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Like Rys, it’s mine now.
I return his grin with one of my own. “Get naked, Rysdan.”
He leans in, nuzzling my neck, pressing hot, wet kisses to my skin. “You’re my mate, my darling. You own my true name now, but you can’t compel me with it.”
“Does that mean you don’t want to get naked?”
The heat of his breath as he chuckles heats me up all the way to my core. “It means that I have all night to play with you. No guards. No mates, former or otherwise. Just you. Just me. And the rest of our very long lives together.”
My fingers fly up to his head, running through the silky strands of his tawny hair. He wants to play? I like that idea.
No. I love that almost as much as I love him.
He groans, his body shaking as I stroke his ears. The pointed tips are almost as sensitive as his cock and, despite what he says about mates not being able to command each other, I call bullshit. Because right now? Whether he’s Rysdan of the Seelie or my scarred Rys, I’ve got all the power.
Me. A human.
He might own me, but I’m not his pet. I’m not his property.
I’m his Leannán and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Epilogue
I move all of my clothes into his room the next day. It’s our room now. Our bed, too.
Finally.
I do leave my painting supplies in my room. Rys suggests the idea, telling me that he wants me to be comfortable in our house. If I want to have a place to go to when he gets to be too much, if I need some space, I can go right next door. That way I’m not too far, and he’ll always know where I am so that I don’t get lost.
Tricky, tricky fae. I can’t even fault him for that. I… might’ve gotten lost on the first floor again one morning when Rys had to leave the manor for a few hours.
Hey. This house is way bigger than it looks from the outside. Nothing like my cramped apartment back in the city. And, I find out, there’s a whole other set of stairs near the back that lead to a third floor I never even knew about!
Of course, after Lolly rescues me and guides me to the dining room, the kindly brownie has to tell the master all about it. She’s not being malicious, just loyal to Rys, and she makes me a fresh-baked apple pie from one of the enchanted apples out front to make up for Rys’s teasing.
We’ve fallen into an
easy routine. Sure, Rys has to leave more than I like, and after he hears about a human female sacrificed by a sect of bloodthirsty fae, he refuses to let me leave the manor at all until they’re caught. Not that he wanted me to know anything about that. If it wasn’t for me accidentally walking in on him and Helix discussing it, he would’ve gladly kept it from me.
My scarred Seelie is pretty heavy-handed when it comes to keeping me safe. I appreciate it, but I’m trying my best to prove to Rys that I can take care of myself. I mean, I’m not about to go out and risk getting killed, but I’ll be fine if he works with Helix and some of Oberon’s other guards to eliminate this latest threat.
Though I can tell he doesn’t want to, he can’t exactly refuse Oberon, so he leaves with Helix.
The Summer King’s justice is swift and brutal. He might be busy working out some kind of treaty with Morgan, but one word that some of the fae are rising up against him—and, to Oberon, butchering a human female in his Court counts—and he doesn’t just have his guards execute the traitors when they track them down.
Instead of ending them quickly, he has each traitor chained to four Seelie horses, dismembering them. It doesn’t kill them, but it’s a display of torture as the immortal fae are pulled apart. Only then, after Oberon denounces them, does he have Helix take their heads.
I can’t even begin to guess why Helix thought I’d want to hear the gruesome details when he next came to meet with Rys. My new mate pointedly told me that it was taken care of and that was all I needed to know. But Helix tells me all of it, the same uninterested inflection to his tone that leaves me wondering if he’s broken or something.
Good soldier.
Real cold guy.
But, hey. It was a kindness in a way. I know there are still fae rebels lurking in Faerie, hiding among those loyal to Oberon. Hopefully, now that they’ve seen what Oberon will do to those who betray him, it’ll be a bit safer to exist as a human. He was trying to assure me.
Rys… didn’t quite see it that way. After that, he refuses to let Helix meet him at the manor. If the captain wants to speak with Rys, it’s sure as hell not at our place.
Not gonna lie. Helix freaks me out. I know that I don’t have to worry about going back to jail—I’m freed, baby!—but the way he watches me with Rys makes me uncomfortable.
