Page 17 of Love Bites Harder (Mated to the King #3)

seventeen

CLEMENTINE

I slipped into our bed with the journal Kai was halfway through, and opened it.

There wasn’t any time to lose.

Part of me worried that I’d find a description of his father’s abuse, but the pages launched me straight into a long, boring description about a political meeting with the guy who was the monster king at the time.

I wanted to skip, but didn’t dare.

Missing something about the anchor wasn’t an option.

I read every word, forcing myself to focus.

Kai stopped by with food a few hours later, but didn’t stay to talk or even kiss me. The wild look in his eyes and blood smeared on him told me that kissing would mean screwing, and we didn’t have time for that.

“Stay put,” he growled at me, before he vanished again.

The room had gone dark, but I didn’t put the book down.

I ate enough to stop my stomach from growling, and otherwise, continued reading.

I finished that journal sometime during the night, and moved immediately to the next. They weren’t in chronological order, which was a little jarring, but it helped me stay awake as I tried to figure out what exactly was going on.

Morning had come a few hours later when I dozed off in the middle of a page, falling asleep on top of the journal.

I opened my eyes after an unknown amount of time, and shook off sleep.

I didn’t know how long I’d been out, but I didn’t think it had been too long.

Forcing myself to my feet, I kept reading, and snacked too to help me stay awake.

Five days and four extremely brief visits from Kai later, I was halfway through the final journal. It followed the time immediately after Kai’s father had killed his own dad and taken the throne. It was dark, and horrible.

I tried to read closely without truly taking in any of the information.

I read a passage once—then stopped, and went back.

I moved the anchor bush from the garden to my room in the Manor. The leaves wilted a little, but the fruit’s fine. If I feed it magic often enough, it should survive without a problem, and it’s safer there.

You never know who might try to control us with it.

My father was constantly going on about the risks of moving it, but we’re obviously in more danger if we don’t. The realm’s connection to Earth is a parasitic one. It needs Earth to survive, so it’s going to stay alive no matter what, even without being surrounded by other plants.

I dropped the journal on my lap, dazed as I looked down at the book.

Kai had been right.

His dad had screwed their world up on purpose. He hadn’t realized the exact effects—but it was undoubtedly his fault.

He’d dug the realm’s anchor out of the garden and potted it.

And I knew exactly which plant it was.

The only one I’d seen in all of Fae Manor with wilted leaves.

The berry bush in our room.

We could end the eclipses.

We could fix everything.

We just had to replant the bush where it belonged.

I paced the room while I waited for Kai. I’d run out of food nearly twelve hours ago. There was nothing else to eat, and I was getting dizzy.

He would be coming back for me soon.

He had to be.

Some part of my mind reached for the vine on my ankle, searching for that connection to my mate, but it was gone.

Severed.

I let out a shaky breath.

I needed to sleep. To soak in the water, if I couldn’t sleep.

But between my physical hunger and my thirst for Kai’s emotions, I was literally trembling.

He’d warned me not to leave, and I’d heard people moving around in the castle, so I knew I wasn’t alone. They were screwing. Fighting. Screaming. Laughing like maniacs. Leaving wasn’t an option.

But Kai would come back for me. I had to believe that.

I was curled up in the bathtub nearly an entire day later, shaking, when my king finally appeared. I hadn’t felt strong enough to undress, so I wearing one of his shirts again, plus the underwear.

The man’s face was grim, his entire body coated in blood both fresh and dry.

Panic crossed his face when he saw me in the tub, and he was in the water with me a moment later, clutching me to his chest. The vine that connected us swelled immediately, the short ends around our ankles snapping out and reconnecting.

Everything felt better as the bond set in again.

“I’m sorry. Austin lost control. There was… it was bad.” He had to choke the words out, and he was shaking too.

Maybe he did have a friend, even if he didn’t want to admit it.

“I’m fine. Is he going to be okay?”

“I don’t know. It depends how long the eclipse is.”

“We can end it. I found the anchor,” I whispered. “Don’t leave me again, please.”

“I couldn’t if I tried, Five.” He held me tighter. “What is it? Where is it?”

“The pink berry bush in our room. We have to plant it in the garden. Do you know where that is? There weren’t any details.”

“I know where it is. Just give me a second.” He breathed in and out slowly. Shakily. Until his body had steadied, just a little bit. “You stay with me the entire time, alright?”

“Agreed.”

He kissed my forehead roughly before the water disappeared around us, and we landed on the floor of our room in the Manor. Without a moment’s pause, he slid me around his shoulders, holding me on his back with one hand as he stood.

He crossed the room to the berry bush. With his free hand, he grabbed the large pot and lifted it, carrying it in his elbow. It was massive, but he made it look deceptively light.

Slowly, he made his way to the elevator, then to the lobby.

It was worse than it had been the last time I saw it.

Much worse.

I tried not to look closely. Some things couldn’t be unseen, and I wasn’t someone who coped well after seeing them.

Kai walked straight down a large hallway, until he made it out through a pair of sliding glass doors and into a verifiable paradise.

The garden was bigger than Fae Manor, stretching as far as I could see with an insane number of plants from both Earth and the realm. Everything looked bigger than usual.

Flowers bloomed everywhere, while trees filled insane amounts of space.

Butterflies even fluttered around us.

Kai carried me straight to a section of fruit bushes, and sank to his knees in front of a large, empty mound of soft, loose dirt.

He dug his bare hands in, and started digging.

I did the same, pulling soil out with my king until there was a large enough hole for the bush.

Kai set the pot down in the hole, then broke the glass with a snap of his fist. With careful, gentle hands, we pulled shards of glass both big and small from the soil and buried the roots. Then, we filled in the hole.

He pressed his palms to the dirt when we were done, and closed his eyes.

I felt his magic collide with the anchor in a wave so thick that breathing grew difficult.

“Feed on me,” he said, gritting his teeth.

I wanted to protest, but realized quickly why he was telling me to do it.

My magic was poison to a fae during an eclipse. But it was only poison because it gave them more energy.

Which would power their magic, and Kai needed that.

I put my hand on his arm and yanked on his emotions, sending every remaining ounce of my power into him as I drank him in.

Desperation.

Devotion.

Fear.

Determination.

Everything he felt rolled through me, calming my shaking even as it gave him more energy to send into the anchor.

I watched, transfixed, as the wilted leaves turned green and raised back to their proper position.

The entire bush grew thicker, and healthier.

A few long, slow minutes passed before I had to release Kai’s arm, too drunk on his emotions and hungry for actual food to take any more from him.

He looked at me a moment later, and I saw the whites of his eyes again.

Relief had me sagging.

“It’s over?” I asked.

“Yeah, five. It’s over.”

“Finally,” I breathed, lowering my face to the soil we’d dug out and finally closing my eyes. “I need to sleep.”

“And eat.” Kai pulled me carefully into his arms.

“You need to get back to the fae,” I mumbled.

“They’ll survive an hour without me. Right now, my mate needs me more.”

Emotions made my eyes burn. “That was a long week.”

“I know, Clem. You did so fucking well.”

“Yeah, I really did.”

He laughed quietly, the sound gravelly and exhausted. It still made me feel good. “I love you.”

“I think I love you too, asshole. Let’s never do that again.”

He laughed again, more out of shock than anything else. “Agreed.”

Kai lifted me off the dirt and carried me back into the Manor.

I fell asleep before we reached the kitchen. After waking up long enough to force down the protein shake he made me drink while we were in there, I slept most of the way through a quick shower and a trip to our bed.

The one I’d never actually spent a night in.

It obviously didn’t bother me, because I was out long before my head hit the pillow.