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I step up to the door with the numbers the ghoul mentioned. My hand glows a pastel green to signal my magic. My hand immediately vibrates higher, indicating an additional lock or protection I wasn’t anticipating.
Homes in Faere do not have locking mechanisms. In general, fae are honorable and would never think to steal or attack someone in the sanctity of their own home.
However, the same cannot be said for royal families. Assassination attempts occur in the Seelie Court even before the fae reaches maturity. My first two kills were murderers sent to dispatch me and my younger brother.
I carefully twist the knob, and the door opens without resistance. It’s dark, but we step into a living room.
“Shall we explore?” I ask in barely more than a whisper.
“No, we should each take a sofa and try to get some sleep.” Hex sighs, leaning down to unlace his boots. Once they’re removed, he eyes the two couches. One is small, with only two seats, and the other is extremely long, with what appears to be a bed on one end.
Humans have extra beds in their living rooms? Who knew? Not me, but I will make good use of the convenience factor.
“You’re going to sleep on this one?” Hex mutters with a huff. The cranky fucker sure doesn’t seem excited that we’ve found our wife after twenty-plus years of searching.
“I’ll even share the quilt with you,” I say, grinning.
He raises a hand, flipping me off, and lies down with his feet facing the top of the long, bed-like section.
“Good idea,” I agree, grabbing the blanket from the back of the couch. I lie down on the bed on the end of the couch, which puts my feet near his, before tossing the blanket over both of us.
“It’s going to hurt a million times worse being this close,” Hex grumbles, rolling onto his side. He crosses his meaty arms over his chest.
“Indeed,” I agree, because he’s right. The agony that comes any time Ali is intimate with anyone but us will rip through the bond even more severely with us so close together. “Perhaps they’ll take the night off? It’s been a while since she was with anyone. It’s likely their relationship is new.”
Prior to the agonizing pain we felt only hours before the beacon of her magic glowed, it had been close to three years since she was intimate with anyone. We were still recovering when the orb lit up, indicating it could portal us to her location.
Hex picked up the magical relic in the human realm nearly twenty years ago. We fed it the remaining scraps of bloody gauze we held on to from our wedding day and waited.
Nearly twenty fucking years of waiting.
I was sure he’d been swindled, but it led us here. It just took a bit more time than we were hoping.
“You’re too optimistic for your own good,” Hex says, shaking his head. “She smells even sweeter than I remember.”
“We’re going to win her back,” I declare.
“We never had her to begin with.”
Well, that’s true enough. “Is this about the orc?”
“I didn’t think she’d actually be inlovewith anyone. She hadn’t had sex in years. I thought we’d have a chance to gain her affection. That won’t be easy because of him. She doesn’t need us. She doesn’t even want us.”
I nod.
We’ve discussed this extensively back in Faere. She’d been with someone a handful of times over the years, but that was some time ago. Now that she has something brewing with the orc, it certainly does put a wrench in our plans to win her back.
However, I have faith it can be done.
We haven’t spent the last twenty-three fucking years celibate for nothing. I’m going to make that woman love me if it’s the last motherfucking thing I do.
* * *
“Do you hear that?” Hex snarls, leaning over with his face only inches from mine.
I was dead-ass asleep three seconds ago. I very unceremoniously slap him in the face while trying to get my bearings.
“Motherfucker,” Hex says. “I should have seen that coming.”
