Chapter Twenty-One
As far as Oberon was concerned, the most important part of the battle was finished, but it still wasn’t over.
“Corral mounts for yourselves,” he said to Kathryn and Robin. “And check their saddlebags—we need whatever provisions they have, and we have to get out of here fast.”
Kathryn got straight to work. Robin stirred as well, but as Oberon’s gaze lingered on him, he saw the puck take a knife to slice out the dead Queen’s tongue. With a violence that spoke of some dark, untold history, Robin flung it aside. Then he cut off Isabeau’s golden hair at the nape and stuffed the length into one of his coat pockets.
Oberon might never learn the full story of what had happened to Robin while Isabeau had kept him in captivity, so it wasn’t his place to judge. If Robin needed something physical from Isabeau to convince himself she was truly dead, Oberon hoped her hair brought him some peace.
Turning away, he found that Kathryn had already caught two of the horses. The Light Fae horses were experienced battle mounts, and none of them had wandered far. Even though they were uneasy with Oberon’s scent, it was relatively easy work to capture several more.
Robin joined them. Rapidly they collected weapons and rummaged through the packs. There was plenty to harvest: knives, small iron cooking pots, dried jerky, pouches of salt, flint and strikers for fire starting, and stores of hard biscuits that were the staple food of many armies on a march. Kathryn called it hardtack. Each mount also had a bag of grain for horse feed as well as a cloak and blanket tied in a roll behind the saddles.
“Isabeau and her party were remarkably well prepared,” he said. “They must have kept ready in case they needed to desert the Arkadians for any reason.”
“Yes, I can see that they did,” an unknown male said in a cold, clipped voice.
Fuck. They weren’t the only ones who knew how to cloak their presence. He hadn’t heard anything, and obviously neither had Kathryn or Robin.
Oberon spun to face the new threat while Robin snarled, and Kathryn shapeshifted and flew to the top of the tallest tree. The part of him that remained constantly aware of her presence took note and passionately approved of her decision. She knew how to use her strengths to everyone’s best advantage. It also got her out of arm’s reach of the twenty Light Fae cavalry that stood facing Oberon and Robin.
To a person, their expressions were white and drawn. Like Isabeau, they must have come believing they would enjoy a resounding victory.
One Light Fae male’s horse stood a few feet yards in front of the others. That, along with a strong aura of Power and an air of command, told Oberon this was the leader of the Arkadian army.
“Whoever you are, you have excellent cloaking skills, I’ll give you that,” Oberon said grimly. Maybe if they hadn’t been so exhausted and focused on their tasks, one of them would have sensed the Light Fae’s approach, but he couldn’t guarantee it.
“I am Asheroth, Lord of Arkadia,” the Light Fae male told him. “And you must be the infamous King of the Daoine Sidhe.” His hard gaze glittered like blue diamonds set in stone. He didn’t glance at Isabeau’s body. “According to the reports received by the Queen’s council, you were unconscious and dying.”
He spread out his hands. “As you can see, their reports were mistaken. Asheroth, you are trespassing on my land. Have you accepted how drastic a mistake that was, or do you need more evidence?”
Standing relaxed and confident and drenched in Light Fae blood, he threw everything he had into the bluff. He had fresh injuries and the surgery to contend with, and he’d used nearly all his available Power. Robin had driven himself to exhaustion and was too injured to run. Of the three of them, Kathryn was the best off, but she was only one person.
If this came to another battle, it wouldn’t go in their favor.
But most people didn’t realize weather magic couldn’t produce instant results. The majority of weather events had to be built over time. Lyonesse’s weather had been disrupted for years and had not yet settled into a more stable pattern. That was one of the reasons why Oberon had been able to create such a massive and powerful storm so quickly—that, along with the fact that many preexisting conditions for spring storms had already been present.
But maybe this foreign lord wouldn’t know anything about weather magic either.
“You destroyed more than half my army,” Asheroth said in a clipped voice through whitened lips. “Over three thousand souls. Their bodies are scattered everywhere.”
“And you sacrificed all of them for a woman who deserted you the first chance she got,” Oberon said. “Was the price Arkadia paid worth it?”
“I did not come here for her,” Asheroth bit out. His horse danced uneasily, and he hauled it under control. “I came because the Daoine Sidhe are responsible for my brother’s death! He was my only heir.”
