Lee wove her fingers through her sister’s. “How can you not see yourself? How powerful you are, how beautiful and intelligent? I may be more powerful as a witch, but what you know about magic, about history and the arcane arts, is beyond anyone I know. You’re one of the world’s foremost magical scholars and you’re twenty-five years old. People come to you from far and wide to seek your knowledge, your expertise.
“More than that, you’re the most intuitive person I’ve ever met. It’s more than just being a feeler, Em. More than being empathic, you’re a lot like a seeress. It’s amazing and it never ceases to blow me away.”
Lee looked lovingly at her sister’s gamine features. The big green eyes, the tousled onyx hair, the regal cheekbones. “Beauty-wise, how can you not feel how men see you? Don’t tell me that you are never desired because that’s plain impossible.”
“Yes, men look at my body and feel desire. At the same time, I’m too tall for many of them, or worse, they see you and wonder why I can’t be more like you. Why I’m not a petite little doll with delicate features.” Em shrugged. “But I don’t feel so miserable anymore. I believed in myself, Lee. I believed that Con wouldn’t leave me and he didn’t. I took a leap of faith, the biggest in my life and after everything, I believed in myself and I won.
“Each day I woke up and he hadn’t returned but I kept faith. Faith in myself and faith in him. The days passed into weeks and then months. You all kept telling me that he’d abandoned me and I admit that it got harder to keep believing. Sometimes I had to give up for a while, turn off thinking because I couldn’t bear to let go of my belief in Con but I also had a hard time reconciling reality with what I knew to be true. I couldn’t afford to let myself doubt.
“But today before he showed up, I was drinking a cup of tea and I realized that even if he had abandoned me that I’d be okay. That my heart would be broken and a part of me would be missing but that I would get past it someday.
“I found myself because of him. No, not like I needed a man to make my life as a woman worthwhile or anything. But by letting myself take a leap of faith, believing in myself either way, I shook off that shadow.”
Lee leaned in and kissed her sister’s cheek. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe that he was coming back. I swear to you that it wasn’t because I didn’t think you were worthy of being loved by Con. I thought he wasn’t worthy of you. I thought you’d been taken in by him. I’m sorry I took away your will. I thought I was doing what was best for you. I love you, Emmy.”
Em hugged her tightly. “I know. I never doubted that. Yes, I was angry and hurt, but I always knew that everything you all did was from love.”
“I saw the way he looks at you. He loves you, Em. He adores you. I’m glad you found that. That depth of love from the person your heart is meant to love, it’s the best thing that ever happened to me and now you have it too.”
“And I’ll have a long lifespan too. I’ll miss everyone but at least you’ll still be around.”
Lee nodded. “Not for ten thousand years but for a good long time. Most of the time, I try not to think about losing everyone. I must admit that I feel better knowing you’ll be with me.”
Con came into the room. “Mo fiach, you must be tired. Shall we go?”
“You need the sleep. You’ll come back soon?” Lee asked as she hugged her sister.
“Yes. But it could be months. Remember that the time moves differently there. I may be gone for longer than you expect but know that I’ll be back. I’ll always be back. We have our house to come back to. You all to come back to. And Maman will kill me if we don’t let her plan a wedding of some sort soon.” She looked at her sister standing there with Alex and Aidan. “I love you.”
They all hugged her. “We love you, too. Con, take care of her or I’ll have to kick your ass,” Alex said.
Con nodded and they shimmered home.
* * * * *
Once they were back at their new house, Con stared down at her, fury on his face. “Why did you not tell me about the hospital? You were so thin they thought you needed to be put on a feeding tube! You are not allowed to put your health in danger like that, Em. I forbid it!”
“What good would it have done to have told you about all sorts of might-have-beens? You weren’t here, Con! When you came back, it wasn’t your fault you were gone so long and if I’d told you it only would have hurt you. I didn’t want to make you feel any worse. Anyway, I have been eating!”
He tipped her chin up with a finger and kissed her softly. “Is tusa mo shaol, you are my world, don’t you know that? Do you know what it felt like to hear about how truly precarious your health was from your mother and brother? Yes, it would have made me feel worse but it made me feel pretty bad to have heard it from someone other than you.”
“I’m sorry.”
They walked upstairs to the master suite and he slowly peeled her clothes off. He tucked her in the large bed and got in beside her.
“Eat,” he said, and he created a tray of fruit and cheese that he shoved at her. “And then tell me about it. All of it and don’t apologize.”
She shrugged and looked at him as she ate. “I wouldn’t accept that you weren’t coming back. I was angry at them for not letting me go back to London. It got…bad. I wasn’t speaking to them, but they’re my main emotional support. I just sort of pulled into myself. I lost the weight and they got so very worried about me and threatened to hospitalize me on the advice of our doctor if I didn’t get my act together. I finally agreed to eat and get back on track but only if they let me leave and come back to my apartment.”
He kissed her gently. “I am sorry for these last three months, sorry that you nearly lost yourself because of me.”
“Don’t you see, Con? I found myself because of you. I made it through and I know that I can. Today I stood up to my family in a way I never would have before, Niall was right about that. I stood up for myself and made them hear me. Things will be better now that I’ve said things that needed to be said to them.”
