Chapter Twenty-Six
“Brennan.” Ajax slowly stood. Maeve’s brother wore a worried, almost he’d say, panicked expression. “I’m glad you could come.”
“Where is she?”
Ajax focused on the floor for a second to get the necessary strength to manage this job thrust on him by his friend’s death. “She’s where he fell. No one can reach her. No one can move her.” From what Ryan described, no one could go near the spot where Stephano had fallen, then disappeared. She’d frozen the entire land. “She’s not responding to anyone.”
Brennan glanced at the Silkie, Ryan, then back to him. “Why hasn’t Stephano returned?”
Good question. One that Aeros was off discovering now.
“I have no idea. Ares has his…reasons, no doubt. We die, and sometimes, yes, stay dead for a while.” Years, if they had displeased Ares. “Then return. She won’t listen to this. I thought, we thought, she might hear you.”
“Take me to her.” Brennan had made a place for himself in their realm. By all accounts, the Lykae thought well of him. Darren was with him now, Garret by his side. Both stayed silent, but waited, much as they always did.
“It’s this way. You’ll need warmer clothes.” Ryan handed him a leather fur-lined coat and two more to the wolves. Both men raised their eyebrows, but took the offerings in stride. Ajax buttoned his up and marched after the Silkie. Less than a half hour later, they were through the Silkies’ odd gate and striding through forest that should have been in full bloom but was frozen and brittle. The closer they grew to Maeve, the icier the air became and the more their breaths puffed out from them in white clouds.
“She’s doing this?” Garret asked.
Brennan glanced uneasily from him to the wolves.
“She loves him.” Garret seemed to feel that explained it all. “Best get Ares off his ass and return Stephano. Or better yet, wake her up and let her go after Ares. He wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“It might not be Ares,” Ajax muttered. “Hades doesn’t like losing either. Each time we die then return, he loses.” He shrugged. “It’s a problem. We don’t die often, and by the sounds of it, this was a glorious battle, a few against a horde, but still… Gods can be difficult.” He tucked his hood over his head as he spoke, shivering at a gust of wind. Winter wasn’t his thing.
“Here, she’s at the center,” Ryan called, fighting the blowing snow.
“Damn, this is like that movie, Frozen, except she’s not frozen solid, we’re going to be,” Darren called.
Ajax ignored that and focused on the small figure bent on her knees, her head down. She was covered in a fine layer of ice and white, but every once in a while, the wind would ease and her sad song would flow toward them, lifting her hair free of the white. His heart clenched. Hades might keep Stephano dead for a century. Would she be long gone by then, or was she immortal, like them? He’d not asked, but the thought of Stephano losing someone who finally loved him… “We need to get her up.”
He wasn’t sure Brennan heard him over the cry of the wind. But Brennan kept walking, arm up over his eyes to reach his sister. Ajax only hoped it would do some good. Stephano would come unglued to learn his woman was in this much pain.
* * * *
Stephano pounded on the rusty bars to his jail cell—to no avail. He shouted curses at Hades and Ares. Nothing came of it. The constant drip, drip, drip of water was driving him insane. He raised both fists and brought them down hard enough to make the metal scream. Still no one came to him.
“Hades, you cowardly mule! I demand you let me go!” His shout was met with nothing. No response. It’d been the same since he’d woken, alone, here in this dark, miserable dungeon. It wasn’t like the last time. Hades wasn’t here tormenting him on how his woman was already on to her next conquest, or showing him exactly how she entertained herself when he’d been gone on campaigns. The absence meant a great deal, but he was beyond those worries. He knew Maeve loved him. Knew she would be…devastated without him. I only now convinced her to trust me and I failed her. I left her, like Brennan and everyone else.
He shook the bars, fisting his hands so hard they ached and nothing moved the metal. Exhausted, he stumbled back clutching his head in anguish. “I have to get to her. She’s—”
“Freezing the Silkies’ Enchanted Wood.” Ares stepped forward from the shadows.
