Betrothed (39 page)

I looked up into his eyes. ‘What if they decide I can’t stay?’

‘If that happens—which it will not—then I would come to be with you on Earth. We
will
be together. Have I not assured you so?’

‘But I don’t want to get old while you stay young.’ I clamped my lip between my teeth before it started to tremble.

‘You only have to be in Faera for your eighteenth birthday, Marla.’

‘But what if your father keeps me out?’ The little ball of anxiety swelled again and jabbed at the back of my throat.

‘Let’s get through today before we worry about the future. I honestly believe the vote will be in our favour, so please don’t worry.’ He soothed me with slow, hypnotic kisses. I closed my eyes and, laying my head back against the pillows, gave myself over to the comfort of him.

I was floating in a sea of calm, all my worries reduced to a tiny seed buried somewhere in my mind, when a knock on Leif’s bedroom door snapped me out of my trance and brought me back to reality with a jolt.

‘Come in,’ Leif called after we’d both composed ourselves.

Atara came in carrying a large golden tray and placed it on the breakfast table.

‘Welcome, Marla,’ she said, a fleeting smile lighting her face before she turned to Leif. ‘Your father asks that you join him in his study after breakfast.’

Leif inclined his head, then said, ‘Will you stay and eat with us?’

‘No, I just wanted to tell you good luck.’ She looked at me as she said it. Then she turned and disappeared from the room.

‘Your mother is so quiet,’ I said, when I was sure she was far enough away not to hear.

‘My mother rarely speaks unless spoken to and always takes great care with what she says.’

‘Even when your father’s not around?’

‘Even then. I think it is just her way.’ But he didn’t look sure.

I sat at the breakfast table and lifted the lid from the dish. The tantalising aroma wafted into my nostrils. Until that moment, I hadn’t thought I’d be up for food. ‘Oh, this smells good. Do you know how horrible it was going back to my boring diet when all the food you packed for me ran out?’

Leif smiled and cut the omelette in two. He served the biggest piece to me and filled my glass with juice.

‘You have the big half,’ I offered, and swapped our plates.

‘No, you have it—I can tell you’re hungry.’ He swapped the plates back again.

‘How?’ I was hungry, but I didn’t see how he could have known that.

‘I thought you were going to devour me with your kisses.’

I stared at him as he chewed, waiting. Then before he could take another bite, I jumped on him, pushed him to the floor and began nipping him. ‘Yum, delicious,’ I said between bites.

He laughed, taking it for a while, then he flipped me over and put a stop to my assault with the weight of his body on mine. I squealed as he captured my wrists in one big hand and brought them over my head.

‘My turn,’ he said, ignoring my giggles. ‘And I am starving.’ And then he kissed me—not the soft mesmerising kisses of earlier. Oh no, this was voracious, tearing the breath from my throat and leaving my lips tingling and my head giddy.

‘Did you just bite my tongue?’ I gasped, when he finally set me free.

‘I had to, you tasted so good,’ he said, jumping to his feet and holding his hand to me.

I needed the hand—I felt weak.

Leif left to see his father after breakfast—but not before one more attempt at convincing me to attend the assembly. I could understand his reasoning. It was only natural the panel of kings would want to meet the object of so much conflict between father and son. But just the thought of being in the presence of all that royalty while they decided my fate made me tremble.

But sitting on Leif’s bed all alone, I had to wonder if awaiting the results from a distance was the right choice. Worse case scenarios tortured me. If the assembly decided in favour of King Telophy, Leif would not be able to challenge him. I’d seen for myself how much stronger than Leif his father was. I was convinced that my life would not be directly threatened, but I
would be banished from Faera, a death sentence anyway—just a more drawn-out one. As for Leif’s backup plan to sneak me into Faera for my eighteenth birthday, I knew it would not be possible if his father decided to keep me out.

And if I did lose my immortality, I could never expect Leif to stay with me on Earth while I aged more every day, eventually dying, while he stayed young and handsome. Not only that, but Earth was a cage for Leif. I’d realised that when he was sharing the apartment downstairs with my neighbours. Leif needed to be free to be the powerful king he was born to be. If the assembly decided against me, I would have to somehow find the strength to let him go. I loved him too much to rob him of his destiny. My throat became tight at the thought and that too familiar prickle began at the back of my eyes. I curled into a ball and gave into my emotions, my tears staining Leif’s beautiful sapphire bedcover with salt.