Robin laughed wildly. “Is that the story she fed you? You fool, nobody in Lyonesse had anything to do with your brother’s death—they don’t even know who he was! She manipulated you into going to war! She used you to get what she wanted, just as she used everyone else and everything around her. She probably wept pretty tears over Valentin’s body as she spun the story without ever stating a real lie… She kept me in a cage for years, and I watched her do it over and over again.”
The puck’s voice rang with a truth so sharp and bitter Oberon could almost taste it.
“I never mentioned my brother’s name,” Asheroth said slowly as he stared at Robin.
“You didn’t have to. I was in Avalon. Everyone knew who Valentin was. He tried to rape someone, and she killed him for it.” Robin showed his teeth. “And before you try to insist, no, I won’t tell you who killed him. Was it the cook in Isabeau’s castle, or maybe one of the housemaids? Valentin must have raped so many women. But I’m guessing you already know about that. It’s hard to keep a habitual crime like rape hidden for so many centuries.”
The Arkadian lord drew back sharply, and for a long, tense moment, Oberon thought he was going to attack.
Digging deep inside, Oberon raised what Power he could so that the Light Fae could feel it amassing like a warning thundercloud. He drawled, “It appears she misled you over just about everything.”
“Yes,” Asheroth said between his teeth. “It appears she did.” He nudged his horse forward, deliberately walking over Isabeau’s body, and dismounted. Meeting Oberon’s gaze, on the same level as equals, he said, “Just as my dead are scattered all over your countryside, so are the living. Despite the blow you have struck against Arkadia today, I offer a truce, so I can collect my people and take them home.”
“Despite the blow I struck?” Oberon gave him a hard stare. “Let’s be clear about this. You and I will never be anything other than enemies. You invaded my home and slaughtered my people without verified evidence to justify your need for war. I took your three thousand souls as payment for the hundred you took of mine without asking. You have four days to collect what’s left of your army and leave Lyonesse. Any Arkadian I find after that will be slaughtered without mercy—and I will be looking for them.”
Now hatred blazed from Asheroth’s eyes. He said bitterly, “We will be gone by the end of your fourth day. Sooner, if I can manage it. I never want to lay eyes on you or your cursed land again.”
* * *
The Arkadian lord mounted and issued a command in a harsh-sounding language, and he and his party rode off.
After watching how Oberon had bluffed his way through that parley, Kathryn’s wings felt strengthless and watery. She felt relieved that all she had to do was coast down to the ground and shapeshift.
As soon as she appeared, Oberon said to her and Robin, “Mount up. He may change his mind, and even if he doesn’t, it’s going to take a while for his commands to spread over the countryside to all his troops. We’ve got to put distance between us and this place.”
Her body ached with exhaustion. All she wanted was to be done, to have a hot bath and good meal, and to go to bed. But if she felt that way, Robin and Oberon must feel ten times worse. Robin couldn’t walk without limping, and he moved as if every bone in his slim body hurt. And Oberon had a long raw streak down his neck and shoulder that she hadn’t had time to attend to yet.
She would be damned if she complained before either of them did.
Mounting, they rode in an odd zigzag pattern up hillsides. It had to be uncomfortable for their new mounts, but the horses were much better rested than the three of them were and took the challenging terrain steadily.
In the air, her sense of direction was almost as impeccable as her balance and coordination. On the ground and surrounded by trees, and enveloped in a growing haze of exhaustion, she quickly grew lost. But Oberon moved like he knew where he was going, so all she really need to do was stay on her horse and doze if she could.
At dusk he called a halt by a narrow stream of fresh running water, so they could set a fireless camp. By then they all moved as if every bone in their bodies hurt, but the horses needed attending to first. They needed to be fed a measure of the grain and given water and then hobbled so they could graze.
Only then did Kathryn turn her attention to Oberon and Robin. “Which one of you is worse off?”
“Robin,” Oberon said.
At the same time, Robin said, “Oberon.”
She snorted. “Never mind, I’ll check for myself.”
As bloody as Oberon was, she was surprised to find that Robin was worse off. He had taken deep tissue damage from a morningstar that impaired muscle and ligaments, and she found the break in his leg that had barely been patched together. Remembering how viciously the stallion had fought, she was surprised he hadn’t shattered the leg again.
