Maybe she’d be able to stomach a pita chip and tzatziki.
“I don’t sense mage blood in you, Rori. Us Fae can sense magic in mortals. But you’re on the right track.”
“Well, then maybe I’m just highly sensitive to the supernatural.”
“Or you might be one of the even rarer cases where you’ve been fated to a Fae.”
She choked on her small bite of food and scrambled for her water to get the piece down her throat. Her coughing fit drew the attention of other diners and staff as she struggled to calm herself. Cael reached over and laid his hand on her forearm. That strange warmth she’d experienced a few times with him suffused her from head to toe, easing her coughing until it stopped completely, and the food slid with ease down her throat.
“Easy. It’s really not that bad.”
Eyes watering, vision blurred, she lanced him with anoutraged look. “Are you serious? You’re telling me that I’m fated to your murderous, insane brother?” She shook her head vigorously. “No. Absolutely not. I won’t accept it. Iwon’t. I refuse to put myself in a position that makes me relive the nightmare I escaped with Rich. Only your brother seems ahundred times worse.”
She shoved her chair back, her arms shaking as she stood. Cael shot to his feet and quicky stepped in front of her, blocking her escape. She swatted his hands away as he tried to drop them on her shoulders, but he managed to catch her in his grip and instantly relax her. She was really beginning to hate this magic he used. Her mind was on the verge of fracturing. There was no possible way she’d willingly be subjected to such horrors.
“What have I done, Cael?” she whispered, her voice trembling as the tears in her eyes from choking turned into tears of desperation. “What have I done to deserve this?”
Cael’s sympathy flowed from his fingertips. His hands slid closer to her neck, up to her cheeks, until he cupped her face like a delicate flower between his palms. There was nothing intimate about the gesture, but it made her heart drum with an unexpected pulse of emotion. His eyes shone with promise, a promise she couldn’t decipher but somehow understood.
“Rori, regardless of my relationship with Cassy, I’ve always been taken with observing you. Not in any creepy way, but in a way that has made me adore you like a sister. There’s always been a connection between us, and now I understand why. You, sweet, have done nothing. I’ll be the first to say my brother is undeserving of you in his current state of mind. He deserves years of torture to repent for the wrongs he’s done.” He sighed, his thumb wiping away a rebel tear. “But the Goddess believed him worthy of his soul mate,and I can’t honestly think of someone better suited to be fated to him than you.”
Her chin quivered, forehead creased as she tried to make any sense of that. “You really think so little of me?”
“No. I don’t. I think very highly of you, actually. From before the events of last night. So highly that if anyone could break the ice from my brother’s cold heart, it’s you.”
Rori wanted to push away the moment Cael drew her into his arms. He held her, comforted her, and not once did it feel like she was betraying her best friend. Had she had a brother, she imagined this was what a bond with him would feel like. Yet it was uncanny, strange. As much as she reviled, she savored these few moments that when her world ripped to shreds around her, a sturdy pillar kept her from falling victim to the chaos.
“I’ve admired your inner strength through everything that happened with Rich. That you pushed forward, your chin high, and never wallowed long in the trauma. That you nurtured the fire inside you when most would snuff it out, your desire to live and flourish, allowing for no inkling of doubt or weakness. You may not see these things, but these are things that I’ve observed over the last few months. Things that turned you away from desolation and despondency and led you to strength and promise.”
Slowly, Rori pulled away from Cael, her head down as she composed herself. His hands remained on her shoulders, the consistent flow of calm helping her recover from the shocks that pummeled her relentlessly.
“I don’t want to believe you. I really don’t.”
“Fae can’t lie. Not that I have a reason to lie to you. Ever.”
Rori snorted. “At least the romances have that fact straight.”
With no hope of an appetite accompanying her this afternoon, she lowered herself to her seat and pushed her plate aside. From the corner of her eye, she saw as Cael followed her lead and return to his seat, taking up his fork and abandoned grape leaf. She might as well learn everything she could now and spare herself the emotional rollercoaster of learning bits and pieces along this obscured journey.
“Is there any possibility you might be wrong about your brother and I?”
“No.” He took his bite. Rori propped her elbow on the table and dropped her chin on her fist. When he was through chewing, he added, “It’s more than just seeing through glamour. There are other aspects that hit immediately, and pretty strongly, to my understanding. It’s an instant attraction, an undeniable connection, that seems to forge in those first few moments of recognition. The recognition may not even be in your conscious mind, but somewhere deeper inside your spirit, a soul-deep understanding. In those moments, a sleeping piece of you opens up inside. A void that needs to be filled, and canonlybe filled, by youranam cara. No other will ever fill that hole except for your fated mate.”
That void. Her stomach sank. She understood exactly what he meant. The feeling of emptiness she’d never experienced until she crossed paths with Thaddeus and he shattered her world.
“So I can potentially ignore this entire thing and go on my merry way? I mean, it’s not something that permanently ties me to him, right?”
Cael shrugged, a casual motion that didn’t match the gravity of his expression. “You could, I guess. But it’s futile in the end. You will never be complete. Never be wholly happy and fulfilled. Once that connection is made, that void opened, the only person you’ll ever yearn for is your soulmate.” He served himself another piece of food, but appeared less interested in continuing with his appetizer spread as he swallowed. “The attraction is not just spiritually, Rori. It’s visceral. It’s all-encompassing. It’s nerves on fire, body needing, craving, mind suspended in euphoria visceral. It can become border-line obsessive until a blood bond is forged. The mating completed. And even then, I’ve heard stories where couples can’t be away from each other for more than a few hours without it starting to have effects. It’s a gift, what we Fae all hope to have one day, and those who are blessed by the Goddess to experience it cherish it dearly.”
“If memory serves me right, your brother didn’t seem too thrilled. Neither am I.”
As if to challenge that statement, a flash of Thaddeus’s utterly beautiful face popped into her head. The reaction was instantaneous, rushing straight through her in a storm of arousal that pooled low in her belly. The wild fluttering of wings tickled the base of her throat and warmth rose into her face. Warmth she wiped at in hopes of erasing the embarrassing reaction.
“If I could change fate, I would, because he doesn’t deserve a person like you. But I can’t, sweet. I can only stand beside you and support you through this turbulent time, because rough it most certainly will be.” He rubbed the back of his neck, a gesture he did whenever he was uneasy, even as Steve. “My brother once had a heart. A huge heart as warm as the sun and full of compassion and appreciation. I know deep down”—he fisted a hand and tapped it to his chest, his eyes for the first time showing the pain estrangement from his brother caused him—“the old Thaddeus still exists. Somewhere beneath the ice and steel and monster that witch created of my brother, he’s there, waiting to be rescued and revived. Waiting…”
Cael looked away, his face twisted in distress as he squeezed his eyes shut. Rori’s brows furrowed, her own sorrow at seeing Cael so upset tearing into her heart. She couldn’t understand his situation, but the agony he did nothing to hide from her spoke of the weight of his suffering over his brother.
He gave his head a shake, steadying his composure with a deep breath.
