back, staring at the Erdikoa sky. He knew sleeping with Rory would do him in, and now the bond was a tangible thing between them, like an invisible rope tying them to one another.
He rolled his head to the side and watched her sleep. She would feel it, but the chances of her knowing what it was were slim to none. Sleeping with her before telling her what it would mean was something he swore he wouldn’t do.
“Shit,” he cursed under his breath. Telling her was his first priority. She deserved to know what was happening between them.
Telling her as soon as she said good morning was best, but he considered having Sam there as a buffer. Rory was terrifying in her own right.
Movement next to him broke him from his thoughts, and when Rory turned over with a tired smile, his chest constricted. “We need to talk,” he blurted out. Damnit.
A frown pulled at her sleepy smile, and once she processed his words, she bolted upright.
“What the fuck, Caius?” she hissed. “If you tell me this was a mistake or one of your sick games, I’m leaving the palace.”
He sat up too and held up his hands. “Not at all. The opposite, actually, but it might piss you off.” He was nervous.
She scrubbed her hands over her face. “You’re not making sense.”
Running a hand through his hair, he stood and grabbed his pants, pulling them on.
“You son of a bitch,” she seethed as she grabbed a pillow and hurled it at him. “Say what you have to say.”
“I’m only dressing in the event you kick me out,” he said calmly.
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” She scoffed. “Spit it out.”
“You’re my Aeternum,“ he informed her.
Her eyes flared. “Is that some kind of sex slave?”
He closed his eyes at her ridiculous assumptions. She still thought so little of him, which made this worse. “An Aeternum is a Royal’s eternal mate.”
She blinked. “Come again?”
His arm threaded through the sleeve of his shirt to shrug it on. “You’re my mate.” He met her wide gaze. “Our souls were made for one another.”
Her silence was worse than yelling, and he finished buttoning his shirt before tucking it into his pants. “Last night when we had sex it, uh—“ The next words choked out of him. “It solidified the bond.”
Rocks moved more than she did. The shoes he’d worn were half under the bed, and he was leery to turn his back to her to grab them. “I didn’t want to have sex with you until I explained the repercussions, but I—“
“Trapped me,” she accused, cutting him off. Her stoic expression shifted slightly, but gave away nothing.
“No,” he hurried. “No. I wasn’t thinking clearly.” He hesitated. “But yes. I would never force you to marry me, but now that the bond is in place, your soul will need mine, and mine will need yours.”
“What else?” she demanded, her voice holding authority that made his pants tighten uncomfortably. There’s my girl who might kill me, he thought.
“If you are away from me for too long, you will dream of me every time we are asleep at the same time.” He swallowed. “We’ll meet in our soulscape. You can never truly escape me nor I you.”
“What is a soulscape?” she asked, her voice leaning more toward curiosity than anger.
He sighed and sat in a chair. “It’s a place where our souls meet when we’re asleep at the same time. We’ve been in the soulscape before, but we don’t remember. They start when we are both of age.” He rested his elbows on his knees and looked at her. “But now that the bond is solidified, we’ll remember the soulscape vividly as though we met in person.”
“This is what you meant,” she surmised. “When you said we would love each other.” She scrambled from the bed. “Why didn’t you tell me then?”
Nothing scared the Umbra King, but her rejection did. “I didn’t think it was time,” he answered honestly.
She nodded. “You’re right. Telling me after attaching me to you for life was a much better option.” Her eyes promised a painful death.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen this way,” he said through gritted teeth, standing. “And if you remember correctly, you begged me to fuck you.” He was towering over her now. “You are beautiful and sexy, and you were so wet for me, pleading for me to be inside you.” Her chest was heaving as they stood toe to toe. “I lose myself with you, and I lost myself last night.”
“You’re blaming me?” she yelled.
He backed up. “No. Not at all. I blame myself, but I don’t want you thinking I did this to trap you on purpose.“ He crossed the room and opened the door. “If you think I would force you to be with me, then you don’t know me at all. It was a mistake.”
She sucked in a sharp breath, and something akin to hurt crossed her face.
“Not being with you,” he amended. “I would fuck you every hour of the day if I could, and I want nothing more than to fall in love with you. But I regret forgetting myself.” He stepped through the door and paused. “My contract is up shortly, and I will stay in Erdikoa until yours is too if that’s what you want; and in the soulscape, I will leave you be. This bond does not make you love me, but your soul was made to love mine, and it will want to.”
