The Last Lullaby (The Spellsinger Book 1) Page 15

  “It seems to magnify my abilities.” I lifted a finger to brush the collar.

  “I think it does far more than that.” Torin held his arm out to me, and escorted me into the castle. “Come, Lady Spellsinger, let's get you up to your chambers so you may refresh yourself, then we can speak further on the relic.”

  “My onyx cage, you mean?” I grimaced.

  “It's a cage no longer.” He slid me a disappointed look. “I thought you knew me better by now.” He made a huffing sound. “I thought you knew yourself better.”

  “What's that supposed to mean?” I frowned up at him as we passed hordes of people, all of them bowing to us as we swept by.

  Whispers were spreading down the line of them, and by the time we reached the staircase, the Onyx Court was cheering. I gaped at the Shining Ones. What was this now? Oh . . . right. The hope for all worlds, yada yada.

  “See?” Torin smirked at me. “Even they know better.”

  “Better than what?”

  “Better than you.”

  “About what?” I growled. This was getting idiotic.

  “That room can't hold you prisoner now, Elaria.” He shook his head at me. “Nothing can. Don't you see? You aren't just a spellsinger anymore. You hold the power of all the stones of the Jewel Kingdoms.”

  “What?” I stopped halfway up the stairs.

  “I'm not sure how it will work.” Torin held up a conciliatory hand. “But I felt a pull when you sang last night. One of onyx's properties is relaxation, and you were accessing it. You wove your spell of peace, and the collar translated it to the stones.” He angled his head to the side. “At least that's my theory. And if you can call on onyx, it's safe to assume you can call on all of the jewels in the collar.”

  I grabbed Torin's hand, and pulled him up the stairs with me. His eyes widened, but he didn't try to stop me. We reached the landing, and I gave him a pointed look. He blinked, then gestured down the hall.

  “We can speak privately in my chambers.” He waved his hand toward a large, ebony door. I vaguely recalled it from the drunken night when he'd taken me to see his garden.

  Torin pushed open the door, and pulled me inside. I shut the door behind us with a firm click. The room barely registered with me. I got a flash of a lot of black, including the mammoth bed which I recalled vividly from my last visit, but that was all. I was too intent on Torin.

  “Is that why you looked frightened last night?” I asked him.

  I hadn't wanted to say it in front of witnesses. Calling a king a scaredy-cat was just bad form. To do it in front of his court was suicide. But I had to know. That look in Torin's eyes kept flashing through my mind.

  “Why I what?” Torin looked horrified.

  “Don't get all butt hurt.” I shook my head at him. “I get it; I just came into a lot of power. If it scared you, it's nothing to be ashamed of. But I need to know, Torin. Is that why? That look. Was it because you realized I have power over the stones of Tír na nÓg?”

  His face went blank, his jaw dropping, and his gaze skittered away from me. “No.”

  “No?” I cocked my head into his line of sight. “Then what was it?”

  “I wasn't scared of you,” Torin growled, and turned away from me entirely.

  “Oh, that's great. Okay.” I sighed in frustration. “Make me think there's something between us, and then shy away because I get a little magic.”

  “I'm not shying away.” He swung back around, his eyes a furious, blazing blue. “I wasn't scared of your magic!”

  “Then what the fuck are you scared of?” I got in his face. “I know I saw it. Stop trying to deny it. You looked at me like I was going to hurt you!”

  “Because I'm falling in love with you!”

  We both froze, our chests heaving, and stared at each other with wide eyes. I think my mouth fell open, but I'm not sure. I was too fixated on him. On his perfect, Shining One beauty, tempered with that other ancestry. How it gave him that rough edge I found so sexy. I was enraptured by the sunlight streaking over him from the nearby window. It turned his eyes into luminous pools. I was obsessed with the way the muscles of his chest curved down into the V of his tunic, and the way his scent rolled off him. Earth, metal, spice, and the musk of man. Torin smelled unique and amazing.

  And he had said he was . . .

  “That's what spooked you?” I whispered.

