Tempting the King (Witchling Academy Book 2) Read online

  “Perhaps you were made more for the water than you thought,” Aiden agreed, and without me asking him, he tightened his grip slightly as I leaned back, allowing the crown of my head to sink into the water, the warm weight of it moving through my hair, carrying away the last of the smoke and fear. I sighed, and when I lifted my head again, it was to see Aiden staring at me, his gaze intent, his hands gentle yet firm.

  “My powerful, beautiful Belle,” he murmured. Then he leaned forward and touched his lips to mine.

  10

  Aiden

  I turned slightly in the water so I didn’t unnerve Belle with the fact that I was stiff as a pole and desperate to take her right here in the middle of a lake. For once, I was almost irritated with my need for this woman, who I wanted to see for decades smiling like she was right now, her face soft and slack, her eyelids drifting closed, completely trusting that I would keep her safe, keep her afloat, protect her completely.

  She had no idea the lengths to which I would go to keep her safe. But first I had to keep her safe from me.

  Belle was no longer bound to me by the Hogan witch contract…I was nearly certain. Either way, I didn’t want her to be bound against her will. I wanted me to be her choice, not her obligation.

  Even thinking those words made me grimace. It was a lie. I would take Belle any way I could get her, but by the Light, I wasn’t going to make love to her for only the second time in some pitiful brackish pond lost in an armpit of the monster realm. I would treat her like the queen she was, then, when we had reached a place of safety, I’d take her like the woman who had lit my body on fire.

  The blood roared in my head as I kissed her, instantly testing my resolve. She came alive in my embrace, her arms twining around my head, her lips pressing close, our bodies tangling to the point where there was no missing the state of my arousal. It didn’t seem to bother her in this moment, and the feel of her body pressed against mine nearly made me forget that I was keeping us both afloat. We slipped lower in the water, and her eyes shot open in alarm.

  I laughed as she climbed higher on me, as if she could scramble up me like a tree. Her frantic movements positioned her higher against me, and I clasped her close as I took the tip of one of her breasts into my mouth. She gasped, bracing herself on my shoulders, but her surprise quickly turned into a moan as I tasted, licked, drifted my lips across her glistening skin, exploring every inch of her. Her body was warm and soft and made for me, perfectly proportioned for my hands. I could feel the desire returning, and I peeled myself away from her, breathing fast.

  “Can you see them?” she asked, lifting a hand to her temple. The question was so unexpected that the rest of my need cooled enough for my brain to function again.

  “See what?”

  “The crown and bracelets?” She sighed, jangling her wrists as if they were weighed down. I remembered what the Laram had said about her donning such jewelry—but I could discern no adornments on Belle. “So much has happened that I don’t understand. I mean, I’m only in the monster realm because…because…”

  She started to shiver, despite the warmth of the water, and I drew her close again, hoping that the intimacy of our quiet embrace isolating us from the rest of this realm, any realm, would give her the courage to continue.

  “When you went off to fight the Fomorians, I was pulled away, almost as if the force of you leaving through one portal caused another one to activate. Is that possible?” She didn’t give me time to respond, but plunged on. “I don’t know, but something happened, and I got pulled out of the academy. I ended up in this enormous castle in the middle of a snowstorm. It was unbelievably cold, and then I found—I mean I know this sounds completely crazy, but I found this room where they had my great-grandmother’s crown and…” She sighed, abruptly breaking off. “I’m not making any sense. I’m sorry.”

  I murmured in soft understanding. It didn’t make sense, but I was new to the vagaries of portal magic when Belle was involved. It would take some time for me to sort through all that.

  “You landed inside Sakorn Castle,” I prompted her. “How did you find anything in all the wreckage?”

  She blinked at me, but my question seemed to focus her. “What wreckage? That castle was pristine. I couldn’t understand that either. But every doorway was flanked by flowerpots filled with the kind of blooms my family’s always revered. Baby’s breath and mugwort.”

  I lifted a brow. “That’s Fae bane.”

