Unexpected Mates ~ Book One
Chapter 25

“Get in the fucking carriage, Lazuli.”

Kerensa spat the words as if they tasted like acid. The object of her hatred gathered her skirts and tearfully climbed into the ornate wooden carriage as glittering obsidian horses whinnied and huffed.

Watching from the strong arms of Elias, Sylvie gnawed her lip as Kian climbed in beside the withdrawn Lady Lazuli.

“We’ll be right behind them, kitten,” Elias said into her ear, gesturing to the identical carriage before them. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“If it means I get to keep you both as mine without another interference, then yes. We just need to convince Lord Trion that Lazuli and Kian are not a good match somehow.”

Sylvie rubbed her arms and drifted to her home for the next four days, her flowing skirts swishing against the pebbled earth.

How on earth she would convince Lazuli’s father of anything, she had no clue. She was certain exposing the crimson and violet marks on her chest to the Fae lord wouldn’t do her any good. Not after Katarina’s guffaw at seeing them.

“You’ve made your choice then,” she had said, shaking her head with a baffled half-smile. “Fools. You are both fools.”

Kian had whisked Sylvie away from his mother’s words but not before they weaselled into her mind and laid eggs.

Had she made a mistake? Had marking each other only worsened their inevitable separation?

Even the thought of losing Kian made her heart clench in her chest.

Elias climbed in beside her and placed his jewelled hand on her thigh. She averted her eyes before the image turned her on. A man with rings was always one of her weaknesses.

“I can hear your heart racing. What is it?”

Swallowing, she gripped his hand and stared out the window as the carriage started moving away from the castle.

“I’m worried we made a mistake,” she admitted. “With marking each other. You heard the Queen, right? She called us foolish, and now I’m starting to think she’s right.”

Elias’s grunt startled her, and she stared at his scowling face. “The only thing that makes you foolish is believing a word she says. We are yours, and she has no right to interfere with that. It is fate.”

Sylvie leaned into him and breathed his scent. Just like Kian’s emotional influence powers, Elias’s presence also relaxed her until he decided she needed a punishment or pleasure.

She hadn’t felt the urge to be bratty, though, so he had little reason to try and tame her. She wasn’t sure if the fact annoyed him or if he liked that she was being submissive.

They hadn’t been intimate since their marking event, and she started to ache whenever she stared at them for too long.

“Do you think Kian is okay?”

Elias’ jaw hardened. “We’ll replace time for you to be together, don’t worry. I don’t like the idea of him being trapped there with her for days either.”

“Do you know something about her?”

Elias shook his head, but his eyes narrowed. “There’s something about her that isn’t right. I know she had something to do with that handmaid attacking you, but there’s more to it. Something with Kian.”

The idea of Lazuli hurting him sent pain jolting through Sylvie’s chest. “You’ll hear if she tries anything, right?”

“Yes, but Kerensa is in there too. She will keep him safe.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, she nestled deeper against his side, and he draped his arm over her body.

She drifted in and out of sleep until her carriage window drenched her in darkness.

“We’re setting up camp now, kitten. Wake up.”

“Where are we?”

Elias chuckled and pulled her frail body onto his lap. “How should I know?”

She laughed and regained awareness of her location before sighing. “I never get used to this place. Is it weird that I’m almost missing work?”

Another dark chuckle wrapped around her body, and she pressed her lips into the owner’s throat, enjoying the vibrations against her lips. Her belly rumbled, and she winced.

“Let’s go,” she said, pushing the carriage door open and climbing out onto short, rough grasses. She blinked as the light of the moons illuminated the space in monotonous tones of greyscale.

Short trees framed one side of their position while their carriages blocked the road.

Kerensa tended to a fire in the middle of the clearing while Kian placed stones around it, which Lazuli collected from the roadside.

Immediately Sylvie felt useless, but when Kian looked up at her and flashed a smile, she relaxed instantly.

Smiling back, she walked to his side and crouched in front of him.

“Is there anything I can do to help, Kian?”

Kerensa rolled her eyes in Sylvie’s peripheral, and she leaned over to stare at her.

“What? Something to say?” Sylvie quipped with a raised brow.

The Fae flashed her sharpened teeth and placed another thick log on the fire. “You’re going to make it harder if you keep flaunting your bond in front of Lazuli’s face.”

Her voice stayed just low enough for Sylvie and Kian to hear, but Lazuli’s sniffling made her think she heard it.

“Shit,” she whispered, standing and swiping imaginary dirt from her gown. “Lady Lazuli.”

“Miss Hart.”

Lazuli nodded lightly before handing another stone to Kian, completing the circle. “I- I need to go to the bathroom,” she whispered to Kerensa, who pulled a face and looked half-ready to force her to hold it when Sylvie cleared her throat.

She didn’t want to be alone with her, but she needed to piss too.

“I’ll go with you,” she said, standing and gesturing towards the dark tree line.

Kian bolted upright and snatched Sylvie back, startling her. “Kian, let go.”