She started by numbing the pain, and then she poured every kind of healing technique she had into him, repairing ligaments, urging muscle regeneration in strategic places and strengthening the bone, until his body couldn’t absorb any more magic. By the time she finished, he had long since fallen into a deep sleep. She tucked a cloak and blanket around him.
Oberon had washed at the stream and sat quietly, watching her work.
“He needs to sleep until he wakes on his own, if we can let him, and then he needs to keep doing that until he’s better,” she told Oberon as she moved to kneel beside him. She could feel the pain radiating from his body as soon as she laid her hands on him. It made her wince. “The same goes for you, by the way.”
“If we can,” he agreed. His voice was rough with exhaustion. He held steady while she worked on him.
As soon as she had completed her work, he pulled her to him, and she settled against his body. After all the stress and fear she had endured, she meant to only soak in the comfort of a hug before she washed and ate something, but the heavy, muscled weight of his arms acted faster than any drug. They fell asleep stretched out on the rocky ground near Robin.
The next morning, Kathryn woke first. She didn’t want to, but her neglected bodily needs were making themselves known. Easing away from Oberon’s long, lax form, she gnawed on jerky and hardtack until her empty stomach stopped hurting, and then she washed at the stream and took care of other personal functions away from the camp.
Afterward, she shapeshifted to scout around. As soon as she discovered there were no Arkadians in the area, she went hunting. After catching three good-sized rabbits, she hauled them to the camp one by one. Working briskly, she soon had them skinned, cut up, and cooking in their three small pots, along with salt, chickweed, and dandelion that she found growing all around.
While that cooked, she went hunting for herself. The land was rich with wildlife, so she caught enough for a satisfying breakfast easily enough.
The chores gave her plenty of time to think. After the stew was done cooking, she set the pots around the edge of the fire to keep them warm. When Oberon finally stirred and sat, his sharp gaze flew immediately to the fire.
She smiled. “We’re safe. I scouted before I started it. There’s nobody around for miles. Are you ready for breakfast?”
Relaxing, he told her, “You’re a goddamn miracle.”
“I know.” She accepted his kiss with a murmur of pleasure. As he took one of the pots and inhaled appreciatively, she told him, “The chickweed is good for muscle and joint pain, and the dandelion is good for the blood. Remember that—both you and Robin need it, so I want you to eat lots while I’m gone.”
A fierce frown darkened his features. “What do you mean—while you’re gone?”
“I’ve been thinking, and no other option makes sense,” she replied. “Robin can’t transport us right now, and you and he both need to take things easy. In the meantime, we left everyone back in the city without a word of explanation and panicked about the Arkadian invasion.” She paused, remembering Annwyn’s severe composure. “Or if not panicked, severely worried.”
Oberon ate too as he listened. “You were right the first time. Most of them will be in a panic, just some will hide it better than others.”
“You and Robin need to take your time,” she pointed out. “But I’m not injured. I’ve slept well, and I’ve eaten, and I’m the fastest messenger we’ve got.”
“Put like that, it is rather obvious,” he said dryly. “I don’t suppose I need to ask if you can find your way back to the city.”
“If you like asking the kind of questions where you already know the answers, by all means, be my guest.” Her eyes laughed at him.
His gaze narrowed. “Your sarcasm can be very sexy, you know. Very irritating, but very sexy.”
As they stared intently at each other, heat thrummed through her body.
Robin sat, roused by their voices. His hair stood up in tufts around his thin face. She handed him one of the cookpots by way of greeting, and he gave her a look of surprised gratitude before bolting the contents down, crunching through bones and all.
“So, we’re agreed I should go?” she asked Oberon.
“We’re agreed.” He played with her fingers and switched to telepathy. I don’t like it.
I don’t either.
She hadn’t expected him to say anything else, but it was still remarkably difficult to tear herself away. She knew they were in no imminent danger, and now that they’d had some healing and a chance to rest, they could take care of themselves.
No, this difficulty was all about the mating. She put off moving, rubbing the ball of her thumb along his strong, broad palm.
“Be sure to tell them we’re directly east of the Tellemaire passageway and headed for the Plajette caravan route. They’ll understand what that means.”
“Okay.”
Suddenly he muttered, “I can’t fucking stand this.”
“Me neither,” she whispered.
Before she lost all ability to move, she shapeshifted and bolted skyward.
