Secrets (The Forever series, Book 8) (27 page)

Well that I can believe. I have gone from wanting to kill
him to wanting to save him. Shame on me, I suppose. I drop it, as I am too
tired to think about anything except getting home now.

“I must go back to the Dragon Realms now,” Tiamat says to me
and I nod. “I will send To’kah once he is ready to be your Guardian. If you
need someone in the meantime, you can use Lo’kar again.” She looks slightly
pained as She says that and I can see it causes Her grief to have to share him.
But She needn’t worry, even if I fall into a twitching, drooling heap on the
floor, I am not using Lo’kar that way again. It was way too intimate and I am
not sure that I will be fully comfortable doing this with Finn. I don’t know
him and I have been violated one too many times in my life. I dread to think
what Cole will say when I tell him Finn has to be naked. Well, I assume he
does. Maybe he can be clothed, that would be preferable.

“Be safe, my daughter,” Tiamat says and Astrals off.

Finn says to me, “You look beat. I’ll take you back.”

I smile gratefully at him. “Thanks. I wish you had given me
a bit of warning. That Power boost was not something I wish to go through again.”

He smiles back. “I had no idea what it was going to be like.
Sorry. I would have told you if I had known it would be like that.”

He takes my arm and Astrals us back to England. We land in
the garden and he squeezes my arm before he lets me go. “I will be back soon.
Try to keep calm until then. I…” he flushes and looks down.

“What?” I ask.

“I have been assigned as your Guardian since you first got
your Powers. I did not like to see my father take you in like that. Guardians
are not to be shared in normal circumstances, and neither are their charges.”

“Oh,” I say, somewhat embarrassed. I also look down and
scuff my feet. We are like two teenagers after we have told each other we like
each other.

“Right, then,” he clears his throat. “I guess I will leave
you to your…” he points behind me and I sigh.

“Yeah, I’ll see you soon.”

He nods and Astrals out. I put on my game face and turn
around, just as Cole crashes into me, crushing me in a hug so fierce I feel he
might have broken a few ribs but I hug him back just as hard. I have missed him
and I just want him. I don’t want to see anyone else right now. Without a word,
I Astral us to our bedroom. I know a few noses will be pushed out of joint by
that move, but I don’t care. I don’t have the strength to deal with all of
them, most especially CK, which I am dreading having to face him again. I am
surprised that he is still here, I had hoped he would have slunk off back to
Ponte
and that I didn’t have to see him again for a while. A long, long while.

“Tell me everything,” Cole says as he lets me go. I pull him
to the bed and sit down.

“Blood,” I say and he jumps up to get me a bottle out of the
mini fridge. “More,” I say as he hands it to me. As I chug it back, he brings
me three more with a questioning look and I shake my head. He goes back for two
more and I nod, slowly and steadily gulping it back. Replete, I lie back and
hold my hands up to him. He lies next to me and I start at the beginning, with
what Corinne said about Drake and ending with me returning here via Finn’s
Astral. I leave out three major points: the fight with CK, Sebastian, and the
rape. I will tell all when I have had a bit more time to process it all.

Cole is silent as I finish my tale. “Say something,” I say,
twisting his t-shirt in my hands.

“I don’t really know what to say. I mean, shit. Where do I
start?” He runs his hands through his hair with a bewildered look.

I shrug and he sees how tired I am.

“Go to sleep, my love. We can talk more about it when you
wake up,” he says.

I nod sleepily and my eyes close and I am out.

Chapter 11

I wake up alone and the sun is shining through the French
doors. I blink and turn over. I am under the covers, naked. I groan, no! No,
no, no! Cole had obviously tried to make me more comfortable, but in the process
he has now seen the burn marks. God, what must he be thinking? I had wanted to
do this in my own time, but I should have known I couldn’t hide it. He wouldn’t
keep me clothed to sleep, when he knows I prefer to sleep in the nude. That
being said, I did not expect to sleep for so long. It is clearly morning, so I
have been asleep for about fifteen hours. I get up and pull my robe on. I need
a shower, no, a bath, I quickly amend. I am not getting in a shower again for a
while. It disgusts me to think that I haven’t washed properly since Aelfric
took me. That thought gets me in the empty tub in record time and I sit there
with my knees up as the water slowly rises around me. When I am covered I lean
forward and turn off the taps and relax a little bit. The water is hot and
soothing and I am startled that I can feel it. My body is changing to be able
to feel the changes in temperature. I wonder how, but don’t get to think too
hard on it because Cole comes in.

