Page 42 of Beyond the Faerie Gate

Rhoswyn

It’s only an hour later, as I’m munching my way through a bush full of sickly sweet yellow berries, that I remember I can glamour myself.

I might be naked, but no one else has to know.

Stuffing the remainder of the fruit into my mouth, I look down at my body and try to remember what my clothes looked like before. The image takes a while to solidify, but when it does, I want to cry in relief. The image is fixed, and the fabric doesn’t seem to hang right, but it’s something. As a final touch, I remember what Jaro told me about my eyes and change them too.

“You know, now might be a good time for your first flying lesson,” Maeve muses.

She’s balanced in the upper branches of a tree, supposedly keeping a lookout for danger, but she keeps getting distracted and fiddling with one of the knives on her belt.

“Doesn’t that seem a little advanced?” I squeak.

“Fae babies do it at birth,” she scoffs. “Come on, just do it.”

“That is the least helpful thing I’ve ever heard. ‘Just do it’? No explanation? No nothing?”

Titania strokes a soothing hand across my shoulder. “It’s instinctive. You have three pairs of muscles on your back that control your wings, try flexing them.”

All of them stare at me expectantly.

They’re not going to let this go until I try, I realise. Shaking my head, I scrunch my brows together as I try to focus.

“Pfft, she looks constipated.”

Goddess, sometimes I really wish Maeve wasn’t so… Maeve.

Did my back just twitch?

“Well, they’re moving,” Titania comments.

“Try harder,” Maeve calls. “Just imagine your yummy shifter is up here with me, and naked.”

My cheeks go pink, and I lose all concentration. The image of Jaro’s manhood flashes behind my eyelids, and I cough in surprise.

“That’s inappropriate,” I splutter. “He’s a knight, he’s probably married—mated—or whatever it is fae do!”

Maeve snorts, then breaks down laughing. Her whole body shakes from the force of it until she falls off of her branch, floating to the ground slowly, still laughing, as if gravity doesn’t affect her.

“What?” I demand. “He’s a good man—male—whatever. He’s kind. Protective. Of course, he’s—”

“Rhoswyn,” Mab cuts me off. “None of your Guard are mated. They’re yours.”

I stare at her as Maeve cackles some more. “Mine?”

“They’re your mates.”

“All five—”

“Yes, all of them.”

How does that work?

My whole mind seems to freeze up as I consider it and draw a blank. I have no reference for a relationship with so many people involved. Sure, Jaro and Drystan seem to get along well enough…

For a heavy moment, I just blink at Maeve. “Why did no one mention this before?!”

“Personally, I was hoping they’d explain it in a really romantic way, or you’d realise for yourself,” Titania mutters. “But I admit, I’ve been getting impatient for you to figure it out. Haven’t you felt the buzz when you touch them?”

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