  “When I first heard the prophecy”-Torin cleared his throat before he continued-“I thought to myself that this war might bring me some pleasure. When I saw you that night in my hall . . . when you sang those words to me . . .” He shook his head and sighed. “I knew for certain we would become lovers. I knew we'd have a passionate affair. I knew it would be wild, and beautiful and unforgettable. But I also knew that was all it would be. I never once suspected that you would become more to me. Especially not so quickly. And even when I began to feel it, I still didn't understand.”

  “Understand what?”

  “What love is.” He threw up his hands. “I thought I knew. I'd even believed I'd felt it before, several times. It was something warm, a clenching in my chest. It was a wanting, a hunger, and sometimes an obsession. It was base, but beautiful, an attraction that could make a man place one woman above all others in his esteem.” He gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Sweet stones, that isn't it at all. I'm merely touching the surface of what I could feel for you, and I already know that everything I've ever known in the past is dust compared to it.”

  I wobbled, and he rushed forward to catch me. My breath was coming rapidly, and my skin felt hot and cold all at once. There were little zings going down my arms. What the hell was this? Love, a voice whispered in my head. Was I feeling it too? Was I touching that surface with him? Gazing into the mirrored pool of my heart and seeing his face reflected there? It had only been a few days, but I did feel something for him already. What would it be like to dive into this with him? To plunge past the surface, and plumb the depths?

  “I understand,” I whispered to him. “I think I'm scared too.”

  “Elaria,” he groaned, and pulled me against him. “We shall conquer this fear together.”

  Then his mouth was on mine, and his hands were everywhere else. I started yanking off his clothes; his belt and sword fell to the floor with a thud. I pushed my hands up under his shirt, and groaned as I slid my fingers over the smooth, muscled planes of his chest. Air kissed my skin as Torin divested me of my outer clothes. When my underwear slipped away, he inhaled sharply.

  “What's this?” Torin's hand went to the bare skin between my legs.

  “I have the hair removed.” I watched his eyes flash as he trailed his fingers over me. “Do you like it?”

  “Oh yes.” Torin smiled. “And I plan on showing you just how much. With fingers”-he slipped one into me, and I gasped-“and tongue.” He went back to kissing me.

  We were getting lost in each other once more, in the feel of skin on skin, when Torin reached for the clasp on the collar.

  “Ah!” Torin yanked away, holding his hand out in shock.

  “What was that?”

  “The collar.” He rubbed his fingers, and then looked at my neck. “I thought you'd be more comfortable without it on. I only tried to remove it for you, and it attacked me.”

  I lifted a hand around to the back of the relic, and felt a sizzling energy rush through the clasp. I wasn't actually surprised. I'd had a suspicion it was there to stay. At least until I vanquished the threat.

  “I told you we were enslaved to each other,” I whispered to him. “Are you all right?”

  “I'm fine.” He reached for me again with a little smile. “I guess I did have something to be afraid of.”

  “Well, hopefully the worst is over.” I slid against him, grinding my hips into his until he rose proud between us.

  “On to better things,” he agreed and picked me up.

  I wrapped my arms around Torin's neck, and he carried me to his silk-draped bed. Again, the luxuries
around us faded away as I concentrated on him. He laid me down, covered me with his body, and filled my whole world. And that world became pleasure. The slide of skin, the heat radiating between us, the taste of his lips, the clenching of his hands on my flesh. Then completion, the ultimate physical apex a man and woman could achieve together. The little death. We moved together perfectly, like a symphony, like a song, and by the time the sun rose on the next day, all the fear between us had faded.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Torin couldn't spare a messenger for a few days, not with the war preparations starting, but he had finally kept his word, and done so at the first opportunity. I didn't think Cerberus was in any danger or I would have insisted on a message being sent sooner. Nor did I think there would be any kind of response back from Cer. Especially not the one I received.

