Page 66 of A Beastly Court

“I do know,” I said firmly, finally deigning to gift him the focus of my attention. With a glare.

From the flash of coolness in his jewel-bright eyes, he didn’t share my conviction. My assessment was an opinion, not a fact, and while the rational Meadow could agree with him if she really wanted to—I had been cursed, so maybe my conclusion was biased with hope—I shoved that aspect of my personality into a broom closet and locked the door shut.

“I’ll have to verify for myself if you don’t touch the cloch, love. Remember, it is not just your life on the line if this summons fails, but my own.”

Sighing impatiently, I stood, stormed over to the cloch, and seized it between both hands.

The wight swirled from gray to pink to the brightest white. “Happy?” I snipped.

Ossian stood and replied with the utmost sincerity, “I am. It saddens me you aren’t.”

“I’m peachy!” I shouted at him. “Aside from the fact I don’t have all my memories back, I’m as dandy as a dandelion in June! No one is more elated that my core is free—that I’ve bonded to my magic—than me. If I had a confetti canon, this entire place would be covered in bits of colored paper right now. But what I’m livid about is how that came to be! How dare you use an illusion like that on me? And roping my friends in like that—”

“They volunteered, actually.”

“Shut up, Ossian! Shut. Up.” I stalked towards him, eyes glowing green.

He hastily backed up a pace or two, the backs of his legs hitting the edge the settee and his backside soon after.

“People about to marry each other and invade a fae court to reclaim a birthright don’t go tricking each other like that. Manipulating each other for results.” I seized the front of his shirt, and the fae king cried out in surprise. I’d left my leather cuff guards back in my room, and the iron around my wrist glowed hot in proximity to his skin. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t cram this ruby engagement ring down your throat and kick you out of Redbud for good. And don’t you dare tell me it’s because we’re fated mates. Not good enough.”

“Would an undevoted fae do something like this?” he snarled, clamping down on the wrist that held his shirt. Flesh sizzled and sputtered as the iron cuff burned his palm, but Ossian only gritted his teeth.

“What’s that supposed t—”

The fae king rocked back, hauling me forward and wrangling me onto his lap. His hand left the smoking iron and clamped down on the large sapphire at his throat, his other knotting into my hair at the base of my neck.

The audacity! If he thought he could just kiss his way out of this—

“Let me show you why, Meadow,” he whispered, jerking my mouth down to meet his.

The golden haze thundered into me. It wasn’t soothing or lulling or assuaging as it normally was. The haze hit like a flash flood, dragging me away from myself and down into its warm depths. And at the bottom of that golden ocean shone the sapphire like a beacon. Its light swirled, like something was trapped inside it just like the cloch, and I felt a tug on my heartstrings. At the hollow piece that remained. Almost frantic, I strained after the blue cloch, reaching—

Then the memories came. Not mine. Ossian’s.

Our first meeting in the woods when he’d asked if I was lost.

Enjoying a blueberry scone over cups of hot tea at the local café.

Our first embrace, how he’d wanted nothing more than to hold me and smell the faint honeysuckle notes of my shampoo forever.

Watching my eyes drink in the sight of him as he stood in my bedroom doorway, unfastening the stays of his shirt.

The devastation he’d felt seeing me weep over the latest volley of venom flung by the Hawthornes in response to our growing affection for each other.

The jubilation he’d felt when I’d agreed to move into his castle with him.

Screaming his rage at the stars upon discovering what Grandmother had done to me.

The desperation he felt with each passing day, knowing there was no way for him to truly help me.

The heart-clenching fear that I would die in the summoning and leave him alone to wander the mortal realm until it finally poisoned him enough to claim his life.

It was a torrent of passion and all-consuming possession and indomitable will, conquering everything in its path, including me. The golden ocean buffeted me away from the blue cloch at its depths, funneling me towards the surface.

When he broke the kiss with a shuddering breath, there were silent tears tracking down his cheeks. Just like mine. His chest was heaving, his hands gripping me like I was a bird about to fly away. At his throat, the light of the large sapphire dimmed. I withdrew my hands, poised previously on his shoulders to shove him away, so I could pull my sleeves down past my iron cuffs. Then I slid my fingers up the strong column of his neck.

“Ossian,” I whispered, wiping his tears away with my thumbs. I hadn’t known any of that. Ossian, while amorous, wasn’t exactly the vulnerable type. “I didn’t know you felt all that.”