Eventually the tears dissolved my negative thoughts. What if the assembly ruled in my favour? Leif had all but assured me they would. It would be like a dream to live here with my prince. To be free to have a life with him, make a home with him, hold him, make love with him. The last thought sent a shiver all the way to my toes. I buried my face into his pillow, fragrant with his scent, and gave myself over to fantasies.

‘I’ve decided to come with you,’ I said when Leif returned from his father. I held my arms open to him. He smiled and came into them, kissing me briefly before slipping out again. I grabbed his hand before he could get away and when he looked back over his shoulder, gave him a narrow-eyed look. ‘You’re not surprised at all, are you?’

He came back to me. ‘No.’

I poked a finger into his chest. ‘You would have
made
me go, wouldn’t you? You would have used your mind magic on me.’

‘I knew I wouldn’t have to,’ he said and plucked my finger from his chest, kissing the tip before sliding out of my embrace again and heading for the shower. He emerged a few minutes later, damp and delicious, and disappeared into his wardrobe, reappearing a moment later with a pair of pants draped over his arm. I watched as he pulled them on and before he could beat me to it, dropped to the floor to do up the ties at the ankles. When the job was done I looked up to him and smiled as I ran my hands up his legs, tracing the gold woven into the cobalt blue silk with my fingers. ‘You look like a genie.’

He reached for me and brought me into his arms. ‘Genies grant wishes, do they not?’

‘Three,’ I told him, ‘but I only need one.’

He nuzzled his face into my hair. ‘Tell it to me.’

‘I can’t or it won’t come true.’

‘Then how am I to grant it?’

I pressed a kiss to his chest. ‘I think you can figure it out.’

Leif smiled and touched a finger to my nose. ‘Consider it granted,’ he said, before unwinding my arms from him and tugging me towards the chest at the foot of his bed. He lifted the lid. I gasped and fell to my knees as I peered inside. A layer of glittering crowns sat upon a bed of red velvet.

‘They’re stunning,’ I cried, picking up the closest—a circle of gold, cool and smooth, it’s rounded peaks set with a rainbow of jewels. I put it on my head. It was heavy and way too big so I held it in place as I turned and looked up to Leif. ‘How do I look?’

He crouched beside me and adjusted the position of the crown. ‘Like the most fetching princess ever born.’ I smiled and returned the crown carefully to the chest.

Leif made his selection and closed the lid, placing the crown on top before opening the draw below. This was filled with
jewelled sashes. Leif chose one and stood to put it on. I snatched it from him before he could do so. ‘Let me do it.’

He chuckled softly and lifted his arms from his sides. ‘Like this,’ he said after a moment, guiding my fingers with his. ‘See? This goes to the front.’

‘What is it?’ I asked, stroking the intricate jewel-encrusted gold, at the centre of which was the letter L, sparkling with diamonds.

‘My crest,’ he replied. ‘It was designed for me when I was born.’

‘It’s beautiful.’

I admired it a moment more, then Leif said, ‘We should go, the assembly will be gathering.’

All thoughts of Leif’s finery vanished from my mind like a puff of smoke in the wind.

‘Are you all right?’ he asked.

I swallowed hard. ‘Just hold my hand, okay?’

Leif clasped my hand in his. Then he picked up his crown and led me to the balcony.

‘Where are we going?’ I asked when we got there.

‘To my 49-times grandfather Morlan’s kingdom,’ he said, releasing his wings and waiting for me to do the same before pulling me close and gently tucking my face into his shoulder. I knew what that meant—another sun trip.

I nudged his hand from the back of my head and looked up to him. ‘Can’t we just fly?’ More than one sun trip a day seemed excessive to me.

‘It is not possible to fly between kingdoms,’ Leif said, attempting to bury my face into him again.

I resisted. ‘So how do people know where they’re going?’ Travelling with the sun was like taking a scalding hot elevator ride to the unknown.