  She smirked, and I was relieved to see the color returning to her cheeks. “Yeah, well, all evidence to the contrary, Hogan witches don’t like you people. Anyway, I followed the flowers to the little library, and there it was, a case that had the crown and…”

  Once again, she hesitated when she said the word, and I pictured it clearly in my mind.

  “Shackles,” I finished for her. “The symbols of your service to the High King.”

  She nodded. “I didn’t know what to do, but this mountain Fae showed up and explained how it worked. How I could help you—how I needed to help you. And then how I could demand my own release. And he was right. A portal opened up, and I saw you fighting, and he said that without my help, your strength would not be enough. I put on the crown and shackles after that. I mean, I had no choice but to believe him, and I did totally help you. I think I helped, anyway. You were injured and—I had to help you.”

  I hugged her to me, hoping to reassure her, but inside, my fury only built. Belle had been tricked into putting on the magical chains of her great-grandmother’s service to my family. And I had benefited from the deceit. Did this crown and these shackles undo what I’d sought to ensure by releasing her? Was she, in fact, yet bound to me? My teeth grit as I considered it. Cyril would know. Or the accursed djinn, Jorgen. Somebody had to.

  I refocused on Belle. “Did the rest follow exactly as the guardian said it would?”

  She gave a helpless shrug. “I didn’t expect you to let me go. I thought we’d need to go back to that castle—to read the contract and see what it all meant. To find the truth. But you didn’t ask me to do any of that. You just—I mean, you just let me go. And then…”

  A new realization struck her, and once again, the images she was seeing in her own thoughts filled my mind. Was my connection to Belle stronger because we were touching, because we were in the monster realm, or because of the crown and shackles she wore that I couldn’t see? I didn’t know, but I saw flames licking over the countertops and tables of her tavern, could smell the char and practically hear the screams of the old boards giving way beneath the heat and fire.

  “Who burned your tavern?” I asked, as gently as I could. She sucked in a quick breath, sending me a grateful look for sparing her the explanation.

  “The high coven of the White Mountains,” she said. “One of the most powerful witches’ covens in existence, with a deep and long lineage. I don’t know who all was involved in setting the blaze, but I had been visited by them only a few days ago.” Her lips twisted. “Well, maybe a few hours ago. I don’t really know how much time had passed in the human realm when I showed back up there. I should have run. I should have taken the same byways I used to help so many others and run.”

  Her voice had taken on a dreamlike quality, and I could sense her fragility. The shock of seeing her home burn settled over her like a caul.

  “We can rebuild it,” I assured her. “Restore it, return it to what it was before.”

  She started to shake her head, then stilled. “Could you?” she asked with a new hint of hope in her voice, her storm-gray eyes looking as wet as the lake surrounding us. “I was going to say that’d be impossible, because some of that wood was from the home my great-grandmother had built after she left your realm. It was irreplaceable. But it’s your realm. Of course you can replace it. It’s from here. Or not here, I guess…”

  She sighed, huffing a grim laugh. “I’m still not making any sense. But thank you for saying that. Even if it’s not possible, it’s kind of you.
”

  Something in her voice tugged at me in a new and distressing way. I understood immediately that Belle was not used to accepting help from anyone, as her mother hadn’t, and her mother before her. Generations of Hogan witches cut off from their coven, trained to make do with what life served them. Alone and unprotected.

  A new resolve kindled within me.

  “We can rebuild, should you want it,” I assured her. I stopped short of saying she could have anything she wanted in the human realm or any other. My power diminished outside the realm of the high Fae, but I still was who I was. My strength would stand as her protection wherever she went. Contract or no contract, Belle was my mate, my queen.

  The lake moved, ripples rolling out from the two of us, the force of magic of that new awareness lost on Belle, but not on me. She was bolstering my magic by her very presence, by her touch. What was I doing for her?

  Not enough, I decided. Not nearly enough.

  “What do you want, Belle?” I asked her, and her eyes lifted to meet mine.