She gently unpeeled his trembling fingers from her shoulders and frowned up at him. The strange behaviour fueled her curiosity, and she pulled away slowly as Elias approached.

“You can’t go in there,” Kian said. “It- isn’t safe.” He gazed quickly over Lazuli and Sylvie, but from his weird, frenzied energy, she was certain he only worried about her.

But why?

“Elias will keep an ear out for us. We need to pee, alright? Won’t be long.”

With that, Sylvie gathered her skirts and wandered towards the trees, listening for the ghostly walk of Lazuli at her side. She swore she heard a whisper and turned to Lazuli in the darkness, her eyes slowly adjusting.

“Did you say something?”

“No.”

They crossed into a dark thicket, the moonlight hardly breaching the foliage above. A sinking pool of dread formed in Sylvie’s belly, and she reached for a nearby tree for support.

Immediately her anxiety lessened, and her vision improved as the energy lines from tree to earth to creatures flashed behind her eyes.

Snatching her hand away, the golden lines disappeared, and she clasped her hands behind her back.

“Is something wrong?” Lazuli asked, stepping over a felled log.

Sylvie shook her head and followed until they found a suitable flat spot. She gathered her skirts and emptied her bladder as Lazuli waited with her back turned.

After covering her business in the dirt, Lazuli did the same a few feet away and sighed.

Sensing a conversation or confrontation, Sylvie reached out for another tree, hoping the strange vision she saw wasn’t a fluke.

It wasn’t.

The golden beams illuminated the space perfectly, and relief filled her as she watched the micro expressions dart around Lazuli’s face.

The fae paused, mouth opening and closing before her words broke the silence. “Have you ever been abused, Miss Hart?”

A hammer thumped down on her chest. Yes. “Why?”

“It’s quite a common experience on the earth realm, I have heard, but here it’s more of an oddity. A sign of demonic characteristics.”

Sylvie let out a soft shudder. “Okay.”

Lazuli sat on the felled log and picked at a patch of dry moss. “My father won’t change his mind, even if you’re bonded. He expects Queen Katarina’s debt to be paid.”

Picking up her skirts again, Sylvie walked and sat on the log, planting her palm straight on the bark to regain her magical night vision. To her surprise, it still worked even though the tree was dead.

“He wants me on the throne,” she sniffled. “And I- I need to stay in the Evergreen Court. I can’t go back.”

Sylvie turned to face her and breathed slowly to calm her racing heart.

“Why? Why can’t you go back and rule your own home? Why do you need Kian?”

The pause that stretched between them grew heavy. “He hurts me.”

Fighting the gasp and swallowing, Sylvie’s foot started tapping on the soil nervously. “You don’t have to tell me if it’s too-”

“No. I’ve kept his secrets long enough.”

She sniffed again and held her head high. “In my fourteenth year, my mother died in childbirth, and only weeks after, he started visiting my room. He said it was time for me to fulfil my duties as a woman of the house.”

Sylvie knew what was coming as if she were revealing her own story.

“At first, it was just touching. He would make me touch him. Then it turned to other things. I knew it was wrong, but he convinced me- he was so convincing.”

“Lazuli-”

Sylvie’s eyes squeezed shut against the images in her head. Ones she thought she had buried or moved on from. His hot breath on her face, body weight pinning her down, agony mixed with terrible, disgusting flutters of pleasure. It was wrong. So, so wrong.

“I met Kian in my sixteenth year. He was so kind to me. It made me realise what a relationship should be like. What intimacy could be like.”

The shuddering breathing between them sent puffs of icy smoke into the air.

“If you had just stayed away,” she continued. “I could have made him happy. I could have made him love me, and he could have kept me safe from him.” Her shoulders shook as she finished, and tears spilt from Sylvie’s eyes.

Immeasurable guilt strangled the words in her throat, and she stood pressing a hand to her chest.

“What if he was dead?” Sylvie’s shaky voice drew another sniffle from Lazuli. “Your father. What if you could be free of him? Would you stay in the Stone Court?”

Lazuli didn’t get a chance to respond when Elias’ booming voice echoed around the space.

“Sylvie, where are you?”

Lazuli reached over and squeezed Sylvie’s arm, making her jump. “I cloaked our voices, but it’s gone now. You can call, and he’ll hear.”

The thought of him not being able to hear them for five minutes was terrifying. What if she had tried to kill her?

“I’m here!” The wobble in her voice made her wince as she rose to her feet. Not even a second passed when a hard embrace scooped her off her feet, pitching her eyes into complete darkness again.

“Walk,” he growled at the woman cowering beside them.

“My apologies for the cloaking; we both decided we needed privacy to do our business. Right, Miss Hart?”

Elias carried her in his arms back towards the glow of the fire, his eyes peering down at her.

She made a small affirmative noise in her throat before resting her head against his chest. He must have known she was lying, but he didn’t press her.

“Come and eat,” he spoke low and gruff, placing a soft kiss on Sylvie’s head before lowering her onto a large picnic blanket beside the roaring flames.