Page 70 of The Fae Menagerie
"Is this the coin," I asked, "or do you really care if I live or die?"
"I care," Doyle whispered. "I care so much." He kissed my neck and leveraged me higher against his chest, so another inch of freezing cold skin was exposed to the warmer air. My teeth rattled together of their own accord.
I'd known I was going to die in this enclosure, but I'd never pictured it at the ripe old age of thirty, of hypothermia, in an enclosure-turned-swimming-pool.
Chapter
Twenty-Six
DOYLE
I feltlike I'd been swimming for days, though it had only been a couple of hours. My legs ached. My back ached from propping Parker on my chest. My ankles and knees hurt from the repetitive motion. For the first time in my life, I felt my advanced age, and I didn't like it.
I continued rubbing Parker's core, occasionally letting my hands roam up and down his arms or dip beneath the water to caress his thighs. His skin felt like ice against mine, but I kept going. Yes, I felt the tug of the coin to continue, but it was more than that.
If I stopped, Parker would die, and I couldn't live with myself if that happened. He was my fated mate. I wanted everything that offered, including the bond where we would always know each other's location and emotions. I wanted to feel his highest joys and comfort him during his deepest sorrows.
I also wanted us to have the genuine bond of fate, where his lifespan would match mine. No longer would I worry he could freeze to death before my eyes, while I would live on for millennia with only my memories.
"You can't die, Parker."
"Who says I want to?" As much as I missed his sharp wit, I settled for his sass, as slow and labored as his speech was.
"That's it," I said. "Get angry. Rally your heart to pump faster, so you don't freeze to death in a few feet of water."
"Shoulda kept my clothes on." Despite his effort, the words were still slurred and difficult to understand.
"I don't know why you took them off," I chided.
"Thought I could float," he mumbled.
I'm not saying it was me who burned an entire gaggle of Catholic priests for trying to drown me in an Irish lake, but … it might have been me. I'd bragged about it to my grandmother, even. Told her how proud I was to have created this rumor that witches could float. She'd remembered that tale, and all the dead humans who couldn't escape. She didn't even have to tie him to a rock.
I hugged him to my chest and kissed his cheek. "I'm so sorry, Parker. This is all my fault."
"'S not," he said. "Your grandma did this."
True, but this was also on me. My whole life, I'd been a playboy, not caring about others' feelings because I couldn't express my own. How was I supposed to believe in fate when I fell for every sexy man or beast who came along? If I had even one healthy relationship before I'd tried to seduce Prince Drummond on a whim, I could have spared my fated mate the menagerie. I would have been free to walk out of that fairy circle in the basement of his father's building and we could have lived happily ever after.
Or he would have taken one look at me, decided I was an overused playboy, and walked away, fated or not. That's how we'd spent the first few months of his stay. And I wasn't the type to push. No meant no, so I would have moved on … and we would have parted ways forever. I would have spent the rest of my eternity without my fated mate.
I squeezed him a little tighter around the chest, and he grunted. "It's hard enough to breathe without you crushing me."
I kissed from his cheek to the edge of his jaw and then down his neck. He squirmed when I got to the sensitive skin behind his ear, but then he slumped in my arms.
"Parker?"
No response.
"Parker!"
"'S so cold."
"I know it's cold, but you need to stay with me."
We had several feet to go before we reached the top of the wall. I did my best to buoy him in the water, but it was time for a new approach. I kicked my feet up between his and spread my wings. I lay as flat on the surface of the water as I could.
"Fuck, that's cold," he said. His teeth started chattering again. I took it as a good sign. His body was trying to warm up.
