Reign of Ice (Forever Fae #4)(46)
My sisters stiffened and glanced at each other before turning their attention to Elvena, who gave them warning glares. Even now they still wanted to keep me in the dark.
Brayden slammed his hand on the table, and pierced his mother with a deadly stare. “That’s not going to happen,” he exclaimed. He then turned to his brothers and Drake, and addressed them, “What do you all have to say about this? I, for one, do not like the idea of sending in one of our mates to do this. I will do it before I let any one of them be thrown in the dark sorcerer’s clutches.”
Ryder and Kalen both gazed warily at Brayden, and when Ryder stole a glance at me that was when I realized … they already knew as well. Placing my hand on Brayden’s arm, I sent a silent message to him, “Calm down, Brayden. We will figure this all out, okay?”
“I am not letting you go face to face with the sorcerer. I would rather die than let him get anywhere near you again,” he argued.
If Brayden’s outburst wasn’t enough, my mother’s sure was. She stalked up to Queen Mab and hissed in her face, “I don’t know what you think you know, but Durin was able to still touch it after putting on his gloves. My daughters aren’t going to be the ones laying their lives on the line for this. Haven’t they been through enough already?”
Mab narrowed her eyes. I could see the anger and rage from the years past edging closer to the surface, ready to be unleashed, but she held it back for the sake of our courts. “I don’t think it’s up to you, Tatiana. Your girls are stronger than you will ever be and it’s their decision. I believe in them and in whatever they do. Just because one of them has to wield the final blow doesn’t mean they won’t survive it.”
I swallowed hard, waiting on someone to contradict her, but they never did. Elvena cleared her throat and tried to calm down the weary crowd. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We have the dagger, which means we can kill the sorcerer, and I personally think Ariella needs to be the one to carry it. She is the one Alasdair is after right now, and if he does happen to get to her she will be able to protect herself.”
Sorcha passed me the dagger, so I took it carefully out of her hands and sheathed it in my belt. I wondered if anyone was going to ask who should keep it. Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry about stealing it from one of the others.
Glancing back and forth from me to Brayden, Elvena reluctantly added, “There is, however, one element that we still need.” She paused and cleared her throat. “Before we can attack we need to be at our strongest, and the only way we will be that is when the final Winter Court is formed. Until that happens, we need to send word to all of our allies and have them on alert and ready to join us when the time comes. According to the sorcerer, we have one more week before his threat to bring over his mortal army and their weapons comes a reality. We need to strike before he has that chance.”
Brayden nudged me in side to get my attention. “We need to tell them, angel. Look at their faces. We can’t keep them in the dark on this.”
I could tell everyone was gazing at Brayden and I curiously, wondering how our relationship was going. I felt bad that we kept them in the dark, but we had to in the hopes of keeping Alasdair from coming at me full force.
Nodding, I smiled up at Brayden and murmured silently, “I agree with you.”
Taking Brayden’s hand, we both walked over to the dais and stood upon it so everyone would be able to see and hear us. Mouths dropped when they noticed Brayden’s hand in mine and a smile on my face.
“Do you want to tell them or do you want me to?” I asked him.
He squeezed my hand and replied, “I want to do it.”
I fully expected him to want me to do it since he always kept his feelings inside on personal matters, but having him take this step to speaking out to his family and to mine made me fall in love with him even more. He had changed so much and had given me so much of himself that I couldn’t believe I never saw it in him before.
Brayden took a half step forward and cleared his throat before announcing, “Everyone, Ariella and I have something to say.” The mood in the room lifted as it all became clear. Where there were worried frowns marring everyone’s lips before, there were now happy smiles of joy. Brayden grinned down at me and back to our families. “Tonight things are going to change … we are going to change. We were going to surprise you all by completing the bond last night, but we got interrupted.” He said the last part on a sigh and it earned us a few snickers from the crowd. “With that being said, we plan on completing the marriage bond tonight and sealing our fate … together.”
Our families cheered, bursting out with laughter in celebration to the good news, except of course my mother who appeared sadder instead of joyful. From her actions and comments over the years I couldn’t believe it took me so long to figure out what her problem was. She grew up having to hate the Winter Fae and even to this day she still did. It made me wonder if she hated me now that I’d turned.
“She doesn’t hate you,” Brayden expressed sadly, listening in on my thoughts. “One of these days she might see things differently, but until then, you have me. Tonight nothing needs to be in your thoughts except you and me.”
Lifting up on my toes, I clasped my arms around his neck and tilted his head down so I could place my lips against his. He growled low in his chest and held me tighter with his hands pressed firmly on my lower back, pulling me toward him. “You are all mine tonight, angel. Nothing is going to stand in our way this time.”