Page 21 of Fated or Knot (UnseelieVerse: The Omega Masquerade #1)

21

LARK

W hen it was time to pick a cot for our last night on the train, I chose Marius. I don’t think anyone was more surprised than the kelpie himself, who pointed to his chest to confirm.

The other males didn’t grouse too much. I’d picked Marius to sidestep any more chances to fool around. He’d keep me safe but wouldn’t try to touch me intimately. Since Kauz had touched up my suppressant tattoo before bedtime, I was in the right mind to make a sound decision.

When we lay down and turned off the essence lamp, Marius avoided touching me at all by keeping most of the cot’s space between us. His back was essentially pressed against the wall.

I held my pillow and drifted off, mostly content. I had Fal’s mask to hold for his scent. Tormund also gave me his cloak to sleep with—the undamaged one, its fabric orange with gold accents—which was basically a blanket. It was made of fireproof material, heavy and scratchy, but I burrowed into it for the trace smell of smoke and mallows clinging to it.

When I woke, waterlily and wild mint were the dominant scents in my nostrils, and I made a pleased hum. Marius really did smell amazing. And he put off a lot of heat, chasing away the chill hanging in the morning air.

I cracked open my eyes, taking note of how I’d shifted while asleep with a sinking feeling. At some point in the night, I’d discarded the pillow and moved across the cot to snuggle with an unwilling Marius instead. My legs were wrapped around one of his muscular thighs, and my arm had failed to encircle his chest, so my palm rested over his heart instead.

Stars, how mortifying. He was an early riser, too, and I could feel him shifting under me.

He was nuzzling my hair and scenting me with deep breaths through his nose. My embarrassment cooled some as this registered, along with the vibrations through his body I could feel rather than hear. His silent purr could’ve lulled me back to sleep, but I’d caught enough rest yesterday by sleeping half the day away.

I tilted my head up to catch a glimpse of his expression before he shut it behind an unreadable wall. His pupils were extra dilated, swallowing up more than the smallest rim of yellow. When they focused on my face, he merely tilted his head to inspect my face more closely with one eye. He seemed captivated by whatever he saw.

“Good morning,” I whispered.

“I know you,” he answered. Instead of speaking in his usual deep, authority-filled rumble, there was a roughened texture to his voice. It reminded me of when we’d met in the pawn shop and he scented my impending heat. His pupils had been huge then, too. I’d thought it was a reaction to my heat scent, but maybe it was a Marius thing.

I laughed nervously. “What do you mean?” I murmured. “We’ve been traveling together for a while.”

He growled low, like a roll of thunder. “Mate,” he rasped. “I’ve been loyal.”

Stars, this wasn’t quite Marius. It was something else within him, as if his beast was speaking through him. He was a shifter, even if I hadn’t seen his beast form, so it stood to reason there was a bit of him that was still an animal while he walked on two legs.

“Where have you been?” his beast asked, sounding almost hurt. “I’ve waited for you.”

I glanced away only for a moment, taking in the dim light filtering in from the window. It was earlier than I usually roused, and by the soft snores and heavy breaths around the room, the other princes were asleep.

Marius tugged me closer, marking either side of my neck with long brushes of his cheeks. He’d shaved last night, leaving his skin smooth against mine. Each contact was electric, and I bit down on a moan. Something told me if I made a sound of pleasure, his beast would run wild. There was no way of knowing whether the male was in there, aware and fighting for control, or if he’d gone to sleep as Marius and only partially woken up with the beast making the decisions.

“Mine,” he rumbled.

Because the beast was definitely in charge right now.

“Marius, can you hear me?” I asked. I tried to ease away from his side, but he caught me with a heavy arm and dragged me fully on top of him. This trapped the length of his cock, harder than a metal bar, right up against my belly. It felt huge . My face flamed. Alphas were supposedly bigger, knot included, but I hadn’t realized just how much larger that actually meant.

He growled possessively and nipped my neck with his fangs. I sucked in a breath and bit my lip harder to conceal my body’s reaction. Think, Lark. Okay, so he was aroused. I could get his brothers’ attention, or I could figure out how to wake him. But I had to pick one of the two before he took his animal instincts too far.

I tried one more time to get through to him before I planned to resort to screaming. I pushed him away, and he went without argument, resting his head back on his pillow. He grinned, the very image of a predator who had his prey exactly where he wanted her. With the pull of his scar, his smile was lopsided—if his beast wasn’t looking at me with such lustful intent, it’d be a charming sight. I wished he smiled this openly more often.

“Mate,” I said.

He rumbled eagerly. “Aye.”

