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thirty-two

Rivern

S he is upstairs sleeping. Dove is on my bed. Layering my sheets in her delicious, honeyed floral scent, her glossy hair spilling over my pillows. All I want to do is run to her. Be the first thing she sees when she wakes.

Instead, I’ve been summoned to address the council in the meeting room. A mostly bare space that holds a considerable rectangle table lit up with flashing crystal orbs cut into the stone walls.

I blame myself. I pushed her too hard. We should’ve rested more. Ate more. Humans seem to need more of everything. Fae can go turns without food and rest. Humans are not made equal in that way, and I will have to remember that now that I’m bonded to one.

Through the bond, I can still feel her body in a state of rest, which fills me with some semblance of calm.

“Prince Rivern.” My uncle, Lyon, addresses me as the appointed head of the council. Although we do have a monarchy within the fae, we also rely on a trusted council of elders appointed by the fae people to support us in ruling for the good of all.

“Yes, Sir.” I sit, rubbing the growing stubble along my face. How I wish Dove’s hands were tracing the harsh lines of my cheeks.

“You left a taken male and seem to have found yourself bonded to a human female?” The gazes of seven much older fae look back at me, including my mother, the queen. She has yet to speak to me, instead opting for quiet contemplation.

My back straightens. I was never taken.

I am now, though. Without a doubt in my mind, that human belongs to me.

I might be betrothed to the princess of the Silver Sands, but it is not a love match, a bonded mating. It is purely a political move by our kind to protect our home from war. A war we didn’t expect to come knocking on our door.

“Dove is my true, fated bond. I feel her here.” I point to my chest, where my princess lies. “That’s how I was able to find her. The fates drew me to her.”

The truth falls without effort. Ever since those first sparks of life that tethered us together, I’ve felt her spirit interlacing with mine. Maybe I’ve always felt her within, but when those aches started increasing in my chest, I couldn’t ignore it. She is my chosen, and I cannot give her up. If she dies, I will expire right along with her. I know that now.

My uncle pushes his chair backwards harshly. “Are you saying you lied to us?”

Pushing onto my temples, I sigh. “I never lied. At the time, all I knew was the odd feeling pulling me towards Haven. I suspected a bond mating from the old stories, but I wasn’t sure. The Goddess herself was calling me. I didn’t fully understand what I was experiencing until I saw Dove for the first time. The bond lit up the moon itself.”

“And you brought her back?” Mother drums her fingers at the head of the long wooden table, composed as usual. Bringing her back wasn’t part of the plan. After all, it was Mother’s idea to kill the end of my tether, Dove.

“What else would you have me do? Once I found her, Oona herself wouldn’t let me part from her. Being away from her right now is already putting a strain on the chain connecting us.” As if to prove a point, my chest starts to ache, and I rub at it.

Mother pushes a hand through her silver curls and points towards my older sister, Freya, who has been giving me the most curious of looks. Like she is seeing me for the first time. “When are we expecting Moyrie?” Mother asks the table.

“Within the next several turns, my queen,” my sister answers.

Freya, the good daughter. Always so formal. Marrying for optimal offspring. Not gallivanting around the countryside. However, she did produce my second favourite person in the whole of the lands, Kit. Unfortunately, he has now been bumped to second.

Dove will always be first.

Pulling at my hair, I stand and start to pace, watching the floor as it plays shadow games before winking off opal sparks. The air in the mountains, earthy and stagnant, starts to feel foreign to me as the sweet smell up in my room calls to me.

I am insane . The Goddess bonded me with a human, and I am utterly captivated. Even now, I want to sprint from this room in her direction. If she ran headlong into the void, I would jump in right after her.

“Sit down, son. You are giving me a headache with all your pacing.” Mother’s smoky violet eyes motion towards the chair.

Taking her advice, I sit down across from her. “I wish you had told us of these urges you were having,” she continues.

I want to laugh. This is more than just urges, and she knows that . “Mother, we have not sealed the bond yet.”

A smile graces her pink lips, and my insides shrivel. “Excellent. Then you will marry Moyrie, as planned.”

Pushing up from my chair, I seethe. She has not heard a word I’ve expressed . “No, Mother, I will not. I have changed my mind.”

Mother stands thoughtfully, placing a hand on my sister’s shoulder. “Talk some sense into your brother. I’m growing weary of this conversation.”

“Yes, Mother,” Freya answers as our mother strides from the room in her billowing purple gown, the other council members following closely behind. My uncle gives me a swift nod, my mother’s word final.

Freya opens her mouth and closes it again as I walk past her. Turning at the last moment, I say, “If you have anything else to say to me, you can say it in front of Dove.”

