Page 6 of The Rebel Seer

“Oh, he’s getting antsy,” Josie says, crossing one leg over the other as though settling in for the show. “His magic pours off him when he’s anxious. It’s green and blue and yellow. So pretty.”

I know I should think about her words, but I’m caught on his. It’s my turn to stare at him. “I’m not going to Faery? You want to go without me?”

We’ve been preparing for the trip for days. Ever since the queen realized it might be her only chance to find her friend Sarah Day, and Sarah’s husband and daughter. Sarah is a powerful witch, so powerful she managed to evade Myrddin’s slaughter and take her family off plane. She also apparently left a way for the queen to find her. Except the queen blew up the Council House and that doorway with it. So Faery it is.

I’m supposed to go, but it seems Rhys changed his mind. Likely because I didn’t sleep with him yet and he knows the pleasures that await him in Faery.

The idea makes me ache despite the nagging voice in my head that says he’s right and I should think about taking a break from him. Time moves differently on the Faery planes, and he’ll be gone far longer in Earth plane time than he’ll experience. If it takes them three weeks to complete the mission, at least three months will have passed here. By the time he returns we’ll have moved from Frelsi to our summertime home in New Zealand. We call it chasing the night. During the winter we’re here in Iceland, and then when the days grow longer, we move so the vampires among us have more time awake.

He frowns my way, and I swear the grass is growing beneath my feet. I can feel it tickling my ankles. “No. I meant I won’t go. Shahidi, I’ve told you before. You are my goddess. I knew it the moment I saw you, and I’m willing to wait until you’re ready. Unless you’re ready to tell me once and for all you don’t want me.”

“Oh, this is down bad stuff. What are you doing to this man, Shy?” Josie asks.

I ignore her. Don’t want him? I dream about Rhys at night. He’s in my good dreams. He’s in my bad dreams. He’s in all of them because somehow Rhys has become the touchstone of my life, and I can’t imagine it without him. I thought we might have a shot, but then he ascended in a way no one could have expected. He must marry someone of royal blood. Or someone Fae, who can unite the rebels with the Seelie and the Unseelie and help win this war.

I knew the moment the King of All Vampire returned my time with Rhys would be limited.

“Is that what you’re saying, Shy?” Rhys asks the question in a quiet tone but the grass is halfway up my calves, and I see his hand tremble. “Are you saying you don’t want me?”

“Uh, Shy,” Josie begins, “those pretty colors are taking on a dark edge.”

Control. Since his ascension he’s always on the edge of losing control. His magic is starting to go wild, and that can be dangerous for all of us.

“Son, what’s happening?”

“Papa’s here so we know it must be bad,” Josie announces. “Damn, that man is fine.”

I turn slightly and see Devinshea Quinn standing at the edge of the garden. He looks so much like his son they could be brothers, but then His Grace is locked in his youth by the blood he shares with his partner, Daniel. He looks worried, and he frowns as he stares out over the garden. Which is blooming like mad weeks before it should. Rhys planned to come through and do this in a controlled way so we would have a harvest before changing camps. Those planned “grows,” as we call them, are focused. This unintentional one goes wild, and I can see clearly the grass and weeds aren’t limited to this one place. They are everywhere.

Rhys takes a long breath, and his fists clench and unclench. “Nothing. We’re fine. We’ve just changed our minds about going to Faery.”

“Rhys, you have to go,” his father says in an even tone. He stands there perfectly paternal, like Rhys is still a child in his mind. Which he likely is since it was only days ago for His Grace that Rhys was eleven. “I know they haven’t treated you with the respect they should have. We’ll deal with it.”

Rhys’s jawline tightens. “I don’t care about the Fae. I’m not going because Shy wants to stay here. Unless she tells me she doesn’t want me, I will stay with my goddess. I will not leave her unprotected and alone.”

The blueberry bush to my left kind of explodes, and I hear His Grace curse under his breath. I can’t see Rhys’s magic the way Josie claims she can, but I can feel it, and it’s got a desperate edge to it.

“Rhys, I need you to be reasonable.” His father takes a cautious step forward. “You’re emotional right now, and we both know why. But you’re spilling magic out like a waterfall.”

“And here’s Dad. This family, I cannot tell you how much I enjoy them. They are the best TV show ever,” Josie says as the vampire flies in. “But you need to handle this, Shy, because while I enjoy watching those two, I don’t want to see them die because that wizard person tracks you down through faery magic. I can see it spreading all over. I hope the goats are hungry because…that’s a lot of grass.”

There’s a slight shake to the ground and the King of All Vampire lands beside his partner. Daniel and Dev might share their wife, but they share each other, too. Donovan is a strongly built man with sandy blond hair, blue eyes, and dimples when he smiles. Those dimples look sweet, but he is the ultimate predator in our world. “Rhys, the witches are worried. Myrddin has spies in the country, and they’re looking for Fae magic.”

I can see Rhys trying. He’s trying so hard to control himself, but he can’t control his magic the way he should. The way a Green Man would.

And I’m the reason.

He’s a Green Man. A twenty-three-year-old Green Man. As a class of beings go, they tend to rank high on the promiscuous scale. He’s an actual sex god.

A virgin sex god. Because he thinks I’m his goddess and has refused to take a lover despite them all being paraded in front of him whenever his uncle Declan manages to get some time with him.

His father was shocked at the state of his sexual purity and horrified at what it might mean now that he has all the power of a season at his fingertips.

I move into his space since that distance between us is absolutely contributing to his control issues. I put both hands on his cheeks and look into those glorious green eyes of his. Right now there’s a light in them that’s almost wild. I can’t stand the thought of him losing the control he’s fought so hard to gain. Like me, he was left to fend for himself when it came to his powers. Oh, he had parental figures, but the one who could truly understand his power was taken from him. “I would never say that, Rhys. I’m nervous about going. I’m nervous I’ll cause trouble for you, but if you want me to go, I’ll go.”

“Trouble? You won’t cause trouble.” A root breaks through the surface of the earth, popping up like a sea creature rising. “If they do, I swear…”

“Shy, he might need more than words. He’s on edge and has been for days.” Dev starts to move toward us, but the king stops him.

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