Undying Hope. Emma Weylin
we need to think about magic arranged marriages.” He bent down and brushed his mouth over hers. Her lips were soft like silk. His desire to take this mating further was strong and egged on by the treòir, but he held his power in check. Spooking her or demanding things that would come in time was pointless and counterproductive, even if having her breasts mashed up against his chest was driving him to distraction.
She rested her head against his solid muscle for a moment before she pulled away and retreated to the coffee maker. “What if I had married Mason?”
The treòir twitched. Donovan gritted his teeth as he struggled with its spike of anger. The treòir had less understanding of human interactions and didn’t always know why he couldn’t react in violence toward something that upset him. He leaned back against the L-shaped counter top and studied her for a long moment. “Mason would have been killed, and you’d have been freed to do whatever you want.”
She blanched. “That’s a bit drastic, don’t you think?” She turned and poured coffee into the mugs.
“Being tagged as a meirlock is a death mark. There is no escaping the sentence.” He crossed his arms over his chest. This was where the difficult parts of bonding started. Human women didn’t find understanding Undying law easy. Mason was an Earth Warrior. No prison in any realm would be able to hold him, and once the treòir inside turned down darker paths, there was no bringing it back.
She sucked in a breath. “Bastian!”
Donovan leaned over her and firmly put the mug back on the counter before turning her around to face him. “Bastian is a child. Has he killed anyone in cold blood?”
Her lower lip trembled. “No. He gets into fights sometimes at school. He just got expelled again yesterday because he was trying to protect one of the girls from something stupid one of the other boys said.”
Donovan stooped down until he was right at eye level with her. “He only needs a better way to control his treòir and some guidance on how to handle those situations.”
“You’re sure?” she demanded.
“I am.”
“Coming in, my lord.”
Donovan shook his head when he heard the voice of his Storm Warrior in his head. He refocused on Haven. “I am sure Bastian will be fine. He’s only in need of a little fatherly guidance, and we’re about to have company.”
Her brow furrowed, and then the walls shook as Donovan went to the door that appeared to be nothing more than a closet. When he opened the door, Memphis walked out. “I hate to bother you this early, my lord, but—” Memphis took a step toward Haven and leaned forward as he stared at her for a moment and then took in Donovan’s lack of dress and then back to Haven. “She’s wearing your shirt.”
“Aye,” Donovan said, letting out a long sigh. “It’s not as it appears, and even if it was—”
“Really?” Memphis grabbed Donovan by both of his shoulders and looked into his face. “She’s you’re lifebond?”
“I am,” Haven said.
Memphis let out a whoop and hugged Donovan tight before stepping back and clearing his throat. “Forgive me,” he said more formally to Haven. “I am Memphis Walker. The Cadeyrn’s Storm Warrior.”
“I will explain later,” Donovan said. “Memphis, why are you here?”
“I’ll go bother Sloan. I didn’t realize you were indisposed.” Memphis turned to go back into the wind portal room.
“It’s not public yet,” Donovan said. Memphis was a man on the list to tell right after he talked to his other brother, Wolf. “You wouldn’t be here if the problem wasn’t important.”
“Aye,” Memphis said with a polite bow of his head. “A Caden in Denmark suspects his Cadfael may have done something that requires your judgment. Haldur contacted me.”
“That is serious,” Donovan said. “Haldur’s take?” Memphis didn’t have to say anything. The answer was on his face. “All right. Give me two minutes. Make friends with Haven.”
* * * *
Haven furrowed her brow at the word Cadeyrn, but she didn’t say anything as she watched him leave the room and then turned to give Memphis as friendly a smile as she was capable. The man was huge, not as huge as Quinn, but still huge. Bastian might be on the short side of the Undying height scale, but then, he was only a teenager. She shied back a step. She could feel the power in the man. His was more like Quinn’s, but it was better to be wary of things she didn’t know. “Where is he going?”
“Denmark,” Memphis said, his eyes going to the mugs of steaming coffee on the counter. “He shouldn’t be more than half an hour.”
“Right, because a trip to Scandinavia is like a hop next door.” She turned back to the counter to see if there was sugar anywhere.
“It is when you travel by wind portal.”
She stilled and turned back to him. “That wind thing that opened for Kyros… You do it, too?”
Something akin to rage flashed across Memphis’s face. “You’re not afraid of me, so it wasn’t Lazarus you saw last night. What did you see?”
“I saw a vortex of wind with black and red lightning,” Haven said with a shudder. “The only meirlock I saw was Kyros.”
“And that would have been one of my brother’s portals.” He shook his head, and then his body relaxed before he grinned at her. “I could show you any part of the world you wish while we wait for Cadeyrn to return.”
She didn’t know what Cadeyrn meant. There was that word again, but the meaning for the Undying could be vastly different from what it meant for the Black Rose. “Bastian should be waking up soon and I should be here.”
“Ah, the boy,” Memphis said. “The one who should be here when he wakes would be Maverick.”
“Maverick?”
“Aye. Ean Maverick. He is the resident Earth Caden. He will want a look at the boy and, depending on his age, begin training as soon as possible.”
“Earth Caden?”
Quinn came back into the room. He stopped by Haven and kissed the top of her head before downing an entire cup of hot coffee. “Excellent.”
These men wanted to see if they could make her brain twitch. The man was fully dressed and carried a sword in a scabbard at his hip. A sword! “What are you going to do?”
“Make a judgment for a Caden in Denmark.” Quinn’s head cocked as his gaze locked onto hers. “If the Cadfael in that region has turned.”
“Oh,” she said, as she realized he might be going to put down a meirlock Cadfael. “All right. I’ll um, start breakfast, I guess.”
“Haven.”
“No. You can explain everything to me when you get back.” She forced a smile. “You need to do whatever it is that you do.”
“I can get Sloan,” Memphis said. “Though Darius would be better. I believe he has more dealings with those in Denmark.”
All these names were flying around, and Haven resigned herself to the fact she’d need to learn all of them. Quinn shook his head. “I need to speak with Wolf before there is a formal announcement. If one of the other Cadfaels show, I’d have to announce that I am bonding. I want to be the one to tell Wolf before giving the Cadfaels an official statement.”
“Very well, my lord.” Memphis bowed his head before opening the closet door.
Both men walked inside. Quinn stopped and winked at her. “I will be back as soon as I can.”
The door closed. The apartment