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“Go away.” Eli ordered.
The entire room seemed to take a collective breath.
“Out,” I declared. A ripple of magic—not just my own—rolled out, toppling faeries like dominoes. I wasn’t sure what would happen when my magic slammed into Eli’s. I had enough trouble being a witch with adraugrside. Seeing them falling like children’s toys tossed aside had me worried about what would have happened if this melding had occurred in New Orleans.
I stared at Eli for . . . I had no idea, actually, but when I jerked my gaze from his, there were no people in sight. And the house was in ruins.
“Shockwave.” Eli reached for me. “Hold on to me, love. Just hold on.”
Somehow, we crept, crawled, fell together, and then my eyes rolled back. Magic lashed out from the building, lighting the sky in streaks.
“Monkey nuts,” Eli muttered.
I started laughing at his immediate consternation at the words he’d just uttered. “Oh, buttercream, we are so incredibly fucked,” I murmured to him.
And that was the last semi-coherent thing either of us managed to say. The force of our bleeding, as he called it, was horrible. I felt like I was being hollowed out and filled with nature, like my skin could no longer contain me, and as I blacked out however much later, I was fairly sure my beloved had sprouted fangs.
Chapter Twenty-Two
At some point,I realized that Eli was awake. Wide-awake. Prowling. There was no other word for the way he was stalking around the ruins of his home.
“Everything is louder,” he said.
“Quieter,” I said. The world felt less jarring, and I wondered briefly if this was what most people’s hearing was like.
He looked at me, and then wasthereas if he . . .
“You canflow.” I stood and did the same, checking that I still could. Panic. That’s what this feeling was. I was panicking. “Answers, Eli. I need them.”
“We’re married.” He paused. “And sliding a few traits back and forth, I guess. I’m not usually so . . .”
“Blunt.” I grinned. “Maybe I’ll develop patience.”
Eli looked at me. “Your first move at noticing that I couldflowwas to do so yourself. So, maybe not.”
I sighed, pretend pouting. “So . . . what do I get out of this deal?”
“A man who loves you.” Eli pulled me into his arms, and it really did feel like home. It always had, but now whatever the piece of me was that felt restless suddenly calmed. Maybe that was part of what he’d always offered, but this wasmore.
“Anything else?” I teased.
“Eternity.”
“Kinda had both of those already.” I kissed his shoulder, mostly because it was all I could reach the way he was holding me. “Not exactly the fairy tale wedding and honeymoon I was promised.”
I paused, realizing belatedly that the elaborate wedding and month-long honeymoon were his desires. He wanted the very public ceremony, seeing me walk toward him, barefoot and smiling. And I could picture it as clearly as if I had done it. Because of his desire, I wanted that ceremony, too.
“Where was my giant wedding?”
“We can have a wedding, if you want it.” Eli shrugged as if he was okay with me dismissing the idea. He wasn’t, and suddenly, I wasn’t either.
“Wewill. Big fancy wedding. One here. One there,” I suggested. “Just . . . not today.”
Outside the wreckage of his home, my world still waited. I guessed this was my world, too, now, but I wasn’t ready to deal with that truth—or a lot of other ones. Where would we live? Was the whole no passing my genes on still kosher? Did we boink while we were unconscious? I’d wanted to.
“Did we?” My hand went to my belly. Fae traditions around marriage included some powerful fertility stuff. “I mean . . . are we?”
“No.” Eli twined his fingers with mine. “We had a bargain. Your womb will not quicken accidentally.”