I keep a modest room at the highest point of the mountain. My bed, made of the softest cottons and finest silks, sits on a carved platform out of the rocks below. Up this high, the opal is sparser, so the walls and floor are mostly shades of grey or brown. And because of the height of my room, I have the luxury of a fireplace, which allows for easy ventilation to the outside.

Snuggled up where I left her lies a sleeping Dove. Wavy chestnut hair drapes around her heart-shaped face, and her pouty lips seem even more pronounced when she sleeps. I could lay next to her for turns without growing tired, which is just what I plan on doing.

After kicking off my boots, I gently ease in beside her, enjoying the warmth from the fireplace and her body. My princess naturally falls into me, making little sniffing sounds as her fingers find my tunic and grasp on for dear life. I weave my hands around her back before a cough lets me know someone else has joined us.

“Oh, yes, sorry, sister. Please, talk some sense into me.” Freya stands opposite me on Dove’s side of the bed and looks down at the small bundle wrapped in my arms.

“Why is she so small? Is she a child?” Freya looks genuinely confused.

“No, she is a full-grown female. Humans do not grow to our height or strength it seems,” I answer .

“Oh.” She takes a seat next to Dove, flattening her ankle-length sleek dress. “She’s quite pretty for a human.”

“You say that as if you are surprised,” I comment as I pat my bonded’s unruly hair, seeing the peak of red, ravished skin underneath. That scar makes me want to set the entire universe ablaze . Instead, I pull her hair slightly aside and kiss it, making my princess pant out a contented breath.

“Considering the stories we have heard of humans, I wouldn’t have been surprised if you returned with a one-eyed, horned monster,” Freya replies earnestly.

I pat Dove’s hair back in place, committing every inch of her to memory. The cleft above her full upper lip, the flutter of her long lashes and her small, curved ears. “We can’t hide forever under these mountains, Freya. We’ve already been found out and threatened by the Silver Sands people. I can understand not wanting a repeat of the past. Goddess, I was going to find Dove with every intention of ending this bond by any means necessary. Just like mother wanted.”

Freya spreads her hand out to lay it on top of mine. A jolt hits me, wanting to pull my hand from hers, but I leave it. “I’m sorry. It’s hard for any of us to imagine such a bond connection exists any longer without the full force of the Goddess’s powers behind us.”

“That’s just it, you see, I found the power. Oona chose Dove. She holds the song within her and she can teach it to us.” I pull my hand from under Freya’s and continue to brush my bonded’s hair as a contented purr moves through my torso at finally being able to scent the intoxicating aroma from the woman snuggled beside me.

“Rivern, do not speak such things. A human…” She shakes her head. “A human could not possess the Goddess’s power.”

“Just because she doesn’t look like us doesn’t mean she can’t learn our ways. She taught herself the song from our books, and when she sings, it is magic.” The female next to me lets out another deep, contented breath.

I have fallen so hard and fast that I’ve come back to this place completely changed. Maybe I dreamt of leaving Terra because I knew I’d find her some turn. And now that I have her, I never want to leave. She wants to help her people back in Haven, but I just want her safe and protected by me.

Standing from the bed, Freya looks down at us. “Well, I don’t know what to say, brother…other than we received a missive by bird just after you left the council. Moyrie is already en route to Terra. She will be here before the suns find their slumber again. If you don’t marry the Silver Sands female, you know what Mother will do to your little human. Make the right decision,” she firmly states.

A threat. I was expecting it. What she wants me to do—what they all want me to do… They probably think this connection with Dove is a lie. That she has somehow bewitched me, and by killing her, they would be doing me a favour.

The door slams following Freya’s retreat. My sister is slowly turning into our mother. The ice queen of the hill.

This is not what I want. I have no intention of hurting Dove or my family.

My intentions were always to marry Moyrie. I was willing to live in the Silver Sands. My sister would rule over Terra when my mother abdicated, and I would visit. Being the best possible prince for Terra had always been my goal until… Her.

Dove’s lashes flutter against her upper cheeks, and her pouting lips beg me to kiss them. Instead, I run one of my fingers over the plush softness. What I would give to have these lips against mine again.

She cannot be yours.

You will be her death.

The voice rings out so carelessly that I want to stab my sword through each offending syllable.

My heart is starting to bleed at the reality of my situation. This bond may tie us together, but Dove is not mine, and my life is not mine to give, either. We will be each other’s ruin.

Placing one last gentle kiss on my bonded’s forehead, I ease from the bed, heart bleeding out on the bed next to its one true owner.