  It had been four days since we'd returned with the relic. Torin and I were in the dining hall, finishing dinner. Our days had been spent with his advisers and representatives from other kingdoms, planning for the inevitable war. You'd think that King Galen would have been smart enough to know that this wasn't a fight he could win, that he'd just call the whole thing off after hearing of our success with the relic. But yet again, Galen believed that fairy magic was stronger than witch. Not only was he not backing down Galen was actively petitioning other kingdoms to stand with him. And some of them were buying his bullshit.

  So information needed to be collected and analyzed. We had to plot out where they might attack us, or if we should stop worrying about all that and simply take the fight to Sapphire. Every day brought us more allies as word of the claimed relic spread. But according to our intel, King Galen wasn't exactly lacking in supporters either.

  The highlight of my days was Torin. Stolen kisses between meetings and scandalous make-out sessions in dark corners, were what kept me going until night fell. Then we'd dine, casting hungry looks at each other, feeding one appetite while the other starved. After dinner, we'd stroll as casually as possible to his bedroom, where we would fall savagely upon each other. I'd slept in Torin's bed since the first night we'd returned.

  It was official; we were a couple.

  In fact, I was in the process of doing some precoupling, slipping my hand up Torin's thigh under the cover of the tablecloth, when Cerberus strode into the hall. He was closely followed by our nervous messenger, a pack of his security men, and a gura of blooders. A gura I happened to be familiar with.

  My hand jerked back into my lap as I sat up. “Cerberus?”

  “Hello, my darling!” Cerberus boomed as he walked through the hall. “Miss me?”

  Behind Cer, one of the blooders separated himself from the pack, and came forward. Banning. Sweet gods, Banning Dalca had come to Tír na nÓg. The onyx messenger hastened away, eager to have his part in the debacle over with.

  “This is your friend?” Torin lifted a sardonic eyebrow at me. “The one from hell?”

  “Hades. But yeah, that's him”-I sighed-“and he's brought a bunch of his friends with him.”

  “You wound me, Elaria.” Banning smirked, but I could see true hurt lingering in his eyes. “I thought we were friends too.”

  “I barely know you, Banning,” I said gently. “Why are you here?”

  “And who is he?” Torin had yet to address any of our visitors.

  “Banning Dalca, Gheara of the Kansas Gura,” I told Torin. “This is the guy who I slaughtered that band of blooder mercenaries for. The fight Finbar witnessed.”

  “And is there more between you that I should know about?” Torin's voice lowered so only I could hear him.

  The men were still down the hall, but they were closing in fast.

  “No, but he thinks there is.” I shook my head. “I'll explain it later; just know that there's nothing between us.”

  “All right.” Torin nodded to me, then looked up just as Cerberus and Banning reached the edge of the high table.

  “Not in this lifetime at least,” I muttered.

  Torin shot me a questioning look, but Cerberus started talking.

  “Your Majesty.” Cerberus bowed to Torin, then winked at me. “Looks like you've been having fun, El.”

  “Shut up, Cer,” I groaned.

  “Hey, I brought your stuff.” He shook my bag at me, the one I'd left with him. “A little gratitude might be warranted.”

  “You were supposed to keep that safe in the human world.” I rolled my eyes. “That was the whole point of me leaving it with you.

  “I figured that if you were staying in Tír na nÓg awhile, you might appreciate having your own things.” Cerberus gave me a look. “You saying I was wrong?”

  “No.” I gestured for him to give me the bag, and took it from him. “How the hell did you even get here so fast? We just sent that messenger yesterday.”

  “I would have been here sooner if I didn't have to wait on Banning.” Cerberus shrugged. “It's just a hop, skip, and a jump.”

  “What do you mean?” I scowled. “When I arrived, I had to go through Sapphire, and then it took me three days to get to Onyx.”

  “You didn't have a traveling stone,” Torin explained.

  “A what now?” I looked at him.

  There were several ways to cross the Veil, but most involved parting it magically and stepping through into the corresponding location. The reason they called all the different worlds “Planes of Existence” was because they were laid over each other like pages in a book. Going from one page to another was like piercing the pages with a pin; it took you to the spot laid directly over or beneath you. Evidently, traveling stones did things differently, but I'd never heard of them.