The bastard. Stephano dropped his hands, reminding himself of all the reasons he couldn’t shout at his god as he faced him. Ares was dressed as he always was, in his gilded armor and leather kilt, studded boots and long broadsword. He was stronger than a hundred men, a god of war like none other. But in that moment, heart full of grief for his woman, Stephano knew that his loyalty lay with her, not him.
“Ah, I see you’re recovered from your defeat.” Ares drummed his fingers on his belt. He sighed, making it clear he was disappointed. Like I give a shit! “It’s only to be expected. The odds were against you, a hundred to one. Did you know?”
Suspicions roared through him. Did Ares set those Faye on us?
“Yes. A most glorious battle, but in the end, even the strongest of us fall when we isolate ourselves from where we belong.” Ares snapped the last word, making his point clear. He knows I want Mae. He knows I’ve found something to live for and it’s not him. “Tell me, Stephano, did you plan on staying in this realm, this dangerous, foreign land forever with your desirable Siren? Not that I can blame you. A Siren, after all, can use her considerable gifts to entice even the strongest warriors. Although…” Ares strolled over to the bars and tipped his eyebrows. “I thought you were beyond such childish dreams, Narc. My most jaded and well-balanced warrior. You know the wiles of women more than most. Why, I wondered to myself, would he fall for such scheming?”
Stephano bit back the anger, the complete and utter rage at such insults to Maeve, and concentrated on using his brain. Stay calm. Lie if you have to, but get to her. She’s hurt, hurting. And I’m fucking not there! Panic wasn’t his style, but he was in a full-blown rush to get the hell out of…hell.
“Or perhaps you didn’t fall at all, but were using circumstances to make the most of your time?”
And there it was. The out he needed. He could deny he loved Maeve. He could laugh everything he felt for her off. Say he was using her for sex and nothing more. Ares would open the door and return him to his world. He could then travel to hers, and have her.
But… I didn’t get to tell her I love her. I won’t lie now, and say I don’t. I have to have faith in the power of love. In her.
“Narc, are you listening to me?” Ares demanded, crossing his arms and spearing him with a glowering, godly frown of disapproval.
Stephano took a deep breath and exhaled. This feels right. “I am.”
“And?”
“I love her.” Those three words did something to him. He felt stronger, the panic eased away and a conviction filled him. “I will always love her. I need back with her. Now.” She’s freezing the Silkies’ Enchanted Forest with her sorrow. “She needs me.”
Ares snorted in disgust and dropped his arms.
“You see? He is no longer yours.” The silky voice was coupled with Hades smoothly gliding into the dungeon. If Ares was dressed for war, his brother was dressed for some court only gods attended. Robes of blackest silk, traced throughout in golden serpents and vines, he stood head to head with Ares, if not as broad in the shoulder. White-blond hair and icy blue eyes, he had a habit of looking down his regal nose at everyone, including Ares. “His loyalty lies with her. It will remain so for as long as she lives.”
“That’s easy to mend,” Ares muttered.
“Don’t you dare! Release me! I have served you for centuries, and for what?” he shouted. “For your honor, and nothing more. I have asked for nothing. I never asked to return to the living!” he reminded Ares. “You sought me out. You came to me!” He pounded his chest in his aggravation. “You needed me!”
“I gave you life!”
Breathless he tried to pull the rage back. Have to stay calm. “You took my life, and I served you with it,” he whispered hoarsely. His throat ached, the pain worse than the hundreds of wounds he’d suffered serving Ares. I don’t want to lose her. I can’t lose her.
“And now you would end your long life with this? Disloyalty and…and…settling down with a woman?”
“I would. I value her life and the lives of our future children to every year you’ve ever allowed me to live. I would trade it all, all my immortality, everything for her. To be with her!”
Ares’ face darkened with rage and he drew up his hand, as if to smash the bars that held Stephano prisoner. Hades intercepted his brother, but in that moment, another person arrived. A woman, petite with glowing eyes and a frown, she settled on Ares.
Ares’ entire being changed. “Darling, what are you doing here?” Ares spoke in a gentle, un-God-of-War tone. Even his expression softened as he brushed his hand through the woman’s long hair.
