Reign of Ice (Forever Fae #4)(25)
Taking my hand, he pulled me up the steps to the palace entrance and I followed. We walked through the foyer and out the back to where I could see the separate dwellings that Brayden, Ryder, and Kalen all lived in when they were here. “I don’t like this, Ariella. We are supposed to be a united front here and you’re asking me to stay away from you. How can I do that when I’m your guardian? Each second I’m near you it takes every single ounce of control I have to keep my distance.”
“I’m sorry, Brayden, but that’s the way it has to be. Right now, Alasdair thinks we hate each other. He’s trying to turn me against you by telling me all the women you’ve been with, and to be honest he’s not the only one who’s told me.” Brayden’s eyes went wide, but before he could speak I held up my hand to stop him and continued, “We can talk about that later, and believe me I’m not happy with what I heard. Anyway, like I said, if he thinks we are getting too close then he’s going to come for me. Is that what you want?”
Brayden abruptly let go of my hand, throwing his hands in the air and through his hair, while trudging up the front steps to his cabin, our home. His strides were angry and hard; I flinched with each step he took away from me. When he opened the door to his cabin, he paused and huffed loudly. Without turning to look at me, I could tell he was close to losing control by the anger in his voice when he spoke, “Do you want to know what I want, Ariella? Do you even care?”
I couldn’t form the words to speak because insisting that I didn’t care infuriated me, and of course with my hot temper I couldn’t let it slide. I screamed my next words in his mind, “Yes, I care! Look at me and tell me what you want!”
He finally turned around to pierce me with his anger-filled eyes. “I am sick and tired of having to worry about if my people will be safe when we leave the palace walls. I’ve lost too many good men to the sorcerer’s evil and I’ve had enough. This is our land, not his. He’s dictating what we do and how we live our lives, and I’m done with it. You told me yourself that you want me to prove how sorry I am. How can I do that if you want me to stay away from you? Have you forgotten that without you and me together our courts won’t stand a chance against Alasdair if he takes your power? We’re trailing on thin ice right now until our court is formed.”
“I haven’t forgotten,” I whispered, turning away from his gaze. If we completed the bond now there was no way Alasdair could defeat us. We would be stronger than him, but bonding with Brayden through marriage and making love to him was a huge decision … and one I knew I wanted to make. However, I knew we couldn’t take that step.
“Why are you closing yourself off from me?” Brayden hissed. “I know you have to be feeling something in that body of yours, but all I get is nothing. If distance is what you want, then distance is what you’ll get, Princess. From now on, my thoughts are mine. When you’re ready you can come to me, and I’ll let you back in. However, until you open yourself up to me I’m done.”
I gasped as the inner connection with him completely shut off, leaving me feeling hollow and bleak on the inside. I didn’t realize what a comfort it was having his presence inside my soul until he took it away. It saddened me, but above all else it pissed me off. He completely let his pride get in the way and let reasoning fly out the window, or in this case get carried off into the snowy wind.
Instead of going into his dwelling, he stalked down the stairs straight past me without even a sideways glance. “Where are you going?” I hollered from my frozen spot on the porch steps.
I wanted to run after him and demand he stop being an ass, except my pride kept me from doing that. Maybe we were alike in that instance. We both had extreme amounts of pride and neither one of us wanted to waver.
He kept walking and didn’t even turn around to acknowledge me when he responded silently, “It’s midday and it is time for me to train with my warriors. Pick any room in my house that you want. I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
“Oh, that’s comforting, guardian. I guess it’s a good thing I can take care of myself then,” I snapped.
“I guess so,” he replied, and after that, the connection went silent.
I WATCHED BRAYDEN walk away. With each passing moment it killed me not to chase after him and argue some sense into him, but I knew it wouldn’t work. He wasn’t like any other man I knew, and no amount of yelling or reasoning with him would work. However, there was a way I was going to get him to listen.
When I entered Brayden’s dwelling, it wasn’t what I expected. There were bookshelves along the side wall with hundreds of books stacked neatly on the shelves. Skimming a finger over the novels, they ranged from the everyday classics to history and philosophy. Has he read all of these? I wondered.
Several of my bags were tucked into a corner of the living room, so I grabbed the one I needed and headed up the stairs. I went into the first room I came to and threw my bag on the enormous bed sitting majestically in the middle of the room. The colors were almost the exact shades of blue and silver as my room in the Summer Court. It was almost uncanny how alike they were. Changing quickly into my armor—my Summer armor—I secured my breastplate and the laces of my vambraces on my arms. All I needed now was my sword and I’d be ready to go.
Once I had my sword, I set out on my way to find Brayden and his warriors. The snow stuck to my braid, making my bright blonde hair appear even whiter than what it already was. It didn’t melt, but clung to it like a blanket of protection. I could feel the land calling me to complete the bond with Brayden. It was like a song I heard in my head over and over the moment I stepped inside the Winter Court boundary. I had overheard my sisters talk about the feeling they got when the land called to them. It was like a magnet pulling you in a direction that you knew you couldn’t go to yet, and it took all I had to ignore it calling me.