Sarah
Sydney pulls a large book from a shelf in the massive, stately library. I leap back, muffling a shocked yelp with my hands covering my mouth as a trap door swings open, revealing a spiral staircase.
“Come on,” he says jovially, excitement blooming behind his eyes.
“Where are you taking me?” I let him take my hand and tug me into the cramped secret stairwell. He pulls a lever on the wall, and the door swings shut again in near silence.
“My mom had this built for my dad when I was nine, for their wedding anniversary. It took nearly a decade to complete.”
I follow him up the stairs. Up so high, my thighs are burning and my breath comes in rapid puffs. “Is this one of the towers?”
“It is,” he says like this is nothing but a walk in the park. At the top of the stairs, he pushes open an old, wooden door, something I’m sure is original to the castle, and we’re met by total darkness.
I follow his echoing footsteps, but I can’t see a damn thing in here. “Sydney?”
A loud cranking sound like gears whirling breaks through the dark silence. I stand totally still as the ceiling splits, and the clear night sky appears overhead, stars shimmering and the moon at half power, still rising.
My mouth pops open. “What is this?” I whisper.
The glint of brass catches my eye as moonlight spills over the room.
A knot forms in my stomach, though.
“What do you think?” Sydney says as he reappears, motioning to the tangle of metal sprawled out before me.
A large, rounded table sits in the very center of the room. On its surface, the planets of our solar system slowly dance around our moon. I step toward it, gazing down at the stars etched onto the surface of the table.
“Sydney, why didn’t you tell me your family had something like this?”
“Can you use it?”
Can he not hear the voices? That strange song that seems to start in the darkest of shadows and bleed into the moonlight? Words sung in an ancient, terrifying song?
“I use it to connect with Kenna,” he says, shrugging. “She has one in Veiled Valley that’s modeled after this one, as well as the larger orrery used by the mystics in Moonrise.” He swallows, watching me closely. “I know you’re not familiar with your powers and didn’t have any training when it comes to the art of being a mystic, but… I can read the stars this way. They tell me nothing of substance because I don’t know what it means, but I’m willing to learn. With you.”
“Are you sure you want to?”
“I think you need to know who you are.”
My mate steps toward me, moonlight reflecting in his eyes.
“What if I don’t want to know?”
He stops with only a few feet of distance between us. “Sarah–”
“I don’t care about what I am or why I was given these powers.” Tears start to prickle along my lashes, hot and stinging. “I buried that part of me a decade ago on that island. I walked away from it. My feelings haven’t changed.”
“You’re powerful–”
“I don’t want it. I want this. I want a family who loves me. I want to wake up next to you every morning. I don’t want to know that something in the universe is calling out to me, trying to lure me into a greater purpose. I don’t want that. I just want you.”
He takes a breath and looks momentarily hurt. “I didn’t–I’m sorry, I should have asked before I brought you here.”
I step toward him and take his hands, knitting our fingers together. “I want to be normal. I want to be Sarah. Sarah doesn’t read the stars and weave prophecies together. Sarah is a mate, a mother, and someone who is capable of living without feeling like she has to look over her shoulder all the time. Let me be that–”
He kisses me tenderly, smoothing my tears away with his thumbs. “I’m sorry. I know. You don’t have to worry about any of this anymore. I can carry it for you.”
“I don’t want you to have to do that–”
“We’re close to finding Gabriel, and soon, this will all be over, and we can move on. I promise.”
Another kiss has my knees growing weak. I just want to be in bed with him. That’s all I’ve been thinking about all night.
He pulls a lever, and the moonlight fades away, casting the orrery in darkness that drowns out the voices whispering throughout the room. I don’t think he heard them at all, but I did.
They echo through my mind as he leads me through the quiet castle, through the dim corridors and shadowed alcoves, until we reach a wing of the castle unfamiliar to me.
He opens the door and slips me inside. The only sound I hear is my rapid heartbeat as his arms come around me again, and he lifts me up. I wrap my legs around his waist while he carries me to bed.
He drops me onto a firm mattress less than half the size of his bed back at the manner. I squeak in surprise, nearly rolling off the edge. “Sydney!”
“Hold on,” he laughs, grabbing my leg to hold me steady. He crawls over me and reaches for the lamp on the bedside table. The warm glow illuminates the room. I crane my neck to look over his shoulder at the posters on the navy-blue walls. A stately dresser that could be several decades old is the finest piece of furniture in the room. Everything else is… boyish. Trophies, posters, and old school books scatter the room.
I sit up a bit, forcing Sydney back.
“I’m sure we can find a guest room, but my feet carried me here on impulse. It’s been several years since I spent the night at the castle, and Dad mentioned this room was ready.” He shrugs, sitting back on his legs.
I scan the room, taking in the pictures on a bookshelf situated between two of the ceiling height windows.
Sydney, as a young boy, standing in the middle of a gaggle of kids roughly his age on a beach. Ryan is easy to spot with his chestnut brown hair and ruddy cheeks, his eyes the same shade of blue as Sydney’s. Kenna is also in the picture, missing her two front teeth, her dark hair braided away from her face. She has her arms wrapped around a young Evander’s neck as she rides on his back, and Evander, tanned from the sun with his coppery blond hair gleaming in the sun, is wearing the same scowl I’ve often seen on his face as an adult.