“Tabithia came to see me.” Her bright gaze went from him to Ares. Her eyes shimmered like Ares’, revealing power in their depths that shown brighter than a moon. Here was a god, surely, he thought, then realized who it was. Ares’ bride. The talisman as they had once thought, but a witch, an ancient, apparently beautiful witch. “She said you were being unkind to one of your men for falling in love. Is this true? You know we cannot interfere with matters of the heart.”
Stephano’s heart slowed its frantic beat. Hades even appeared chagrined, as if he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. But Ares was the god of war and Stephano wasn’t surprised when he tried to bluff his way out.
“He’s been killed in battle, nothing more. He’ll return, when the time is right.”
“But, Stephano is necessary. He needs to be alive and home with his Siren, or she will freeze all of the Silkies’ Kingdom and the Dark Faye will rule there unhindered.”
They would? He tensed, then realized something. The witch was exaggerating or else Tabithia was…
“The Silkies will not fall, darling. They have my brother’s protection. This Siren, she will—”
“She loves him,” she declared passionately. “He loves her. You cannae’ keep them asunder.”
Stephano’s heart soared. The finality in her tone was clear, even to Ares. The god of war reached out and brushed a stray lock of hair off her brow and bent to place a kiss on her forehead. “I do not wish to let him go for anything less.”
“He will always be yours, dearest.”
Stephano didn’t deny it. He owed Ares his loyalty. The god of war had come to him when he had been at his darkest, and given him a purpose the drove away the pain over a woman he’d thought was his. Now he knew. Even then, that woman had been a trophy, a reward for all his years of work and sacrifice. Nothing more. That’s the way he’d seen her. It hadn’t been love. Not for either of them. Mae is love. She’s my love.
“She’s truly mine.”
“You are still to remain here for—”
“I will not remain here!” he shouted at Hades. “She needs me. She is in pain without me.”
“Yes, we are aware, as is everyone else.” Ares’ eyes glowed and next to him his brother moved to protest, but Ares waved his hand. “No brother. He must return. Forgive his tone. He’s in love for the first time.” Ares tapped his temple. “It does things to a man. If I’m not mistaken, he’ll soon have his hands too full to chance dying again any time soon.”
Hades scowled but retreated into the shadows. “Remember, my leniency only goes so far, Ares. Soon, my debt will be paid, then when your men die, they will know the power of my realm.”
Ares rolled his eyes but snapped his fingers. The cell opened. His woman laughed and hugged him around his waist. “I love when you do that.” Ares tried to remain aloof, but at those words, his god like visage slipped and he smiled warmly down at the woman, then shot him a look that seemed to say he’d better not talk of this to anyone.
Stephano coughed in his fist to cover a laugh at Ares’ dilemma. “Now? Can you send me back to her, now?”
“As you wish, but remember, your loyalty still remains with me, as well as your new…family.”
Family? Stephano blinked as a light appeared, growing brighter and brighter until he realized it was the wood outside the cottage he’d shared with Maeve. It seemed ages ago. He hoped it was only days. Hours. First thing, I’m telling her I love her. Then I’m kissing her until she knows it’s true.
Maeve dried her eyes, but more tears followed the tracks laid down by the ones before. She blew her nose and sniffed but ever since she’d woken from her cold spell, she couldn’t seem to stem the flow of tears. Brennan had left, after reassuring her that sometime soon, Stephano would return. Ajax had confirmed it. Ryan lingered, stopping by when she really didn’t want him to bother. Ajax had also become more of a pest than a comfort. Her brother, though… She wiped at another tear, remembering his passionate words. In one short conversation, he’d dispelled every idea she’d ever believed. She had never been a burden to him. He’d been shocked to hear her sobbing confession. He’d dropped to his knees, very un-Brennan-like, and eyes shimmering assured her he that she was not to blame for Stephano’s death or their need to move so often. They both, he had said, were the reason they’d moved. He, too, had the power of his voice. Then, in a rush, he’d revealed how he’d been the one to lead the attackers to their home. He’d been only a child, but had gone in search of his mother’s attacker. She’d never known her mother had been hurt by men that worshipped Ares. She’d never known Brennan held guilt like that.
