“Never, my dove. I have, and always will be, incapable of flirting, looking, or thinking of anyone but you,” he said. The softness in his eyes made my knees weak.
Cora seemed less impressed. The more I watched her fidgeting, the more I realized there was a story there.
“That hasn’t always been the case,” she muttered.
“It’s been centuries, my heart, will you ever let that go?” Con said, exasperated, as he settled his other hand on her waist.
“No,” she said and smiled up at him. He rolled his eyes in a very human way and bent to run the tip of his nose on the edge of her cheek.
The sight of them together struck longing in me. These two loved each other. The serious kind of love, the one where you wouldn’t survive without one another. I looked away and found myself glancing at Rian, who looked uncomfortable and, if I wasn’t mistaken, sad.
My attention was brought back to the couple as their conversation continued.
“As I was saying before the know-it-all interrupted, lovely to meet you, Rae. I’m Conan.” His smile slanted higher on one side, and it gave him a wicked look that made me wonder what he’d done to make Cora hold on to a memory of years ago.
Recognizing the name, I smiled back at him and shook off my lusty admiration. It left me with my recent companion: gloom. Cora squeezed herself close to Conan. My smile wilted when I remembered the Queen’s message.
“I’ll take her to her rooms, Rian. I know you have to check in with Flynn.”
“Always a saint, Cora,” Rian said and grinned at her. She rolled her eyes.
“Watch yourself,” Conan threatened, tightening his hold around Cora.
Rian shook his head and walked off. Conan gazed after him, a worried look in his eyes.
“He’ll be okay, my love. I’ll take our new Queen to rest.” Cora got on her toes and kissed him. Conan’s automatically softened.
“I-I actually need to tell you something.” Nerves nibbled my stomach. Conan and Cora faced me, eyebrows furrowed.
“What is it?” Cora asked softly.
“Luz,” I started and swallowed. Conan’s gaze shuttered, and pain flickered across his face. Cora set her hand on his chest. “She wanted me to tell you that she couldn’t have picked a better brother and that she loved you.” I rushed to get it out because if I didn’t, I’d just agonize over it. My eyes went to my feet at his sharply indrawn breath. I was standing here because she’d given her life for me. Survivor’s guilt was a bitch.
“Thank you,” he said in a rough voice. I pressed my lips together and forced my gaze up. He was gripping Cora tight, his lids squeezed tightly. He released a shaky breath. Conan looked down at Cora and kissed her forehead.
“Make sure you talk to your son about not going out of the boundary,” she warned lightly. His lip quirked, and he left.
Cora hooked her arm with mine and got me walking. I let myself be toted. We were silent for a while. The only sound was the padding of our shoes on the tile. When thunder shook the glass overhead, her wide eyes turned to me.
“Don’t fret, you’re not at fault.”
I offered a little smile, thankful for her kindness. “What did he do?” I asked, desperately needing something to talk about.
Cora looked at me and smiled. “When we first met, he was with my stepsister, but I walked in and interrupted them, mid…. whatever.” She grimaced, and her eyes looked far-off as if she were back in that time. “I just like giving him a hard time.” Her smile was tight, and her hold on my arm tightened a degree. She released a puff of air and looked up at the furious rain. “If I’m honest… I’m insecure. Ever since magic was bound and meldings were stifled, it’s been hard. We had just completed our meld, so it was a change from feeling his presence inside me, his emotions, to nothing. Our love was still there, but that connection was comforting.”
The damn meld again. It was a blood exchange to bind mates and complete their bond. It tied mates together wholly, to the point that their lives were bound, and if one died, so did the other. I didn’t understand all the aspects, but it sounded life-altering. To have that and then have it ripped away… I couldn’t fathom what effect that had.
Questions filled my head. She’d been the only human they knew of that had Fae blood when she’d turned. Had she lived in the human world before then? I could have asked any of the questions nagging at me, but what came out of my mouth was, “Do you know Roar—or, uh Jase?”
“Yes.” She smiled, but it was tinged with sadness. “I’m ever grateful to him for helping us have Teagan. I never would have thought him capable of betraying Luz. But, I never liked Sabine. From the very beginning, she’s always been in his shadow, trying to exploit his weaknesses. I just thought he was smart enough to realize what a,” she paused and pursed her lips, “a bitch she was.”
I laughed at the scandalized look on her face when she said the word, like a child saying a bad word behind an adult’s back.
“If only that was all she did to him.” Bitterness edged my tone. She looked at me in askance. I paused before the words poured from me. “She’d been manipulating him. She’d been siphoning his magic like a leech. They were working with a…” I wracked my brain for what they called Hag. “A darkling.”
Cora gasped, her hand coming up to her mouth. “That magic is wicked. Darklings are creatures of pure evil. They siphon their power from sacrifice and death.” Her arm tightened around mine. “It is all making sense. When Jas—Roark and Luz used their magic on Con and me to return the bind so we would be able to conceive, he was the weakest. I thought
