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The maid tugs on the laces of the corset and I lift a hand to stop her from pulling more. “This is enough.” I wait until she has tied them, then turn so she can help me into the sunset-colored gown I have chosen to wear.
Sunset colors being mostly pink and purple, this being Faerie with its pink sky.
Wolf is growling at a manservant who is helping him into a white vest with golden embroideries, looking formidable and sexy. His silver hair is long enough now to be pulled back from his face and it allows its beautiful angles to show, from the defined clean line of his jaw to those high cheekbones and the tall brow, the thick eyebrows and those long-lashed, uptilted eyes.
He catches my eye and grins at me, a dangerous grin promising all sorts of wicked things waiting for me after work is done. Apparently, we have a lot of baby making practice left to do. By Wolf’s estimates, it will take us a good part of the decade to try all the positions he wants to put us in.
I certainly can’t complain. Heat rises to my cheeks, feeling as if everyone around us can read those looks, read the memories of all the sex we had. But the maids and manservants go about their tasks impassively, bowing and curtsying.
Get a grip, Mina, I tell myself. This is normal, this sexual tension between you and Wolf. You are married now. It’s normal to have so much sex. Right? To want each other all the time. To be unable to keep your hands off each other.
I suppose.
I don’t recall noticing such a thing with couples I saw around the palace in Kyrene growing up. And I don’t care. This is us. Wanting each other can’t be bad.
I only wish we could have stayed in bed some more.
But the seneschal finally convinced us to leave the sanctuary of our rooms and get ready to face the crowd—and then a meeting with the council. Decisions need to be made, action taken. He is right.
Kings and queens rarely have the luxury of days off, even if it’s to recover from nearly dying a dozen times over.
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Somewhere deep in my mind, I wish that my family were here. My cousins, my parents whom I haven’t seen in years—they live in an estate somewhere in the country—and the king and queen.
Then I remember how the king treated me, how he didn’t care to properly look at me or listen to me, how everyone seemed to forget about me when I was locked up in the tower, left to die, and give myself a little shake.
Wolf is my family now. An improvement, for sure. And I will create my own family here. Soon, if Wolf continues with his determined baby making training regiment.
I can’t deny that the thought of a family with Wolf makes me smile, the thought of having children who’d take after him makes me happy.
“What’s the smile for, Princess?” Wolf comes to stand in front of me. “Is it for me?”
“Always for you.”
He smiles back. Then he turns his hands palms up and closes his eyes. Lights dance in front of him, solidifying into crystals. As I gape, awestruck, he lifts his hands and forms a circle with them. Gold glints, binding the crystals, and then he’s holding a tiara intricately wrought, shining like moonlight.
“This, my love, will have to do until the real crowning ceremony that we never got to.” Wolf places the tiara on my head.
“There was only one crown and one throne since your parents passed,” I whisper as the tiara settles on my hair.
“I intended for you to have my crown and my throne,” he says. “So I never opened the treasury. But I will. The Queen’s crown is ancient, just like mine, and it will fit perfectly on my Queen’s head.”
There’s a knot in my throat. “You had trusted me to rule your kingdom in your stead.”
“I’ll always trust you with my life and everything that matters to me.” He offers me his arm. “Shall we?”
Nodding, I link my arms with his and we make our way out of the bedchambers to face the world we saved.
***
The throne room has been decorated with glittering chains of crystals—just how many diamonds do the mines here produce?—and white flowers, all the chandeliers and candles lit, bathing the space in golden light.
We proceed to the thrones—the second one more delicate, obviously made for a queen—as the crowd outside clamors to enter and the guards shout at them to step back. On either side of the long carpet we walk, courtiers and officials bow and curtsy.
“Not sure I’m ready for this,” I whisper.
“Nobody is ever ready for this,” he whispers back and winks.
I laugh softly as I sit on the throne and he sits down on his own, reaching for my hand and gripping it tightly. “I see.”
“Just smile and nod. You’ll do fine. I bet you’ve done it before, Princess.”
These are Fae, I want to tell him, I’m not from here even if I look the part now, I am apparently a fire witch, I am their Queen...
But he already said he has confidence in me, that he trusts me completely, and that trusts makes me lift my chin. I can do this. If he believes I can, then I will.
He’s watching me. “You say when, love.”
“I’m ready.”
He opens his mouth to tell the guards to let the people approach, when a commotion outside the doors makes him pause.
“What’s happening?” I whisper.
