Now the pain of his arm returned to him, stronger than it should have been. It seemed this human woman somehow made everything he felt more intense. His lips formed a grim line as he knew he owed his sister and his friend an explanation.
“I was attacked, and I landed in the mortal realm during my escape. I was in my owl form and hit this woman’s vehicle. She rescued me, and as such, I owed her a life debt. I chose to fulfill it by granting her wish.”
“She wished to come here?” Surprise colored Eudora’s tone.
“She wished to escape her world.”
Roan leaned over, brushing her hair back from her face, his fingers lingering over her smooth, pale skin. The journey through the realms hadn’t been easy on his little human, and it may have drained her of energy for a time. It had indeed been a long while since his people had traveled with mortals, and he’d forgotten how delicate they could be.
“And as I returned, the Seelie attempted to follow me on the Fae roads into our lands.”
“The Seelie werehere?” Rath growled, his eyes sharpening.
“No, I was in the borderlands of the Black Hills when they attacked. The dwarves had warned me of a sighting there, and I wished to investigate.” Eudora took his arm again, despite his protests, and rolled up his sleeve to examine his wound.
Crashing through the vehicle’s glass had not harmed him. His injuries had been delivered sometime before by Seelie weapons. As an owl, they had manifested as a sprained wing and some broken feathers, but in his true form they were now bruises and a deep slash from an elfin blade across his forearm. It was one of the few weapons that could do him real harm. There were, of course, Fae species that could injure him or kill him. But when it came to the other Shining Ones, those of their own species, they needed enchanted poisons or blades forged under the waxing light of a harvest moon.
“Eudora, let it be,” he rasped, looking once more at the human who lay in his bed. He wanted to be left alone with her and he wanted time to think things through. He’d never acted so rashly in his life and needed to understand why this woman affected him.
“Don’t be so stubborn. I will not allow my skills to be ignored if they can heal you.” Eudora covered the gash with her hands and closed her eyes. The room filled with the smell of blooming night flowers, and a gentle warmth ran through his aching arm as his sister’s magic did its work.
“Better?” She arched a dark brow at him.
He smiled indulgently at her. “Yes, now I am famished, and I need to bathe.”
“But what about... her?” Eudora whispered as she nodded at the sleeping human.
He met his sister’s gaze, ready for a fight over the words he was about to speak. “She is mine. I shall keep her and she will amuse me.”
“Roan, it is forbidden to keep human pets. Ever since...”Guinevere. The name was not spoken aloud, but everyone knew of whom she spoke. “Merlin went to war against us over her, and we were already warring with the Seelie. We lost too many lives because of our father’s obsession with a mortal woman.”
“This woman is not the consort to the once and future king. She will cause no war.”
“How can you be certain?” Eudora fisted her hands in her silken skirts and shared a worried glance with Rath. “It has been ages since we have kept up with the mortals and their kingdoms. They could have renegotiated their alliances with the wizards and witches of their world. She could be?—”
“Eudora, Ihavekept up with the world of humans.”
“You have? Why?” His sister tilted her head, her dark-blue eyes seeking answers he was reluctant to give.
“I have my reasons.” He couldn’t tell her that out of all the worlds he could see, the mortal one held his heart in a way that defied explanation. He feared his father’s blood was in him after all, because his father too had been enchanted with humans and it had cost their people dearly.
“Then tell us what you know of the mortal world,” Rath asked quietly.
“Magic is all but gone from their world. The age of wizards and witches is over. They have no shrines to the trees, make no offerings to the sea. They have turned their backs upon the magic of the earth in favor of metal, wheels, and wire.” Roan had watched the humans for years through his scrying crystals. It fascinated him how they used science in place of magic. It was how he’d known of their electric vehicles called cars. It was impressive and terrifying how humans had used science to both improve their lives and destroy them in equal measure. The devastation of the two recent wars that had stretched across the entire earth still left him with dark worries.
“But why bring her here? Why risk the Seelie finding out? They could try to take her from you or start a war like they did with Father when he brought Arthur’s queen here.”
Roan chose his next words carefully. “This mortal woman saved me. I owe her a life debt, Eudora.”
His sister opened her mouth, but Roan raised a hand before she could speak.
“Her wish was to leave her world.” His voice was as hard as steel. “She was not desired in her world, nor in her kingdom, not even by her family.” He thought then of the little boy, the child who had beseeched Roan to be a friend to his sister. That child was alone in his affections toward her, and that knowledge created a storm of emotion inside Roan that he could not explain.
“But a mortal in the Twilight Court? Roan, you know it will give others an advantage if they wish to take your throne. She would be at risk,” Rath argued.
He shrugged. “Not if I make it clear the consequences someone would face if they dare to even touch her.” He would see that she was protected as well and would appoint a bodyguard for her. However, the true threat to her would not be from his people, but from the Seelie. If there was one thing that unified his court, it was their distrust toward the other Fae.
He had never cared about the plight of mortals before. They breathed but for an instant, and then they were gone and forgotten soon after. But this woman would be his for centuries once she tasted the honeyed breads of his lands, and so long as she stayed here with him she could live a Fae life. And he would spend those centuries untangling the puzzle of why she, out of all mortal women, held him in such a thrall.
