What Lurks Between the Fates (Of Flesh & Bone, #3)(71)

“Remove it then,” Mab said, waving a hand toward Caldris.

I dropped my stare down to the hand that still bore the signs of the iron, the burns that had not yet healed. She healed the effects of iron at the same rate as Caldris, one more tally in the box of differences between us.

Once, it had seemed unfathomable that I wouldn’t be her daughter with the similarities that existed, but now it seemed like the differences became more and more staggering with every day that passed.

My mate raised his hands, stepping up behind me and glaring at Malachi. Caldris brushed my hair over one shoulder, revealing the locking mechanism on the back of the collar. Malachi moved behind me to assist, the magic within the collar recognizing his touch before he backed away.

Caldris grasped the collar even as he burned, dropping it unceremoniously upon the dining table. Mab glared at it in distaste, as if it was an affront to her table setting.

I closed my eyes as the familiar warmth wrapped me in its embrace, winding its way up my Fae mark until it could settle upon my damaged throat. I opened them to the faint golden glow I’d become accustomed to, staring at Rheaghan where he stood directly in front of me.

He jolted back a step as he met my gaze, the movement barely noticeable to any who weren’t watching him closely. “What in the Gods…” he asked, tilting his head to the side. He took another step closer, glancing at Caldris in question as he stopped and raised a hand. His fingers lingered, hovering just off my skin as he waited for my mate’s permission to touch me.

Caldris studied him for a moment before he nodded, but it was what Rheaghan did in the next moment that made him different from all the other males I’d encountered in my life.

“May I?” he asked me.

The simple question struck me in the chest. I couldn’t remember a time when a man hadn’t just taken what he wanted, touched without thought or permission. I stared up at him in confusion, taking in the way his dark hair hung just past his ears and was as sleek as Mab’s.

His face was twisted with curiosity, but there was no mistaking the arresting beauty in the lines of his face or his piercing, light green eyes.

I nodded my assent, unable to find the words to thank him for taking such care. It was such a simple thing, such an obvious courtesy that should have been afforded at every opportunity. But I stood in the middle of the dining hall as he touched gentle fingers to my throat, fighting back tears that scalded the back of my eyes.

Rheaghan looked at Caldris’s hands as my mate placed one upon my shoulder in silent support, the burns on his skin remaining even though mine were gone. He curled a brow as he drew his fingers back, rounding on his sister, who dropped into her chair as if she were bored with the evening already.

“You’ve been keeping secrets, sister.”

“I often do,” she said, grasping her goblet of wine and swirling it as she leaned back into her chair.

Rheaghan returned to his seat, eyeing the place between him and Mab that remained empty. “Are we waiting for another secret? I’d heard a rumor that my niece had finally returned to Alfheimr. Where is she?” he asked.

Caldris pulled out my chair for me as I prepared to lower myself into it, freezing in place as Fallon stepped into the dining hall. Her hair wasn’t in the braids I’d come to recognize her by, the chestnut of it draping over her shoulders alongside the gauzy, taupe fabric of her dress. It was nearly translucent as it wrapped around her throat and then draped off her shoulders, revealing a deep line of cleavage that I knew made her uncomfortable. There was a slit that went high up her thigh, revealing a line of fair skin that matched her mother’s.

Side-stepping the chair Caldris had pulled out for me, I moved toward Fallon at the same time her eyes fell upon me. She hurried forward, dashing away from the guard next to her and crashing into me. I clutched her in my arms, overwhelmed with relief that she’d remained unharmed since the last time we’d seen one another.

“Come and sit, Maeve,” Mab ordered, lifting a foot to kick the chair on her other side out.

“My name is Fallon,” Fallon returned, glaring at her mother as she released my arms and stepped away. I wanted nothing more than to follow after her, to interrogate her about what harm her mother might have caused in the time we’d been separated.

“You are my daughter. Your name is whatever I say it is,” Mab said with a smile as Fallon took her seat.

Her guard stepped up behind her, pushing her chair in neatly as Mab reached over and grasped her hand in hers. The grip was too tight, the subtle wince on Fallon’s face making my blood boil.

Caldris came up beside me, grasping my hand in his, pulling me back to my seat as if he could sense the growing tension within me.

“She’s a big girl,” he whispered as we passed the chairs of other Fae and returned to the seats Mab had designated for us.

I lowered myself into my pulled-out seat, allowing my mate to push in my chair as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to my cheek.

“You two know each other, I take it. What a small world,” Rheaghan mused, turning to the niece who sat beside him.

“We made the journey back to Alfheimr together after the Wild Hunt collected us,” I said, taking the attention from Fallon. She remained pinned by her mother’s glare, withering in her place as the rest of the room turned away from her embarrassment.

“And what, pray tell, was a non-human doing in Nothrek for all this time?” Rhaeghan asked me, taking a sip of his wine.