Chapter 16

“I do not want to believe any of what Hex has spoken to be true, but I will look into it. For your sake,” Elias said, sitting beside Sylvie on the front steps.

The morning sun was yet to hit the front of the house, but he was already covered in full-length trousers and a long-sleeved, black dress shirt. He looked ravishing.

“What does that mean, though? I don’t want you to leave.”

Sylvie refrained from pouting as Kian and Rowan padded from the house before standing in front of them.

Rowan cleared his throat. “She needs to meet the pack.”

“No,” Both Elias and Sylvie snapped at the same time.

“Elias, just hear him out,” Kian said, crossing his arms. “You too, Princess.”

She groaned. “Why are you all buddy-buddy with him now?”

Kian gave her a stern look and sighed. “I think it will be safer for us with the pack while Kerensa and Elias go to Argyncia.”

Sylvie’s mouth dropped open, and she looked to Elias for backup. “You mean to stay there? We just got settled in here! Why can’t we stay here, and they come to meet us?”

“My people aren’t some slaves you can order around for your every whim. They have responsibilities and will not drop them all to see you.” Rowan’s scathing words made Sylvie frown, a scarlet blush burning her cheeks and chest. What was worse was that he was right, and she made herself sound like a total self-important brat.

“You chose to mark me, and that means you chose the responsibility of leading-”

“No!” Sylvie jumped up, shaking her head. “I didn’t think about the consequences when I marked you-”

“Ignorance is not an excuse. Deep down, you knew.”

Angry tears filled her eyes as she attempted to stare him down. “Just shut up.”

He stepped closer to her, his hazel-green eyes narrowing. “You will come to see our people.”

“Stop it.” The tears slipped over her waterline and down her flushed cheeks. She let them sit on her cheeks for once instead of angrily swiping them away. “I can’t do this. I’m not meant for this-”

“The Fates would never mate you with three leaders from their respective realms if you were not a leader.”

Rowan wouldn’t quit. Even when he saw her breaking down, he kept digging deeper. She was so close to snapping. Kian crossed between them and palmed her cheek, forcing a calm through her, while cool hands at her back let her know Elias was close too.

“I will be there the entire time,” Kian said, stealing her gaze with his dark eyes.

Everything in her wanted to run away and hide, but Rowan’s expectant stare and Kian’s gentle nudging rooted her to the spot.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Kerensa’s gravelly voice drew all their attention from the corner of the house, her bloodshot, squinting eyes suggesting she was woken recently.

“I’m trying to fucking sleep, and all I hear is your whining.” Her purple eyes cut briefly to Sylvie with a question in them, but Sylvie shook her head softly.

‘I’m fine,’ she mouthed.

Elias walked towards her, crossing his arms. “I need to get to Argyncia.”

“And?” Kerensa blinked. “The Silver City has been blocked off for centuries-”

“I know that. But if it wasn’t, and someone has been getting through, could you get us there?”

She sighed and crossed her arms, mirroring Elias. “Is that even a question? Of course, I fucking could, but if you’re wrong, the pushback from the realm will hurt like a bitch.”

“I know.”

Sylvie padded across the grass, threading her hand through the crook of Elias’s elbow and pressing her forehead into his bicep. “I don’t want you to go,” she mumbled against him.

Rowan’s growl from her side sent shivers through her, but she refused to look at him as he spoke.

“Meet me here when you’re done wasting time.”

A rustling sound crossed the space between them before cracking, popping and tearing fabric overtook it. The clawing and thudding of paws in dry earth disappeared in an instant, and without looking, Sylvie knew he was gone.

She hated the pang in her chest from his absence and only pressed her face harder into Elias. She wished she could shrink and fit in his pocket at that moment. There she would be safe and free to hide from the world as she wanted.

Sighing, she tilted her head back and pressed her chin on Elias. To her amusement, he was fighting a smile staring back at her. The stubborn ass hardly showed her his emotions, and even when he did, he was composed and subdued. Just once, she wanted to see his beautiful, beaming smile. It seemed she wouldn’t get it, though.

“I’m sorry for being a bitch last night.”

“I told you I don’t blame you. We don’t need to speak of it again.”

So fucking noble.

Pressing on her toes, she met his lips with a soft kiss.

“If you want to attempt this portal, we must go now while the moon is still full. The energy expenditure will kill me otherwise.”

Hearing Kerensa’s words, Sylvie planted hard on her heels with tear-filled eyes and a burning throat. “This fucking sucks,” she whispered harshly.

Elias made a low affirmative noise in his throat and stroked her chin lightly with his thumb.

“Swear to me you’ll be back safe. And swear to me when you do, you’ll make good on your promise.”

Sylvie swallowed as Elias’ expression softened, and his head tilted a fraction. “And what promise is that?”

Snatching his hand between her shaking ones, she lightly kissed his knuckles before pressing them to her cheek. “The one where you make me your wife.”

“On my life, I swear it.”

With one last kiss to the back of her hand, he stepped towards Kerensa, lagging slightly as if Sylvie’s tears rooted him to the spot.

“I love you,” Sylvie called after him, biting her lower lip. Fates be damned if she wouldn’t tell him how much she loved him. The glistening ruby ring on her finger twirled beneath her thumb as she nervously watched him take Kerensa’s hand.

“I love you, Sylvie Hart.”

