Page 131 of A Dance with the Fae Prince (Married to Magic 2)
Yet as he moves over me, he makes me feel…magical. Even though my back is against the bed, I feel as if I am soaring. Our bodies move together in a dance that only we know—that we invented. Our delighted sighs, gasps, and moans sing a chorus made for only our ears.
We put aside everything else and focus only on each other, once, twice, three times, until we are left sweaty and satiated in a breathless tangle of ecstasy. I run my fingers down his chest, tracing the curves of the muscle. He catches my hand and brings it to his lips, kissing my fingertips lovingly.
“I wish I could stay in this bed forever,” he murmurs.
“You have a whole kingdom to run.”
“A kingdom that isn’t mine,” he says sadly.
“If there is an heir more true out there, how could the Boltovs not find them?” I ignore what Boltov told me before he died. “Maybe that heir doesn’t want to be found. Maybe they don’t want the responsibility. Or maybe they have no idea who they are.”
“It is not about what we want, it is about our duty to our people. Only the true heir can wear the crown and control all the parts of the great Aviness power.”
I give him a tired smile. “Do what you must, but know that my confidence is with you and you alone.”
“And your confidence is the only thing that matters to me.” He kisses my fingertips again and pauses, refusing to meet my eyes. “Tell me, Katria, how do you feel?”
“Tired, but I think that’s unsurprising.”
“The magic is out of you now. We’ll have to return you to your world before you wither away to nothing.”
I knew this was coming, but hearing him say it makes it no easier. “The world is cruel.”
“I will still come and visit you whenever I am able, I swear it.”
For a brief moment, I indulge in that fantasy. I think of summers in the forest clearing when I sit on the stump and play my lute for him. I imagine winters huddled by the fire, planning what we will plant in the garden next spring. I think of him coming to me in that manor, as though he lived up the road and we were torn apart by a minor inconvenience—like him needing to live closer to town for his work—rather than the reality of us existing in different worlds.
“I would like that, but you must also act as the king of the fae for however long you are. And that might mean you need to take a strategic wife.”
“If I am the king of the fae I will do what I want,” he insists. I resist pointing out how much his tune has changed on the matter and keep the thought as a personal delight. “Or, perhaps I will find the true heir soon. And when they are established on the throne, I will come and live with you in the Natural World forevermore.”
It is a lovely fantasy. But I know better. This love, however meaningful it was, was not meant to last.
There is a knock on the door followed by Oren saying, “My lord—I mean, Your Majesty—fae have begun to arrive claiming they are heirs to the Aviness line and are demanding to try on the crown. How would you like us to proceed?”
Davien heaves a mighty sigh. “I thought I would have more time.”
“Duty calls,” I needlessly remind him with a coy smile.
“I will return as soon as I am able, my love.” He kisses both of my hands and then shouts to the door, “I’ll be there in just a moment.”
Davien stands and begins to dress. With every article of clothing that covers his pristine flesh, my chest grows tighter and tighter. I wonder if this is the last time I will touch him, will kiss him. I’m so lost in my own thoughts that his hand is on the door handle when I blurt, “I love you.”
“What?” Davien blinks at me several times over.
I sit up, clutching the blankets to my chest, although modesty seems like such a foolish notion between us now. “I love you, Davien,” I repeat, enunciating each word. I had hoped to say it at a more meaningful moment. But our time is fleeting, and every second that passes without my saying it is a tragedy.
“I thought you swore you would never fall in love?”
“A wise man taught me that I didn’t know what love was when I made that promise,” I say coyly. “And besides, I think that when I made that promise to myself, I was thinking about human men… You’re not in that category. So I’m not breaking any of my old rules.”
He grins and is back at the bed in an instant, cradling my face with both hands, and bringing his lips to mine again and again. “And I love you; I will always love you.”
We breathe in tandem, relishing in the swell of emotions that those three words can bring. But all too soon, he releases me. Davien gives me a smile. There’s a spark of yearning to his eyes, like he wants to stay. Yet he leaves…and I know this will be my life for the rest of my days.
I will yearn for a man I can never have. A man who will always walk out of the room, and out of my life, to a world that I’m not a part of. And I will live alone, in an empty manor, with the knowledge of a world that no other human has or would believe.
Part of me is grateful, even still, to know this love, this completeness.
And the other part of me is slowly withering for a reason completely unrelated to magic…already crushed by the incomprehensible loneliness that awaits me.