  “I want to be free,” she said, and her sincere, unvarnished honesty arrowed through me, quick and cruel. “I want to be able to make real magic, and help witches and monsters who are on the run from their oppressors to walk free too. But honestly, Aiden, before all that, I want to make sure the Fae are safe. No one should have to live with the threat of war hanging over them all the time. I want to teach you—all of your family—everything you need.”

  My jaw worked, and it was all I could do to keep my hold on her gentle, my breathing level.

  She wanted to be free of me.

  For a moment, I lost the rest of her words in the storm of emotions that request caused. She wanted to be free of me—to leave, to live her life apart. But even as I grappled with that statement, my senses told a different story. Belle clung to me easily, willingly. She was not unaffected by me, that was clear enough. And gradually, the rest of her words penetrated my haze.

  She wanted to help me protect my people. She would stay to fulfill that bond. That should be enough for me for now. Until we could work through the thorny truth surrounding the state of the contract the Hogans had signed with the Fae, until I could figure out what new contract I could strike with my beautiful, powerful witch, it had to be enough.

  I hugged Belle, then turned us back toward the shore, but I already knew the truth.

  It would never be enough.

  11

  Belle

  I awoke with a start, snuggled tightly against Aiden’s body, and realized several things at once. One, I was dressed in dry clothing, my dry clothing, and I did not at all recall putting my clothes back on. Two, the Fae was once again carrying me like I weighed nothing. Three, someone was cooking, and it smelled glorious.

  “Don’t try to stand yet,” Aiden murmured to me as he bent forward, accommodating the steeper pitch to the trail. “You’ve endured a shock, you’re exhausted, and you aren’t eating or sleeping well.”

  I blinked at his chest, though I couldn’t move if I wanted to, the way his arms were gripped around me. “So now you’re a doctor?”

  “When it comes to you, yes. When it comes to the warriors who fight for me, also yes.”

  I thought about that as we trekked the last section to the shallow cave, my mouth beginning to water at the savory smells from the fire. “We won’t attract other animals or, ah, monsters with this, right?”

  But I knew the answer before Aiden grunted his assent. For a race supposedly without magic, the Fae did pretty well for themselves.

  Celia clearly thought the same thing, judging by the way she stared at Niall while she clutched a heavy blanket around her thin body. Her gaze swiveled to me as Aiden carried me in, and she remained silent as he settled me slowly to my feet. I took one step, then swayed, dizziness overcoming me, and didn’t argue as he guided me to another pile of blankets conjured up from the goddess only knew where. I sank into them gratefully, my legs unaccountably wobbly.

  “The fire, the meat, the water, the blankets,” Celia said to me, sounding dumbfounded as she clutched the blanket closer. “They appeared out of thin air. That’s not Laram magic. I didn’t think that was Fae magic either.”

  Niall only grunted, and Aiden said nothing. I knew I needed to respect their decision not to take Celia into our confidence. For as much as she’d helped us, she’d also needed us to get her out of the Riven District. But she could still help me learn.

  “What magic do the Laram have, do you know?” I asked her. “What magic do any of the monster races have?”

  “Not a lot beyond simple preservation, and being able to find working portals,” she said. “Up until this little demonstration, I would have said no one had true magic other than the wizards, and they keep to themselves. Rumor has it we’re down to only one or two of them, on top of everything else, but…” She broke off, frowning. “That’s real meat,” she said, nodding toward the fire as she tightened the blanket more. “These are real blankets. This isn’t illusion.”

  Again, no clarification was forthcoming from Aiden or Niall, so she shook her head and continued. “Like I said, certain races have portal magic, able to guard and open existing portals. But among actual natives of this realm, only a wizard can make a portal. It’s not a super huge deal because there are enough existing portals throughout the realm, if you know where to find them. Most races have some level of intuition as to where to find them, but only the highest caste of each race can move through them easily without some sort of assistance. Otherwise, they’d be falling out into other realms all the time. That would be dangerous.”

  I grimaced, thinking of the steady flow of monsters I’d seen coming through my bar. There was more outbound traffic from the monster realm than she realized. “And you all have illusion magic?”