So, the beast could hear me. It just didn’t answer to Marius’s name.

“You can’t claim me yet,” I said urgently.

His brow pinched. “I will. You are mine. I’ll leave my bite right here…”

With a swift yank on my collar, he exposed the stretch of bare skin above my left breast and pressed his finger over top my racing pulse. His frown only intensified. “Where is your mark?” he rasped.

He traced the horseshoe-like omega symbol starting where his fingertip had landed. I had an odd sensation of curiosity. Every omega manifested their mark in a different place, though it tended to be in an easily bitable location. Did Marius’s beast sense where mine would manifest?

“It’s not ready,” I whispered.

“Hmm. You’ll claim me first anyway. Bite me here, mate.” He took hold of my hand and pressed my palm to his hipbone.

He jerked his head the moment I made contact with his alpha mark with the barrier of a sheet and his clothes between us. When he looked at me again, his pupils were shrinking back to their proper size.

I smiled in relief. “Marius,” I said. “I can explain. Your beast?—”

His breathing shallowed out as he took in how I was posed over him, then he bared his teeth in a flash of aggression. “Get off of me, female,” he snarled.

I fell away as if burned. “Wait, do you think… I wasn’t?—”

We mirrored one another, though there wasn’t far for either of us to go. He flattened his bulk to the wall, hyperventilating from between his bared teeth. I’d call it animal panic, but it was the fae male clawing in place and looking for an escape, not his beast.

I fell off the cot with a whimper and jolted the side of my head off the table on my way down. A keen escaped my lips. I would’ve hunkered down underneath it if Tormund wasn’t suddenly awake and growling with redcap menace as he sat up in his cot. Stars, he was going to rage. I crawled across the table and launched at him with a flap of my wings.

“Don’t rage. I’m okay. It’s okay,” I said, clinging to his torso.

Marius was out the door and into the hall while Tormund, still bleary from his wakeup, put his arms around me. “I’m not going to rage, li’l bird. What was that about?” he whispered.

“Seems like it was more of Marius’s shit,” Fal grumbled from his bunk above us. “Let’s go back to sleep.”

I had no idea where Marius hid for the last few hours of our trip, but he didn’t return to the room. At first, I waited and watched the door, wanting to apologize and explain what’d happened.

But the longer he was away, the more his beast’s words niggled at me. I chewed on them without satisfaction as I spent the morning with Fal and Tormund. Kauz had left the room after breakfast and hadn’t come back either.

“Where have you been? I’ve waited for you.”

My head hurt, and not just from the bump I’d gotten. There was something I was missing. The beast implied we’d met earlier, but surely I’d remember a kelpie alpha like Marius visiting Osme Fen.

It wasn’t like I could ask him. The male would rather hide or sulk or whatever he was doing, and I was too afraid of my stepfamily to consider leaving the room to find him. If he wanted to be angry with me, fine . I could be angry too. He owed me some kind of explanation for what I’d woken up to this morning.

I snuggled into my fur-lined cloak, crossing my arms underneath it with a scowl. Ripped or not, it was heavy enough for the winter chill, and one of the males had cleaned off Cymora’s shoeprint. Kauz, I assumed. He seemed like the type to realize the sight of it bothered me.

We’d rolled up the shade over the room’s window and watched Serian whoosh by as the train descended toward our destination. The further north the train traveled, the more snow and ice coated the land and the pointed roofs of houses below.

I forgot what I was trying to be angry about, as my heart was fit to beat out of my chest. I picked at my fingernails, beyond nervous for meeting the queen. That’d happen tonight, after I settled my things and changed clothes. Stars, I wasn’t ready.

In the worst-possible scenario, I could use my bare understanding of Serian and the nine hundred full moon coins hiding somewhere in my things to get a magirail ride to Zemosia after all. I wasn’t completely without options, but I had gotten complacent with how easy it’d been to spend time with the princes and start using the m-word despite how unlikely it was that I’d be approved as a princess.

The ghost of mermaid laughter haunted me. “Like you could ever be a princess.”

I had to prove Cymora wrong. Somehow.

I replaced her voice in my mind with the roughened growl of Marius’s beast. “You are mine.” It helped. I was smiling as the train glided into the magirail station in Neslune, secure in one thing: the princes wanted me too. No matter what happened next, I had that.

“Stay here for now, mo stór . Back of the train disembarks last. Plus, we have to secure transport for all our things,” Fal said. He exchanged a meaningful look with Tormund before leaving the room.

