Chapter 51

Gabrielle

When the morning came, signalled by the soft glow of fae orbs lighting the night-painted sky, a very drunk, ranting Lower Fae burst through the door, startling Axel awake. He blinked once and grabbed a throw off the couch adjacent to us, throwing it over me in an attempt to shield my naked body from the drunk, who was still yelling a string of curse words out the door, over his shoulder.

Axel didn’t bother covering himself and didn’t even blush as he scanned the scrawny short male from top to bottom.

“Well, howdy doo,” the fae greeted with a dramatic, slightly off-balanced low curtsy. He almost fell over in doing so, but remained upright, holding an nearly empty bottle with a strange unidentified liquid high above his head to protect it from his staggering.

“Name’s Mope, but you can call me,” he paused, squinting his eyes in deep thought, “Mope.”

I swapped glances with Axel for a brief moment before he turned to face the fae male again. He had a lazy grin on his face, one that set my insides on fire and made every beautiful memory from last night come barrelling back into my mind.

I blushed.

“Morning,” Axel greeted in a groggy husky voice still thick with sleep.

Mope plopped down on the couch adjacent to us, his light brown, golden hair bobbing with the movement. He wasted no time in propping his feet onto the coffee table and crossing his legs by the ankles. Swigging straight from the bottle in his hand, he let out a deep sigh and turned to face us. He had slightly longer hair which curled at the ends, an attractive pale face covered in freckles and stylish glasses which complemented his face quite well. I have never seen a fae with glasses before.

“So, you two enjoy the festival?” he asked paying no heed to our naked forms. Axel was already pulling his pants on while keeping close to my side, but I remained hiding under the warmth of the fluffy grey throw he had covered me with.

A sexy smirk from Axel over his shoulder had me smiling shyly and answering, “yes, we did.”

“Yeah, neither did I,” the fae replied and took another swig from his bottle. The heavy tang of alcohol hit my nose. Whatever he was drinking, it was strong.

“Almost did though. Almost. Did.”He said, staring at the coffee table.

I couldn’t help but giggle.

“Probably would have succeeded if she wasn’t married to the crowned prince though,” he added as an afterthought.

“Ah, Princess Arabella?”

He nodded.

I tried to hide my smile as I explained to Axel that the princess was the wife of Jumoke, Locke’s eldest brother and first in line for the crown. They had been happily married for a little over a year now and still seemed very much in love when I saw them yesterday afternoon.

“She kept saying things like, who are you? and why are you following me?” The fae went on, making his voice a few octaves higher at the bits where was reciting her words in a mocking tone.

Axel chuckled and came to sit by my side, handing me my crumpled dress with a wink.

“Was that who you were yelling at just now?” Axel asked gesturing to the door.

Mope turned to face us, “are you kidding me? I would never yell at the princess!” He pressed his hand to his heart for effect.

Axel’s brows rose in question.

“It was the prince,” Mope grumbled, waving a lazy hand in the air.

The corners of Axel’s mouth tugged up, but he was trying very hard to hide his smile.

“Right, I am going to take a nice hot bath, you two,” he gestured to the two of us with the tip of his bottle, “should clean up this mess before you leave.”

I glanced around us. Nothing seemed out of place except for my shoes lying on the floor and the throw covering me.

“Sure,” Axel agreed with his smooth arrogant charm.

Mope braced himself on the armrest for a moment, steadied himself on his feet and sauntered towards his room, almost meeting head-first with the doorframe in the process.

Once he was inside and the door closed behind him, both me and Axel exchanged glances and chuckled.

“Morning,” he said, bending down to kiss my brow. His lips were comfortably hot and brought the mate bond’s pleasurable tingles with them.

“Morning.”

His smile was warm. Loving.

I felt extremely calm and very content. If this was what it would be like to be his, then I would gladly embrace it with both arms.

“You were wonderful,” he said, idly running his fingers over the contours of my exposed shoulder.

I didn’t know what to say. Heat crept up over my neck and my cheeks.

“You too.”

He gave me another one of those lazy, smouldering smirks, making my core heat up in answer. But then something flickered in his eyes and his expression changed.

“I-I meant to ask you last night,” he said, starting to pull away the throw and expose an area of skin on the left side of my body. I lifted my arm and twisted to look a what he was talking about.

Oh. Right. That.

“What is that?” He asked genuinely curious and gently brushing his thumb over the faint white scar tissue. It had the same appearance as old burn marks which had been healed and edged deep into my skin years ago.

“It is my wishes.”

I didn’t know how else to put it, so I just said it the way it was.

His eyes pulled away from my side to study my face, “what do you mean?”

I sat up and started fumbling with a corner of the throw. “Well, you know the gift I have? For seeing people’s colours?”

He nodded.

“It wasn’t always like that. I mean, I wasn’t born with it.”

His brows pulled together, and he sat up straighter, draping a strong muscled arm over the backrest of the couch.

“When I was little, I was abducted from Dire Mountain. Or, well, someone tried to abduct me,” Axel went holly still, “but my father’s warriors were too fast and too swift for the intruder. I think he had realized he wasn’t going to get me out without getting caught himself, so he cut my throat and dumped me in one of the old, abandoned caves lining the southern outer skirts of the mountain range.”

Gold flashed in Axel’s eyes and his jaw tightened, yet he remained quiet.

“I was bleeding out quickly and my father’s men wouldn’t have reached me in time, so I closed my eyes and embraced death.”

“How old were you?” He asked. His voice rumbling like gravel.

“Eight.”

He winched.

“Anyway. As I lay there, fading into darkness, I heard a voice asking me to open my eyes. When I did, Locke’s grandmother was leaning over me and had her hands pressed to my neck. She told me that she would grant me four sacred wishes powerful enough that it would save me and also save many others if I used it wisely.”

I took a slow breath and tried to read his expression. He didn’t show anything.

“The first thing I obviously wished for was to live. Not to die in such a horrid way, bleeding out alone in a dark, musty cave.”

His eyes snapped towards me.

“It worked. Burned like hell but worked. Not even a trace of the cut remained on my skin, only the blood which had flowed and formed a puddle underneath my tiny body. And, well, the sign of my first wish being fulfilled.”

Axel’s eyes focused on the top burn mark again, his fingers rubbing slow circles over it.

“It is an ancient fae symbol depicting life.”

His hand moved to the more complex symbol underneath, “and this one?”