Caius closed the door and took the long hallway to his office in search of Sam. He needed to have a drink with his oldest friend and forget the look on Rory’s face.
Rory gawked at the bookcase. “Fuck that.”
She jogged to the door and jabbed the button. “Caius, you prick, get back here!”
He halted his retreat and turned around. “What can I help you with, Miss Raven?”
“Don’t ‘Miss Raven’ me,“ she fumed. “Get back in here and talk to me.”
“What more is there to say?” he asked, and while his words were confident, there was a flicker of something else in his eyes.
“You talked at me. I deserve to say my piece and have my questions answered. Get back in here.”
He ran a hand through his unkempt hair and trekked back to her room, pushing the button to close the door once they were both inside. “What questions do you have?”
“What did you mean?” she asked, lowering her voice from the shrill yell it had been. “When you said our souls were made for each other, what did you mean?”
He sighed and sat at the small table, gesturing for her to do the same. Once she was sitting in front of him, he leaned back and drummed his fingers on the wood. “Exactly what I said. When a Royal is born, they are born with an incomplete soul.”
“You only have half a soul?” She huffed out a laugh. “That explains a lot.”
He scowled at her. “I have a whole soul.” His eyebrows drew together as he searched for the right words. “It’s like a blank puzzle. All the pieces are there, but the picture is missing. The picture makes it better and complete.”
What he said made sense. Kind of. “And I’m a picture without a puzzle? That doesn’t seem so bad. There are tons of pictures without puzzles.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose, and she fought a smile. “I am a book without a story, and you are a story without a book.”
“There are a lot of stor—“
“Damnit, Rory.” He was around the table and caging her in before she could blink. “You can give yourself an orgasm.” He leaned his head down so his lips brushed her ear, something she’d come to love. “But I can make you scream.” That she understood. “You were made for me, and I was made for you, whether you like it or not.”
He pushed off her chair and moved away from her. “I will not force myself on you, but what I say is the truth. Take it or leave it.”
She crossed her legs and cursed herself for not putting panties on before charging after him. The wetness between her legs would likely show on the seat if she stood. Damn him and his filthy mouth.
She cleared her throat and lifted her chin. “What now?”
Surprise flickered across his face. “What do you mean?”
She hiked a shoulder. “What do we do now? How would this normally play out?”
It caught him off guard, and she smirked. “You don’t know, do you?”
“My parents and my father’s siblings were already married when my siblings and I were born. Gedeon and Adila have not yet met their Aeternums, nor had Atarah. I’ve never seen it play out,“ he admitted.
They stared at each other, neither knowing what to say. “Well,” Rory said at last. “I suggest you get very good at wining and dining me if you want me to love you.”
He lifted his eyes to hers. They darkened as his pupils pushed out the gold. “And fucking you.” His arrogant smirk returned, and she found she’d missed it.
Standing, she nonchalantly checked the chair and ran her hand down the back of her shift before turning to him with an appraising look. “We both know you’ve mastered that.”
She left him standing in her room and shut herself in the bathroom. If she was being courted, she needed to look damn good.
When Rory emerged from her shower, Caius was gone, but in his place was Bellina.
The seamstress took a bite of the pastry in her hand and smiled. “Good morning. Why does it smell like sex in here?”
Rory kept a blank expression. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Bullshit,” Bellina shot back. “Here.” She held out a second pastry, and Rory plucked it from her friend’s hand.
“It was the king,” Bellina said with confidence. “I knew you two would get together, eventually.”
Rory clenched her towel tighter and sat beside Bellina. “You won’t believe the shit storm that was this morning.”
Bellina swallowed the last of her food. “Tell me everything.”
Rory covered her face and lay back on the bed. “Apparently, I’m Caius’ eternal mate.”
Her friend stared at her like she’d grown a second head. “What?”
“You heard me,” Rory replied. “He called it —“
“Aeternum,“ Bellina finished for her. She looked at Rory like she saw her in a new light. “I read about them once in an old fairy tale book. I thought it was made up.”
Rory threw her arm across her eyes. “I thought Samyaza was made up, and we’ve all seen him peacocking around the palace.”
“That’s rude,” a baritone voice said from the open doorway, making Bellina and Rory jump.
“Everyone in this palace needs to wear a bell,” Rory snapped, making Sam grin. “Have you ever knocked a day in your ancient life?”
Sam waltzed across the room, put away his wings, and sat down. “The door was open.”
“Oops,” Bellina said sheepishly.