  “A traveling stone,” Torin said again. “Any Shining One strong enough to pull back the Veil is also strong enough to create a traveling stone.” Torin took something out of the pouch hanging from his belt and placed it on the table before me. It was a clear stone about an inch in diameter, with light swirling inside it. “The messenger I sent employed one. He obviously used it to bring your friend here.”

  “And what does it do?” I picked up the stone and felt the zing of magic against my fingertips.

  “Focuses your journey to a specific destination.” Torin closed my fingers over the stone. “Keep that one; I have more.”

  “Really?” I looked at him in surprise. “Thank you.”

  “You may need it.” He shrugged. “I want you to be able to move freely from your world to mine.”

  “How specific can I get?” I smirked at him. “Can I focus on a particular room? Say a certain royal bedchamber?”

  “Absolutely.” Torin smiled sensuously.

  Cerberus cleared his throat. “Still standing here.”

  “Sorry.” I laughed. “Torin, this is Cerberus Skylos, Hound of Hades, and Banning Dalca, Gheara of the Kansas Gura. Gentlemen, this is King Torin of Onyx.”

  “Nice to meet you, King Torin.” Cerberus grinned.

  “Your Majesty.” Banning's reply was more clipped, and he kept looking at me like I was cheating on him. Awkward.

  “When I got your message, I was with Banning,” Cerberus said to me. “I immediately decided that if you were going to war, then so was I. I told Banning, and he chose to tag along.”

  “Tag along? To a war?” Torin narrowed his stare on Banning.

  “I'm a blooder.” Banning shrugged. “We like war. It's an all-you-can-eat buffet.”

  “And yet you needed Elaria to save you from your last buffet,” Torin said snidely.

  I gaped at Torin as Banning inhaled sharply, and started forward with violence burning in his eyes. Cerberus grabbed Banning by the back of his shirt, and hauled him away, just as the floor began to vibrate with Torin's power. His knights hadn't even bothered to move forward; they knew their king could handle one measly blooder.

  “Easy now, lad,” Cerberus growled, his expression going serious.

  “Torin,” I hissed, “that wasn't cool.”

  Torin shrugged, completely unrepentant. “I
find his face irksome. He irks me.”

  “Fair enough.” I snickered.

  “I enlisted Elaria's aid against overwhelming odds,” Banning ground out. “But I was more than prepared to fight.” He turned his hurt glare on me. “What did you tell him, Elaria?”

  “Just the basics.” I sighed. “Can you three please stop the pissing contest? Cerberus, for fuck's sake, seriously? You come to Tír na nÓg with a bunch of shape-shifters and a blooder gura? This isn't your war.”

  “I think it is.” Cerberus shook his head. “You said in your message that if Galen succeeds, the Veil will fall and threaten all existence. I happen to be a part of existence, El. I'm here to fight for it.”

  “Well said.” Torin stood abruptly and held his hand out to Cerberus. “Welcome to the Onyx Kingdom, Cerberus Skylos. We are glad to have your assistance.”

  Cerberus gave a start, then grinned broadly and shook Torin's hand. “Happy to be here, King Torin. You got a nice place.”

  “Forgive my rudeness,” Torin said to Banning. “My relationship with Elaria is fairly new, and new knots always creak when tested. You appeared to be pulling my rope, and I was simply creaking.” Torin held his hand out to Banning.

  “That was a nice way of saying I made you jealous.” Banning smirked, but shook Torin's hand. “In all fairness, I should warn you that I intend to pull that rope again, and often. Elaria is meant to be with me. She simply hasn't remembered it yet.”

  “Oh, sweet baby Cupid,” I groaned. “If you're going to be like this, Banning, go home. We don't want your help.”

  “It's fine, sweetheart.” Torin smiled wickedly at me as he resumed his seat, and pointedly placed his hand on my thigh. “Let him pull all he wants. Our knot is strong. The creaking will stop with time, I promise.”

  “Even the Gordian knot was severed.” Banning smiled back. “All it took was one strike.”