Misty, no more than five, fights her way into the picture, pinching Ryan on the hip.
“You all had each other,” I whisper, my heart lurching. Kenna and Evander are the most striking of the group. They loved each other then. It’s obvious. A childlike, innocent kind of love that blossomed into matehood, but still….
I don’t have a single picture of me as a child.
More pictures, more memories. Sydney as a teenager holding a trophy after a ‘Wolfball’ tournament. Sydney and Ryan standing in front of the gates to Silverhide, which looks like nothing more than a densely wooded, massive acreage of land. Sydney and Kenna at her graduation from whatever constitutes a high school graduation to royalty.
I blink back tears and turn to Sydney, who's watching me closely as I take in the little pieces of his life.
He caresses my cheek, leaning his forehead against mine. “Blake will have this.”
“I know,” I reply, trying to swallow past the painful lump in my throat. “I just don’t know how I’m supposed to feel right now.”
“Are you happy?”
“Yes,” I breathe, choking on the word. “I really am. I’m not–this is just a little overwhelming, I think. You have such a big family.”
“I know.” He pulls me into his chest and lays us down on his twin-sized mattress. We barely fit, but I relax into his warmth as his fingers drift up and down the length of my spine. “It went better than I thought it would.”
“What did you think was going to happen? Everyone throwing their silverware, me being tackled by your dad’s warriors?”
“Something like that,” he laughs, obviously teasing. “I think, in reality, my parents didn’t think I’d find my mate. I was against it, you know. Then you came along, and things just feel… good. They feel right. I feel like I’m exactly where I need to be.”
“Lying with your mate in your childhood bed?”
“It’s not exactly ideal, but I honestly have no idea which room we should move to” he laughs, rolling over to look down at me. He bends down to brush his mouth over the curve of my jaw. The touch sends shimmers of desire rippling down my spine, settling low and spiraling into want I can’t ignore. “I’ve never even kissed anyone in this bed.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“I’m being serious.” He kisses me tenderly, drawing it out. He parts my lips, and I open to him, softly moaning as his tongue sweeps over mine. “I’ve never brought a girl to the castle before.”
He lowers himself on top of me. The bed squeaks painfully, rattling a bit. “We’re going to break the bed,” I gasp as his lips travel down my neck, sucking little bruises down to the bodice of my blouse. “We can’t be too loud. Your whole family is here–”
“They won’t hear anything. The walls are made of stone–”
“Sydney,” I whine as he reaches behind me to loosen the little pearl buttons along my back keeping my blouse in place. He tugs my shirt free, slipping it over my head, and tosses it on the ground.
“I like this bra,” he says with sincere admiration. “I think I’ll keep this one intact.”
I let out my breath as he unclasps my bra and gently takes it off, but his body tightens as my breasts bounce free.
He looks into my eyes for a split second before leaning down to suck one of my nipples between his hot lips.
I cover my traitorous mouth with my hand to muffle a deep moan and cup the back of his head with my other, my eyes nearly rolling back in my head.
“I wish I’d met you earlier,” he says against my skin. “I would have taken you to formals at Wellington and shown you off to everyone.”
“How do you know I would have said yes?”
“You haven’t been able to resist me yet,” he rasps, kissing down my stomach.
I squirm when he starts pulling my slacks down, his kisses tickling my hip bones.
“I went to a public high school, Sydney. You wouldn’t have hung out with someone like me.”
He trails a kiss all the way down my naked thigh and pauses at my knee, his eyes meeting mine in the lamplight. “I would have been drawn to you, no matter what, Sarah. You’re–” He drags his tongue over my thigh, “perfect.”
I lose myself in his heated touch. He hooks his arms under my legs and drags me down to the edge of the bed so my legs are resting over his shoulders, then lowers his head to the apex of my thighs.
One lick, and I’m quaking.
He laps slow, delicious circles around my clit, taking his sweet time as he works me into a drawn-out frenzy. I tangle my fingers in his hair and pull, biting down on my lower lip to keep quiet, humming my pleasure.
He stabs two fingers inside of me, hooking them, dragging them in and out until I tense and come undone around them. Only then does he take off his pants and sink his cock inside of me, groaning with relief.
The bed squeals repeatedly, but Sydney is trying his best to keep quiet. It’s thrilling, honestly, and soon I find myself riding the wave of another exquisite release. He kisses me fully, his tongue dancing with mine as he thrusts into me hard enough the headboard of his rickety old bed claps against the wall.
“I’m going to come,” I bite out, pulling his face down to mine. “Please, Sydney–”
He bites down on my neck and jerks, coming undone at the very same moment I do.
“Sarah, I love you,” he says against my lips.
I wrap my arms around him, holding him close as he spills himself inside of me. Warmth trickles through my body, and somewhere deep down, I feel a little spark.
Something new. Something exciting and driven by our bond.
“I love you too.”
The bed creaks, leans to one side, then Sydney is clutching me to his chest and rolling to the ground as his childhood bed collapses with us still on top.
I yelp in surprise, but Sydney laughs with tears in his eyes.
“We should go find a quest room now,” he says.
I pull him back down for another kiss. That can wait.
I’ve never been more comfortable in my life.