Hex on the Beach by Kelley Armstrong

Chapter Ten

Once we’d tucked into the sort of meal that vacations actually require—complete with a decadent dessert tray filled with everything from apple pie to crème brûlée to a Chantilly cream cake to a four-layer trifle and a selection of truffles—the dishes simply vanished.

“I’m feeling significantly less sympathy for you today, Gen.” Sera stretched. “That was amazing. This place is . . .”

“Gorgeous,” Christy finished.

“No draugr either,” Sera added. “Would it be so bad to live here?”

I shook my head. It was a complicated question, which I wasn’t entirely sure I could answer. Being here was incredible, and the best part was that it meant that I was now bonded with the only person who had ever made me feel whole. I’d always thought that “you complete me” business was silly, but then I melded with Eli. He literally completed me. Our souls were fused; our lifespans now tied together. I would die when he did—or the inverse. It was both terrifying and wonderful.

“It’s incredible here, but I have a duty in New Orleans,” I started. “Each person should leave the world better than how they came into it. That’s my faith. It’s as much a fact to me as anything science or magic can prove.”

“So basically, you can’t let yourself be happy because it’s your duty to behead monsters?” Sera gave me the sort of stink eye that highlighted the increasingly difficult issue in our friendship of late. She didn’t like what I did. Never had. Never would.

“Yes.” I met her gaze head-on. “You don’t have to like it—”

“Good. I don’t.” She folded her arms. “Why can’t you just be a faery princess, Gen? You love Eli, and being his wife creates other responsibilities that you could spend eternity working on. That would be making this world better, and you’d be safer!”

“Eli knew who I was when he chose me, and he accepts it.” I tried to keep my temper contained, but this had been the elephant-in-the-room for us for years. “This is me. Warts and all. You don’t have to like it, but you need to accept it.”

Sera pressed her lips together and walked out.

I sighed, hating the threat of tears I felt in the corner of my eyes. I wasn’t a crier, hadn’t ever been, but there were moments I wished I could be softer. I was happy with my life, loved my job—or jobs as the case now was—and I looked forward to my life with Eli. That didn’t erase my identity. That was not the point of marriage, at least not the point of my marriage.

“She just worries,” Christy said.

A thousand words wanted to come out, but it wasn’t Christy who needed to hear them. And I didn’t think Sera could, no matter how many times I tried to explain. Sure, she worried. She didn’t see the world as I did—and that was fine. However, it wasn’t my responsibility to change her mind.

I shoved the hurt away. It was time to focus on what I could do.

“So, my magic appears to have found its way home,” I started. “And the king is kindly offering me a few fighters. I’d like you to stay here. Enjoy Elphame. With fae back-up, I’ll get things sorted out over in San Diego.”

“With minimal damage, please!” Allie interjected. “Maybe I should tell Marcus . . .”

That was that. I was taking the king. The last thing I wanted was to leave him and Allie alone. They were both adults, but Allie was my responsibility.

And, of course, starting a fight with the king of the fae when he broke her heart would be . . . complicated. I wasn’t fae by birth, but I was fae enough to open doorways here now that I’d melded with Eli. I was, technically, a subject of Elphame. A citizen. Being the wife of the future king didn’t change that.

Of course, it also didn’t mean that I would stand by and let a friend be hurt.

“Marcus will be with me,” I pointed out. “You, Alice Chaddock, will be staying here with Christy and Sera. Relax. Sunbath. Eat desserts.”

Allie twisted her hands together. “I hate not being with you. What if you need me?”

“I do need you. Make me a pretty platelet smoothie, Allie, for when I return,” I said in my mothering-est voice. “I won’t be gone long.”

Then I left to find the king and troops. My magic was itching to be used, and I was ready to kick some ass.

When I reachedthe path that led to the palace, Marcus was outside. No crown. No guards. Instead, he was a man with a broadsword and a grin. A chain shirt covered his tunic, and thick leather gloves dangled at his belt like a sporran on a Highland clansman. He wore weathered boots, and his hair was braided back.

“Are we going to a medieval war?” I teased.

