The Secret Trinity: Reign (Fae-Witch Trilogy, Book 3) (8 page)

I felt the numbness begin to subside from my heart being replaced by strange tingling as that inner pixie dust glow returned beneath my skin.  A grin crept up on Clay’s mouth, telling me he could see the green glowing from inside me too.  I was lost in his eyes and the way they had so easily turned warm again when looking into my soul.  I felt hypnotized by something deep inside them, behind the sky blue, calling to me, and before I knew what I was doing I leaned in and gave him a tender kiss.  I felt the glow radiate brighter beneath my skin when I pulled away from his mouth.  My compassion for Clay overwhelmed me.  I couldn’t stand to see him hurting in any way.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated, and he smiled as tenderly as our kiss and tucked a wavy strand of my hair behind my ear, letting his palm linger on my cheek.

I could feel everyone’s eyes burning into my back.  I knew that I, the
Aira
Queen, should care that I
had
just kissed Clay, the
Earth
a
Prince, in public, but I didn’t.  Clay was right.  It was a new dawn.  None of this no crossing the blood line ridiculousness.  I decided the best move was cool confidence even t
hough my insides didn’t agree.

I unhooked from Clay and he grabbed my waist to help steady me.  I turned around, and Clay put his hands on my shoulders so I knew that he had my back.  There were about thirty people huddled in a clump around the pool table.  All of their mouths were literally hanging open with shock. 
Penni
was still sitting on the pool table and her mouth was agape, looking so mad she might start breathing fire. 

“I apologize for interrupting your evening.  Please excuse us,” I said with a gracious smile, like I was conducting a meeting.  I looked at
Penni
.  “My bad, I accidentally bumped into him,” I said with a casual shrug, and her eyes turned to slits at my mocking
of
her earlier statement. 

“Enjoy your night.  I look forward to seeing you all at the Queen’s crowning,” Clay said, lightly squeezing my shoulders, and I took this as my queue to get us out of there.  A moment later we were gone.  I had teleported us to my favorite place in
Draíochta
, our place. 

“You know, your mood swings are making my head spin,” Clay said as he went to turn
on the lantern
in our tree house.  I hadn’t been up there in a while, and I figured after that display with him at the pub, it was the best place to hide right now.  Just thinking about all the rumors that were sure to start was making
my
head spin.  By the time this hit the rest of
Draíochta
they’d be saying we had sex in front of everyone right on the pool table.

“Yeah well, join the club,” I said, not really caring since Clay had pulled the same crap on me time and time again.  I
laid
down on my side in the mess of pillows and snuggled into a blanket completely drained by this day.  Clay
laid
on his back beside me resting his hand on my hip.

“So what is it?  You don’t want me, but you don’t want anyone else to have me?”

“Now you’re
gettin
’ it,” I said, tilting my head to look up at him with a teasing smile as I removed his hand from my hip.  He laughed and rolled onto his side propping up on his elbow to face me. 

“Well, then you
shouldn’t have
kiss
ed
me in front of all those pe
ople tonight,” h
e said smiling, and he wrapped his arm around my waist bringing me right up against him.

“I didn’t just kiss you.  I was saving you from that hussy and her fake persona.”  I said, pursing my lips.

“I think knocking me into the wall would have sufficed.  If I had known some good old jealously was all it would take, I would have phoned
Penni
a long time ago
. 
I should have guessed
,
since
when I was out with her last
that’s when you had your way with me in the
jax
.”  Clay said, brushing my nose with his.  I made a disgusted gru
mbling sound in my throat at him
stroking his own ego, and he laughed again.

“Seriously, what got into you tonight?  One minute you don’t even want Kayla seeing us close and the next minute you’re literally throwing yourself at me in front of strangers.  You are truly perplexing.  Do you know that?”  Clay asked holding me a little tighter as he despe
rately tried to figure me out.

“Ok, I didn’t throw myself at you.  It was a necessary means to an end.  I just couldn’t let it happen and that was the best plan I came up with.  The kiss thing was just me getting caught up in the moment.  If you didn’t look at me like you’re looking at me right now, it never would have happened,” I said with a gulp as Clay’s intense st
are sucked me into his trance.

“I’
ll have to keep that in mind,” h
e said with a seductive grin before he leaned into me and gave me a light as
a
feather kiss.  It was almost a tease, barley touching my lips that badly craved more of the cinnamon sparkles he left o
n their surface.

“So does this mean I get to kiss you on the sidewalk, in the pub, at Grant’s
,
and whenever I want now?”  Clay paired each thought with a soft kiss
,
tracing up my neck until the last one landed on the tip of my nose, and he looked at me attentively waiting for my response. 

“You know for a ripped and rugged rocker type guy
that was
a pretty
girly t
hing to ask.”  I said smiling.

“I just want to make sure I don’t get slapped again.  Where do we stand here?” he asked, lowering his eyes waiting for my answer.

“See, what guy talks like that?”  I asked, avoiding the question.

