Page 81 of Twisting Twilight (Homesteader Hearth Witch #9)

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

With my head nestled in his shoulder joint, Arthur and I gazed at the golden motes that drifted by in the wondrous glen that had sprouted in his living room.

His hand glided up and down the length of my thigh in long, lazy strokes.

Every once in a while, his hand would tighten, testing the reality of my body, reassuring himself that this wasn’t a dream.

I traced the paw-print tattoo on his left pec with a gliding fingertip and listened to his hammering heart slow to its normal rhythm.

“Will it always be like this?” I asked, breathless.

“A mating bond can only be consummated once,” Arthur said, “so you must obviously be referring to the method, because a bear never leaves his woman unsatisfied. In fact, we don’t consider the lovemaking complete until you’re rendered jelly-legged and incoherently giddy.”

My pulse skipped a few beats, but my mind rallied at his teasing arrogance. “So since I’m coherent enough to carry on a conversation, you’re admitting you didn’t do your job.”

He choked in disbelief, at my sassy audacity. Then it was his turn to rally. “ Well ,” he said with mock affront, “gimme a minute or two and I’ll rectify the situation. In the meantime…” He gestured to the living room filled with verdant trees and flowers and sleepy ferns.

“This sometimes happens when I lose control,” I murmured against his skin, a little embarrassed. It’d never been this extravagant before, though I’d never lost control so intensely before either. I couldn’t wait to do it again.

“Is it permanent?”

“It doesn’t have to be.”

His arm around me tightened when I shifted to recall the foliage. “No rush, I was just curious. It’s soothing.” His eyelids fluttered shut as his chest expanded in a deep, comfortable breath.

My tracing fingertip stopped and my palm flattened against the tattoo over his heart. I felt its pulse like a second heartbeat tied to the Dara Shield. “I can feel you so much more than I could before.”

“You’ll always be able to sense me, no matter where we are. No matter the distance, it’ll be like this.” He indicated the intimate closeness by turning his head and kissing my hair.

It took my post-coital mind a moment or two to catch up. I twisted up onto my elbow to look at him. “Did you just say that into my mind?”

His wink was lazy, his smile a little teasing. “The perks of a consummated bond. Neat, right?”

I didn’t reply right away. Instead I looked inward at the Dara Shield. That pinprick of blue light above the cat silhouette had expanded in size and strength. Its twinkle was brighter than any guiding star in the night sky.

“Is this a ‘verbal’ communication thing, or an image thing too?”

“What do you m—” He gasped as I flooded the bond with every naughty thought I could think of.

In a strained voice, he warned aloud, “If you keep doing that, you’ll never wear any clothes ever again.

And we’ll probably die of dehydration.” He gave me a teasing pinch and sighed.

“I suppose there are worse ways to go than endlessly making love with your mate. Your wife.”

I gave him an incredulous look. “You only suppose ?” It was my turn to give him a pinch.

He snapped his teeth at me. “Rawr.”

I giggled and settled back down against him, and he drew up a fistful of blankets and furs to cover us.

“We could go to the bed,” I offered, though I was plenty comfortable here.

“ Occupied, ” Sawyer denied me immediately. “You can keep your noisy selves out there, thank you very much.”

“There’s no glen in the bedroom,” Arthur countered. “And I like these little motes. They remind me of summer nights and the fireflies I used to catch with my brothers when we were kids.”

“Your brothers… The Coalition.” I sat up, hugging my knees. My thumb pushed the wooden wedding band into orbit around my finger. “I know what you said under the maple tree, Arthur, that you’ll go where I go, but I know you’re kinda on loan out here. This isn’t permanent.”

He lurched upright immediately, swallowing me in an embrace. “This is permanent, Meadow. You and me.”

I smiled at his ferocity, his misunderstanding.

Turning inward, I smoothed a hand down his beard, a thumb over his lips tightened in defiance.

“I know it. But I meant your responsibilities on the West Coast. I don’t know what they are, specifically, but I know that you have them.

That… you’re more important than other enforcers. ”

“Oh.” The amber faded from his eyes as he relaxed. “Well, yes. But things have changed now that the Criminal is no longer a threat. I’ll have more leniency after my contract with Cody is fulfilled. In theory.”

Arthur repositioned himself so his legs straddled me and leaned me back against his chest. His arms and hands layered over mine, and I sensed through the bond that he preferred this. To always be in contact with his mate, physically if possible. He rested his chin on my shoulder.