His dark brows are drawn together. “I don’t...”
“Watch out!” someone yells. “A griffin!”
Griffin.
Wolf and I exchange looks.
“Nox,” I whisper, jumping to my feet. “It has to be.”
“Wait, Mina.” But he doesn’t try to stop me, only gets up and follows me as I rush toward the doors, his strides easily matching my running steps. He catches my hand as we step outside. The crowd has scattered from the square outside the gates.
The black griffin is crouched right outside, like an ancient sphinx, still and enigmatic, his wings folded in, his eagle head lifted.
Between his front paws stands a woman.
A human woman with red hair. She looks haggard, dirty and annoyed.
She looks familiar.
Pulling my hand free, I march toward her. “Welcome to the Diamond Court! I am glad to see that Nox kept you safe.”
“Nox?”
“The griffin.”
‘Don’t all of you thank me at once,’ the griffin grumbles inside my head. ‘Are all humans so ungrateful?’
I laugh, because his grumbling reminds me of Wolf when we first met. “Quite often. Thank you, Nox. You were amazing. I hope your babies are doing well.”
‘They are doing fine,’ he says, a faint smile curling his voice. ‘Thanks to you.’
“Don’t get all mushy on me now.”
“Who are you talking to?” The woman is glaring at me.
“Never mind.” I reach for her hands but she stumbles back, almost tripping over the griffin’s lion paws. “Come with me. I will order a bath and new clothes for you, a room where you can eat and rest and then—”
“I don’t want your charity!” the woman snaps and the crowd gasps. “Why did you save me? Who asked you to? I wanted to die. I have lost everything, the man I love, my daughter—”
“Your daughter is well and waiting for you,” I tell her. “I met her in the human world.”
She stares at me, brows lifting. “What? I don’t believe you,” she says but her eyes say she wants to believe.
“Flavia, right?”
She pales. “How did you...?”
“I told you, I met her. In fact, she made me promise to return to the human world and bring her back to look for you.”
“Oh, my baby...” Her mouth trembles. “She’s alive? She’s alive. I never thought it possible.”
I want to ask her what happened, why she thought Flavia was dead, but now is not the time. I take her hand and tug her toward the palace. “So you see, not all is lost. Once today’s celebrations and reunions are over, once you have bathed and eaten and rested, I will help you go back to her.”
“Thank you,” she whispers, tears in her eyes. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. Thank the black griffin and fate. What is your name?”
“Flavinia.” She winces. “I know what you’re thinking. Almost the same name. I somehow thought... I thought if I give her a name close to mine, we would never be torn apart. How wrong I was.”
“And you, Nox?” I turn back around. “What will you do?”
The black griffin gets back on his feet and the crowd hisses and steps further back. He shakes his eagle head and spreads out his wings. ‘I’m going home,’ he says. ‘To my children and my hunting grounds. I have fulfilled my side of the bargain, Queen of the Diamond Court.’
“And some.” I grin at him. “Thank you for everything, Nox.”
“Come and visit whenever you can,” Wolf says, walking to my side. “It has been an honor flying on your back. I owe you my life as well as the life of my queen and my entire kingdom.”
‘I may accept your invitation one day,’ Nox says, ‘and then we can feast together.’
With a flap of his wings, he takes to the skies, the Fae screaming and scattering as he streaks through the clouds.
“Well.” I sigh. “He does know how to make an exit.”
“He is a scary creature,” Flavinia breathes.
“He’s not that bad. Come.” Linking one arm with Flavinia and the other with Wolf, I walk back into the palace and call a manservant to take her for a bath and fresh change of clothes. We stand with Wolf, watch her go, her head held high, her shoulders straight, no sign of the defeated woman at the Empress’ tower in her.
“You always surprise me, Princess,” Wolf mutters. “How did you manage to meet her daughter and then her in two vast worlds and bring them together?”
“Same way you found me,” I whisper as he releases my hand to put his arm around me. “Across two vast worlds, you came to me and saved me, gave me the strength to fight.”
“And fight you did.” He presses his mouth to my hair. “Fierce. For me, for my people. For us.”
“You taught me how. You taught me to trust in others. In love. In life.”
He turns me around to face him. Smiles down at me, one hand cupping my face, his thumb smoothing over my mouth. “You trusted me first.”
“And it was the best decision I’ve ever made,” I say.
“I’m so glad you did.” He kisses me. “I’ll love you to the ends of the world and back.”
“To the end of time,” I whisper. “My Wolf.”