She thought it would get easier the more distance she put behind her, but it didn’t. With each passing mile, she felt like she was trailing something vital like entrails behind her.
What a bloody thought. It didn’t augur well for what she intended to do next.
They had been correct about the state of tightly controlled panic back in the city. Over the short time they had been gone, even more people had poured in. All the troops from Raven’s Craig had arrived, and every broken barracks and building was strained to overcapacity.
The members of Oberon’s inner counsel were both angry and relieved to see her. Annwyn was incandescently furious and threatened to throw her in jail for her part in facilitating Oberon’s crackbrained plan, but her rage quickly shifted to fierce exultation on hearing the news of Isabeau’s death.
In short order, Annwyn herself, Rowan, and a party of a hundred and fifty troops rode out to meet Oberon and Robin. Some would provide a safe escort back while the majority would scour the landscape for any sign of a lingering Arkadian presence.
When they departed, Kathryn let herself into Oberon’s office, sat at his desk, and wrote a series of letters. She used his own wax and seal to seal them and left one on the clean surface of his desk while she took the rest.
She could neither rest nor settle, and she certainly couldn’t face eating anything, so she left directly afterward. Flying hard for the crossover passageway that would lead her back to the old manor house in England, she only stopped once, briefly, when she absolutely had to rest. Then she pushed onward.
The troops stationed at the passageway were overjoyed with her news. Keeping her report concise over a quick cup of hot sweet tea, she told them everything that the public back in the city knew, and then she insisted on crossing over.
With every mile, every decision, every minute, she was leaving pieces of herself behind.
When she emerged from the passageway into a cold, rainy English night, a guard escorted her over to Sophie and Nik’s cottage. The guard knocked on the door, and it only took a few moments before it was yanked open by a bare-chested, dangerous-looking Nik while a sleepy Sophie peered around his shoulder.
“Oberon is awake and healed, and Isabeau is dead,” Kathryn told them. By then her voice had turned hoarse with exhaustion. She had to pause while they reacted to the news. After they whooped jubilantly and hugged each other, she went on. “They need food badly, and a lot of it. The time slippage is a serious problem right now—we’ve got to get supplies back over that passageway as quickly as we can.” She looked at Nik. “The city has sustained serious damage, and the stores in the granaries are ruined. I don’t suppose you know any Djinn who owe you any favors?”
“Not a single one,” he said. “We’ve been buying food as fast as we can afford it.”
“Don’t worry about money,” she told him. “I’m contributing to the cause….”
Her voice trailed away as she looked around. They still stood on the doorstep, and spring flowers decorated the stoop.
Time slippage was the worst kind of jet lag ever.
Of course. It was no longer autumn in England. It was now spring. Months had passed since she had been gone. She had known this would happen from the beginning. She swayed.
“Come inside now, Kathryn,” Sophie said encouragingly. “You’ve clearly been through a lot, and you can barely stand upright.”
“I can’t!” Kathryn exclaimed. “I’ve got to get back.” She turned to go.
Sophie sprang forward and put her arms around her while Nik said, “No, you don’t.” His voice was patient. “Dr. Shaw, all the urgency is in Lyonesse. On this side, you’ve got a lot more time to figure things out….”
“You don’t understand!” she shouted, shaking. “I’ve come too far!”
Their expressions went blank with surprise. Sophie asked cautiously, “Honey, what do you mean?”
Belatedly, she realized how irrational she was acting—she hadn’t even finished what she had come so far to do, and she was already trying to get back. Gripping the doorpost, she forced her mind to work.
Deep inside, she knew there would never be another time to reevaluate all the choices she had made over the last week and a half.
She could still choose to go back to New York. Back to the life she knew so well, her friends, her medical practice. But it would be the worst kind of betrayal to Oberon. Her talons came out and she dug into the wood as she fought with her animal side to hold still so she could grapple with herself.
He would hate her forever, and she wouldn’t blame him. And they wouldn’t get a second chance. Wyr mating was not just based on sex—it was based on timing and personality as well as other life events.
But she had spoken the truth when she had said he was worth her life. The man who had surged out of the spell’s influence was strong, caring, clever and honest. He was honorable. No, he wasn’t perfect, but neither was she. They had a lot to learn about each other, and maybe their mating hadn’t turned to love yet, but there was every hope that it could.
