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Chapter thirty-one

Brandon

R osin ran at me and dove into me, knocking me back onto the icy ground. My head hit the ice and bounced, but it didn’t hurt the way it had before I’d passed out in the forest. Was I still in the Winter Court? It looked like I was with all the ice and snow around me. I lifted a hand and touched my head, but thorns pricked my fingers.

“Ow,” I said, pulling my hand back. “What’s on my head?”

“A crown.” Roisin grinned.

“Why am I wearing a crown?”

“I’m not sure you’ll believe me.”

“Believe what?” I couldn’t keep from staring at her. From having her in my arms where I’d dreamed she was. But wait, my dreams had been of her as a child. “I saw you grow up.”

She kept smiling. “Aye. I marked you as my mate and you would have seen my memories. ”

“Seen your memories?” I touched my head again. “I’m so confused. The last thing I remember was seeing my mother’s memory of the day my father left us. The old man in the cottage in the Winter Court is my father.”

“I saw him.” Her lips pulled into a grim line.

“I need to talk to him.” I sat up. “Where are we?” I noticed the frozen people around us. “Why is everyone encased in ice?”

“We’re on Earth. You were dying, and I’d promised to take you home.” Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “I lost control of my powers when I thought you’d die and leave me.” Two tears spilled from the corners of her eyes. “All I wanted was to stop you from dying, and then I somehow encased everyone in magical ice to stop that happening.” She hung her head. “I froze the entire Earth into a state of stasis and I don’t know how to undo it.”

I drew her into my chest and hugged her. “We’ll figure it out.”

“We?”

“You said I’m your mate, didn’t you?”

She lifted a hand between our chests and traced the new lines on it. “I marked you as my mate, and now I’ll be able to track you anywhere. Never will I let anyone hurt you again, but then again, you’re immortal now. You’re Fae royalty.”

“What?” I shifted her off my lap and stood.

“It’s why you have a crown.” She bit her lip.

“I need a mirror.”

I edged closer to the frozen spring, needing to see for myself. My shirt hung open and an intricate swirl of knots sat etched into my skin over my heart. I traced the lines with a reverent finger as though I sensed Roisin in every line and mark placed on me. My gaze snapped to my head where a crown of thorns circled my hair. The thorns moved as though alive. My hand shook as I touched it. Power surged to my palms, and they glowed a magical sky blue.

“I have powers too?” My mouth fell open.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered into the icy stillness of the garden.

“What are my powers?”

“I’m not sure, Dia didn’t say.”

“Dia?”

“Aye. Dia—God.”

“God was here?”

“Our God.”

“Our God. I’m not human anymore. I’m Fae. With powers.” The words came out strangely as I absorbed the enormity of my change.

“Aye.”

My gaze landed on Roisin. “And you marked me as your mate.”

“I did.”

“You love me.”

“I love you.” She gave me a tentative smile. “Are you angry?”

I frowned. “Why would I be angry?”

“You didn’t consent to any of this.”

“I would have died, and I’d rather be anything, even one of those scary-looking demons, so long as I got to spend eternity with you.” I walked across the icy garden, trying not to slip. “The cold doesn’t bother me anymore.”

“It won’t now you’re Fae.”

“I love it,” I said, grinning. “But I love you more.”

She threw her arms around my neck as soon as I was close enough to her. I caught her and dragged her into my body. We slipped on the ice and then landed on the ground. Capturing her face between my palms, I kissed her quickly.

“I could lay here forever with you, but how do we help free everyone?”

“I’m not sure. Mother and Father will free themselves soon so I can ask them.”

“Back to the books while we wait?”

“Aye.”

We climbed to our feet and hurried toward the underground library. She’d frozen the stairs too and each step down was precarious, but I was now immortal. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact I’d never die. How would I lead the Fellowship now I was a Fae? Would all of my training have been for nothing in the end? Or would this bring the humans and Fae closer together?

The sight before me made me stop at the bottom of the stairs. She’d frozen the table and chairs. Even every single book she’d frozen into an icy sculpture. I inched closer to the table and picked up a book. Crystal flakes of ice fell from the frozen pages. I tried lifting a corner, but the paper broke .

“We can’t read any of these.” I set the book back on the table. “How will we help everyone? What if they die before we help them?”

“They won’t die,” Roisin said. “It’s the one thing I’m certain about. I was trying to save you. My powers were trying to do my bidding even when I was too overcome with anguish at the idea of losing you to control them.”

“You’re sure.”

“Aye. Dia wants me to fix my mess, so it’s doable.”

“I guess all we can do is wait for your parents to unfreeze and hope they can help you.”

“They will. My parents are older and wiser than me.” She pursed her lips. “I suppose this is one time being young has its disadvantages.”

I let out a half-relieved breath and half chuckle and closed the distance between us. The connection with Roisin was even greater now. My body hummed to be nearer to her. The mark on my chest warmed.

We kissed with a desperate need to show each other how much we loved each other. I might have secretly wished I was anything but human so I’d have more time with Roisin, but never would I have imagined I’d become Fae like her.

