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Chapter Twenty-Five

Samara

“Erendriel was here?” Rynn squeaked. “And you didn’t wake us up to tell us that immediately!?”

“Cali was sleeping like the dead!” I pointed at my friend, who was leaning her hip against one of the workshop tables. “And then I got . . . distracted . . .”

“With dick?” Cali arched a brow.

I shrugged. “It happens.”

“Tragically, I wouldn’t know,” she lamented. “My pussy is drier than the badlands these days.”

Roth and Alaric laughed from where they stood opposite Cali.

It was early afternoon, and we were all gathered in the same room as yesterday.

It was the only room on this floor that had places to sit and tables for laying things out.

The rest of the rooms contained more books, scrolls, weapons, and other odds and ends.

It would take us years to go through everything and thoroughly catalog, which was something I hoped we’d have time to do. The scholars at Drudonia might literally lose their minds over the knowledge contained here.

Kieran gave Cali an exaggerated look of concern. “I didn’t realize things were that dire, Cal. As I said previously, I can find some sturdy, non-drama-causing Moroi to help you with that.” He cocked his head while twirling a hand through the air. “Do you have any preferences?—”

“Can we please stop talking about dicks and pussies for a second?” A golden sheen rolled over Rynn’s eyes, and a snarl undermined her words.

“Speaking of not getting any . . .” Kieran said lightly.

Rynn turned her wolfish glare on him and growled, causing him to grab Roth and thrust them in front of him.

“Seriously?” Roth sighed and elbowed Kieran in the gut.

“Sam, control your—” Rynn turned to me and frowned. “What are we calling them? Paramours? Consorts?”

“Mates.” I smiled. “I did indeed have a conversation with the Seelie King last night, and during it, he sensed the connections. They’re Fae mate bonds.”

Cali arched her eyebrows. “What does that mean, exactly?”

“Oh, I have no idea.” I shrugged. “I only read the romantic shit about them growing up, but none of the poems had any actual useful information.

“Of course not.” She snorted.

“Mate bonds,” Roth murmured as they rubbed the spot on their chest over their heart. “That feels . . . right.”

I smiled softly. “It does.” My gaze went to the shelves of books lining the walls. “If we come across any books that mention them, let’s pull them aside to review later. As much as I want to know more about the bonds, it’s not as urgent as everything else.”

“Fair.” Roth nodded. “I’m definitely curious about what they can do and how they are formed.” They glanced at me and then Alaric. “You two have one now, right? I can’t feel his emotions, but I think I can feel the new bond between you both.”

“Gods, Sam.” Cali smirked at me. “Here I am living the celibate life, and you have five freaking mates.”

“Four, technically,” Kieran said. “Sam and I don’t have one yet.”

The smirk fell off Cali’s face, and she rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly as silence fell. Sorry , she mouthed at me.

A pit of guilt settled in my stomach. I would have tried to bond with Kieran last night, but he had just done so with Draven, and I hadn’t wanted to take anything away from that. What they had was just as valid and special as what I had with Kier, and I loved that they were happy.

But given that Kieran had hang-ups about thinking he wasn’t enough, had I messed up? What if he thought I didn’t want to form a mate bond with him? If I had hurt him—even unintentionally—I’d never forgive mysel?—

“Sam.” Kieran stepped forward and cupped my face in his hands before kissing the corners of my mouth. “Stop panicking. My feelings aren’t hurt. You had just bonded with Alaric, and I had just done the same with Draven. We don’t have to rush this.”

“Are you sure?” I closed my eyes and leaned into his touch. “Because in my heart, you’re already my mate, Kier. I just wanted to give you and Drav some time to settle into your mating bond before we threw ours on top of it.”

“I figured.” He smiled, and there was so much joy and love in it that my worries instantly evaporated. “Because I very much want to be your mate—in both the name and magic bond kind of way—but I want us to be able to celebrate it.”

Alaric sighed. “You want a party, don’t you?”

“Of course I want a party.” Kieran sniffed and stepped away from me so he could shove his friend’s shoulder. “Samara is obviously saving the best for last. That deserves a celebration.” He looked at Roth. “Think your parents will be up for throwing a double wedding or something?”

Roth rubbed their forehead. “They would no doubt be thrilled.”

I opened my mouth to tease them when Rynn stalked off to the table of books and started flipping through them.