They’d held each other tightly as they both came to terms with their new lives. He’d also admitted he had been wrong about Stephano and the Spartans. But then, when they were both assured and renewed in their bond, she’d sent him away. She knew he understood and wanted to help her through this time, but being around others increased her pain.
She wanted to be alone in her misery.
But she had to stem the feeling. The forest was recovering but only just. The Silkies walked in fear of her now. Not that she’d seen them. Ryan hovered too often, but she knew others also roamed nearby.
Another tear welled up and dropped past her lashes. It was the shirt. She’d found it when she’d attempted to put a few things in their wardrobe. She’d told Stephano she would mend it, but never had found the time. He had always sidetracked her. With kisses and warmth and…him.
She’d tried to explain to Brennan, to describe what it was like now, to have him gone, when once he had been there. He had filled a room, let alone her heart. I can’t do this alone. I can’t. Not after knowing him. She hugged his shirt to her chest and cried, letting a teeny bit of the sorrow break free.
The door banging open and hitting the wall made her scream and drop his shirt, arms up in a defensive posture that Stephano had taught her.
Stephano stood framed by the morning light, his broad shoulders, his dark hair tangled and his hazel eyes pinned on her. He needed to shave and there was blood on his cheek, chest and arms, but he’d never seemed so handsome to her.
She stumbled backward into their table and fell to the floor. In three firm strides, Stephano pulled her up. She was pressed to his chest, breathing in the unmistakable and beloved scent of Stephano after a battle—sweat, blood and leather.
“I love you. I love you so much, Maeve, so damn much. Hades couldn’t keep me away from you, sweetheart.” His grip was painfully tight. His heartbeat thudded against her cheek. And slowly, she understood it was really, truly him.
“Stephano.” She clutched the back of his armor to keep him with her. “I’m not dreaming.”
“No, no, you’re not dreaming. Don’t cry, Maeve.”
She cried harder, holding him tighter for fear he’d disappear. Even when she heard a sound at their door, she couldn’t stop.
“Narc, you have to calm her down. What’d you do? Walk in and announce you love her?”
“Ajax, what—?”
“Aeros was worried. We all were. How is she?”
She cried harder when Stephano tried to pry her loose. He ended up curling his big arms around her and shaking. After a moment, she realized he was laughing.
“I tell you I love you and you cry? I thought you’d at least tell me you love me, too.”
“I already did! Then…you died! You…died.”
“I’m not dead now,” he reminded her brushing a kiss to her hair.
“No.” She choked on a tearful laugh. “You smell too bad to be dead.”
A laugh, not his, but Ajax’s she knew, then Stephano joined him. “I’ve been in Hades’ prison. No baths.”
She pulled away enough to stare up at him. He smiled but she saw the pain in his eyes. Carefully she reached up and laid her hand on his jaw. He was warm and solid. His heartbeat eased her panic, that and his arms wrapped around her lower back.
“You’re really here.” She slipped her hands along his chest.
“No one is ever taking me away again. I am done with this damn battle after battle. I want you safe, Mae. Safe and happy.” He smoothed her hair back from her face and pressed a kiss to her lips. She had the odd thought that his hands were trembling. “What do you think? Can we try that? Only the two of us?”
She smiled and framed his handsome face with her hands. “You love me?”
“I love you until I can’t breathe without you,” he assured her.
“You’ll never get killed again?”
He grimaced, and Ajax chuckled from across the room. She tore her eyes away from Stephano to see Ajax leaning against their doorframe.
“He can’t promise that, but he’ll probably take less time to get back. Now, I’ve interrupted I see, but do you two think I can stay the night? I hate that damn Silkies’ palace and the gates back are a pain.”
“He wants you to cook for him,” Stephano grumbled but shocked her by lifting her high to twirl her around. Smiling he set her down and kissed her, passionately enough she forgot all her sorrow and how awful he smelled. His lips were soft, his mouth hot and the taste of him reassured her he was here, in her arms. With a firm hand on her lower back, he pulled his lips away to stare down at her. “You turned the land to a frozen tundra for me? I think that says it all, but…”
“I love you. I love you so much that if you ever die again I will come after you myself and smack you!”
