Dare to Believe

She glared at him, her mind whirling a mile a minute. “Don’t I have to repeat the Vow for it to be binding?” No pun intended.

His face went still. “It’s different with non-Sidhe.” She saw the wince more in his eyes than on his face when she raised her brows. “Non-Sidhe don’t have to repeat the Vows back for them to work.”

She tilted her head, confused. In the kitchen his father had repeated the vows. “Didn’t Sean repeat them when Aileen said them to him?”

Leo coughed. “Well, no, actually. He didn’t. Not the first time, anyway.”

Her eyes went wide. “You mean she bound Sean against his will?” She couldn’t begin to imagine trying to force Sean to do something he didn’t want to do.

Leo chuckled. “Now, that’s a story.” Leo put his arm around her shoulder, guided her back to the bed, and sat her down on the edge. He moved the chair over by the bed and settled into it directly across from her. “When Mom was sent to Paris to meet with Duncan Malmayne for the first time, it seems Dad was there slumming.”

“Slumming?”

“It was the eighteen eighties, and Paris was the place to be at the time. That, or New York, from what I’ve been told, and Dad had decided to do the European tour thing. Anyway, Mom met Duncan and was agreeable to the marriage contract. Then, one night at the opera, she saw Dad. Said something about their eyes met, he winked at her, and she was lost. She went looking for him the next day.”

“The Malmaynes must have been furious.”

“They didn’t know. Mom snuck out, started asking questions about the blue-eyed Irishman. When she found him she took one whiff of his scent and almost bound him on the spot.”

“Wow. Really? What did he smell like?”

Leo smiled. “Mom always says Dad smells like home.”

Ruby sighed mistily. “I really like your parents.”

“Well, it took a few days, and a lot of flirting, but Mom finally got him to kiss her.”

“The Tasting.”

“Yup. Dad, being a Leprechaun, figured out pretty early that she was Sidhe, but had no idea whether or not she was high-ranking, or even which Court she belonged to.”

Ruby shook her head. “Court? You mean like Seelie and Unseelie?”

He looked surprised, and pleased. “Something like that. The Malmaynes and the Jolouns were both White Court and owed allegiance to Glorianna.”

“I thought Oberon and Tita—”

His fingers pressed against her lips. “We don’t say that name.”

She frowned. “Why not?”

“It’s said if you say the name of the Dark Queen she’ll hear you. Possibly take an interest in you.” He shuddered. “You really don’t want that.”

This just kept getting better and better. “The Dark Queen?”

“The Dark Queen rules the Black Court. It’s a long story, but basically the Dark Queen was jealous of the power Oberon had. He was High King over all the fae, and they say he was truly smitten with his queen to the point that he’d bonded with her the same way I’ve bonded with you. His queen, however, wasn’t as smitten. It’s said she sold her soul to some dark beings who granted her certain powers. In exchange she was to take over the Court and pay the dark beings in power and blood. She betrayed Oberon, creating the first vampires, tainted creatures created from both humans and other fae, and started a war that almost destroyed us. Somehow Oberon managed to break the truebond they’d shared and shattered the Court.”

“I thought a bond couldn’t be broken.”

“He’s the only one I’ve ever heard of who has managed the feat. No one knows how he did it, but I bet the Hob had a huge hand in it. Now we have the White Court, ruled by Glorianna, the Black Court, ruled by Oberon’s ex, and the Gray Court, or Oberon’s court. Oberon is still the High King and holds sway over the others, but for the most part he tries not to interfere.”

She decided to ignore the fact that a truebond could be broken. She was strangely reluctant to even think about it. “Which court does your family belong to?”

“The Dunnes are White Court, but my family isn’t very high up. Shane and I are only lords due to our Joloun blood. Dad’s always talked about becoming Gray Court and finally leaving all of the politicking between the families behind, but we’ve never actually done it.”

“Which reminds me. How did your mom get your dad to bond with her?”

“He got tipsy one night and kissed her, and she knew he was the one. Mom made sure he had a bit more wine and managed to get herself into his bed, not that he fought all that hard.”

“That sounds familiar.” Leo looked completely unrepentant. “Did she take the Vow then?”

“Actually, no. She decided to introduce him to her father first. Needless to say Papa Joloun was not amused, and threatened to have my father ‘taken care of’.”

“And then she spoke the Vow?”

“Nope. Dad left Paris that night. He’d decided she’d be better off with the Malmaynes than with him.

Remember, both the Jolouns and Malmaynes were considered Fae of power. Going up against them was no small thing. Add in the fact that he had no clue that Mom had begun to truebond with him, and it just made sense to do what he thought was right. Mom, of course, was heartbroken and refused to go through with the marriage contract. When Papa Joloun locked her in her room and set a few brownie guards, Dad got wind of it.”

“How? I mean, if he wasn’t in Paris how did he find out?”

“Brownies are also earth spirits, and one of the guards was a personal friend of Dad’s and got a message to him. When he found out what was happening to Mom he returned to Paris. By the time he got there he said she no longer looked like the naive teenage girl he’d first met. She actually had gray in her hair. With the help of the brownies he broke her out of the Joloun mansion and spirited her away. When Duncan Malmayne caught up to them Mom was in the process of binding Dad to her, over his rather loud objections I might add.”

“Why did he object? He loved her, right?”

“That’s why. He thought he wasn’t good enough for her. Anyway, Duncan, realizing it was a truebond, wished them well, but the rest of the families were outraged. Mom and Dad have nothing against Duncan personally, but the rest of the Malmaynes and Jolouns have made it clear they feel that Mom and Dad are beyond the pale.”

Ruby’s head was swimming with information. “But your parents exchanged Vows downstairs.”

“It’s customary at the bonding of a Sidhe to a non-Sidhe for the Vows to be exchanged, but that’s part of the formal ceremony, not the Binding itself.”

“Oh. Sort of a Sidhe wedding, then?”

Leo kissed the back of her hand. “Would you like to do that, Ruby? Have a full ceremony, with friends and family present, and a long white gown? I’m more than willing to do that, kitten, if it makes you happy.”

Ruby snapped her mouth closed when Leo chuckled. “Is that a proposal?”

“We’re already married, sweetheart, but if you want the formal proposal I can do that.”

Ruby bit her lip. “I need time to think, Leo.” She reached up and smoothed the frown lines on his brow. “I’m not going to run. Didn’t I promise I wouldn’t leave you? I just need to think things through, digest everything you’ve told me. Leo, think about it. It’s been a hell of a week.”

“I love you, Ruby.”

She battled back the tears that started up. His face was totally serious, his eyes sincere and loving despite the hardness of his face. She wasn’t certain she could speak past the sudden lump in her throat.

“Leo…”

“Shhh.” He placed one finger over her lips, his smile lopsided. “You don’t have to say it back, not yet.”

“Shut the hell up.” She felt one of the tears slip past but didn’t care. “You big goob.” Rising, she turned and settled into his lap, cuddling up to him as his arms went around her. “I want us both to wear rings, you hear me?”

“I hear you, kitten.” She felt his sigh of relief as he rested his chin on the top of her head.

“And if you cheat on me I’m cutting off your balls and pickling them.”

His involuntary twitch made her giggle. “Duly noted.”

“Leo?”

“Yeah?”