Page 5 of Heart Cradle (The Melrathen Saga #1)

Maeve took a slow sip of her coffee, more to buy time than because she actually wanted it.

The espresso was now lukewarm, but her mouth had gone chalk-dry.

Eiran was beautiful, strangely calm in the way only dangerous things could be.

He watched her with open interest, no arrogance or push and that somehow made it worse.

Predators usually strutted and postured, this one simply was.

Like a tide coming in, like the click of a lock on a door you hadn’t realised was already shut behind you.

“You’re being deliberately cryptic,” she said at last, narrowing her eyes. “Is this some weird tourist scam? If so, it’s got a very niche angle.”

He smiled again, sure but not mocking. It should have irritated her, but it didn’t. It made her stomach flip again, as if it were twisting like a low rolling cloud.

“I’m being honest,” he said, voice gentle. “I just... don’t think you’re ready to hear everything. Not yet.”

She sat back, looking at her nails, before letting out a short, humourless laugh. “You don’t know me.”

“No,” he agreed. “But I don’t have to.”

That silenced her into frustration. Something about the way he said it made her nerves fizz.

Her hand, almost on autopilot, lifted to the bracelet.

The moment her fingers brushed it and the low thrum beneath her skin intensified.

Not painful, not even uncomfortable now, just present, as if it recognised her, or worse, recognised him.

He didn’t speak, just looked at her. Not with challenge, but with something quieter, something close to longing, then he nodded gently towards her wrist. “May I?” he asked. “The Chain.”

Maeve hesitated, not out of fear, but out of stubborn defiance.

Something about the question felt too intimate for a public café, but her hand moved anyway.

Cautiously she lifted her wrist and offered it to him.

He reached out, his fingers brushed the metal first, light and respectful. The bracelet hummed more insistently.

Then, by accident or by fate, his skin touched hers, and the world shattered.

It wasn’t a spark, it wasn’t lightning, it was warmth, so deep and consuming, like standing in sunlight after a lifetime underground.

It was love, pure and unguarded, it was recognition, not of him as a stranger, but as something she'd known before knowing had a name. The sensation cracked open her chest like a bell rung from the inside. It was too fast, too big, too everything. It didn’t hurt, and she didn’t hurt so much, either. It felt like coming home.

Maeve’s breath caught, her eyes shot to his, and she saw it reflected there. He’d felt it too. The bracelet pulsed once, golden and soft, then settled. They didn’t speak, they couldn’t, not right away as he let go carefully, as if reluctantly releasing a thread he wasn’t ready to lose.

Maeve stared at her wrist, it looked the same. Nothing burned, nothing glowed. Yet she felt like she’d just been kissed by the sky itself.

“W-what...” she began, voice barely above a whisper. “What the fuck was that?”

Eiran he looked moved, the face of a man who’d been waiting an eternity for a moment he no longer believed would come.

“That,” he said quietly, “was the beginning.”

“No, seriously. What was that? What have you done to me? Stop being so fucking cryptic.”

The waiter appeared, dropped off Eiran’s espresso, and disappeared again. Neither of them touched their drinks. Eiran observed her as if fascinated.

Her heart was thundering so loud she could barely hear herself think. “Okay, I’ll ask again,” she whispered. “What the bloody hell was that?”

His hand hovered, fingers curled inward slightly, like they still remembered the shape of her, like they missed it already and he exhaled slowly and meeting her eyes. “That,” he said, voice soft and reverent, “was a bond, love.”

Love?

She opened her mouth to correct him but found no words, just the dart of disbelief stuck behind her teeth. Instead she huffed. “A what?”

“A mate bond,” he clarified gently. “Ancient and incredibly rare, a gift from our gods. The kind you can’t refuse, even if you want to. Well, you can, but you shouldn’t really. It’s not a curse, it’s not a trick. It’s a thread, binding two souls for… eternity. ”

Then she laughed again, sharp and bitter. “Okay. No. You don’t get to say shit like that with a straight face. That’s not real, that’s imaginary bollocks.”

Eiran tilted his head. “And yet, you felt it.”

Her throat worked around a retort that didn’t come.

“I didn’t do anything to you,” he added softly. “That moment, it wasn’t forced. It was just uncovered. The bond’s always been there, dormant and waiting. Like I said, it was given by the gods. Our touch just solidified it.”

Maeve stared. “Solidified,” she repeated, dryly. “So what, you think this is love at first touch? That we’re soulmates or something?”

His expression didn’t turn smug, just sad. “Oh, I don’t think,” he said quietly. “I know.”

The words hit her like a stone to the chest. She wanted to scoff, to get up and walk away, to call him a delusional wanker with too much time on his hands, but she couldn’t.

She did feel it, the second his skin touched hers, something inside her opened.

Something aching and hungry, something calming and honest.

“Cards on the table. I’m fae and we have mate bonds.

They are incredibly uncommon. They aren’t Chains,” Eiran continued, sensing the storm behind her silence.

“They don’t bind. They… recognise, it doesn’t mean you owe me anything.

It doesn’t remove your choices. It just means a thread is there, between us, woven into us. ”

Maeve shook her head. “No. I don’t do fate, I don’t do cosmic threads or magical bullshit. I’m a rational adult. And you… this whole thing, is insane. Fae, like faeries?”

“I know,” Eiran nodded. “But insanity doesn’t make it any less true.”

She suddenly felt cold, despite the sun. Her wrist still tingled, as if it still remembered him. “I didn’t ask for this,” she muttered.

“I didn’t either,” he said. “But I’m not sorry.”

Their eyes locked, and the air between them danced again, with possibility and danger.

Maeve exhaled. “Okay… so let’s say I believe you, which I don’t. But just for argument’s sake, what the hell am I supposed to do with that?”

Eiran’s smile returned, faint, and full of hope .

“Whatever you want,” he said. “The bond doesn’t force love, it just opens the door.”

Maeve narrowed her eyes. “Let’s pretend, for fun, that this isn’t total madness. That you, and I… and this bracelet are somehow… connected. What exactly do you want from me?”

He tilted his head. Studying her, not like prey or a puzzle, but like something sacred. “I want to explain,” he said. “But more than that, I want you to choose to listen.”

She stared. “I don’t do riddles, or spiritual awakenings, or cult initiation.”

He chuckled. “Good. I’m not here to take anything from you.” A pause. “Quite the opposite, in fact.”

Her sarcasm snapped up like a shield. “You came to give me something? Oh, thank you! What is it, eternal enlightenment? A map to the faerie domains and all its kingdoms? A cauldron of gold?”

His smile didn’t falter. “In a way… yes.”

Her heart stuttered. There it was again, that gnawing feeling beneath her ribs, something old, heavy and half-buried was trying to wake up.

She didn’t like it, didn’t understand it and she didn’t want it.

She didn’t leave, either. “Look,” Maeve said, voice harder now, sharper-edged.

“If this is some elaborate trick, you’ve picked the wrong woman.

I’m a detective back in London. I’ve seen scams wrapped in bows and lies dressed up like foresight.

Magical kingdoms, faeries, threads?! You’re not convincing me and you certainly don’t scare me. ”

Something flickered in his eyes, respect, maybe, or sorrow. “I don’t want to scare you, love,” he said. “I’m asking you to trust something I can’t fully explain, and you can’t yet understand. Just for a little while. Please.”

Maeve leaned back. The café sounds faded, cutlery clinking, distant laughter, the scrape of chairs. Her coffee had gone cold, but she hadn’t noticed. “And if I don’t?”

“I’ll walk away and you’ll never see me again.” Eiran said, without hesitation. “But the Chain will be coming with me.”