The moment the words left his lips, he blinked out of thin air along with Kerensa and a patch of grass from where their feet once stood.

It took everything in her not to fall on the dirt circle and sob, begging him to return. Why did something always have to separate them? Why couldn’t they live happily ever after and be boring ‘humans’ like she had been roleplaying her whole life until a few months ago? Warm arms curled around her belly, and a pointy chin nuzzled her shoulder.

“I wish there was another way.”

“I know.” Kian sighed softly, his breath ruffling the soft brown curls beside her face. They were alone. The morning sun kissed their skin, and the living forest at their side hummed and chirruped with wildlife and cicada.

“He gave me coordinates to follow. So come inside and eat some more, and we’ll go.”

“I’m not hungry.”

Kian spun her in his arms until she looked up into his dark, indigo-speckled eyes.

“Don’t say it,” she sighed, dropping her head on his sternum. He looked poised to say something about Rowan, and she couldn’t bear to hear his suggestions supporting the shifter.

It was sure to be something about giving him a chance, and if he spoke the words, she thought, she just might punch her perfect husband in the face.

Kian’s chuckle beneath her forehead drew her puzzled gaze back up.

“Are you alright, Princess? Your emotions are fairly chaotic.”

“I just- I don’t want you to defend him.” She frowned at the noisy forest and started again. “He kidnapped me, Kian. He stole me from a place I felt safe and locked me away while his torturer beat me for hours until I healed, only so he could beat me again. Whether he knew about it or not doesn’t matter because his actions led to it. I will not forgive that, even if I had a lapse of judgement last night.”

“It wasn’t a lapse; it was the bond. You couldn’t help it.”

“No, I couldn’t.”

They stayed silent for a moment, letting the sun warm their bodies, and their breathing synchronise before she pulled away and stormed towards the house to change into something more comfortable. While rummaging through her drawers, she threw a few outfits on the bed that Kian diligently packed with a soft smile on his lips.

“Active clothing is a good choice.”

“Yeah. I assumed blouses and expensive tailored suits wouldn’t do me much good in the forest. Maybe Elias shouldn’t have bought me so many beautiful things.”

“Let him spoil you. You deserve it and more. Besides,” he paused his packing and appeared at her side, pulling a sports bra she had been wringing from her trembling hands.

“You will need these clothes for your next job.”

Sylvie’s eyes cut to him, and he exhaled from his nose. “Whatever that may be,” he added with a twitching mouth.

“You’re so annoying,” she replied, rolling her eyes and pulling a few more pairs of underwear from the top drawer. “How long will we have to stay there?”

Kian shrugged and returned to the backpack. “Until Elias returns. That could be days or weeks, depending on what he finds and the portal sickness.”

“I thought that didn’t affect vampires that badly, though.”

“To the Fae realms, sure. To Argyncia? Worse than you could imagine. The Fates made it so no one would attempt to cross the Vampire realm to Earth again. That is why Elias couldn’t believe Rowan’s story about Vampires coming here.”

Sylvie sighed and closed her drawers. “Maybe they’re portalling through and hiding here to recover before snatching more shifters.” That said, she’d probably have to stay with the shifters for a while. Kian hummed and considered her words as she spoke again, “Have you ever been there?”

Kian cleared his throat and shook his head no. “I was born after the division, and my mother made it unbearably clear that under no circumstances should I ever attempt to realm shift there. Me or Kerensa.”

That didn’t exactly make her feel much better about Elias.

A sudden thought hit her, and she turned to Kian. “How did you and Elias meet?”

The question seemed to surprise him, and a flurry of expressions crossed his face before it settled on a half-smile. Then, picking up her bags, he gestured for her to follow before clearing his throat.

“I was fourteen; I hadn’t gotten a handle on my abilities and portalled to the earth realm following an extremely potent magic beacon. It was by accident, and I ended up in a pile of pine needles behind his cabin. It was more of a shoe box at the time, though. He told me he took you there?”

Sylvie nodded, following with a curious smile. It certainly was bigger than a shoe box when she visited. It was gorgeous. She hoped he would take her back there someday.

“Well, at first, I didn’t notice him. He was dressed in thick fur skins, leaning against a tree with his gleaming red eyes." Kian hummed. "Then a hand was clasped around my throat." He traced his fingers absently down his neck, a faraway look in his eyes. "I still remember the fear in his eyes. He thought I was there to take him back home. Some spy for the Vampires. But once he realised I wasn’t a threat, he helped me.”

“How old was he?”

“Born Vampires age much slower than any other species, so even I don’t know exactly how old he is. He looked about seventeen, perhaps eighteen. But the years he had lived would probably triple that.”

“Weird.”

“I suppose by human standards, though I don’t see any humans here, now do I?”

“Shut up.” Sylvie playfully slapped him and followed him out of the house, watching as he locked the doors and whispered a few non-English words under his breath.

“What’s that?”

“A Ward. Hopefully, it will keep this place invisible to any passersby.”

Sylvie glanced at the gravel driveway out front and exhaled from her nose. Since they moved in, she hadn’t seen anyone other than Kerensa and her mates anywhere near the house. She hadn’t even heard any cars.

“You wanna take my Harley?”

With a racing heart, Sylvie jumped and grabbed Kian’s shoulder. “Really?”

Sure, it was a death trap, but she would probably heal fine if something happened, and if she died, then at least that would solve her other problems.

“Alright, well, let’s go.”