Page 18 of Fey Empire (Fey Lords #5)

Chapter seventeen

M y pillow is very warm. It smells wonderful. And it is gently moving up and down.

Oh no! I can’t believe this! I’m resting my head on Selwyn’s naked chest! It’s morning, but who knows how long I have been like this. The sheer audacity of it is shocking.

Just as I’m about to scuttle frantically away, warm fingers brush over my hair with a tenderness that makes my chest ache.

Selwyn is awake. He is aware my entire body is curled up as close to him as I can get, and that I’m using him as a pillow, and miraculously, he doesn’t seem to mind. If anything, he seems to be enjoying it.

Goodness. Yesterday at dinner, I used him as a chair. Now I’m using him as a bed. Why am I acting this way? My husband is not furniture!

All of a sudden, the bedchamber door bursts open. I jump. But then Selwyn’s arm wraps around me. Protecting me and keeping me pressed close against him.

I peek apprehensively at the intruder.

It is an incredibly beautiful fey man with long lilac hair and amethyst eyes, and onyx black horns that curl backwards .

I blink in confusion. Why has Prince Mabon burst into Selwyn’s bedchamber at dawn?

“Mabon, you cannot walk into my bedchamber, any time you choose,” rumbles Selwyn.

“Why not?” asks Mabon breezily as he tucks an errant strand of hair back behind his pointed ear. There are a multitude of thin silver bracelets on his slender wrist. They jangle as he lowers his hand.

Selwyn sighs deeply. Enough to jostle my head. It is a very long-suffering sound.

Mabon’s purple eyes narrow. He stares right at me. It’s hard not to squeak.

“Oh! Is your human shy? Is that why? How adorable!”

“What do you want, Mabon?” snaps Selwyn.

Mabon’s attention discards me. It snaps utterly to his brother, as if I no longer exist.

“To know how Loo-loo is.”

Selwyn’s heart thumps. I hear it loud and clear, but then again, my ear is pressed against his chest.

“Why do you think I know where Llywelyn is?” Selwyn’s tone is calm and casual. It sounds nothing like his heart.

“Because you do know,” says Mabon. “And I know you know.”

The brothers glare at each other. Oh lord this is awkward. I’m naked underneath this sheet. Lying here in bed with my husband, while Mabon looms over us. I am a third wheel to arguing brothers.

“Llywelyn is in exile.” Selwyn eventually says.

Mabon puts his hands on his hips and tosses his head back. “As if you care about stuff like that. ”

A busy silence falls again. Swirling with the unspoken battle of wills.

Mabon huffs. “Cottage in the woods, ring any bells?”

Beneath me, Selwyn growls. Low and deep. An utterly inhuman sound of pure menace. My guts coil, and the hairs on the back of my neck rise.

Mabon rolls his eyes. “Fine, I will offer you a deal.”

Selwyn gently moves me to the pillow next to him, while his brother continues to talk.

“You check in on Loo-loo and tell me how he is doing,” says Mabon. “And in return, I will train your human so he doesn’t cry when he takes your cock.”

A cold, dark shame slaps me in the face with a startling force, but there is barely any time to register it, because the bed moves as Selwyn throws back the sheet and stands naked to face his brother. Fury carved into the lines of his shoulders.

“Outrageous, isn’t it?” gushes Mabon. “His people claimed he was fully trained, and yet…” Mabon falls silent. His mouth snaps shut. It appears he has finally noticed Selwyn’s anger.

“Prince Mabon Y Mabinogi, leave my rooms and never return without an invitation.”

Mabon’s eyes grow enormously wide. He opens his mouth. He shuts it again. He opens it once more.

“There is no need to be so bad-tempered!” he announces.

Then, he turns sharply on his heels. I’ve never actually seen anyone flounce out of a room before, but I’m pretty sure this is exactly what I am observing. Mabon is flouncing out of the room with such dramatic flair that it has to be the best flounce in all of history .

The door slams.

Selwyn takes in a deep breath. Then he grabs his dressing gown and leaves. I stare at the door as it shuts behind him.

Wow, that was quite something. And I thought my family was difficult.

At least Selwyn and I have one thing in common. Messy families.

D awdling at breakfast any longer is stupid. It is quite clear that Selwyn will not be joining me. Mabon disrupted our normal morning routine, and I didn’t get a chance to please him, or be pleased by him. And now it seems clear that I’m not even going to get to talk to him.

Despondently, I spoon one last mouthful of yoghurt into my mouth.

There will be plenty of other opportunities to redeem myself in my husband’s eyes.

It’s fine. We are making steps in the right direction.

It is still a while until the next full moon, and by then I will have everyone convinced I am happy and capable of fulfilling my role.