“Oh, my sweet Em,” he whispered as he fed her a strawberry and lapped up the juice that rimmed her lips.
Chapter Eleven
Em woke to the sound of the ocean and the smell of flowers. She slowly opened her eyes and started. She sat up and looked around the room she was in. She lay on a large bed facing a wall, or rather a large opening leading to the sea. But it was like no sea she’d ever seen—the water was a brilliant teal blue and glittered like a gemstone. The sand was a pale blond-white and looked smooth and soft. It certainly wasn’t Louisiana.
She looked around but Con wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Getting up, she padded naked across the cool, tiled floor and into the next room where she heard movement and smelled coffee. Smiling, she saw Con leaning against a wall, one foot crossed over the other, drinking from a mug. He looked beautiful and relaxed. He was wearing soft gray pants with a drawstring waist and a shirt that he hadn’t bothered to button. She wanted to gobble him up.
Smiling, she walked toward him and put her arms around his neck. “Morning. Mind telling me where the heck we are?”
He looked startled and spun her quickly, putting her back against the wall where he’d been leaning, his body shielding hers. “Jaysus, Em!” He pulled off his shirt and put it onto her body while she protested and squirmed.
“What?”
“You must be Em. Con has told me all about you. Well, clearly not all.”
Face burning with embarrassment, she peeked around Con’s body to see a tall man with flame red hair and the same braids that Con wore at the temples standing there with a devilish smile on his face.
She smacked Con on the arm in embarrassment. “Hello! It would be nice to know what the hell is going on here.”
“You’re the one who is naked in front of company,” he said, trying not to smile.
“Where the heck are we?”
“Welcome to Tir na nOg, Em. This is our home and the man behind me—who will be missing so
me teeth if he doesn’t stop trying to see your body—is, or rather used to be, my best friend Jayce MacTavish.”
“It would have been nice for you to have told me you were going to blink us here so I wouldn’t walk out naked in front of guests,” she hissed and without being able to help herself, kissed his bare chest, over his heart.
“I wanted you to wake up smelling the sea and the flowers, I wanted you to know why Tir na nOg is so special,” he said softly, kissing the top of her head, breathing her in.
She softened. “You’re damned good, MacNessa. I’ll bet that line got you loads of ass over the millennia.”
Jayce threw back his head and laughed and she ducked her head around Con again. “It’s nice to meet you, sorry to flash you. I’ll be out in a few minutes,” she called and scampered into the bedroom, which unlike the open wall that faced the sea had an actual door.
She puttered around, finding her clothes in a large closet. Well, she supposed they were hers. Con had clearly been up to his magical shopping spree again because the clothes hanging up were all new. She could see Con’s stamp all over them, especially when she opened the drawers of the built-in dressers and saw all the sexy underthings.
She took a long shower in his gargantuan shower enclosure that was open to the sky and got dressed in a simple blouse and soft, silky skirt that came to mid-thigh.
“Much better,” she said as she came out into the living area and handed Con his shirt back.
“For you maybe. I much preferred what you weren’t wearing before,” Jayce joked and she laughed too while Con scowled.
“Don’t you have somewhere to be, Jayce?”
“The whole place is all atwitter over the human who stole your heart. I’m surprised that I’m the only guest this morning.”
Jayce had warned Con that there were a few people, mainly females, who were mightily unhappy about his plans to join with a human woman. Mainly though, people were just curious about the whole thing. A slightly troubling development was that the contingent of Dark Fae were agitated that a human was being brought into their ranks. The Dark ones hated humans and the main reason they’d been on the outs with the rest of the Fae in the last four thousand years was because the Fae felt it was their duty to protect and interfere as little as possible with humanity. But the Dark Fae thought that humans were there for the enslavement and amusement of the Fae because they were an advanced race.
“Are people upset?” Em asked, alarmed.
Con put his arm around her and handed her a cup. She sniffed it. “Coffee? You drink coffee in faerieland?”
Jayce laughed again.
“You can drink whatever you want to here. And don’t let anyone else hear you call it that until they get to know you,” Con said, pushing her to sit at the table and putting a plate filled with food before her. “Now eat, you’re too skinny.”
“Words every girl wants to hear,” she said and began to eat, watching Con and Jayce. “And I’m human but not an idiot. I’m not going to go and alienate people.”
“How do you know you didn’t alienate Jayce?” Con asked smugly.
She sighed. “Conchobar MacNessa, have you forgotten what I am? I’m a feeler, I detected quite a few things from Jayce.” She winked at him and he chuckled. “None of them was anger or alienation.”
Con gave his friend a dirty look and then looked back to Em. “I thought you couldn’t feel Fae?”
“I can’t feel you. Apparently it sometimes it works that way with empaths and people they’re very close to. My grandmere told me that most of us have ended up with partners that we’ve been unable to read. It was another reason I believed you were coming back. Sometimes it’s because of the other person’s power level—I can’t read Lee—and other times it’s due to familial ties, which is also part of why I can’t read Lee. I can read Jayce loud and clear,” she said and hastily added, “but, Jayce, I do turn it down as far as I can when I’m with friends and out in public. I don’t snoop. It just comes from people.”