Leif gave up and loosened his grip on me. ‘They do not, but it’s of no consequence. Only under exceptional circumstances and with their king’s consent do the Fae travel between kingdoms.’

‘How would the king even know?’

‘Perhaps he would not, but what would be the benefit in defying him? Besides, one must know the way in order to travel to a neighbouring kingdom. I will lead you to Morlan now and ever after you need only make an image in your mind to return there, but without that, travel there would not be possible.’

‘So how do
you
know the way?’

‘I am prince, Marla. I have been travelling between kingdoms since I was a small boy. It is my duty to become familiar with each, for who knows which will one day be mine.’

‘Doesn’t seem fair, really.’

Leif shrugged. ‘Fair or not, it’s unsafe for the Fae to travel between kingdoms. One has only the protection of his or her own king. Nor is there reason—everyone a person knows and loves resides in the kingdom he or she is born into.’

‘Haven’t you ever heard of holidays, Leif?’

‘Ah, but that is what Earth is for, Marla.’ He wrapped me tight in his embrace then, tucking my face firmly against his armpit—no doubt to shut me up—and together we released our sun and caught the rays to the kingdom of Morlan.

We arrived high on the side of a mountain, amidst a sea of pink flowers that bloomed far into the distance and all the way to the winding river below. Their perfume lifted on the breeze, so sweet it made me want to sweep them into my arms and just drown in the fragrance. On the other side of the river was a golden plain, sparkling in the sun, and directly above us, King Morlan’s castle. After taking a moment to admire my first glimpse of Morlan, I turned to Leif and said, ‘Who wouldn’t want to holiday here?’

Leif agreed that the kingdom of Morlan was indeed remarkable, then he placed his crown upon his head and led me to the entry of the castle where we were met by several of King Morlan’s guard, two of whom escorted us inside and down a long corridor, bustling with flushed and excited maids, dropping curtsies and blushes in my prince’s direction. I plastered a smile to my face and clutched him close. After bowing low to Leif, the guards left us outside a pair of doors that formed an arch high above our heads. Immediately the doors were flung wide and we were met by the beaming King Morlan. He was dark skinned and handsome with eyes as enticing as melted chocolate, and like the other two kings I’d met so far, had a presence that gave me palpitations.

‘Grandson,’ the king said and embraced Leif affectionately before turning to me and extending his hand. ‘And, Marla.’ Of course I didn’t have a hope of resisting the offer, and told myself it would be rude to anyway, so without even looking for Leif’s reaction, I closed my eyes and bent to kiss him, sighing as his glorious essence took me straight to heaven. When I came back, King Morlan took my arm and drew me into the room. ‘Telophy, your son’s betrothed is delightful.’

I looked to where King Morlan was casting his attention and saw Leif’s father sitting, back stiff, in a soft and luxurious sofa.

‘Hardly relevant,’ he replied with a sneer. Leif fumed beside me.

‘Please, sit,’ King Morlan said, ignoring the sparks flashing from the eyes of both of his grandsons. ‘Would you like a drink? Some wine perhaps.’ He gestured to one of the sighing maids nearby. ‘Would you bring wine please, Elva?’ Elva curtsied and fluttered from the room to do his bidding, but I didn’t see her again, or the wine, because at that moment a guard appeared to tell us that the last of the kings had arrived and King Telophy and Prince Leif were now both required in the great courtyard to
attend them. Leif’s father rose from his seat, grabbed his crown from the table beside him and without waiting for any of us, strode out the door.

I hadn’t given much thought to what it would be like to be in the presence of so many kings. I’d deliberately tried to avoid the subject in my mind. But the power that struck me with a force infinitely greater than I could possibly imagine when I entered the courtyard would have knocked me over had Leif not gripped me to him. My heart beat an impossible rhythm as my eyes danced from one king to the next—twenty-five in all, excluding Kings Telophy and Morlan, and each as magnificent as the next. They formed a semi-circle around an enormous stone table and looked majestic in crowns and outfits representative of their kingdoms. As mediator, King Morlan took his place upon a jewelled throne in the centre and King Telophy his to the right and slightly apart from the others.