One week later (late April)
Kyoto, Japan
Trekking through the mountains of Kyoto was not where Kiyo expected to be. Without Pack Iryoku, his homeland was no longer off limits. But their return, so soon, had taken him aback.
Even more intriguing was that this surprise of Niamh’s was leading toward his home in the mountains. Even though he’d been a nomad for sixty years, he’d kept an apartment in New York and his cabin in Kyoto.
He’d mentioned the spot in passing to Niamh weeks ago. Any questions about why they were here had gone unanswered, so Kiyo kept his mouth shut as they climbed through the forest.
The trees disappeared and to his utter shock, they stepped out of the woods and onto a sharp cliff. This shouldn’t be here. His cabin wasn’t anywhere near the Sea of Japan. “What the hell?”
Niamh reached for him, grinning mischievously. “Trust me?”
He clasped her hand in answer.
Then Niamh walked forward as if walking off the cliff and onto thin air. Instead of falling, however, a golden shimmer haloed her body and then she was disappearing through a seam between magic and reality. Kiyo followed and felt a shiver of heat—like Niamh’s magic—trickle over him as the bracken crunched beneath his feet again.
Astonished, Kiyo gazed at the familiar forest that led to his cabin about three miles away. He glanced behind them and saw only forest. “What?”
“It’s a spell,” Niamh explained. “Anyone approaching our land will think they’ve reached the sea edge. It’ll confuse the feck out of them, but there’s nothing they can do about it.” Her light laughter caused a pleasurable ache within him. “Fionn did it.”
“Fionn?” He knew that Niamh and Fionn had been in touch over the last few weeks. Not just because of Astra but because Kiyo had finally confided to Niamh what Fionn suspected: that Niamh was Fionn’s descendant, and that’s why he’d been so determined to protect her. The thought of having a blood relative, however distant, had been a welcome surprise for Niamh, and a closeness had formed between her and the warrior king fae.
More than Kiyo had known, apparently.
“It’s how he spelled his place in Galway,” Niamh explained. “I can’t travel in or out until I’m beyond the boundary spell, but neither can anyone else. Including Astra. It’s a totally safe place where we can stop for a while if we want.”
It was a home.
Something neither of them had had for a very long time.
“Thank you,” he said, somewhat hoarsely.
Niamh gave him that loving smile of hers, squeezed his hand, and trekked onward with him in silence. The house appeared, and Niamh drew in a surprised breath. Though she’d organized the spell for him, Kiyo realized she’d never seen his place.
Pride flickered through him.
The cabin sat on the edge of a clearing in the forest near a freshwater pond. Kiyo had landscaped it and turned it into a mini Japanese garden with stepping stones to a pagoda and an arched bridge that led to the cabin.
“It’s heaven.” Niamh gaped.
“I’m glad you like it.” Since it was their home now.
A few hours later, after christening their bed, Kiyo had enjoyed the quiet of watching Niamh as she stood outside the sliding doors between their bedroom and the wraparound deck. She wore only his shirt. It barely covered her ass as she leaned against the railing and stared out at the forest.
Rolling out of bed, Kiyo stooped to pull on his jeans and then strolled out to join her. He leaned his elbows on the railing and stared down at her face. Niamh turned to look up at him.
“Shall we stay here for a while, then?”
He nodded. “I think we could do with a little peace and quiet.”
“And if I have a vision?”
“Then we follow it.” He reached out to caress her cheek. “I’ll follow you.”
She bussed into his touch, but the serious, slightly worried darkness in the back of her eyes didn’t leave.
“What is it, Komorebi? Not this nonsense about me needing to be on the move again? I’m content to stay put for a while.”
“It’s not that.” She turned into him, resting her chin on his shoulder. “I’ve been thinking about something.”
He kissed the tip of her nose and nodded for her to continue.
“The true-mate bond is significant. It has to be. In the coming battle against Astra, I mean.”
“How so?”
“Think about it. Very few supes find their true mate … but Thea did, Rose did, I did … and we’ve hopefully just set things in motion so Elijah does too.”