“The kind of guy who wants to know what you’re thinking and feeling.”  He said this without a hint of sarcasm, and he looked at me sincerely
,
all joking aside, waiting.  I was feeling exposed, and my heart fluttered with nervous vulnerability.  I wanted to tell him I knew.  I wanted him to know how much it hurt me when I found out from my brother instead of him.  I wanted to know why he didn’t tell me I was his
Soul Keeper
.  I slowly parted my lips ready to tell him everything that had
been
happening, but I was so scared he wouldn’t look at me this way anymore. 

“Aileen,” I blurted out, letting my fear rule my head.

“My Mother?
  What about her?”  Clay asked confused by the subject change. 

“Aileen and I had a little talk earlier, and she told me about your Dad and their situation.”  I completely chickened out again.  Clay sat up and looked down at me. 

“What exactly did she tell you?”  Clay asked furrowing his brow, and I propped my arms up behind me, sitting up to talk. 

“She explained about her family and how her Father got mixed up in Black Magic.  She said that Prince Bryan was her childhood friend and had been the one who made sure her and her Mother weren’t banished like her Father was.  She loved Bryan ever since that time, and she said she would always love him, even if he could never love her in quite the same way.  It made me think that maybe I’m not the only one in this tree house that has some messed-up stuff in their past making it hard to deal with
this
.”  I said pointing my index finger back and forth between us. 

“That’s all she told you?”  He
asked,
his voice deep and serious.

“Yeah, I didn’t want to push her.  She was already upset about his condition
,
and honestly Clay, she’s falling apart a little.
How are you doing with all of this?”  I dared ask, even though he never wanted to talk about it. 

He shrugged, “I don’t know.  I’m as good as I could be
,
I guess.  I never really knew my Father
.  He left with your family to g
uard you when I was two and didn’t came back until Brody took over, when I was twelve.  When he returned
,
he was pretty sick by then and used most of his energy to run defense meetings and track
Famorii
activity.  Then a couple of years later I left to visit Brody
,
and as you know
,
stayed to take over as your Guard when King Thaddeus killed him.”   Clay gave me this explanation like he was writing a factual term paper
,
when I
was
pretty sure I didn’t ask for a timeline of their past.  I asked if he was okay
,
and
this run around explanation
told me that he wasn’t.  I could sense him shut down a little
,
protecting himself from the
im
possible pain and reality of dealing with his Father’s condition. 

“Clay...”  I said at length
,
putting my hand on his shoulder.  He knew what I was getting at.  I didn’t need a family history.  I wanted him to open up to me.

He sighed.
“Look, I care about my Father and I want to honor him by fulfilling all of his wishes, but we have very different view
s on how I should be doing that,” h
e said with some sadness.  

“What do you mean?”  I asked
,
trying my best to tread lightly.

“I have a million examples, but a good one is the fact that I would have brought you back to
Draíochta
six years ago
,
after my brother’s death.”  My eyes went wide at the thought.  My whole life would have been different.  I couldn’t even imagine it really.

“What else?”  I asked, hoping that his Father also ordered him to keep his mouth shut about being my Soul Keeper and that h
e wanted to tell me all along.

“I don’t
know,
everything.  He’s so old school.  All he knows is duty, honor, and sacrifice.  I think it’s very commendable, but I also think there is another way, a better way, where you don’t have to give up your entire life just to fulfill you Royal obligations, especially to a community as relaxed and close-knit as
Draíochta
.”  Clay explained, but I had n
o idea what he was getting at.

“Look
,
there is something I want to tell you, and I don’t
want you to freak out, okay,” h
e said
, biting his lower lip.  I
t was his ‘tell’ when he was really nervous
,
which made me really nervous.  My stomach clenched and twisted into a thousand knots.  My heart began to pound
,
pulsing loudly in my ears.  Oh my god
,
this was it.  H
e was about to confess.

“Okay, I can do that.”  I said as nonchalantly as I could, like I had no idea where this was goin
g or how huge this moment was.

“My parents love each other, but like my Mother said, it’s a different kind of love.”  Clay began
,
and I slowly nodded as I started to liquefy from the inside out.  My blood was running boiling hot with anticipation.

“The reason their love is different is because my Father had a
Fae
-mate.  Th
ey never acted on their soul
Fa
e
-mate connection, but when she died
,
he became ill because they are
eternally
joined.”  He said looking at me to ga
u
ge my reaction.  I didn’t know what to say.  This conversation had gone into a completely different direction than I had expected.

“Ari, the name of my Father’s
Fae
-mate
was Maggie...your birth Mother,” h
e finally concluded.  The words hung in the air for a moment and scrolled across my eyes i
n a lazy calligraphy script.  They swirled
haunting letters behind my sockets, clawed up into my brain and then, ever
ything went dark.

“What just happened?”  I asked, looking around frantically in the sudden black surroundings.  The sky was completely overcast from all the freezing rain we’d been having
,
and it was pitch black in the tree house. 

“Whoa, your energy pulsed like some sort of
electromagnetic wave length.  Even
the light bulb in the lantern shorted out,” Clay said.  I could feel him standing up, and then the latch door in the floor creaked open, letting in the biting cold air.  My eyes had begun to adjust and I could see him going through the floor door like he was preparing to climb down.