He put his hand on hers and smiled. “I’m not worried, Em. I thank you, though, for your reassurance.”
“Get your paws off my wife,” Con growled and Jayce laughed again.
“So what do you do, Jayce?”
“I’m one of the Queen’s Favored, as Con is.”
Con had explained that the Queen’s Favored was a council of advisors and warriors, sort of like a presidential cabinet. Con sat at Aine’s right hand, her most trusted advisor and councilor.
“When do we meet her, Con?” Em asked as she looked him over. Damn if he wasn’t the sexiest thing she’d ever seen.
“As soon as you eat, a ghra. We’ll go and wait for an audience. She’ll administer the spell and you’ll be one of us. Then we’ll go and see my family.”
She must have shown her distress because he picked her hand up and kissed it. “They’ll love you, least of all because I love you. But they are all going to see what a special woman you are right away.”
She turned to Jayce. “But not everyone is going to love me, isn’t that true?”
“Damn, it’s a good thing you love her so much, Con. She sees right through any attempts to get around her. I’ve got to go,” he said, standing up and giving her a small bow. “I will see you at the queen’s chambers. Em, it was a pleasure to meet you and see you naked. If you need any help working with your new powers, please call on me. Con was always bad at controlling the elements.”
She blinked in surprise. “Oh, okay. Nice to meet you too, I’ll see you later.”
He shimmered out of the room before Con could toss a plate at his head.
She turned to him. “I think you’ve got some explaining to do, Con.”
“Well, Aine isn’t just going to make you immortal. You’ll be Fae, with all of the things that come with it. Each of us, much like each Charvez woman, has certain gifts although we all have the same basic powers, sifting between the worlds is one. And…”
“Yeah, that’s all great and I want to hear more about any cool new superpowers and all, but let’s get to the part about not everyone being happy about me.”
Damn, she was good. “There are some Fae who don’t like humans,” he said simply. “My Joining with you will agitate them.”
She arched a brow. “Why would they care?”
He sighed and her eyes narrowed. “I come from kings of old. My mother is forty thousand years old and the daughter of one of the oldest of us all. My grandfather was one of the first Sidhe. He doesn’t get out much, the oldest ones tend to avoid most people. He lives in a place that sits between worlds.”
“So these people won’t like the human marrying their golden boy?”
“Something like that. Other royal families have been trying to get our bloodlines mixed with theirs for a very long time. Finn, my brother, married a woman who is in Faerie culture considered a commoner. My mother was not pleased, although she and Magda get along quite well now.”
“Oh, so she’s got to be all kinds of pleased that you’re bringing home a human commoner, huh?”
“She gave me her blessing once she looked into my heart and saw you there.” He took her hand and put it over his heart. “She truly did. Finn and Magda as well. All of the people who truly count to me are happy for us. We can deal with the others. I just want you to be on your guard. I wish you couldn’t feel them all—you’re bound to feel a lot of hostility and I don’t want that for you.” He decided not to mention that he’d had Jayce put protective spells on her clothing as well as providing an extra set of protective eyes at the Court. While Em was human, she was incredibly vulnerable to any Fae who wished to harm her. The sooner Aine changed her the better because she’d be a lot safer. It was very difficult for him to expose her to the Court at all, thoughts of failing his father came back to haunt him. He forced himself to stop thinking about it. He’d not make the mistake of turning his attention from her for a moment.
She softened, her anger at him for neglecting to tell her t
hat he was some kind of Faerie Kennedy had passed when she saw the concern in his face.
Sighing, she leaned into him. “It’s okay, I’ve got you. We’ll deal with the rest.”
They ate and got dressed and just before he shimmered them to the queen’s audience he turned to her. “Em, I hesitate to mention this but because you can feel us, there are…”
“Your former lovers will be pissed off too and present in this audience with the queen?” she finished for him, eyebrow raised.
He nodded. “I love you, but there are lots of women in my past, Em. I can’t change that. I don’t want you to feel hurt about that, what’s past is past. You’re my present and my eternity.”
She took a deep breath. “I know. I may not have totally understood that before but I do now.”
He squeezed her hand and shimmered them into Aine’s audience chambers.
* * * * *
Em blinked at the brilliance of the room. Not just of the physical space—the high arches, the gleaming marble and trickle of water from fountains, the plush couches and chairs, and the drapes that looked like they had spun gold thread in them—but the people too.
The men were all large and gorgeous like Con, although not a single one could come close to how sexy Con was. The women were beautiful, their voices musical and sexy. The sound stroked over her, into her ears like a seductive caress. It was almost hypnotic. She swallowed down her feelings of inadequacy and tapped into the courage she’d found within herself. Con brought her hand to his lips and looked into her eyes. “I love you, Em,” he said with a wicked grin and she smiled back, unable not to.
She opened herself up a bit as she looked around the room and felt a wide array of things—anger, fear, jealousy, resentment, curiosity, sexual attraction—both toward herself and Con. There were definitely some friendly people in the room. She felt warmth and openness and that made her relax through the feelings of definite dislike and jealousy. There was something darker there but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.