And the glimpse of the future she could have in Lyonesse was alluring as anything else. Mating with Oberon might be intensely personal, but it was also a mission, and she needed a mission in her life. There was so much to do there, so much she could help with.
He was the most complete package she could ever hope to find. And despite how scary everything felt right now, she wanted that future. She truly wanted it. She truly wanted him.
Pulling the tatters of her self-control together, she told them as calmly as she could, “I’m mating with Oberon, and I’ve gone too far away from him. I’m only here to tell you how important it is to get as much food to us as quickly as you can and to give you access to my bank accounts, so you can pay for it.” Then she remembered and dug into her shirt to pull out the packet of signed and sealed letters she had brought with her. “These are for people back in New York. Will you deliver them for me?”
“Yes, of course!” Sophie said quickly.
“You still need to step inside for a few more minutes, Kathryn.” Nik backed up and held the door open wider. “How do you want us to access your accounts? Do you want to make an online transfer?”
Reluctantly, she stepped inside. “I don’t know how much to allocate for this, so I’m going to just give you the account information, and you can draw on it as you need.”
Sophie gave her a sober look. “That’s a lot of trust in us.”
Kathryn managed a twisted smile. “We’ve been in quite a scramble. In a couple of weeks or so—in Lyonesse—I should be able to come up with some more solid plans, but in the meanwhile, I know you’ll make the right decisions.”
Pressing a hand to her forearm, he gave her a grave smile. “You’ve done so much for us. Thank you for all your service, and welcome to the family.”
“It hasn’t really sunk in,” Sophie murmured. She and Nik looked at each other. She told him, “Now that Isabeau’s dead, we can finally make that trip to Lyonesse for you, like we always said we would.”
“Yes,” he said, his voice tight with emotion. “I need to see Oberon for myself, and I would love to see home again.”
“That settles it—we’re going,” Sophie said to Kathryn, “We’ll bring the first shipment of food over ourselves, and I’m going to see if we can find a Djinn who will bargain with us for a favor we can live with, so we get it transported to the city quickly.”
“That would be simply amazing.” Kathryn sighed. A little bit of the tension between her shoulders eased. “I’ve met many wonderful people in Lyonesse and I know I’m going to love them, but they are all so new to me. It will be really good to have you there, for as long as you want to visit.”
Nik and Sophie looked at each other again and laughed. Sophie confessed to Kathryn, “It may not be just for a visit. We’ve talked about not coming back.”
“One step at a time,” Nik said. “For now, let me take down your account information.” He wrote down what she told him, then asked, “Do you want me to do anything else?”
Belatedly, she remembered from Sophie’s stories that Nik was a financial wizard. “Buy a lot of food, and don’t skimp. Make sure there’s a good, healthy variety for a lot of people, for several months. A spring thaw has begun, but we’ve got to get through the growing season. Get the first shipment to the city fast, and don’t worry about the cost—I expect it to be quite expensive. That should do for now.”
“Excellent,” he said, fierce satisfaction evident in every line of his body.
His kind of intensity was sexy, Kathryn realized, but she saw it from a long emotional distance, as if admiring a beautiful painting. Then Oberon’s lion gaze flashed through her mind. It was followed by a hollow physical ache so bad she almost sank to the floor to curl in a ball.
But she had come this far. She just had to get through the rest of it.
When they had finished, she felt fifty pounds lighter. “I’ve got to go,” she told them again.
“Are you sure you won’t stay for a quick shower and a bite to eat?” Sophie asked.
That would be the rational, healthy thing to do, but…
“I’m sorry, I just can’t.”
“We’ll walk you back to the passageway.” Nik shrugged into a sweater while Sophie pulled a wrap over her short nightdress.
This was agonizing. Kathryn shifted from foot to foot until they walked out the door, and then she couldn’t merely walk anymore. She started running, and they kept pace with her, all the way through the jigsaw puzzle manor house.
When they reached the oubliette, she paused only for a moment. Smiling, Sophie said, “Go—go on! We will see you soon!”
“Goodbye! Hurry!” She bolted down the passageway tunnel and emerged into Lyonesse’s pristine air. No exhaust. No electric lights. No fuselage trails or satellites overhead. Thank the gods.
By that point, she was in a frenzy. What to do, what to do? How could she get back to him as quickly as possible? The sun had set once or twice… hadn’t it? It had to have set at least once. She remembered dozing in darkness with her eyes slit.