He grinned wider and did another spin with her. “Feisty little angel. I love you.” He kissed her once, but set her down. “He can stay, but he stays outside, not in the nursery.”
“Why outside?” Ajax demanded, half laughing she could tell.
“The nursery is for our child,” she said, touching her still flat stomach.
Both men stilled as if they’d been dipped in stone. Stephano paled to a color she’d never seen on him before. All at once, Ajax let out a whoop of laughter and smacked Stephano repeatedly on the back so hard Stephano bumped into her. Stephano appeared still too stunned. Unblinking, he stared down at her.
“A father. You, a dad. Holy hades, that’s going to be something to see!” Ajax smacked his shoulder again in his enthusiasm.
Stephano hadn’t stopped gaping at her, but at Ajax’s words, he stepped back to stare at her stomach for so long she grew nervous. It was one thing to surprise him, another to have him shocked speechless. She thought he was happy, but perhaps…he wasn’t.
“Stephano, you need to say something,” Ajax muttered.
“What?” Stephano finally blinked, then switched his gaze to Ajax.
Ajax grinned. “The ‘I love you more than breathing’ is probably a good start.”
“Fuck.” Stephano suddenly caught her up and lifted her again, hugging her high and tight, he kissed her stomach. “I love you more than breathing, more than anything in this fucked-up world, angel. A family. You’ll never leave me now.”
“Stephano! Put me down!” She hugged his head, so relieved, she felt dizzy. “I will never leave you ever, with or without our babe.”
Still laughing, he spun around once more, then set her down on her feet. “I’m going to be the best father in the world.”
Breathless she caught his arm to steady herself. “Yes. And I will never, ever let you train our son to fight when he is young. I have rules.” She stood straighter. Both men were gazing at her in a way that made her breath catch. “No weapons in the house. And no training until he is…taller than me.”
“No weapons in the house?” Ajax repeated in an incredulous tone. “Ridiculous.”
“I mean for our son,” she added tartly. “Stephano may have his weapons, but our child will not touch them.”
“Until he’s as tall as you? Well, that’s around ten, not too bad,” Ajax said.
Well, that wasn’t what she meant at all. “Ten? No, no, no.”
Stephano shook his head as if he’d been wet. “A boy needs—”
“He needs love.” She felt as if she had to explain this, now, to them both. “He will be loved. And wanted, as your mother loved and wanted you. Both of you. Whether or not she could keep you, there’s not a chance she didn’t love you. This”—she held Stephano’s hand to her heart—“beats and my child can hear it. His heart is under mine and will always be there. Even when he is old and gray. That kind of love is not something that can be broken, or given away. No matter if life forces me from my child, I will always love him. Or her,” she added with a grin. “Like your mother loved you, Stephano.”
Both men stared at her oddly, as if her words stunned them. She remembered what Stephano had said of his mother and the talks they’d about his training and his age. Ajax would have been the same no doubt.
“Gods, I love you,” Stephano said, sounding oddly choked. “More than anything in this world. Our child will feel our love for as long as we both live. I swear it. But you, you own my heart, angel.” He pressed her hand to his chest, over his steady heartbeat. “I would never have had this”—he gestured to their cottage, then to her stomach and pressed his hand there—“without you.”
“Oh, Stephano. I love you so.” She hugged him hard around his waist, feeling ready to burst with love.
“Hold her close, Stephano,” Ajax murmured. “She’s yours to protect now. I’ll go see if I can’t find us some supper, fish perhaps, and give you two time alone.” Ajax gave her a bow and Stephano a salute.
As soon as the door closed behind Ajax, Stephano surprised her. He didn’t carry her off to bed, as she’d assumed he would, but pulled her down on his lap as he sat at their table. He held her there, stroking her hair.
She smiled so filled with happiness now, not pain, she couldn’t stop. Something occurred to her and she tugged his ear. He grinned. “What was that for?”
“How long have you loved me?”
He grimaced, and instead of answering, he pulled the silver ring from his finger and kissed it, then slipped it on hers. It grew smaller, until it fit perfectly. “I’m not proud of how long it took me to realize what I felt was love, but…” He kissed her knuckles then the ring. “If I think back on my stupidity, I think from the start. Maybe that’s why I knew you were lying.”