Marcus laughed. “I haven’t fed my blade for a few decades, Death Maiden. Duty to the crown, to the people. Now if I fall to a foe . . . this”—he gestured around us—"is all Eli’s responsibility. It’s freeing to have an heir willing to fulfill his duty.”

I nodded and drew the blade he’d gifted me when I wed Eli. “Freeing in all sorts of ways, I’d wager. . .”

Marcus bowed and lifted his blade. “Help an old man stretch before battle?”

I snorted. He might be a few centuries old, but the king of the fae looked to be only a few years older than me. This man was not a creaking old grandpa—and I was glad of it. I wanted him to live and age, wed and breed. I wanted him to have an heir, so Eli and I were never required to take the throne.

I bowed my head and waited for his first attack.

“So . . . does this mean you’re going to take a bride?” I asked as I parried his oberhau strike.

“Indeed.”

Since he volunteered nothing, I pushed the topic. “Shouldn’t you be casting your eye toward fae maidens? I recall quite a few beautiful women lining up to offer to marry my husband.”

Marcus grinned again. “Couldn’t wed the prince, so they’ll settle for the king. I suppose I could glance that direction.”

I decided to be blunt. Time was short when it came to private conversations with the king. “Alice is a widow, Marcus. She loved her husband, and he was murdered last year. That’s how we met. She hired me, tried to kill me, and the rest”—I lunged at the king— “is history.”

He blocked. “She’s a mortal in Elphame, Geneviève of Stonehaven. I am within my rights to keep her here, and I find that I’d like that.”

“Crowe.” I attacked with a series of mittelhau strikes, all of which he deftly parried. “I’d like to see you try. King or not, you don’t want me as an enemy. Kidnapping Allie would create a problem for you. Don’t do it.”

We fought in silence for several moments.

Finally, Marcus offered, “If I break this law for you now, you will bring Alice for visits, Geneviève of Stonehaven. I offer you this bargain in kindness and familial regard.” The king lowered his blade. “You shall not speak of the terms of this faery bargain to anyone save for your husband.”

Unfortunately, I couldn’t strike him unless we were exercising—and I couldn’t actually refuse his bargain. I might be his niece by matrimony, part-fae because of my meld with Eli, but Marcus was the king of the fae. He was not one to be outwitted or outmaneuvered.

And we both knew it.

“I will only accept this bargain if I have your word that you do not intend to harm or use Alice. Romance? Fine. Seduce her if she understands your intentions are temporary? That, too, would be fine, but she’s mine to protect as surely as every faery here or in my world.”

Marcus looked at me curiously. “What makes you think my intentions are fleeting? My family always knows when we meet our destined bride. I knew she was in your world, as did my sibling and my nephew. So, I simply stayed in Elphame to avoid meeting her. And yet . . . you brought her to me.”

I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

“Alice is beautiful, clever, and charming. Anyone would be lucky to know her.” He gazed in the direction of the cottage where she waited. “Your loyalty is admirable, Geneviève, but your opinion of our kind could benefit from a bit less bias.”

“Oh.”

Marcus sheathed his sword, raised a hand in a gesture, and then added, “I believe mortals speak to the parental figure before beginning a courtship. This I have done with you. Do you accept our bargain?”

He paused until I nodded.

Once I did so, he continued, “I will allow my future bride to depart back to your world, but you are bound by our bargain to bring her here to know this world and people. In due time I shall inform her of our future.”

“I don’t know whether to feel tricked or simply worried for you,” I admitted, thinking about the fury that Alice would direct at the king when she discovered his intentions. She could, of course, refuse him—and it would serve him right. I met his gaze and said only, “So mote it be, Marcus of Stonehaven, King of Elphame. This bargain is accepted.”

“So mote it be,” he repeated with a cheerful grin.

In the next moment, twenty-odd guards joined us. And in another blink Marcus had rent a hole in the air. Unlike mine, his gate was instant, elegant, and shimmering like opals had been drawn from the soil to create a stately archway.

“Together into the battle?” Marcus offered.

“With pleasure,” I agreed, but this time I was grinning in anticipation.

I had monsters to slay and magic to use.