I wondered what that was about but was too busy brooding to ask. Tormund had stopped trying to get me to talk and simply held me and purred for the last part of our trip, soothing the ragged emotional edges chafing my inner omega. I didn’t know what I’d do without his soothing presence if his mother rejected me as her heir.

The window looked out over a stretch of the station platform. I watched the semi-familiar faces of other passengers file off with their bags. Among them was Fal, who hurried out of sight, just to return ten minutes later with four alphas, three male and one female, dressed like police.

“Is something else happening?” I asked, stiffening as I watched them board the train. Were they here for me? Some Unseelie trick after all?

“No?” Tormund tried to say innocently, his tone pitching up.

It wasn’t long until we heard shouting. “How dare you! I have done nothing wrong! Arrest the nightmare monster that assaulted me in my sleep instead!” It was Cymora, her voice getting louder. “I want to speak to my stepdaughter. Lark—” She cut off with a sudden choke as I went board-straight and tensed, awaiting an order.

“Maybe something is happening,” Tormund said after it was obvious Cymora had been dragged away before she could give me an order. He winced. “Please don’t ask any more. We’ll tell you everything when we can.”

I sighed and whined at the same time, earning an unhappy look from Tormund. He kissed my crown and said, “It is a happy day, li’l bird. We’re home! I can’t wait to show you your new nest. We will fill it together with all the things you love.”

My inner omega perked up. I wanted a nest again…a space that was my own. I wouldn’t have to share with the moodiest kelpie in Serian, or anyone else unless they were invited. “That sounds like a lot of fun,” I said.

“It will be. We could stop at an omega store on the way?—”

Fal poked his head back into the room. “I have terrible news,” he interrupted. “We’re expected .”

The royal pack had sent a small army of servants to meet us at the station, it turned out. Several betas and a handful of alphas, all of races I’d never seen before, came into the train to get our things. Tormund carried me out with the group, much to my chagrin until he stepped off the train and the Serian winter enveloped us. The air was dry and frigid, biting at any exposed skin.

I wrapped my cloak tighter around my body and snuggled back into Tormund’s extra heat. He took a deep breath and said cheerfully, “There’s the wonderful smell of Serian cold!”

All I scented was the fur lining of my drawn hood and the nothingness of a frozen nose. “How can you smell anything?” I asked with chattering teeth.

He laughed. “You’ll get used to it. Would you be okay sharing a horse, li’l bird?”

I lifted my hood to spot the horse in question. It was waiting with a beta holding the reins, with Fal and Kauz astride two nearby, waiting for us. The one Tormund was about to mount was huge and shaggy, with fur the blue-white color of aged snow and hooves as big as snowshoes. It nickered happily upon seeing him approach.

“I have some experience with horses,” I ventured.

“I will buy you one, then,” he said. “But this is my girl.”

He placed me back on my feet briefly to take the mare’s reins and coo while he rubbed her nose. She nuzzled his palm thoroughly and stamped a front hoof. “I know,” he murmured in Serian, along with more I didn’t quiet catch.

I accepted a boost into the saddle and scooted forward when Tormund squeezed in behind me and guided the mare into motion. I sat straighter and relaxed my back out of old habit. “Did you ride often?” he asked.

“I used to,” I said, thinking wistfully. “Osme Fen didn’t have a lot to do, but we certainly had horses. We’d race them for fun on quiet days.”

“Would you win?”

I twisted my lip as I thought through the question. “Goodness, it was a long time ago now. I can’t remember.”

We had formed a kind of procession through the street leading away from the magirail station. I felt eyes on me as the fae of Neslune parted for the princes and their servants. My fingers closed around the side of my hood, prepared to draw it further over my head, though I didn’t yet. This city might be my new home, so I didn’t hide from it.

On first glance, it seemed a lot like Ilysnor, only with significantly colder weather. We displaced many of the Unseelie residents, who stopped going about their business and stared as we paraded past them.

“Hmm. We should race once you train your new horse, li’l bird. But don’t be surprised if you win—you are so lightweight,” he teased.

“Oh, you don’t actually have to buy me a horse,” I hedged.

“No, I want to. I’ll get you one of those wee li’l half-unicorn horses that leave sparkles behind them when they run. You would look very cute on one,” he proclaimed.

“Cute on what?” Kauz had dropped back to bring his mount next to ours. He wore a vest and a cloak to keep warm.

Tormund explained in rapid Serian, and Kauz nodded. “Aye, she would look adorable on a horse like that. Let’s buy her one.”

“Not you too,” I protested.

The dream warden grinned. “Don’t you remember me telling you how much we were going to spoil you, sweetheart?”

“If this evening goes well. And…” I said under my breath.

