She broke off the kiss, finally pulling up her goggles. “How did it go?”
“Could we talk in the tree house? Is your mother home yet?” His very soul felt heavy at his impending news. “Not yet and of course.” She took his hand and led him out the back door. “Race you.” Laughing, her tanned hand released his as she took off across the yard, hiking up her skirts.
“I’ll win.” He ran off across the yard after her, making sure she got there first.
“Beat you.” Beaming, she scrambled up tree. “Well, you’re too fast for me.” Steven took a seat in the tree house, which had always been their special place, and pulled her into his lap. He buried his face in her wavy chestnut hair, which, as usual, tried to escape from its long braid.
“That bad?” she whispered.
“Worse.” His skin crawled with dread as he struggled to find the right words. “She’s sending me on an errand as expected, however, I can’t tell you what it is or take you with me.”
“Oh.” Disappointment rang through her voice as she leaned into him. “I didn’t think I’d be able to go with you anyway. How would we explain me leaving for weeks? Mother gave me another lecture last night about the importance of maintaining propriety and not tarnishing my reputation by running off like we did when we were children. Because,” she pitched her voice to match her mother’s, “we’re not children anymore.”
He put his arms around her as they sat on the wood and metal floor of the tree house. “Noli, darling … I … ” His voice broke, so full of dread it threatened to burst right out of him. “I don’t know how to say this so I’ll … I’ll just do it.”
Turning her to face him, he pulled her sigil over her head.
Noli’s steel-colored eyes widened in horror. “V … V what are you doing?”
“I’m so sorry. I love you so much.” His gut wrenched as he reached for a hammer lying discarded on the tree house floor. Placing the sigil on the ground, he raised the hammer.
“Please, please don’t.” Noli trembled, but she didn’t physically attempt to stop him.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” His voice broke as he brought the hammer down on the sigil, smashing the green stone in the center into tiny pieces.
A wail escaped Noli’s lips, a sad, pained cry that broke his heart into as many pieces as the stone on the uneven floor of the tree house.
They said that breaking the stone in a sigil after you’d bonded with it was physically painful. As she sobbed he wrapped his arms around her. Judging from her cries, it had been. He cursed his mother for it.
“I’m so sorry, darling. I still love you,” he whispered over and over, hopelessness soaking into every pore.
“Why?” she sobbed, body shaking in his arms. “Why?”
He stayed silent, wishing with all his might that he could explain.
Finally, her sobs slowed and she looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes. “Who made you, your mother or your father?”
A little relief flowed through him. At least she realized that it wasn’t him.
“I’ll wait for you. When you’re an adult we can fix this.” She gazed into his eyes.
Him being an adult wouldn’t negate his mother’s order, but hopefully he could find a loophole or something to bargain with.
“Don’t let your mum marry you off.” Gazing into her extraordinary steel eyes which glistened with tears and pain, he cupped her face in his hands. “Unless … unless that’s what you want.” A wealthy mortal man wouldn’t be able to take care of her the way she needed—but his mother had a point about her easily being able to find another Fae.
Kevighn would take her in a moment. The mere thought made his blood boil.
“No. I want only you. Besides, we still have to find a way to make me myself again,” she hiccupped.
“Exactly.” He wasn’t nearly as concerned about her getting back her humanity as he was fully returning her personality.
In silence, he held her in the tree house until pink tinged the sky.
“I … I need to go. I need to get James and pack for my quest,” he told her.
“You’re taking James? Good.” Her voice was muffled by his shirt, her face buried in his neck. “I worry about him with Charlotte gone.”
His fingers traced her cheekbone. “I worry about you.”
How badly would this damage her? The sprite might take over completely by the time he figured this mess out. Sprites didn’t like being unhappy, preferring to live in the moment.
Steven extracted her off his lap, gazing at her one last time, memorizing her face. “I love you, Noli.”
“I love you, too.” Her voice broke and she didn’t look at him. That made his soul ache.
He took the shards of the green stone and the sigil itself, a tree made of gold wire, braches and roots touching forming a circle—the symbol of the House of Oak. The stone formed the tree’s heart. He shoved it in his pocket. Perhaps Quinn could repair it so he’d have it for when they could be together again. If anyone could do it, it would be his tutor.
Noli sat there in the tree house, curled into a ball, sobbing into her knees.
With one last look at her, he climbed down, heart breaking with each of her pitiful cries.
He crossed her back yard and went through the loose board of the fence into his own. When he opened the back door of his house his father stood in the kitchen making a pot of tea. Great. Just what he needed.
“Finally.” His father turned and his blond eyebrows rose. He might be an exile and no longer king, but he still looked the part, even in mortal clothes, with his regal features, neat blond hair, and green eyes that always seemed to see right into his soul. Steven wasn’t sure how long it had been since his father held a sword, but he’d remained broad-shouldered and muscular.
“Her Majesty wished to speak with me,” he mumbled. Really, he’d hoped to leave without seeing his father.
“Are you all right?” He took two cups down and set them on the counter.
“I didn’t realize you cared.” Bitterness flowed through his voice.
His father poured tea into one of the cups and handed it to him, then poured another. Taking it in his hands, his father leaned against the counter and drank.
“I may not be the best father in any of the realms, but I do care … even if I have trouble showing it. She’s calling in her favor isn’t she?” Notes of I told you so rang through his father’s voice, but to give him credit he didn’t say it.
Never bargain with the high queen. You’ll lose.
Steven stared into the depths of his tea but didn’t take a sip. “She’s sending me on a quest. She also … ” He might as well say, since he wasn’t forbidden to tell his father. “She ordered me to break Noli’s stone.” He blurted it out, as if doing so would lessen the pain. A glance out the kitchen window told him Noli still wept in the tree house. “But … ” Emotion crushed his throat making it difficult to form the words. “She wouldn’t permit me to tell Noli it was on her orders.”
“I see.” His father took a sip of tea, green eyes unreadable. “Will you be gone long? Should I manufacture a suitable tale to cover your absence?”
“Please? The quest can take no longer than a mortal month, but … ” Steven took a deep breath, the quest seemed too easy. Also, who knew what orders might await afterward?
His father made an empty gesture with his free hand. “You did bring this upon yourself, you know. You never should have gone after Noli in the first place.”
Steven slammed the cup on the counter, tea sloshing over the sides. “You’re going to be like that? Fine. I’m going to pack my things and leave.”