the Fae. Ava had a line on some sort of immortality potion that she was planning to take when her son, Charlie, was a little older. And Emma… Emma was immortal, too. Because of what the Holly King had done, she was also part of the Fae.

A shiver passed through her that had nothing to do with the cold.

“You know, you can use your magic to be comfortable in any clime,” Lachlan said.

“Now, why would I do that when I have this nice jacket to keep me warm?”

She bumped her shoulder against his arm and smiled up at him. At first, he looked affronted, but when she sort of nodded, he relaxed and shook his head.

“Mortals, am I right?” she said.

He laughed a bit. “You certainly have a different way of interacting.”

“When you have a finite lifespan, you tend to want to make the most of it.”

“But you don’t anymore.”

“Stop,” she said. They both paused on the sidewalk. Emma turned to him, unsure of what she wanted to say. What she needed to say. “I can’t get used to this. I can’t think in terms of immortality and magic. I don’t want to use magic to stay warm. Because it’s not mine. It’s not me.”

“It could be.”

There was no insistence to his tone, no begging, no berating nor guilt-tripping. It was just a statement of fact. He was presenting her with an option, with data, and it really did seem as if he was willing to let her make her own decision about it.

“I guess it could,” she said. “But I’m not ready to leave behind all of the wondrous parts about being mortal.”

He glanced around them, then turned his attention back to her. “Such as?”

“Such as…” Emma tilted her head back to look at the blue sky, streaks of white clouds scattered throughout her field of vision. “Those. How often do you just gaze at the sky? Do you feel a sense of wonder and awe? Or feel the distance between us and the clouds?”

He looked up and stared at the sky for a few moments, then shook his head. “I can’t say that I have.”

“What about puppies?”

This time, when he laughed, it was full-throated and deep. The rich sound sent all sorts of pleasant tingles running up and down her spine.

“Puppies?” he said.

“Have you ever held a puppy?”

“I can’t say I’ve done that, either.”

“Why not?”

“I’ve never had a reason to.”

“And see, that’s the difference right there. It’s reason enough just to experience it. To feel its soft fur, its warm body and tiny, fast-beating heart. For us, for mortals, life is all about the living. It’s about grabbing on to everything life gives you and enjoying the hell out of it. Riding the sorrows, embracing the joys. It’s about holding your sides laughing with friends and holding their hands while they cry just as hard.” She turned to face him. “You want me to be your queen, but what can you possibly offer me that’s better than all that?”