“What about Astra?”
“I don’t know if it’s possible for someone without a soul to have a soul mate,” she answered in grim wryness.
“But the other fae-borne have all met theirs, or will.” It was a hell of a coincidence.
“Something about the bond … I think it’s the reason the chances of the gate opening have gotten lower and lower over the last two years. I don’t know if that was Aine’s intention or if Fate is some omniscient being bigger than all of us, deciding to play a hand against the Faerie Queen. I don’t know. I just know I’ll protect the bonds for as long as they need my protection. Not just ours … but all of them. All the bonds my fae siblings share with their mates.”
“And I’ll help you.”
Niamh’s eyes brightened. “If one day, in the distant future, when nobody needs us but each other, if we ever start to grow weary of never aging … you could bite me. Your bite would turn me into a wolf like Conall’s turned Thea.”
The very thought made his blood run cold. Kiyo pulled away from her. “You would eventually die,” he reminded her. “And I wouldn’t.” The thought of existing without her was sheer torment, never mind what the reality would be like.
But he knew if Niamh asked it of him, he would give it to her.
He wouldn’t let her drown in the misery of eternity if he could save her from it. “Okay.” He tried not to glower out at the forest but probably failed. “If that’s what you want. I promise to do that for you when the time comes.”
“No, you silly male.” Niamh cuddled into him.
Despite his grim mood, he instinctively welcomed her burrowing into him.
“I don’t mean I would leave you here. I meant I could become mortal, and then when my time came to die, you could smash the pendant and meet me in the afterlife. If there is one.”
Kiyo frowned. His mate had not thought this through. “And unleash whatever spells or curses are held within it on Japan? Who knows what chaos that could cause.”
“Oh.” Niamh’s face fell. “I never thought of that.”
“Never mind that I would have to watch you grow old while you watched me stay the same age.”
“I just wanted there to be an option for you.” Niamh shrugged, everything she felt for him brimming over in her beautiful eyes.
Kiyo had never known what it was like to be someone’s entire universe. He almost thought it would chafe. Too much responsibility. But when you felt the same way as that person, it was a peace he never expected to find or thought he deserved.
“I know eternity is not something you ever wanted,” Niamh continued. “And I just want to give you everything that makes you happy.”
Slipping his hand beneath her shirt, Kiyo glided his palm up Niamh’s belly until it rested over her heart, beneath the warm weight of her breast. She sucked in a breath and he sensed her immediate desire for his touch, but this moment wasn’t about that. Feeling her heartbeat against his palm, he realized it beat in time with his own.
“There’s a saying people use here, especially to describe the short cherry blossom season. Mono no aware. It’s an appreciation for things that quickly pass or are soon lost. I hated that damn saying because nothing has passed quickly for me in almost a hundred and fifty years. Until now.”
He bent his head to her mouth, their eyes locked as he confessed with rough emotion, “I used to resent forever. And now, because of you, Niamh Farren, forever will never be enough.”
He felt her tremble slightly as she clung to him, eyes wide with the wonder that he could love her so much. “We’re bound by forever,” she whispered, her bliss and awe wrapping him in love, loyalty, and desire. Her emotions tasted like caramel and spice on his tongue; they felt like power and heat and electricity.
They were Niamh.
They were everything that made up who she was.
Not just fae-borne.
Not just one of the most powerful beings on earth.
Those were how others would see her.
To Kiyo, she was simply Niamh: the other half of his soul.
His to love and his to protect.
And his to follow where she led.
That might chafe other alphas. In fact, he would have scoffed at the very idea only months ago.
Now he felt only pride that Fate had chosen him to be what she needed.
“Bound by forever, Komorebi,” he purred, nudging her into the bedroom. He might follow her in life, but he was still a male, still an alpha, and he needed somewhere to channel his bossiness. Kiyo grinned wickedly. “Conjure some restraints, Niamh-chan. I’m feeling literal this afternoon.”