Should she head directly to where she had last left Oberon and Robin and track them from there? Or should she head back to the city first?
She had just completed a marathon, and now she needed to fly another, but she didn’t know how to calculate everything she had just done. The long hours and distance soul-searching and tasks and time slippage blurred together into one big, confused heartache.
She had no idea how to estimate where they might be. How far could they travel in the amount of time she had been gone?
Feeling crazed, she flung herself into the air and flew madly toward the city. Exhaustion bore her down. Raging at her own weakness, she found a place to roost and fell into a black pit. Then with a start, her eyes popped open and she launched into another mad flight.
What was he thinking? Had their time apart given him a chance to reconsider too? What if he changed his mind? Doubts like acid melted away logic and common sense.
Because it was like meeting a stranger and then being shocked by how quickly you can grow to need someone you barely know and don’t know if you can trust.
The only way you could keep reassuring yourself was with constant proximity.
Touching the other person often.
Making love, turning it into a mating frenzy.
Witnessing the truth in their own mating frenzy.
Talking together for hours about how to handle the overwhelming, life-changing experience you were both going through.
The precious newborn cord between her and Oberon felt broken, but it couldn’t be, could it?
Finally, the city came into view. Several minutes later, she landed in the courtyard in front of the palace and shapeshifted. The world spun, and her legs buckled.
Exclamations came from nearby. She turned her head toward them, working to focus her eyes, and the world spun again. Well, fuck. That was inconvenient.
Someone bent over her, blocking out the sun. “Oh, dear lady, are you hurt?” A woman’s voice.
“I should’ve showered and eaten,” she said. Her tongue felt too thick, and the words kept slurring. Frustrated, she tried them again. “Should have. Should. Have. Goddammit.”
Then strong arms came around her. Picking her up, Owen said, “Welcome back, your grace. I’m so sorry you’re feeling poorly.” He raised his voice in a shout. “Get his majesty!”
That made her lift her head. “He’s here?”
“Yes, your grace,” Owen told her as he carried her rapidly up the palace steps. “He and Robin arrived a few hours ago—”
A boiling hurricane exploded out of the palace front doors. Oberon roared, “What did you do?—Kathryn!”
She cringed from the noise. Suddenly he loomed right beside them, and with tense, gentle care he took her from Owen.
“You’re heavy lifting,” she reminded him.
“The. Fuck. I. Am.” His quietly spoken words came out with the force of bullets. “We haven’t seen each other for a few fucking days—how the fuck did you drop so much weight?”
“I should’ve–sh-should have showered and eaten,” she told him. “But I couldn’t stop. When I crossed over to Earth, I got too far away from you. There was this crazy animal in my head, clawing to get back. I couldn’t stop to eat. I just had to get back as fast as I could.”
“You flew all that way—twice—without eating? I don’t even want to talk to you right now.” His growl sounded low and vicious even as he cradled her close and ran up the stairs.
Someone kept pace with him. Owen was still with them. Oberon rattled off orders for food and fresh clothes, and Owen swung away and disappeared.
As Oberon approached the doors to the King’s apartment, the waiting guard opened them, Oberon strode inside, and they shut again discreetly. “You crossed over to Earth without telling or asking me—”
The world was beginning to stop spinning. “That’s not true—I wrote you a letter. I’m so thirsty.” Her nose wrinkled. “And gods, I stink.”
“You really do,” he said. “And you look like shit. You’re not making a whole lot of sense either.”
In his bathing room, he set her on the fancy carved bench beside the clean towels, and he went to open the flue to let water gush in. Now there were two clean robes on the bench instead of one, she noticed, and soaps that smelled pleasantly like jasmine and lavender had been placed beside the cedar-and-citrus soap.
She struggled to get out of her clothes. Her arms felt like rubber. After a moment he knelt in front of her to help. His face was tight. He was so furious.
Once she had her clothes off, she went to the sink and turned the lever. It wasn’t like the sinks she was used to. The lever pulled up a metal slide, and water from an open pipe gushed in.
She stuck her head all the way under it, and the shock of cold helped to clear the last of the dizziness and confusion. Drinking until she couldn’t hold any more, she came up gasping for air.
He had kept one hand on her bare hip the whole time, presumably to keep her from collapsing again. When she finished, he was waiting with a towel and wrapped it around her, tucking the ends into her hands so she could hold it herself.