Shit. I exchanged a look with Cali before we both looked at Rynn in concern.

I hadn’t thought about how all this talk of mates would affect her.

Normally, Moroi didn’t refer to their spouses or lovers as mates, but the Velesians did.

They’d been the only ones to pick up that habit from the Fae.

It was a big deal for them, although I didn’t know the specifics of what it entailed.

They kept it all very hush-hush, and it was one of the few things Rynn never talked about.

I did know that mates were never forced in the Velesian realm. Rynn might not have had a choice in joining the Alpha Pack, but she didn’t have to choose them as mates. Nor did they have to choose her.

But the chances of her finding a mate outside of her pack was complicated. Technically, she could, but how would she know if they truly wanted her or just wanted a way to join the Alpha Pack, who rarely accepted anyone into their inner circle?

Rynn had been a political pawn her entire life. The only people who had ever chosen her just for being who she was were me and Cali. We might be her best friends for life . . . but we weren’t her mates.

A good fuckfest might make Cali happy—at least for a while—but I doubted that would work for Rynn. She wanted something more than that.

My heart ached for my friend. I couldn’t fix her problems now—or possibly ever—but I could at least distract her.

“Mate bonds aside, there were a lot of other interesting things I learned from the Seelie King.” I walked over to one of the tables and perched my butt on it. The others settled into chairs or leaned against tables while I recounted everything Erendriel had said.

“What is with people wanting to marry you?” Vail muttered.

“Jealous?” I arched a brow at him and already started thinking of a pithy response for when he no doubt lost his temper.

“Marriage is too simple a word for what I want from you,” he said in a low, deep tone that had me clenching my thighs together. “If Erendriel tries to take you from me, I will tear him apart limb from limb and offer you his still-beating heart as a gift.”

The snarky response I’d had ready to go died on my tongue. For once, I had no idea what to say. The sincerity and intense need I saw on Vail’s face was echoed in the bond. He really did mean it.

“Wow, Rynn.” Kieran clapped slowly. “You should knock Vail out more often. He finally figured out how to use his words.”

Instead of getting angry, the corners of Vail’s mouth twitched.

May the moons damn it all. Did he almost laugh ?

“I definitely plan on punching Vail again,” Rynn said absently as she stared unseeingly at a spot on the floor while she processed everything I’d recounted before her gaze snapped to me. “He said the Unseelie Princes are liars? Not were ?”

“Definitely present tense,” I confirmed. “No idea where the rest of the Unseelie are or if they’re still alive, but their princes are still kicking around somewhere.”

“There’s something in the mountains,” Draven mused. “Erendriel spends most of his time there.”

“Maybe the princes are there.” I looked at the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that lined the room.

“Or maybe there are more places like this in the mountains that don’t have wards in place preventing him entry.

I don’t think he liked that we were able to get into this room.

Either because he wants what’s in here for himself, or he thinks there is something here that we’ll be able to use against him. ”

“Probably both.” Draven snorted and reached behind himself to swipe a dagger off the table. Then he tossed it to me, and I snatched it out of the air.

“These glyphs . . .” I ran a finger down the silver handle. “They’re like the ones the rangers use on their weapons but way more complicated.”

Erendriel hadn’t been wrong when he’d said we were like children bumping around in the dark.

We’d only figured out that we could use the magic in our blood to reactivate the Fae glyphs a century or so ago.

From there, we’d been able to derive spells of our own, usually by combining glyphs.

It’d taken us a while to figure out that we had to pour our intention into the spells as well as our blood.

It took a lot of trial and error, and we still didn’t really understand how any of this worked, only that it did. I glanced at the mirror that resided in the corner of the room. Rynn had walked through a blood mirror and traveled almost a thousand miles.

That was a little beyond using glyphs to make water hot.

Alaric rose from where he’d been sitting and walked over to me, then held out his hand, and I passed him the dagger.

“These are Unseelie glyphs,” he noted, likely spotting the same small flourishes that distinguished their glyphs from the Seelie’s.

He pointed at the glyph carved into the actual blade of the dagger.

“ Gùlma amam. ” Light green eyes flicked up from the blade to me.

“Shadow killer. Why would the Unseelie make weapons to use against their own kind?”

“Maybe that’s not what it does?” I took the dagger back from him and studied the glyphs more. Several of them on the handle I didn’t recognize.