Rory sprang into a sitting position. “Sam, what do you know about Aeternums?“ The Angel froze, and Rory narrowed her eyes. “You knew.”
He scratched his jaw, the scruff making the movement audible. “Yes.”
“And?” Bellina asked impatiently.
“And,“ he said tersely. “There is nothing else to tell. She is his eternal mate, and once they sleep together, the bond will strengthen.” Rory squirmed, and Sam flashed a smug smile. “When you marry, you will become a Royal.”
Bellina’s jaw hit the floor. “As in, an actual Royal? Immortality and all?”
Sam nodded as Rory flinched. “Why do you look as if you will faint?” he asked her.
She motioned wildly. “Immortal? Do you know how long that is?”
He gave her a look that told her he knew exactly how long it was. “You are already set to live another five-hundred years at least,” he pointed out. “Why are a few hundred more unsettling?”
“Wait,” Bellina said, holding up a hand. “You said she would be immortal.”
“She will,” he replied. “She will only be able to die by a knife to the heart or decapitation, and she will not age until the new Umbra King or Queen takes the throne.”
Rory and Bellina stared at him, and Rory was more confused now than when the conversation started. “Explain it to me like I’m a child,” she said to the giant turkey.
He mumbled something under his breath before obliging. “When the Lux King or Queen finds their Aeternum, they will have three children. One will possess the power of light to rule Erdikoa; one will possess the power of darkness to rule Vincula, and one will possess the gift of judgment to become the Scales of Justice. Once they are born, they take the throne at twenty-five years of age, and the current rulers step down.”
“What happens to the parents when they step down?” Bellina queried.
“They lose their memories of ever having ruled and receive new memories. They remember their children but think they work in The Capital. It allows their children to still visit them,” he explained.
“And when their kids don’t age?” Bellina challenged. “This sounds made up.”
Sam looked ready to flick her across the room. “They take a shapeshifting potion to make them look older.”
“I would lose my memories?” Rory almost cried. How cruel to narrowly escape losing her memories in Vincula, only to lose all of her memories when a new ruler took the throne in Vincula.
“No,” Sam said, confusing her. “Only the Lux rulers, because their children will already be grown. You and Caius will step down and move out of The Capital to live normal lives, aging like normal and able to have children if you wish.”
“Had I known I was getting a history lesson today, I would have brought a pen and paper,” Bellina groaned.
“He said he wouldn’t make me,” Rory forced out, trying not to freak out. “He said he’d keep his distance, even in the soulscape.”
Sam’s face turned grim, and Bellina threw her hands up. “What is a soulscape?”
“Is that what you want?” Sam asked, ignoring Bellina.
Rory shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. We agreed to date, but there’s no guarantee we’ll like each other enough to get married forever.” She smoothed a hand down her towel. “Can Royals get divorced?”
Sam shook his head. Whether to answer her or because he wanted to throttle her was up for debate.
“When is your first ‘date’?“ Bellina asked with a gleam in her eye. “We need to go shopping.”
“He didn’t ask me out on a date,” she replied. “I told him to wine and dine me.”
“And sixty-nine,” Bellina added, shimmying her shoulders.
“For aether’s sake,” Sam grumbled as he stood. “I will leave you ladies to it.”
“Bye, Sam!” Bellina called after him, wiggling her fingers before turning back to Rory. “Was he any good?”
Laughter bubbled out of Rory at her friend’s abrupt change of subject. “The best I’ve ever had,” she confirmed.
Bellina wrinkled her nose. “You’ve obviously never been with a woman.”
Rory snickered and stood to grab clothes. “You were right about shopping. I don’t know if or when he’ll take me somewhere.” She paused. “He doesn’t seem the type to take women on dates.”
Bellina rose from the bed. “He doesn’t, but he took Nina out to dinner.”
Rory’s jaw locked at the memory of Nina and Caius together. “If he tries to take me to the same restaurant, I’m not marrying him.”
“Feed him to Lo,” Bellina suggested. “She likes you.”
“Asher is going to…” Rory’s voice trailed off, and her chest ached.
Bellina rubbed a hand down Rory’s back. “I’m not used to him being gone, either.”
“Max leaves next,” Rory lamented. “At least I still have you for a bit longer.”
Bellina looked thoughtful. “When you marry Caius, does your contract end? And being a Royal means you won’t lose your memory when you leave.”
Rory stilled. Did it? She could see her parents, and maybe her friends would speak to her if she were a Royal.
“I don’t know,” she answered. “I’ll let you know when I find out.”