“Hey,” he says quietly.

“Hey,” I say as I sink further into the bubbles.

“I…” he starts as I say, “Cole…”

“You first,” he says. He stays where he is by the door and I
am glad. That feeling of vulnerability comes back and I hate it. I shouldn’t
feel this way around my husband.

“There is part of the story I haven’t told you,” I say,
stating the obvious, but he doesn’t say anything. “Before I tell you, please
promise me that you will not be angry.”

He frowns at me and I think he wants to say something, but
he doesn’t, he just nods.

I brace myself by taking a deep breath and say in a rush,
“When I was in my father’s palace, I was raped.”

I watch as Cole’s face goes as hard as the marble of this
tub and he clenches his fists. I can see him struggling to remain calm and I
say, “I’m okay though. Really, it’s fine.”

Well “fine” tipped him over the edge. I curse myself for
using that word, as he knows that everything isn’t fine when I use it. He
stalks out of the bathroom and I raise my eyebrows as I hear a massive hole
being punched into the wall. I take this opportunity in his absence to leap out
of the tub and get dried and dressed. He strides back in and stops dead as he
sees me out of the tub and fully clothed, from head to toe. The only skin he
can see is my face and hands. The anger goes out of his eyes to be replaced
with sorrow. It is my undoing. My lip trembles and the tears fall and he drops
to his knees in front of me, clinging to the back of my top as he too weeps for
me.

I eventually fall to my knees as well, but he doesn’t let go
of me. He wraps me up in his arms gently, stroking my hair.

“How? Why?” he asks. “If you want to talk about it, I will
listen,” he adds as I stay silent.

“I don’t. I don’t want you to know anything about it. I was
going to tell you, I just needed a bit of time.” This is the truth. I don’t
want him to know why this happened, but I know that I am going to have to tell
him, all of them, soon.

“Okay,” he says. I think he is a bit relieved that I am not
going to blurt out the story to him. “Is your father going to do something about
it?”

“Yes,” I say and swallow as I remember Drake’s ferocious
declaration. In fact, he might have already followed through with it.

He nods grimly. “Good, that’s good. I know you said you
don’t want to talk about it, but I need to know how? How did someone get the
better of you like that?”

“You have no idea how powerful Faerie magick is. He bound my
Powers. This is the reason my mother accelerated them.”

“Oh,” he says and gazes at me woefully. “I’m sorry, Liv. I
wish I could protect you, I never want to see you hurt. I hate that I can’t
protect you.”

“I know,” I say and console him for a few moments before he
realizes what I am doing. He grabs my hands and squeezes them with a
reprimanding look.

“I suppose I should go downstairs and see everyone. I’m sure
they are all in a tizz,” I say reluctantly.

“Forget about them. They have lasted this long, they can go
a bit longer.”

I nod and we still just sit there in the bathroom in
silence, our arms wrapped around each other. Cole clears his throat and I hear
the strain in his voice as he asks, “Do you want Constantine?”

I shake my head forcefully. He is the absolute last person I
want to see right now. I’d even take Aelfric over him, that’s how strongly I
feel about it. Cole is surprised, but glad that I refused to see him.

“Can I get you anything?” he asks hesitantly.

“No,” I say and then decide that this is ridiculous. I stand
up and pull him up with me. “I’m going downstairs,” I say.

“Okay,” he agrees. I think he will probably agree to
everything I want right now. Too bad I am not in the frame of mind to take
advantage of that. I catch that thought with a slight frown at myself.

Hand in hand, he leads me from the bathroom. I raise my
eyebrows at the big hole in the wall and he looks sheepish and mumbles, “I’ll
get it fixed.”

