Dark Throne, The (26 page)

The sharing of blood would merely reinforce
t
heir mate bond and in those
who were not already bound in the ways Heather and Fade were, it
triggered a smaller version of the binding. Marriage was a lifelong
affair on Mearth and through the magick that flowed through their
veins, magick that connected them to Mother Mearth, once blood was
shared, it ensured a joining that never terminated.

For a married man to sleep with a woman who was not his
wife, sparked a death sentence
. The power of the bond instigated this. Such a man’s
magick would start to unravel inside him, slowly killing
him.

In a way, it was a lesser version of the act that had
occurred between the pair of them when they were naught but
children
. When Elfen were
small, their powers were concentrated into their tiny forms. As
such, they were at their most potent. Having shared blood with
Heather as a babe, the binding had overtaken his soul, rather than
just his heart. A second sharing would merely enhance the
connection and Fade was not entirely sure of how that was even
possible. He had the horrible suspicion, that if anything were to
happen to him, that if he were to be felled on the battlefield then
Heather too would perish alongside him.

He’d always known that regardless of his father’s attempts
to beget another
heir, the
Dark Throne would one day be his and while he had believed that he
would marry some nameless, faceless princess, Fade had never
thought he would have to change his ways. A Warrior King he’d been
born, but this bond changed things.

With a child on the way, there was no way he was going to
leave his babe to the tender mercies of a world that did not
protect orphans
. Even royal
ones. Especially if his children had the misfortune of being born
with wings.

It was a complete about-face and one that merited much
thought but at a later date
.

Heather still had to carry the child to full term and in
itself, this was fraught with difficulties
. It was a distinct possibility that through the
marriage ceremony and this sharing of blood, on top of the
pressures of this situation in which she found herself, alongside
the stress that was to come from the situation in the Haden
court,
as well as
her Elfen blood coming to the fore…
She could quite easily lose the child. And whilst he mourned the
babe’s loss, he tried not to ponder it too much. It was the reason
why he had not informed Heather of her state.

If she were to lose the child, then he could only hope that
Heather would not suffer
. He
wished to protect her but there was little he could do to keep her
safe in this matter. It lay with Mother Mearth.

It was a confused Fade who walked to the bed and climbed
upon it gently so as not to disturb her
. She’d been napping for the last three hours, had
rested through two mealtimes and he refused to awaken her. But
almost as though she had sensed his determination to let her rest,
her eyes fluttered open and her back arched and rippled sinuously
along the sheets, pressing her gentle curves against
him.

“
What’s wrong?” she whispered, her voice hazy with
sleep
.

“
Nothing
,” he murmured,
pressing a kiss to her temple.

“
Don't lie
,” she
grouched. “I can feel your heart, it’s slowed down. Changed.” She
yawned. “Where have you been?”

Before he had time to process the fact that Heather shared
the ability to judge her mate’s health, he pressed his face against
her jaw and whispered, “Speaking to you father
.”

She immediately stiffened and he raised a hand to her neck
and began to knead the tense muscles there
.

“
He will speak to your mother
.”

“
I hope she will not be too upset
.”

“
To be frank, Heather, I could care less about
her
. I have seen her behavior
and been disgusted by it, but I have said nothing for she is your
mother. And the circumstances are untenable. To be separated from
you for such a length of time…” He shook his head. “No parent
should have to go through that. But no more. Whilst understanding
how she has suffered, I can no longer tolerate the way she is
treating you. I discussed my plans to leave with your father, but
before we can depart, he has uttered a dictate. We must wed afore
we can leave the borders.” He grimaced. “So ridiculous. What we
have is so more important, so more vital than that. I have always
hated these royal dictates. These strictures to which I must obey.”
He tutted. “But my love, if it is something that will please you
then I will gladly go through the parade.”

“
I think I should be offended, that you don’t want to marry
me
,” she teased.

Spying her grin, he relaxed
. Her teasing was real. She was not offended. Thanks be to
Mother Mearth. “Bah,” he grouched. “You have no idea of the toils
and ridiculous rigmarole that is part and parcel of such a
ceremony. However it binds you to me in more ways and for hat I
shall not grumble.”

She pressed a kiss to his lips
. “On Earth, that’s how we do things. We get married. And I
know I’m a child of this place, but the idea of being wed to you
pleases me. It cements what we have even if it is unnecessary. Plus
what girl doesn’t dream of getting married to a tall, dark and
handsome prince. “

He snorted
. “Hardly
that, love.” He grimaced. “If I could, I’d bind my wings to hide
them but I tried that as a boy. They protested mightily and before
I’d even left the room, they sprouted out.”

She slapped his hand against his chest
. “Don’t be stupid. Your wings are you. I don’t
want you to hide them.” She smiled and the lazy sensuality there,
the languid passion made him return the gesture even as his body
stirred in reaction.

Heather truly did not care that he had
wings
. No matter how often the
realization came to him, it still stunned him. Gods, he had been
blessed. Mother Mearth had truly kissed his forehead at birth, to
bestow upon him such a bride.

For the moment, he would let her think of the ceremony with
pleasure
. He did not know how
an Earthen wedding occurred, or the routine it followed. But he
would not sway her from that belief that a Mearthen ceremony
wouldn’t follow the same course.