There was no better place to be with her than in this icy world right now. We couldn’t do anything to help the Fellowship and my family until we had more knowledge. This small moment in time alone was ours. Her powers were ice. She thought she was ice, but she was fire and burning me up to be inside her.

My lips trailed to her neck, and she moaned .

“Roisin,” I whispered. “If I don’t make you mine, I might go insane.”

She giggled. “We can’t have an insane Fae royal, can we?”

She lifted my hand and placed it over her heart. “This is where you’ll mark me, but not today. We need to fix everything first.”

“Okay.”

Our lips met again as though we couldn’t kiss each other enough. Somehow, her back ended up on the desk, my body falling on top of hers. Neither of us noticed anything around us while we were kissing.

“Can I worship your body?”

She tugged her bottom lip into her mouth and then nodded. I kissed my way down her neck, over the delicate skin of her collarbone, reveling in the tiny goosebumps pebbling her flesh. My hands stroked her body as I inched my way down, touching, stroking, and caressing every part of her through her clothes. Nothing mattered but her. I dropped to my knees and inched her dress higher and higher, kissing and stroking her legs until I inhaled her sweet aroma, then set to work worshipping her most intimate place with my tongue. Each swipe sent an incoherent sound from her mouth, and it spurred me on even more to give her more pleasure. Her thigh muscles grew tight against the side of my head. My crown of thorns had to be digging into her, but she was too far gone in the thralls of passion to care. The next swipe of my tongue sent her over the edge, and she came so hard she coated my mouth and chin in her release. I swallowed it like a starving man.

I placed soft kisses on her stomach and hips as I rose and kissed her parted lips. She didn’t care about tasting herself on my lips. She returned my kiss with the same enthusiasm as before. I loved her so much. She was perfect for me. Now she was fated to be mine forever.

“I want to make you mine too,” I said.

“When you mark me, I’ll fall into the Quiet while I absorb your memories. No one knows how long it’ll last. I’m surprised you woke so soon after I marked you, but maybe Dia turning you Fae helped speed up the process.”

My palms glowed with my new powers, but I nodded my head. Making love to her would have to be enough for now because she still needed to unfreeze everyone.

“As soon as you unfreeze Earth, you’re mine.”

“I’m yours now. Nothing can come between us.”

“Nothing but my pants.” I winked, trying to lighten the heaviness of the enormity of our recent problems.

Her gaze drank in my body like a person dying of thirst in the desert. We were far from the dessert, but the comparison was still the same.

As I stood between her spread legs, I trailed my hands up her legs and watched her skin pebble once again and her muscles quiver. My fingers trembled with the enormity of our first time as I unbuckled my pants. She was so perfect, even when she thought she wasn’t. My cock sprung free and slid along her slickness. Her back arched as though she enjoyed the sensation of my body against hers. As though she, too, was battling the magnitude of our first time together. Slowly, I pushed the tip of my cock inside her and then waited. Her hands lifted to my arms and tugged on them, urging me on.

“Do it,” she said. “Make me yours and only yours in this way.”

I let go of my control and seated myself fully inside her. She gasped. I groaned. The sounds echoed off the icy library, making a different type of music. Music just for us. The connection was instantaneous, as though being inside her was right. The answer to every question in the universe. There was only her and me. Fated. Loved.

Mates.

I understood the enormity of fated mates now.

Our lips met again in a passionate kiss. Our bodies moved in sync. Each thrust of my hips made her gasp with pleasure. Each slide of my cock along her tight walls made my balls tighten with the impending explosion of our passion. I wasn’t sure how long I made love to her, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the pleasure we were both experiencing. The love we were sharing. The future we were making together.

“Brandon.” She thrashed her head from side to side, saying my name in a plea. “Brandon.”

“I got you.” I licked my thumb and lowered it to the hard tip of her clit.

Her legs jerked with the contact, then her entire body shook and she screamed her release. The ice shattered around us and landed on us, on the floor, everywhere. I kept thrusting into her. chasing my release as her inner walls pulsed against me. I let go and flew with her into the pinnacle of ecstasy. On and on, my cock emptied into her. Filled her. Marked her inside as mine forever.

Our lips parted. Our breaths heaved along with our chests. She grinned at me with a well-loved expression that I wanted to see on her delicate features for the rest of our immortal lives. I smiled back at her with all the love in my body for the amazing woman she was.

“I comprehend how to get rid of the ice.”

I dropped my head onto the crunchy ice on the desk beside her. “Way to ruin a man’s ego over your first time.”

She placed dainty kisses on my neck and the side of my face, telling me with her body how much her first time with me meant.

“There are no words to describe my first time with you.” She placed her hands on my chest and urged me up so she could stare into my eyes. “I’ll paint it instead.”

“Yeah?”

“Aye. I’ll be painting a lot of you in the future.”

“Naked?” I asked with a teasing grin.

She laughed. “Let me fix my mistake first.”

“Hey.” I tugged her up from the desk and fixed our clothes. “You didn’t make a mistake.”

“It feels like I did.”

“You didn’t. It’s fate. All this brought us together. There’s no mistake in that.”