He opens our bedroom door and peers out before he pulls me
through into the empty hallway. I am inwardly smiling at his behavior, but I
let him do this his way, as I know he is aching over what I told him. He is
going to have to know the details but I don’t want to hurt him. We hit the
bottom of the stairs and a convergence of people appears, as expected. Cole
growls at them and pushes me behind him. “Stay away from her,” he says to
everyone’s surprise. “Back off,” he snarls as no one makes a move to leave.
They do as asked in confusion and Cole leads me into the library and everyone
follows. He places me in my chair and stands next to me, happy to have the big
block of wood in between them and me.

“Livvie?” Devon asks.

I hold my hand up and say, “I know you all want to know what
is going on so sit please and I will tell you.” Everyone sits, except
Sebastian, who is glowering at me from across the room. He knows his secret is
about to come out, but it can’t be helped.

Again, I start at the beginning and leave out the three
major points for the moment. When everyone has taken that in and I have
answered a bunch of questions I take a deep breath. “There’s more.” This is it.
I had not wanted to tell them, but I am tired of secrets and it is better that
I come clean so that there are no surprises down the road.

“The Faerie have a prophecy,” I say and hear groaning at
that word and stifle my own noise of agreement. “Eons ago, it was foretold that
the firstborn son of the Light Fae King would marry the only Dark Fae Princess
and she would bear a child.” I let that linger for a moment and there is
hissing and growling as they figure out that it is about me again. CK already
knows all of this, but I have thus far been avoiding his intense stare. I
decide I am not going to share about our fight and I wonder if he thinks I
will.

“So who is the firstborn Light Fae Prince?” Devon asks, as I
knew he would.

I cast a quick glance over Xane who is fully aware of the
Prince already and I sweep past Sebastian as well who has crossed his arms
defensively. “Before I get to that, there has been an amendment to the
prophecy.”

That catches CK’s attention and I now look at him. I see his
sorrow and pain, but I have to remain strong and ignore it. “What kind of
amendment?” he asks quietly, as I also knew he would.

“Due to the status of the Light Fae Prince, the Light Fae
King asked his Seer to have another look, if you will.”

“Why, is he dead or something?” Devon pipes up hopefully.

“Or something…” I mutter. “As a result, the Seer decided
that it was only the direct heir, or perhaps even King, that would create this
child.”

CK growls loudly at that and stands up to start yelling. I
put my hand up and he stops dead.

Huh, neat, I think absently. Must be that Power boost
kicking in.

“Wait, I don’t understand,” Lincoln says. “How can a
prophecy be amended?” He is looking at me, but I see him glance at Sebastian
and wonder what he knows about that. “Aren’t all the Princes direct heirs?”

“That remains to be seen. What I mean is the next in line,
it is up for debate at the moment, and what I am trying to tell you is that
while I was in the Fae Kingdoms, this amendment was acted upon.” I stand up and
Cole grips my hand tighter. I see a sea of shocked faces and I focus solely on
Sebastian when I say the next part. “I was sexually assaulted in an attempt to
get this child conceived.” Cole makes a distressed noise and there are gasps
from the crowd before a surge of outrage on my behalf. Devon is the first to
reach me, grabbing my arms and pulling me away from Cole who is trying to pull
me back. I feel like a Christmas cracker, and shake myself off both of them.
“I’m fine,” I say and Devon shakes his head. “No, no! Don’t say ‘fine.’ I hate
it when you say ‘fine.’” I take him in my arms and he gives me a bone-crushing
hug in return. “Please, sit back down. I am not finished yet,” I say, gently
pushing him away. He doesn’t go, but stays right next to me, protecting me.
CK’s face is white and his eyes are black. Sebastian is trying to offer him some
sort of comfort, and I resist the urge to go to him myself to do the same. Damn
him.

“The Faerie in question bound my Dragon Powers thus
rendering me completely defenseless against him. That is why the sudden Shift
occurred when I got back and why my mother came for me. She has accelerated my
Powers, and I now bear the full force of my Queen abilities.”

Xane is nodding as if he was already privy to that
newsflash, as the rest of the group says, “Holy crap.”

“I knew something had changed,” Xane says as I look
questioningly at him. “I felt it.
Now
you are the most powerful being in
all the Realms,” he adds. There is something off about his entire attitude
towards this whole situation.