Give Me (Wyrd and Fae #1)(18)

“You can’t love that Sarumosian.” Lourdes backed him against Igdrasil’s trunk.

“I can’t love that Sarumosian?”

She pressed close to him. “You love me, Galen. I’m the one.”

“You’re the one?”

“Let me clear things up for you, darling.” Lourdes kissed him again, and again. She reached between his legs.

Galen groaned with pleasure—and some anguish. “Lourdes, no.”

“Yes, my love.” Lourdes opened his trousers and slid them over his hips, past his thighs. “Very much yes.” As she sank to her knees, the glimmer glass went blank.

“Stop her!” Elyse jumped up.

“I can’t.” Mother lifted her hand. Elyse thought she meant to bring back the image, but her hand just hung in the air, trembling. When had it become such a frail and brittle packet of bones? “My dearest child. I wish I’d had more time with you.”

“We have all the time in the world.” But the words sounded like a lie coming out of Elyse’s mouth. She kissed her mother’s palm.

“You must take the ring.”

“Great gods, Mother. No.” Now Elyse’s heart swelled like it would pound out of her chest wall. To remove the oracle’s ring meant death.

“Please, Elyse. Let us not waste the time we do have.”

“Mother…Mommy.” Elyse stared at the ring. A simple design. One fine braid of gold and another of silver, the two entwined in a circle. It had always made her think of Brother Sun and Sister Moon—and of eternity. “Lourdes,” she said. “The ring is for her. She’ll be the next oracle.”

Oh, sun and moon. Had she really said that? She might as well acknowledge that Mother was on her death bed.

“Not Lourdes. You are the next oracle.

“Impossible. I don’t even have my power.”

“I’ve wronged you so terribly, Elyse.”

“Don’t be silly. You’ve always been good to me. The best mother anyone could hope for.” No, no, no! I am not having this conversation.

“You can’t begin to know your power, Elyse. You have it now. You always have had. You were born with it.” Mother again stared at the woods until Elyse expected someone to emerge from among the trees. “You’re not like Lourdes. You know that.”

“Of course. We’re two different people.” But Mother meant something else.

“My husband was a wyrder,” she said. “Not a great one. But he was a wonderful man, tall and darkly handsome. He was a good husband, and he doted on Lourdes. He died, and Lourdes and I came to Glimmer Cottage not long after. Until then, we’d lived in the castle keep. The queen was still alive in those days. Lourdes was a favorite of hers.”

“I never knew.”

“Why would you? Poor Lourdes. I haven’t the heart to tell her, but the queen nurtured a fancy that she and Galen would one day marry.”

“Oh.”

“Quite. I couldn’t stay in the castle. I was the king’s oracle and suddenly unmarried. The suitors were so thick I thought I would suffocate. I tried moving to the topmost rooms, far away from the bustle and with a view of Igdrasil, but that proved no barrier to the truly resourceful. So the queen gave me Glimmer Cottage. I put up a boundary. The men couldn’t get through, and I could grieve in peace.”

Her face softened. The furrow between her brows disappeared, and the corners of her mouth turned up.

“I met your father in the woods. Aubrey. He had yellow hair and eyes the color of lilacs. I didn’t know what he was, but he was different from any man—from any person—I’d ever met. He didn’t care about politics or fortunes or fighting enemies or courting me to get to the king. He wove flowers into garlands for my hair. When he kissed me I forgot the rest of the world. I can still smell the hollow where we met. A mix of early hawthorn and rosemary and clean damp dirt.”

A chill passed through Elyse. She knew the place, a dip hidden by a fallen tree.

“I asked him what he wanted of me—everyone always wants something from a wyrding woman. He said ‘more than anyone will ever want from you, Frona. I want to sing to you, and I want you to hear me. I want to dance with you, and I will lead. I want to strip you naked and lick every part of your skin, and I want to plunge inside you and feel your heat pull me deeper into you than you think possible.’ ”

Oh, please! Mother!

“He was from fae. A fairy. I had one moment to decide. Yes, and I would be happier than imaginable—but in his power. No, and I would never see him again. I said no.”

“Then what’s the point of—”

“But he had lied. I did see him again. He came back the next day and asked the same question. And the next. And every day until a day came when I was tired of being the king’s oracle, tired of leading the dance. Tired of the burdens of freedom and responsibility. On that day, I said yes.”

“Great gods.”

Mother looked sideways at Elyse. “In fae, the high gods can’t help you.”

Fairies. Maybe it hadn’t been animals watching Elyse in the woods all these years.

“It was wonderful. You can’t imagine the depth of satisfaction Aubrey gave me. Physical satisfaction, anyway. I doubt he had the capacity to consider anything beyond pleasure for more than three minutes altogether. Elyse, you know how time works in the land of the fae.”