Somehow, Kauz still heard me. “And what?” he prompted.

“It’s nothing.”

“Tell me,” he invited with that calm, soothing voice of his.

“Just…Marius.” I fiddled with my fingertips under the folds of my cloak. I hadn’t told the other males everything about what’d happened between me and his beast. They’d shrugged it off anyway. It was just how he was. They seemed to know something was going on with him, probably through their pack bond.

“I can’t wait for you to meet my mother,” Kauz said. “It’s going to be wonderful to watch you blossom once you see how excited she’ll be that we’ve found our mate. And for Marius to untie himself from his multitude of self-inflicted knots.”

“Self-inflicted knots?” I echoed.

“You’ll see,” he said with a vague wave.

“He would know. Marius and Kauz are best friends,” Tormund told me, whispering behind his hand. “Most of us don’t spend a lot of time together like we did on the train. We have lives, duties, and friends outside of being brothers. Can you believe it?”

“That makes sense, but no. I’ve only seen you all together,” I said.

“We’ll become a stronger, more unified pack with you at our center, li’l bird. All four of us will want to share your nest.”

Kauz nodded, murmuring in agreement.

“There it is. Home,” Tormund added, pointing. Up ahead, built on a high hill overlooking the rest of the city, was Serian Palace. I’d read somewhere that it’d once been a fortress stronghold built to withstand anything war could bring, and I believed it.

The palace was squat and plain at its core, two stories that were thick and unadorned. But upon abandoning its purpose as a fortress, the Unseelie had artfully sculpted wings and towers into its sides. It wasn’t pretty like the Seelie royal tower, but it had its own charm under a glistening coat of ice and snow.

“Home,” I repeated in a hopeful murmur.

We passed by the last of the shops and homes closest to the palace and wound around to the front gates, which were already open for us. “Why was Fal nervous about being expected?” I asked Tormund in a low voice.

“Mother, or one of our fathers, is probably waiting for us,” he answered.

I felt the color in my face drain away. Stars, he couldn’t have told me this earlier? I gulped a nervous swallow. Well, it may be a joyous thing. The princes were returning together from a long trip to Thelis, after all.

The train of servants we’d brought with us started to head around to enter through the side of the palace while we crossed the frozen grounds. Some special flowers and plants stuck out of the snow and ice, blooming in silvers, grays, and light blues like camouflage. I wondered if they would melt at the barest touch. We rode straight past them and dismounted before a short and narrow staircase leading into the belly of the palace.

Once a set of servants took the horses’ reins, Fal turned to us and said, “We’ll go inside together once Marius gets here.” He fidgeted with his clothes, uncharacteristically anxious. I matched his energy by wringing my fingers while we waited.

Marius arrived with a clatter of horse hooves, dismounting from another hearty, furry steed. I wondered if it was weird for a kelpie to ride a horse—not that I was going to ask. I turned subtly to give him my back, too embarrassed and confused about this morning to even look at him.

They had a short conversation in Serian before heading up the stairs. I was momentarily surprised that none of them carried me. I’d barely used my legs the last couple of days, despite complaining most of the times I was picked up the moment I limped. Well, I got what I wanted. Starsdamned stairs . I brought up the rear of the group.

A pair of guards opened the double doors leading inside and announced something in Serian. There was a commotion, a shuffle of bodies and clothes ahead. Once I was through the threshold, the guards closed the doors behind me.

The area was warm, heated by a large fire crackling at the back of the foyer. It was a smaller space than I’d expected, barely more than a large room, though richly appointed with rugs, upholstered chairs arranged in neat rows, and essence lamps. Several doorways branched off from it, most of them shut with what looked like metal doors lined with seals. Another gift from the palace’s fortress days.

A female no taller than me stood across from Fal, her fists propped on her hips as she took in the four princes. She had to be the queen. Her dress was beautiful, black but shimmery, reflecting light like liquid silk. It was tailor-made to hug her figure, with room for the baby bump rounding her middle. The color set off her blue-gray skin tone and vivid sapphire eyes well.

I shuffled in slow, steady movements so I didn’t draw her attention and hid behind Tormund’s bulk. He glanced around and patted my shoulder with a little smile. “That’s our mom. She is asking where we’ve been,” he whispered behind his hand.

I nodded but didn’t emerge from his shadow. The last thing I needed was for her to notice me and have our first meeting happen while I was fresh off the magirail.

Queen Nemensia was the first nixie I’d seen in person. She had claws for nails, and small, needle-like fangs. Several rings lined her fingers when she gestured, and she seemed to lack the webbed membranes between her fingers that nixies were said to have. But it was still obvious she was a water fae, from the trailing fins that lay down her back like several sets of pseudo-wings.