  “Limited, but a lot of us do,” she agreed. “It depends on what it is we’re trying to fool. Humans are easy, no offense. Those of us that have two forms can shift into something humans find more palatable, or reflect an image back that the human can understand. But that’s it. Walking through portals on occasion, shifting if that’s our nature, glamour.”

  She turned to fix Niall with a glare. “Not conjuring something out of nothing.”

  He merely shrugged and offered a bowl of the stew to Aiden, who took one bite of it, then turned to me, handing me the bowl and spoon. I was too tired to try to figure out the meaning of that and took the bowl gratefully, scooping out one of the chunks of meat and popping it into my mouth before I could think too closely about what it would be. It tasted like some sort of chicken or wild bird, and I understood Celia’s confusion. Niall had certainly not gone out hunting.

  “Needs magic,” Aiden finally said, the phrase generating a response in me so visceral, I gripped the bowl in sudden panic.

  I hadn’t heard that term since I was a little girl, a snatch of a rhyme my grandmother used to sing to me. “Magic that heals, magic that feeds, magic that clothes, magic of needs.”

  It had seemed obvious to me at the time that of course healing, feeding, and clothing magic would be all the magic you needed. But I didn’t realize she wasn’t speaking of human magic, but Fae. Had my own grandmother known the distinction? How much had Reagan Hogan kept from her daughter and granddaughter and finally me, with her single-minded determination to turn her back on the Fae realm?

  “Seriously?” Celia asked, seeming equally mystified. “Like, if you need it, you get it? That’s it?”

  “If the need is clear,” Aiden said. “Laram have magic too. Most don’t use it, but they have access to it. The high Fae cleave to the old ways a little bit more closely, so we have not lost the way of it.”

  “All hail the old ways,” Celia murmured, barely shifting her blanket enough to accept the bowl and spoon that Niall gave her. She stared down at it, drawing in the savory scent of the stew, while he watched her with clear curiosity. She looked up to catch him staring at her, then blushed.

  “Sorry, it’s a lot. I t
ypically eat after my shift at the bar. You know, whatever was left. It’s not like I starved, though.”

  “Clearly,” Niall said, a little dubiously. Celia shrugged.

  “I had plenty, but nothing like this,” she ended a little awkwardly. “Um…thank you.”

  By the end of her speech, her cheeks were flame red, her eyes cast down. Niall slightly lifted a hand toward her, then turned away abruptly, his gaze falling to me.

  “It’s delicious,” I said hurriedly, spooning up another piece of meat as he scowled at me. “I’m eating.”

  Both he and Aiden watched us eat another three scoops before turning to their own bowls. I waited until I was near finished with mine to speak again, knowing I would get more scowls, but I couldn’t keep my mind from returning to what I had seen inside the warden’s stronghold.

  “But beyond this, um, needs magic, there is more magic in the monster realm than what these wizards hold, wherever they are, right?” I asked Celia. “The guards I encountered had some kind of magical Tasers, and the lizard warden guy had a book of magic that held some seriously dark arcanum. I couldn’t read it exactly, but I think with enough study…”

  “You didn’t recognize it?” Aiden asked, sounding surprised. His winged brows arched as I glanced his way, and he set his bowl aside, leaning forward to study me more closely. I tensed. Being the recipient of his focused attention remained unnerving, no matter how many times he’d carried me around.

  “You seemed to be able to read it from where I was standing,” he said. “You reacted to it. To me, it looked like an ordinary book, but you reacted to it as if it was much more.”

  I laughed unsteadily. “Oh, I was seeing much more than a book. It was completely disgusting, honestly. It stank, dripped, oozed, and practically festered with every gross stain and fluid you could imagine. Believe me, having grown up in a bar, I can imagine quite a lot. But the words beneath the goop, they were powerful. Terrible, but powerful. A magic of the time before time, when all was possible and ready to be taken. A magic of making and unmaking. A magic that is ours to wield.”