She met the lion’s hot golden-black gaze. Paradoxically, she felt better than she had in days. “Spit it out.”
He laughed, and that was really a growl too. Then his hard hands clamped on her shoulders, and he hissed, “You went to Earth without me!”
“Well, yes…” She blinked and frowned. Maybe she was still more confused than she realized. “And now I’m back again?” Without her conscious volition, her voice trailed upward, turning it into a question. “Could you sense when I was gone?”
If anything, that fanned the flames of his rage higher.
“NO!” he shouted. She could feel each of his fingers separately as they dug into the soft flesh of her upper arms. “I just found out a few hours ago when we returned! We met Annwyn’s party, and then Robin and I pushed as hard as we could to get back—I pushed him to transport me the last of the way here, and even though he wasn’t ready to, he did. And you weren’t even here. You left me a fucking letter and went to fucking Earth, where anything could have happened to you. And if it had, I wouldn’t have known. You could have disappeared. And I wouldn’t. Have. Known.”
Ah. She began to get an inkling of why he was so angry.
“How long were you there?” he demanded. Possessive jealousy burned hot in his eyes.
Her cold, wet head was starting to make her shiver. Just as she became aware of it, he flung a warming spell at the gigantic bathing tub and gave her a rough nudge toward it. She complied, dropping the towel and letting herself topple in.
Blissful, blissful warmth. The water closed over her head, and then she bobbed to the surface. She told him, “I’m not sure. Maybe I was there a half an hour? They wanted me to slow down, shower, and eat something—they said, and rightly so, that I had all the time in the world on that side of the passageway, but Oberon, a part of me was in this perpetual panic.” She waved the fingers of both hands at her head. “I had all these crazy thoughts running through my head—I’d traveled too far away from you, and you were going to change your mind about us, I just knew it.”
He stripped off his own clothes with angry movements as he listened, and once he was nude, he grabbed a couple of bowls of the scented soap to set at the side of the tub. Every part of him was beautiful. His masculine frame was long and broad enough that they carried the heavy muscles with what looked like weightless, catlike grace.
Then he dove in and joined her.
“I’m glad it was so hard for you,” he said flatly, swiping his wet black hair back from his face.
“Now you’re just being mean.” Swimming over to him, she cuddled against his torso, and they both groaned as they came skin to skin.
“I feel mean.” Hooking an arm around her neck, he glared into her eyes. “Did you pause to reconsider?”
“I’m never going to lie to you.” She met his gaze steadily. “I did some quick soul-searching. I think that’s part of why I felt so panicked afterward.” His breath shook out, as if she had physically struck him. As gently as she knew how, she added, “I’m not sorry, and I didn’t do it because of anything you did—I did it for my sake. This is the most extreme life decision I’ve ever faced, and I didn’t want to be second-guessing myself later when it would be too late to do anything about it. And as hard as it must be for you to hear, I’m not sorry about telling you now. I want you to know you can rely on me for having made my choice.”
She watched as he closed his eyes and absorbed the blow. Then he growled, “You will never, ever do that again. You will never make such a drastic trip without talking to me first. You never use a crossover passageway without me. You never go someplace where I don’t know where you are, or if you’re safe or in danger—or if you’re even alive.”
Gently she rested her fingers against his mouth.
He stopped, looked at her again, and said with a quiet edge, “You should not look so peaceful when I’m yelling at you.”
“You can yell at me all you need,” she told him. “I didn’t know the trip was going to hit me that hard. When I started out it was a simple, easy plan—I was going to cross over to tell them we needed large shipments of food as quickly as they could get it to us. I would make sure they had the money to cover it, and then I would be back. It didn’t make sense to wait for you when Robin had to recover and so many people were arriving and there was a food shortage happening right now. So this was something I thought I could do for everyone. I didn’t make the trip so I could reconsider everything, and I didn’t know I was going to panic. All that just happened.”
“You’re not going to disarm me with your naivete and altruistic motives,” he growled. “There’s no room for misunderstanding right now. I need you to spell everything out.”
The beginnings of a smile trembled at the corners of her lips. “You know how to nurse a grudge, don’t you?”
“I really do,” said the King of the Daoine Sidhe. “And I know how to keep a war going for years on end. Give me what I want, Kathryn.”