“I can tell from the bond you have an idea,” he said, beard rubbing against my neck with his words. “It tickles.”

“ That tickles,” I said aloud. As much as I cherished the intimacy of this new connection, I just wanted to hear his voice. “I had an inkling before, but now… Did you hear any of the discussion I had with my family?”

“Some. That you were staying here, not returning to the manor. I think my brain whited out from a happiness grenade after that, so I don’t remember the rest.”

A happiness grenade. I smiled, jubilant, but quickly sobered. “Even if I wanted to go back with them, there are too many loose ends here. The portal, for one.”

“Oh spirits,” he gasped. “The portal.”

“I locked it,” I assured him quickly.

“Locked it? Why didn’t you blast it into stardust? That’s how the Criminal came here!”

Had it not been for the alarm pouring down the bond, I would’ve misconstrued Arthur’s words as angry and accusatory. “I’m not sure if it’s that easy, Arthur,” I replied, maintaining my calm. “Like I said, a loose end. Something that needs investigating. And I can’t dismantle it yet anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

“I, uh, kinda made a deal with a dragon. I owe him a favor. So I need a way back to Elfame.”

“Oh, Meadow,” he groaned, sinking his forehead into my shoulder. “ Another fae bargain?”

A nervous chuckle. “Not my only one.”

“When we first met, you called me trouble. You have proven, yet again, that it is you who are the troublesome one.” He sucked in a deep breath. “What did you do?”

Quickly, briefly, I told him of my time in Elfame, everything I’d learned about the Blight, and my bargains with Rhydian, Kian, and Greatest-Aunt Briony.

“Of course you figured out how to save an entire race from a plague that destroys everything in its path,” he sighed. “That’s it.”

I yelped as he flipped me onto my back and pounced on top of me. “What are you doing?”

“Getting whatever… affection I can get… before we’re… busy tied up… saving another realm,” he said between kisses, working his way down my neck, my breasts, my stomach.

We. He wasn’t letting me bear this burden alone. If my heart could burst with happiness, it would be right now. My husband’s beard tickling my skin quickly refocused my introspective thoughts.

“Arthur,” I laughed, squirming. “Stop!”

“Uh-uh. The fae don’t get to have you before I’m satisfied first. It might be a decade or two before I can be persuaded to share you, so we better get started.” He blew a zerbert against my navel that made me shriek. “Now quit fussing.”

“ Arthur .” I loved this playful side of him, but I really needed his serious attention.

“Fiiine.” After one last kiss that threatened my resolve, he flopped down on his stomach between my legs, folded his arms across my belly, and rested his chin on the backs of his hands. “I’ll be good. Go on.”

It was hard to concentrate with him positioned there, despite his promise. I did my best to tamp down on the excitement building in that place his heartbeat hummed against and had to recap my thoughts before continuing.

“The portal, my bargains. Right. I’m not rushing anything on that front—my priorities are here. My home and my husband come first.”

Arthur hummed as I combed my fingers through his hair.

“There are the hobs. I couldn’t go without putting the farm in some kind of trust so they could keep running it without risk of a terrible owner coming in and wrecking everything.

Or messing with Mrs. White and offending the pixies and snuffing out the hearth ember.

Then there’s the elm tree. I can’t just leave it here unguarded, undefended. ”

“It’s banded in iron filigree now,” Arthur pointed out. “Safe from Ossian and the other fae.”

“It’s not only the fae I’m worried about. You said some magic hunters escaped?”

“Yes, but the Coalition will find them.”

“But Ossian’s Brotherhood isn’t the only band of magic hunters out there,” I countered. “Word will spread. Plus there’s hedge witches like Brandi?—”

Arthur groaned, his memories of her unpleasant.

“—who would do anything if they were desperate enough. In Annesley Valley, I know of a few practitioners—humans who can command the small magics through focuses—who would give their eyes for a thimbleful of real magic. And warlocks.

“I’m not saying the magic of the elm tree should be mine alone, but I created it, or tapped it, or awakened it, and it’s here now. It needs a guardian.”

“Is the wight not enough?”

My thoughts drifted to Arcadis’s ring and the little diamonds once banded in gold. “Even a wight can be captured and defeated. And now that Gwyn has her kin’s remains, she might want to return to the moors. I think she only bonded that tree to safeguard it from Ossian.”