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For the rest of the day, I listened to see if the horses would speak. They were well-trained animals who obeyed spoken commands as well as most dogs, so it was hard to know if that was magic or just conditioning. As the day wore on, I’d grown jumpier and my heart beat faster, anticipating what that magic might feel like within me or what it might do around me.
By the time I reached the dining hall late that night—fae ate even later than my people—I was exhausted from being jittery for so long.
Everence sat sipping wine and reading a book, and Hector lounged in the chair across from her, his stern brow pinched and his gaze fixed on the far wall. As I approached, neither of them moved. Finally, Hector’s trance broke and he blinked up at me in confusion. Remembering manners, he stood and nodded to me. Everence flipped her book shut and smiled up at me.
“I apologize, I was so caught up with what I was reading that I didn’t see you coming. I heard you, but I assumed you were Rafael.”
I glanced around. “Where is he?”
Hector sniffed in annoyance and avoided looking my way.
Everence shot him a look that clearly said behave, like the looks my mother used to give me as a child. “He should be joining us. I assumed he would be here already.”
This time, the brief look that passed between Everence and Hector betrayed their fear. My heart tensed and my veins flushed with a fresh wave of dread.
Carefully, I took a seat, aware of Hector’s scrutiny and Everence’s masked unease.
“May I ask you something,” I whispered to Everence, knowing Hector could hear me but attempting to keep him out of the conversation nonetheless. When she nodded, I said, “Javier mentioned that the fae vows…that I now…” This was harder to say aloud than I’d anticipated. “That I will take on some of Rafael’s magic.”
Across from me, Hector stiffened in his seat, his keen eyes on me.
Everence exhaled a slow breath. “That is true. Marriage is a little different between immortals than it is with your kind. Fae live a long time. My people crave power, and one way to increase in magical abilities is to marry, because our vows ensure that power is shared between spouses, at least when the marriage is agreed upon by both parties. There can be no forced bindings between magics. In other words, someone cannot be spelled to say the vows. Magic will not be shared in that case.”
I nodded, encouraged that at least I hadn’t been spelled into marrying Rafael. That had been entirely my decision, and I would live with it.
“And while many high fae marry to gain magical abilities,” Everence continued, “when one of our kind marries a mortal, the exchange of power is—”
The double doors at the back of the smaller dining hall burst apart, and in stumbled Rafael, bleeding from a wound on his left thigh.
He collapsed to the wood floor. Hector and Everence darted from the table and knelt by his side in the amount of time it took me to scoot my chair back enough to stand. Rafael grunted in a voice so low I couldn’t discern his words.
I rushed forward and crashed to the floor beside Everence, my breaths gusting and afraid, hers measured and calm. Rafael lay mostly still, other than his chest rapidly rising and falling. His face was whiter than I’d seen it.
“What is she doing? Move away,” Hector barked at me, his eyes glowing with a pale yellow light.
Everence looked pointedly at me and shook her head as she continued ripping the fabric around Rafael’s wound. “She can stay.”
Rafael’s eyes peeked open and he stared up at me. His jaw twitched, but he showed no other signs of being in pain. Everence hummed quietly, then Rafael’s breathing evened out and his face relaxed.
“Better?” asked Hector, leaning over to inspect Rafael’s leg.
I leaned back in surprise. There was no longer a wound, no sign of injury at all. Blood still stained his pants and hands, but he was healed.
“Amazing,” I whispered.
Hector helped Rafael to his feet, and Everence helped me.
No one spoke for a moment, and I felt it had everything to do with my presence. My cheeks heated, but I kept my gaze locked on my husband, though in truth he didn’t feel like my husband yet. But I was supposed to be here, and I needed to act like it.
Rafael rolled one shoulder and said to Hector, “I’m fine, brother.”
“You lost too much blood.”
“I’m fine.”
Hector’s jaw worked. “How long were you wounded this time?”
