Page 62 of Sweetling
“I think…I will stay.”
She watched in astonishment as his broad shoulders sank and a heavy breath rushed out of him. The floorboards beneath them shook, and the house rattled its shutters.
A smile burst onto Molly’s lips, uncontrollable.
Leaning against the butcher block for support, Allarion placed his other hand over his heart. “You do me the greatest honor, Molly. I swear, I shall earn this honor and your trust.”
Her grin widened, making her cheeks ache. Fates, who said things like that? Only him.
Still, though—“But I do have questions. I need a few things answered—for my peace of mind.”
His gray face grew serious, although he didn’t shed that new animation upon hearing her news. Gone was his dour, stiff demeanor, as if he stood waiting for a blow. Instead, although he sat still on his stool, he regarded her with intensity, his brows and mouth moving and twitching as he thought.
Taking a sip of tea, Molly dove in.
“I know you said it’s not your secret to tell, but I need to know as much as you can tell me about why you’re here. And whether I’ll be safe staying with you.”
To his credit, he didn’t guffaw and regale her with manly bravado. He nodded seriously, and when he spoke, his voice was thoughtful.
“As I have spoken of before, the Fae Queen has long outlived her reign. She is a poison in our very blood. I laid down my sword after she slew her kin, as I couldn’t stomach serving someone so cruel and unjust. I’m sorry to say, though, that I did not leave.”
Those purple eyes, sharp as cut gems, turned to look out the kitchen window as he considered his next words.
“I wandered, aimless, for a long while. It seemed my conscience was satisfied with my protest. I did not serve Amaranthe and therefore my honor wasn’t in question.”
“But what could you have done?” she found herself asking. It tugged on her heart to see him so ready to condemn himself.
“Something,” he said. “But that opportunity is in the past. I tell you this, though, to explain that if given the chance, I will oppose Amaranthe and lend my aid in restoring the faelands.”
That hot sip of tea burned in her belly. “So you’re going to leave?”
“Perhaps. But I doubt any time soon. And—” he leaned forward, placing a hand on the butcher block as if he would reach for her “—I would have every intention of returning. You are here, so this is my home.”
Her grip on her mug tightened, but she made herself breathe through the weight of his admission.
“When will you go?”
“I don’t know. What that path looks like and how long it wends, I cannot say. I just know that, someday, Amaranthe will meet her end, and I intend to see it with my own eyes. I tell you this to be honest. It isn’t something I foresee happening for a while yet, and Iwill do everything in my power to ensure it doesn’t affect you. The Fae Queen has a long reach, it is true, but so deep into human lands, we are safe here.”
Molly nodded cautiously. “All right. That’s good to hear.”
“Your staying here also strengthens the estate and makes it that much safer.”
“What do you mean?”
He’d made comments or mentioned something like this before, but Molly needed to know, in clear language, what this meant—and what it would require from her.
She listened with no small amount of amazement as he explained how magic flowed through the fae, how its raw power was so great that they needed a community of them, working as a sort of circuit or cycle, to handle the magic. The faelands was so ancient and so imbued with their magic now that young fae knew how to do it intrinsically from birth, like breathing or blinking.
Away from the faelands, though, Allarion needed his own smaller circuit. Between him, Bellarand, and the estate, he was creating such a little community. He imbued his magic into the land, and over time, it was knitting with the magic of Eirea.
“Just like every land has creatures that are native to it, the weave of magic changes across landscapes,” he explained.
To create the circuit he needed to sustain himself and the estate, having a human mate would tie him to the land that much quicker and more wholly. What might have taken a year or more could now possibly take months.
“So,Iwould become part of your circuit?”
“Yes, the most important part,” he said gently. “It would imbue you as surely as it has the house and the land. I suspect it already has, given that you can hear Bellarand.”