I don’t need to be by Selwyn’s side every single hour of the day. He is a busy man. A few hours apart are a good thing, a chance for me to pull myself together and breathe.

The door to the breakfast room opens, and Selwyn strides in. With three bolts of dark, sturdy cloth under his arm. My heart skips a beat, and butterflies swarm in my stomach. Just from the sight of him.

“Are you ready? ”

Hastily, I get to my feet while dabbing at my mouth with a napkin. Oh gosh. What have I forgotten? I could just declare that I am ready and hope for the best. I am bathed and dressed. There is a good chance I could wing it.

However, I have no idea what the bolts of cloth are for. Clearly not a court function. This is going to be something different than sitting silently by Selwyn’s side.

I look at Selwyn’s hypnotic brown eyes. “Ready for what,” I confess meekly.

Selwyn grins. “A visit to the fey lands.”

“Oh,” I squeak. I stare up at my husband. “Is… that necessary?”

A strange expression swirls through Selwyn’s eyes. His magic surges. A warm gust of sweet-smelling air ruffles my hair, blowing from behind me. I swallow and spin around.

There is a portal in the breakfast room. Selwyn made the extraordinary feat of power and knowledge and skill… look effortless. He didn’t even need any hand gestures, let alone words.

My head spins as I try to comprehend all that this means. I’m pretty sure even fey aren’t usually this powerful. My husband is more like a sorcerer of old than a mage. And that is frankly terrifying.

Strong fingers wrap around my bicep. I’m moved forward, into the spinning portal. Reality twists and bends. Gravity inverts. Light becomes a liquid.

Then, before I can scream, I’m on my hands and knees, coughing and spluttering onto lush green grass. It feels like a late afternoon on a late summer day. Birds are singing, and the air is far fresher than anything I have ever tasted.

I lift my head. We are in a stone circle in a clearing in the woods .

Somewhere in the fey lands.

I gulp and scramble to my feet.

“Do I need to be here?” I blurt.

“Llywelyn never did get the chance to properly meet you,” Selwyn says, almost cheerfully.

Oh. He is following Mabon’s request and checking in on his exiled brother.

“I don’t need lessons from Mabon!” I blurt desperately. Heavens, I can’t imagine anything worse.

“I know,” agrees Selwyn easily.

Relief floods my mind, body and soul. Selwyn has his own reasons for being here. Thank goodness.

However, that does not explain why he has brought me to the fey realm.

“Umm… would your brother not prefer to see you alone?”

Selwyn sighs. I turn to look at him, and actually this is better.

He is by far the most familiar thing here.

I know it’s just grass, stone, trees and sky, but it’s all so subtly and insidiously other.

Especially the sheer raw magic that is pulsing through everything.

All the tales of the fey lands being the birthplace of magic, are suddenly feeling very, very true.

“I am hoping you can stay with Llywelyn for a while,” Selwyn says.

My heart crashes against my ribs. My heart drops down to my boots. My thoughts feel as if they have been struck with a sledgehammer.

“You… you wish to be rid of me?” I stammer helplessly.

A look of pain flashes across Selwyn’s face. There and gone. Like a cloud crossing the sun. His fingers lift and run along my jaw .

“I wish to give you time,” he whispers.

I stare up at him.

“Laurie, you will be ripe again very soon. You have been taught so very deeply that taking a cock is the only way to free your magic, I fear it has become true for you. You will not be able to surrender your power any other way.”

He is saying words. I know he is. I’m even pretty sure he is speaking directly in English, so I can’t even blame the translator.

It’s just my stupid mind that is failing to understand.

Of course a vessel needs to take a cock in order to give up their magic.

It is one of the fundamental principles of my very existence.

I must be misunderstanding what he is trying to say, but I cannot figure out for the life of me what else he is implying.

“Time runs differently here,” says Selwyn. “A vessel’s magic ripens differently. If you stay here, we can wait until you are ready.”

He stares down at me. I blink up at him.

“Laurie, on Earth you will be ripe again very soon.”

Oh. He doesn’t want to fuck me. That is what he is talking about. He is going to abandon me in a strange world so he doesn’t have to take me again.

My stomach twists painfully. My eyes threaten to water. I had no idea I had done so badly. I thought he had enjoyed our wedding night.

He shifts the cloth under his arm. “Come, let’s see how Loo-loo is faring.”

He strides past me, and out of the stone circle. I stand stupidly for a moment before running after him. I really, truly, do not want to be alone here.

We walk down a path that meanders through the gnarled and ancient trees. A small flower-strewn cottage comes into view. Picture perfect with stone walls and a thick thatched roof.

I force a swallow down my throat. It is beautiful, but I hate it.

It is where Selwyn is going to dump me.