Page 27 of Birthright

He smiled. “I thought you would find that amusing. It’s an amulet I asked Bevin to make for us.”

“Us?” I gave him a questioning look, having learned not to take anything at face value in this world.

“Put it on.” He clasped the chain around my neck as I leaned forward. “I know you can hear me in your mind, but I cannot hear you. With this”—he ran his long fingers along the chain—“you can call to me anytime, and I can find you.” He kissed me softly. “When I am away, and you wish me near, you can call me, and I will come. No matter the distance, no matter the time. I will come.”

“You won’t ever be that far away from me, Tynan, will you?”

“You will need your…space, Keena. Time with others. I will go about my life for days, maybe weeks or months at a time. When you want me or if you need me⁠—”

I scrambled up to him, crawled into his lap and wrapped myself around him. “I don’t want…space or others…” Some great leader I am, babbling like a teenaged girl.

“You will, and I understand and accept. It’s the way we are and the way we have always been. You’re just not accustomed to it, but you will come to understand it and embrace it in time, just as you have the rest. You’re going to do great things, Ma Guerrière, for our people and for mankind. You can’t hide from who you are because of your feelings for me. No more than I can let my feelings for you intrude on your duties. It is all part of your birthright.”

“I shouldn’t have let you be bound to me. It was too much to ask, too much.” We hadn’t talked about it since it happened. I hadn’t had an opportunity and really hadn’t wanted to break the magic between us by bringing it up.

“I wouldn’t go back and change that for my life, my love. You could send me away today, and I would live my life content with these two nights with you. If you grieve for me, because you grieve for nothing. My soul is filled with you and your magic. I will carry you with me forever, no matter what.”

I snuggled next to him when he lay back in the bed, closed his eyes, and watched as sleep overtook him. I said his name in my mind, concentrating.

Yes, my love?

He had heard me even in his sleep. Will you hear all my thoughts when I wear this amulet?

Only what you wish me to hear. Bevin’s insistence.

Then I want you to know I love you.

I knew that. He sounded like a cocky boy. I grinned as I got up and went to dress.

I was wearing the black nightgown Hogan had left me the night before as I headed straight for the kitchen. Abbey was waiting for me with a huge grin on her face. She pushed a mug of coffee at me as I slid onto the stool.

“You narked on me yesterday,” I said, pretending to scold.

“You kept me up half the night with your thunder,” she spat back and we both laughed.

“Sorry.”

“Can the man walk this morning?” She took a sip from her tiny cup.

“I didn’t see him try.” The coffee was perfect. I inhaled the scrumptious scent. “Abbey?” She caught the change in my tone. “How do you handle…I mean the…”

“Spit it out, girl.” She crossed her legs as she sank back into a half-empty bag of sugar like it was a beanbag chair. Her lovely sea-green hair spilled over her shoulders.

“Do you have many different…lovers?” I watched her face change again.

“I thought you were going to ask me something hard. Yes, as many as I can.” She smiled proudly and crossed her legs. “I just don’t announce it with thunder.”

“Doran says that will only be with Tynan.” It was really a relief when she told me that. I couldn’t stand the thought that everyone in WildLand would know every time I came. And what would happen on a stormy night? Would they think I was having an orgy?

“Keena, you were raised with the human ideal of monogamy. I swear it’s the only culture that teaches women to completely suppress the sexual side of their nature as they grow into womanhood. Look around the forest. All the other male animals compete for the prize of a female. Sex is the most natural of things. Humans and even some of the Kith have somehow distorted that natural urge and made it dirty, almost evil. You are the Priestess of the Wild. Your true being is as beautiful and as wild as all nature. You’ll see. It will come as naturally to you as the magic did yesterday.”

“Thanks, Abbey.”

She bowed her head and refilled the coffee with a flick of her wrist. I noticed she could also cast without speaking.

“Now, what else do you want to know?” she asked.

I thought about it for a moment. “I’ve heard a bunch about my mother, but no one seems to want to talk about my father.”