They snapped behind her with a whip-like noise as she drew in a deep breath and started saying their names, exaggerating them angrily. “Fal un del.” She pointed at Marius. “Mar ee us.” Her accusing finger hesitated a moment before landing on Kauz. “Kauz uh den.” She shook that digit at Fal. “ Mo leanbh , Tormund.” Her tone softened while she clasped her hands and smiled at him. He preened a bit.

Then he whispered to me, “She is very mad. She forgets our names when she is this mad.”

“What’s happening?” I whispered back. And watched in fascination as the other three princes shrank in the face of the queen’s tone. That was until she started in with Serian too rapid for me to follow and they started exchanging confused looks.

“She’s asking where Princess Glory is,” he explained quietly. “The Queen of Thelis wrote to her and said the princess was missing and that Fal was seen at the masquerade. He’s explaining that we didn’t steal her?—”

“What do you mean, you stole a different pixie?” Queen Nemensia demanded, switching to flawless Theli. “Is she here? I want to see her now .”

The princes glanced around. Tormund stepped aside, gently nudging me forward. I barely had time to panic before the Queen of Serian was taking my measure across the room. Her brow drew as she looked me top to bottom, and I braced myself for her reaction.

She drew herself up and gasped, eyes sparkling with delight. As she bustled over, her fins fanned out like a gossamer train. Their translucent gray lengths glowed throughout with dark blue lines and spots, sure to seem brighter in the dark or underwater.

Fal followed in her wake. “Mother, I’m happy to introduce you to our mate.”

Queen Nemensia put a hand to her chest. “Oh, my heart. Finally, my sons bring me a new daughter.”

Someone else spoke up in Serian from one of the armchairs by the fire. I was so pulled in by the queen’s presence that I hadn’t even realized he was there, though a short gold crown gilded his head. One of the kings—Queen Nemensia took hold of my cheeks and turned my head before I could figure out whose father he was. Her fins slowly settled along her back as she took me in.

Every greeting I’d practiced slipped straight out of my head. I curtsied, and my cloak parted with the motion. “Take that off for a moment. Let me see those wings,” she said before I could stumble over a hello.

I unclasped it, and Fal took it from me, revealing my anxiously flicking pixie wings. “A gray pixie, hmm? You will fit right in with the Serian winter,” she remarked. “Tell me your name, mo stóirín .”

I swallowed thickly. “It’s Lark. Um, of Osme Fen. It’s a ple?—”

“Lark of Osme Fen!” She took hold of my shoulders, and my eyes widened to twice their size at the sudden exclamation. “Are you a ghost?” With strength I would’ve never expected, she spun me around to face her sons and pointed at me, speaking Serian, presumably asking the question over again.

Kauz looked baffled as he shook his head. Marius, next to him, had an expression of grim concern.

“ Because ,” Queen Nemensia said heavily. “I remember the awful day when I opened your father’s letter detailing your sudden passing when you were still a babe. Six years old, if that.”

So many questions piled up in my head, one on top of the other. Was this somehow a dream? Surely I’d knocked myself out this morning when I hit my head on the table. There was no other explanation I could think of as I watched the queen’s eyes well with tears.

“Mother, there’s something else we need to tell you—” Kauz began.

She turned away, waving dismissively. “Not now, Falindel.”

“It’s Kauzden,” he corrected patiently. “And it really can’t wait?—”

“Not now,” she repeated in a hiss. “I know who you are. My errant son that leaves me to worry with no word for nearly a month .”

“You knew my father?” I asked quietly.

She sniffed and shook her head, scattering her head of dark blue curls. “Oh, I knew him. How could I not? He was mates with my best friend, Dorei. Stole her from Serian and the beauty of Once Else to live in a farm town in another country. She said it was true love , and I still think she was crazy. She died there, without me.” A tear leaked down her cheek as she reached up, cupping my face. “But here you are, in her spitting image and back from the dead. What happened to you, mo stóirín ? You were purple. And a seamless little mix of pixie and nixie.”

Her voice fuzzed into a ringing in my ears. “What…what did you say?” I mumbled.

“You don’t remember me? I’m your godmother. I took you to my nest like my own child,” Nemensia continued. “I need every answer you have, Metalark!”

My full, forgotten name hit me like a blow to the head. I reeled, dizzy, and stumbled back from her. Color washed out to white, covering my sight in lines so bright that I saw them behind my shuttering eyes. There were several masculine shouts of alarm. Air kissed my wings as I fell into the arms of unconsciousness.