Opening her eyes, she gave him a direct look. “Don’t ever let yourself doubt me. I am really, truly wholeheartedly here—because I want to be. I will never make a decision like that again without talking things over with you first. I’m never going to use a crossover passageway without you again. I’m never going to disappear so that you have no clue whether I’m safe or in danger or if I’m even alive.”
“And you will eat regular meals, gods damn it,” he said. “This weight loss is for shit. You will let me keep you safe.”
“I will let you keep me safe,” she agreed. Twisting so that she came face-to-face with him, she wrapped her legs around his waist and hugged him with her whole body. “And you will let me keep you safe too. You are still my chosen mate, Oberon, and I really missed you.”
At that, the last of his anger bled away. Cradling her close, he kissed her.
That was setting a lit match to tinder that had been dry for days. They ate at each other, tongues dueling as they desperately worked to deepen the kiss. He was so damn slippery and hot. Every tight, rock-hard muscle she rubbed against made her hunger spiral higher. She sucked at his earlobe, his neck, while his hard hands roamed everywhere.
It wasn’t comfortable. Maybe someday they would achieve the easy, comfortable kind of lovemaking that could happen on a lazy winter afternoon, but right now they were far from that. This was too elemental.
He lifted her to the water’s edge and pushed her back, so he could come between her legs to lick and explore every part of her. He knew just what to do with that clitoris of hers, and it was so extremely pleasurable she nearly leaped out of her skin with every jolt.
She wanted to relax, but she was too wound up and couldn’t take it. Pushing him away, she slid underwater and down to caress and lick his cock, one hand braced against his thigh.
Grasping her by the hair, he pumped into her mouth, short, shallow jabs that indicated his own urgency, but it wasn’t a position either of them could hold for long. After a moment he pulled out and urged her to the surface.
“No,” he said. “Not like that, not this time.”
“Then how?” she asked, stroking his cheek.
“Face-to-face,” he whispered. “I want to look into your eyes when I come.”
“I want that too.”
In response, he picked her up in his arms and used the steps to walk out of the bathing tub. He carried her so easily, this time she didn’t even bother to bitch at him about the heavy lifting.
When he reached the great bed, he let her legs slide to the floor as he yanked back the bedcovers and tumbled down with her, and their urgency shifted into coupling. Using two fingers, he eased into her passage, stroking out the evidence of her arousal and preparing her for him.
She twisted under his attentions, burning up as if she had a fever. She loved it when he worked her. With little nips along his bicep and pectoral, she took his erection in her hand and pumped it.
She wasn’t the only one who felt feverish. Heat poured off his tight body. He pushed his hips to the rhythm she made with her head, until finally, with a muttered curse, he pulled away and spread her legs wide to enter her. From that point on, they shot even further out of control. The animal that lived in her, the one that had panicked so badly when she had gotten too far away from him, clawed and cried out to him.
And his animal answered, pinning her down, thrusting harder and deeper until he pistoned with such a relentless, driving force that when she climaxed, it shot through her with the force of a bullet. More climaxes came, each one higher than the one before, until they were almost unendurable.
The extreme ecstasy would have been a terrible, lonely thing to experience on her own, but he was right there with her—his back arching with each spurting gush. She adored watching him lose control. They pushed each other on until they simply couldn’t go any further, coconspirators to the end.
Afterward, they lay entwined. The sheets were damp. She thought about suggesting they move into the Queen’s bedroom, where the bed would be dry. A giant yawn cracked her jaw. Maybe she would in a little bit.
Oberon shifted to rest his head on her shoulder. With an exhausted sigh, he pressed his lips to her shoulder and muttered, “God, I’m finally home.”
He’d already been back at the palace all day.
Warmth spread through her as she realized he meant her. Then she realized something else. Even at his angriest, even when she had hurt him the most, he had taken such great care with her. Holding her, paying attention to every detail, seeing to her needs. He knew exactly how strong he was and how to rein that in and control it when it mattered.
They wouldn’t always get it right. They had each made some pretty big mistakes already, but that was the moment she knew everything was going to work out beyond anything she could have hoped for.
He had a heart as big as it was wide, her lion. As big as Lyonesse. No wonder his people adored him.
No wonder she did.
She would always remember this exact moment, when she lay warm and easy and close to sleep as she fell in love weightlessly with her mate.