A
part of him chomped at the bit
, wanting to get the entire thing over and done with. But,
her quiet pleasure at the prospect of a wedding eased him somewhat.
Eased his agitation. For her, he would endure.

But he would revel in the time, when t
heir bindings were stronger than ever. A part of
him was curious at what form that would take. But with his mate at
his side, soft and warm from sleep, her belly filled with his
child, he reveled in the moment. Reveled in being with
her.

His love
.

His heart
.

His very soul
.

Thoughts and worries could come later
. They had now and that was all that
mattered.

Chapter
Twelve

Heather didn’t want this
.

She really didn’t
. In
fact, she wanted this wedding less than she wanted a hole in the
goddamn head.

And it wasn’t that she didn’t want to marry Fade, because
she really did
. It was that
marrying Fade was looking less likely, when she was locked up
behind bars for matricide.. God, her mother was driving her insane.
It had been bad before, and this was just a few days ago, but in
that time, everything had managed to deteriorate terribly. This
entire situation was just ten times worse.

With the preparations for the wedding
in full force, the anal retentive side to her mother had come out
to play.

The woman never let up.

Setta was constantly haranguing Heather with details of a
wedding that she had lost interest in
. And she felt guilty for that. This was her wedding day
they were discussing. Not some everyday
event. Even before Fade, whose blood was tied to hers, she’d known
that if she ever made it to the altar, it would be for life. She
hadn’t been the sort to dream up her wedding cake design at five
years
old. Nor had she wondered about Prince Charming…

 
That was
ironic.

 
She’d ended up with
Prince Charming.

Maybe the key to that was not to
fantasize about Crown Princes and then you’d get one.

Despite her mood, she grinned at the
thought
. The smile instantly
disintegrated as her mother began tugging at her skirt and bitching
with one of the seamstresses.
 “You’ll have to go on a diet, Heather.”

Narrowing her eyes, hopefully lancing her mother with a
gimlet stare, she bit out, “Are you saying that I’m
fat
? Because if you are, then
I might just have to scream.”

Apparently recognizing that she’d stepped that little bit
too far, Setta waved her hands out in what she probably considered
a conciliatory gesture
. Having
merely endured her mother’s moans and groans about whatever misdeed
she’d just committed, it undoubtedly came as a surprise to Setta
that on this, Heather would fight back.

And too fucking true, would she
fight.

Hell, the woman had no right to say things like that to
her
. She’d known her less than
fortnight. Auntie May might have had a pop on the nose if she’d
dared to utter those words. Not that she would have done, but
still, the sentiment was the same.

Heather had had a weight problem back in High
School
. She’d gone through a
time, when she’d been seriously underweight and it had been a
battle and a costly one at that with specialist doctors and
psychiatrists trying to bring her from the brink of
anorexia.

As such, the few excess pounds on her hips, thighs and butt
were hard won
. And she wasn’t
fat. Common sense told her
that
, even if her
anorexia-skewed sight couldn’t.

She hated not being able to state that to
herself
. Hated having to rely
on a third party for reassurance about her looks as Setta’s
unthinking words triggered a waterfall of negative thoughts about
her shape. She battered them down, ignored and rejected them. But
she still reassured herself, that even if she was overweight,
Fade’s complete pleasure in her form would have reassured her
entirely that she was an attractive woman.

Where Fade was concerned, she could trust him utterly to
see her for herself and t
heir
bond was such that she felt no real discomfort in looking for the
truth about her shape through his eyes.

Now, with past boyfriends, she had
.

T
heir lust had
indicated their attraction to her. Fade’s eyes, simmering with heat
but a heat that was also dampened by love, made her feel far more
confident in herself.

“
Calm down, Heather
.
The skirt isn’t settling well on your hips. That’s all.”

“
Well change the fucking dress then, not
me
.” she growled and glared at
the seamstress who gasped at her curse word.

“
There’s no need to talk to me like that,
Heather
. In fact, I won’t
stand for it. You wait until your father hears of this.”

Heather laughed
.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. You tell him. Please do. And let me
tell you that I almost died from being too thin, when I was a
teenager. So don't you dare start preaching at me about weight
loss. My body is fine and there's no way in hell that I'm about to
start messing with it, when I'm at a healthy weight and the proper
size for my body. Especially not for a goddamn dress.”

She'd been stood in the center
of the room on top of a pedestal as the team of
seamstresses that her mother had brought in to create the wedding
dress of the year, had twittered around her. Making corrections and
alterations as she endeavored not to move an inch.

Hell, she'd
learned
that early on. Move a muscle and that muscle would get stabbed with
a pin or a needle. Whether it was by accident or on purpose,
Heather didn't know. If it was for the latter, then the training
routine worked. Christ, she'd been as still as a statue for the
last half an hour and her feet were so far gone into pins and
needles that they’d disappeared entirely. On top of that, she’d
been bloody bored too.

She wasn’t going to endure this shit if her mother was
going to come out with such thoughtless nonsense
.

Heather gathered her skirts, heard the
distressed gasps from the seamstresses as tears rent through the
fabric, the sounds filling the room.

“
Wait
. Don't destroy
the dress.”