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“Anin, I am curious to hear what you know of my heritage. How did you come to know a Walsh witch?” Etain looked across the table to the other female.
She was beautiful. Her skin was the palest green-yellow with flowers growing up her left leg while a vine grew out of her right arm wrapping around the limb and linking around her little finger. Etain could tell Anin’s hair had once been pinned perfectly up and away from her face, but several golden strands had fallen in long curling tendrils down her back and around her face. It looked as though her night had not been much different than Etain’s.
“It’s a rather long story, and I would be happy to tell it, though perhaps when I am more… rested.” She glanced at Ciaran. “I do believe we have a deal to work out, Prince of Darkness.”
Etain’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head. She wasn’t sure why she was surprised. If she thought about it, his quarters were exceptionally fine, and he had a whole tower to himself. He had a flying library for goddess’s sake. He had ‘prince’ written all over him, she had just been too distracted to notice it. Although, she thought she somehow already knew.
That meant he really could do anything he wished with her. What if he grew bored of her and locked her in the dungeon, or kicked her out of his palace. She had nowhere to go, and she didn’t know how to cross back to the Human Realm. Not like she could go back there anyway. She would have nothing there as well. She was certain her neighbors had their sights on her place, and she likely only had a couple more days to get back before her home was gone.
Etain didn’t think she even wanted to go back. Her mother had told her to come here, suggesting she thought it the better choice. Perhaps she could find the witches, and maybe they would have her. She wondered what it would be like to live with a bunch of witches; was it like a sisterhood of some kind? That meant she would have to figure out where in this land they resided, and she would have to survive the Night Court to get there.
Etaine’s heart began to beat rapidly. How did she manage to keep forgetting where she was, and how much danger she was in? A fae prince was her hunter, and she needed to remember that. He took her, and he could easily discard her. She didn’t find it hard to imagine a prince’s heart could be rather fickle. She would need to come up with a contingency plan.
“Prince of Darkness,” Ciaran scoffed. “I swear you Day Court creatures are so dramatic.” He turned to look at Etain. He must have noticed the panic and fear she no doubt wore on her face. “Yes, I am the Prince of the Night Court. I promise you, Etain, you can trust me. At least for now.”
Etain looked Ciaran in the eyes, searching for answers. She worried he had just given her all the proof she needed to know he would be done with her and likely in the near future.
“And later?” she asked, trying to keep the panic out of her voice.
“I guess we will both find out when later comes,” he said while he continued to stare into her eyes. She didn’t know how it kept happening, but every time she felt like she was spiraling, it took only one touch or eye contact from him to calm her. It felt like their souls were having a conversation that Etain and Ciaran were not privy to.
“Would you tell me if I should no longer trust you?” she asked breathlessly.
Ten
“Yes.Ipromiseit,”Ciaran replied without hesitation. He could easily tell her if she could no longer trust him, though the problem wasn’t in telling her. It was the feeling he got at the idea of her not trusting him. It made him feel bereft and mourn the loss of her trust he didn’t even yet have. He had never felt something like this before and knew he would do everything he could to earn her trust and keep it. He had no idea what was happening to him. He should be disgusted with himself, though all he felt was curious.
He wanted to know what this bond was they were both obviously feeling. He wanted to know everything about her, what she desired most and what it had been like for her to grow up in the Human Realm. He wanted to learn all the ways to stir up sounds of pleasure from her while learning every square inch of her body. He wanted to know her deeply, in a way where neither of them knew where one stopped and the other began.
He was, without a doubt, fucked.
He looked up at Kes who was already staring at him with his jaw hanging open. He knew Ciaran never made promises and had never spoken so plainly. Fae cannot lie, although they often spoke in riddles to hide their deceptions and give themselves a way out. It was an art the Day Court had perfected, and made them deceitful in every way. The Night Court was no stranger to deceit, but preferred to wear their wickedness with pride. Ciaran let his confusion show for a moment, letting his cousin see he had no idea what was happening to him. He also gave Kes a slight shrug, as if saying he didn’t really care.
Returning his gaze back to the nymph, Ciaran remarked, “Kes tells me you have information you wish to share with me in regards to the power surges the Day Court has been obtaining. For a fee, of course.”
He had been thinking about the blood oath she requested ever since Kes had brought it up to him, and he found the perfect solution. He gazed at his cousin and smirked. “I have decided you will get your blood oath nymph, only it won’t be with me. It will be with Kes.”
He nearly laughed out loud when the nymph and his cousin said, “What?” at the same time; both their mouths wide open in shock. It brought no small amount of joy to Ciaran’s wicked heart when the two fae looked at each other. Kes’s face showed every ounce of terror at the prospect of being bound to the nymph. He couldn’t be sure if it was because Kes loathed the idea of being bound to a Day fae, or if it was something else entirely.
“Cousin, you seem terrified. You can’t bethat scared of a little wood nymph, can you?” Ciaran never missed an opportunity to get back at his cousin for all of the times he tormented Ciaran with his dramatics, just to get a rise out of him. “You will swear to protect her from any threats inside and outside our court. So I suppose you better keep the nymph close at all times.”
Kes’s face resumed its customary look of mischief and nonchalance. “Well cousin, that is the best idea you have had thus far. I think I would rather enjoy having a nymph close and available.” Kes said while giving Anin a salacious grin.
The innuendo was not lost on her.
The sudden sound of a hand connecting forcefully with the table coming from Etain’s seat made all eyes snap to her.
“Her name is not nymph! Her name is Anin, and yet you both refuse to use it. Am I to believe males in all realms are absolute pigs when it comes to the treatment of females? You mock her and degrade her while making thinly veiled threats to abuse her body! No one deserves to fear the possibility of molestation! I will not sit by and continue to let you abuse her in this way while you both continue laughing at her expense. Are you so full of yourselves you can not see you both have wronged us?” Etain’s anger was becoming something tangible.
The tableware began to shake and clatter together while the fire in the hearth suddenly shot up several feet. The flames of the candles around the room began to grow to unimaginable heights. Etain’s hair began to float around her making it look like she was under water. The three fae looked at her in wonder.
“You stole us away. You did not give us the choice. You took that from us. Of course I am thankful for your intervention on my behalf, Ciaran, but you could have found a way to give me a choice. Andyou,” Etain seethed towards Kes, “Anin was obviously running from this realm if she needs to be protected within it. Yet, you take her salvation right from under her and say she has committed a crime, because she was inmywoods on the night of this hunt. Then you have the audacity to put her in a small cage? Do not think me naive. I saw what spectacle you wished to make by presenting her to us in that cage!”
Things were beginning to float around the room. Everything circled around them, picking up speed as she let herself fall fully into her rage. It had been building since Seamus dared to put his hands on her.
“No one has the right to take another being’s body! You may play your games and spin your illusions,” she said in a low deathly voice as a knife jerked across the air to reside under Kes’s jaw, “but that is too far! It’s not right! Just as it was not right for you to steal us away as if we were some prized beasts!”
Ciaran had never seen anything as beautiful in his entire existence.
