I shake my head. “It’s not like that,” I say, and quick to reassure her I add, “I won’t say a word, and neither will CK, but this child is ours and no one else’s. I will give the Faerie what they want when the time is right.”
“With Vincentius?” she asks quietly. At my nod, her face hardens. “And the Dragons? What will you give them if not this child?”
“I haven’t decided,” I lie. I have already said too much. If Rosalina does get caught in the crossfire, the less she knows the better.
“Very well,” she murmurs, knowing I have blown her off, but fortunately she doesn’t take offense as I think she also knows why. “Follow me.”
She leads me out of the bathtub room and the palace falls away and we are in a beautiful forest surrounded by tall trees forming a green canopy overhead and the place is filled with butterflies and flowers and is stunning. A butterfly lands on my shoulder and I smile down at it and get a surprise. It isn’t a butterfly at all, but a tiny Pixie, I guess, with the most colorful wings.
“Lester,” Rosalina chides and brushes the Pixie off me. “She is so very curious. One day it will get her into trouble.” She smiles as she says it, so I know she is fond of the creature, of all of them. She claps her hands and they all flutter off, leaving us alone with the chirp of the birds. I assume they are birds, but they could be anything really.
“Sit,” she says, and I do, the gossamer gown settling in a sheer silk cloud around me.
I have no idea what she is going to do to me, and I get a little bit nervous. I think to what kind of ordeal CK is going through right now and I have to concede that mine, thus far, is probably nicer than his. She sits next to me and pulls on the belt of my robe. It falls away and she pushes it from my shoulders. Her face is really close to mine and I can’t help but look at the curve of her lips so like my sire’s. She smiles secretly and bends down to kiss me, pressing her lips to mine and darting her tongue into my mouth. In my surprise, I kiss her back briefly before I pull away, more than a little icked out, and she giggles at me. “He will be so mad when I tell him that I kissed you,” she says. “He doesn’t like to share.”
I snort in amusement as I can wholeheartedly agree with that comment, but… “Perhaps it’s best not to mention it,” I say.
“Perhaps,” she says noncommittally, and I know I am in for a world of hurt when she does tell him we kissed. She pushes me down to lie flat in the grass and trails her hand down in between my breasts to rest on my stomach. She kneels next to me and starts to mutter words in the Celtic language that I don’t really follow. I do suddenly know where CK got that cursed curse from that stopped Sebastian and me from having pleasurable sex after our union.
Jerks, both of them!
A cold wind blows over me and puckers my nipples, causing goose bumps to rise on my limbs, and then I am hot. So very, very hot and I know exactly what is happening to me. She has forced me to go into Heat. The cramps come on with a force and I groan as she strokes my forehead. It is so much worse than the first time and I take it back: CK’s experience has to be better than this. She soothes me while I suffer and after what seems like a lifetime, she then steps away. I hear her murmur, “She is ready,” to someone and so help me it had better be CK or there will be Hell to pay when I go into my lucid period. I feel the sweat rolling down my body and I am blind, but I can feel the bond of my sire as he sits next to me.
His touch is hesitant, and I hear him say, “She’s completely out of it. I can’t take advantage of her like this.”
It’s sweet, but I swear if he doesn’t get on with this soon, I am just going to curl up into a ball and die quietly.
“You must,” Rosalina says. “She is ripe. Take her.”
Like a fruit, I giggle at the thought, and CK shushes me, probably worried I am about to go hysterical.
“Leave us then,” he says sh
arply.
“I cannot, dear Brother,” she says. “I need to be here to finish the ritual.”
CK growls his intense dislike of that. I am not all that happy about it either, anyone but his sister for the gods’ sake.
My eyes regain some focus and I can see the outline of him now hovering over me. He covers me with his body and fans his robe out over us to offer us a small amount of privacy. Then he kisses me, and I forget all about anyone else. In the dream-reality version with Remiel it was hot, beyond hot, a volcano of heat and desire that he cooled with his hands and lips, but this is so much more. This is right. I can feel it with every cell in my body as he enters me, and my eyes become perfectly clear and I smile up at him.
“Aefre,” he whispers. “I love you.”
“I love you,” I murmur back. My mouth is dry, and my tongue feels swollen, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters but us.
I can hear Rosalina chanting in the background and then she takes our hands and slices our palms open and mashes them together. She ties them together tightly and then the world explodes in such brightness and color; I have to close my eyes and the Heat pulls me back under.
In my dream state, I hear CK ask anxiously, “Did it work?”
“You will find out soon enough,” Rosalina answers. “Normally I would be able to guarantee it, but your situation is not normal, but this is it. I am out, Brother. This war that is brewing is nothing to do with me and I want to stay out of it.”
“Of course,” CK says and then I don’t hear anything else.
I wake up in a bed in a dim room in the palace. The natural sparkle has been dulled like a dimmer switch on electric lights. I am stiff and sweaty and still naked. I look around for my robe, but don’t see it. I climb out of bed, glad that I slept off the last of the Heat and totter over to the door to peek out and ask the nearest person for some clothes. Seems my Powers don’t really work here either, so summoning something up isn’t very likely. I come to a rapid halt when I hear hushed voices on the other side of the door. I can’t tell who it is talking to Rosalina by sense alone, so I strain to hear what they are saying.
“Thank you,” Sebastian says. “I owe you one.”
“I must do what I can to stay neutral. Do not think this has anything to do with you,” Rosalina hisses at him.