She laughed and swatted his chest then admired the ring. “What is this? Why does it fit me?”
“It was made for you. My woman was said to be the only one this ring would fit.”
“What?” She stared at him in surprise. “But…but how long…when did you get this?”
He shifted his legs, making his thighs bunch up under her bottom, reminding her that the bulge under his leathers wasn’t going to wait much longer.
“I got it my first year of real battle. I found it and a note in my chambers. It was…from my mother.”
“Oh, Stephano.” His handsome face blurred as tears washed her eyes. She hugged his neck and pressed kisses to his ear and jaw. “She did love you, didn’t she?”
He didn’t answer but nodded against her.
“And you carried it all this time? Have you tried it on, I mean on anyone?”
He snorted and pulled up. “Fuck, no. You’re the only woman I’ve ever…” He touched his chest briefly, hazel eyes on her face as if he needed to memorize her. “You’re here, right here, Mae. I’ve never felt before…never felt anything was important. Until you, angel.” His voice had turned husky with emotions that shown in his beautiful eyes. “You’re essential.”
She drew his handsome face to hers and kissed him with all the emotions pounding inside her. The time for words were over. She had her man back. Her Stephano. She rose and straddled him, eyes still filling with tears as the reality of him back in her life registered fully.
“Tell me what you want, angel,” he growled against her throat. His caresses were desperate, his big hands firm as he roamed her body, stirring her to the point of making her moan in pleasure. Her body flooded with moisture, preparing her for her man’s needs. Stephano groaned a hot breath along her throat. “I’ll give you anything.”
She knew immediately what she wanted. “I want this.” She pulled his head up by a grip on his silky hair and kissed the bruise on his forehead. “You. My Stephano. Forever.”
He had already shoved her dress aside and freed himself, but with a heated expression, he caught her hair in his fist and drew her closer. The bulbous head of his warm flesh brushed her entrance. She squirmed, wanting him inside.
Lips a breath apart, he nudged her until his shaft parted her flesh the tiniest bit. Eyes bright with love, he held still, waiting on something.
She cried his name, impatient for him. With a suddenness that surprised her, he captured her mouth and filled her with one powerful thrust of his hips. Mouth on hers, he took her with a need only matched by her own. When they reached their first peak, he shouted her name, repeating it until with a deeply satisfied groan, he fell back in the chair and held her still to his chest. She couldn’t stop her soft sounds of passion as her body continued to cinch on his thick erection. A long, glorious time later, she collapsed against him, unable to do more than try to catch her breath.
Stephano caressed his hands up and down her back, murmuring love words to her as the room began to come back into focus. “Forever, my Siren. Forever,” he vowed against her lips. “I’ll be yours forever.”
“And I’ll be yours, Stephano. Forever,” she whispered with all the love she felt for him. “I think I always loved you, from the first, when you shoved that table aside to reach me.”
A smile tipped his lips and his eyes glowed with humor. “Finally,” he sighed, petting her hair and shaking her with his laugh.
She lifted her eyebrows, too sated—for the moment—to ask.
With a devilish wink, he cupped her closer by her bottom and surged harder inside her. Her toes curled, but she stopped him with a hand on his chest. He was still laughing.
“What is so funny?”
“You.” He tapped her nose making her blink. “You’re finally telling me the truth.”
She laughed and pressed kisses to his rough jaw. “You’re so terrible. I finally tell you how long I’ve loved you and you laugh.”
“I would cry, but that wasn’t so great for me, so—”
She captured his mouth and drove in with her tongue, loving the taste of him as much as she loved everything else about him.
He was breathless and pulsing inside her channel by the time she pulled back. “Make love to me, Stephano. Now. Always, my love.”
“Angel.” His rough tone made her toes curl, but with Stephano, everything made her toes curl. “Sing for me, Siren. Sing for me.”
She did, taking them both to another and another peak. Love, she knew, was there, as was the passion only this man stirred in her. My man. My Stephano. My love.