Bound to the Prince (25 page)

“Don’t speak about my mother,” Ruadan uttered
disdainfully. He was so furious that he pressed himself up against
the sword, not caring that the sharp blade dug into the skin of his
neck. Small streams of blood emerged from the wound.

The older prince’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
“I speak of whom I wish, brother. I am Elathan, heir to the throne
of Fearann. You owe me fealty and subjection, never forget
that.”

The image blurred and vanished slowly.
Igraine just caught a glimpse of a dark-haired elven maiden who ran
into the arena and shouted at the brothers to separate, begging
Elathan to release Ruadan. Elathan turned his head, his posture
visibly relaxing when he saw her. She was Elathan’s cousin, grown
up now, and lovely beyond compare. Even if she resembled him, she
seemed to be very different, dark where the prince was light, calm
and contemplative in contrast to his passionate temperament.
Igraine was surprised that a rush of anger ran through her. She did
not like the thought that they had been so close, even if only as
cousins. How could she ever compare with such perfect beauty?

She heard Aon’s laughter in her head.
“Jealous, are we?” Before she could answer, he flooded her mind
with a multitude of images, an overwhelming amount of information
in an instant. “Stop it,” she whispered, but the unicorn ignored
her wish, wanting her to see everything. Igraine's body went limp
in Elathan’s arms when she was hit by the intensity of emotions he
had once felt. Their connection was so strong that she shared the
prince's pain while the king carved the initiation marks into his
skin, knelt at his side as he wept over Ailidh’s crushed body on
the battlefield. She cried with him, then trembled with hate when
he cursed humanity and left his home in exile, separated from
everyone he had ever loved. At last she felt a terrible,
overwhelming loneliness that seemed to last forever.

“Human, you have to know that destiny has
already chosen a path for Elathan,” the unicorn’s voice said. “He
does not know yet, but he will return to the elven realms very
soon. His people need their prince.”

“I need him, too,” Igraine dared to answer.
Her heart sank with every word. She knew that he would be taken
from her, but she didn’t want to know it. Not yet. Only one more
night in his arms, spent in the tree-house that she had secretly
enjoyed thinking of as their new home. It was the only place where
he would ever belong only to her.

“And he needs you, Igraine,” Aon said. “You
must stay with him until the end.”

“The end,” she whispered, wishing she could
keep the unicorn out of her head if she just covered her ears with
her hands. It had helped when she had not wanted to hear something
as a child. But Aon showed no mercy, not caring if she wanted to
know the truth or not. Her decision had been made when she had
agreed to let him into her mind.

“Yes, Igraine. You saw it coming, in your
dream. You always knew it was more than a simple nightmare, didn’t
you? You knew it was real.”

And now the scene from her dream came back to
her again, rolling over her like a wave she couldn’t hold back, no
matter how hard she tried. It was just like she remembered it, but
now Elathan was kneeling on a battlefield among fallen elven
warriors, blood streaming out of the deadly wound where the arrow
had pierced his heart.

Igraine began to fight against the vision.
She didn't want to see him dying now. Not again.

“Look at him, human,” the unicorn commanded,
forcing her to watch. “This is his destiny. He will be a hero to
his people, praised in their songs and legends for as long as they
tell them to their children at night, sitting at their
fireplaces.”

“I do not care,” Igraine replied. “I will not
let him die. I can’t allow this to happen.”

“It is true that the course of destiny can be
changed, it has been done before. But will you pay the price?”

“I will,” she said. “What is the price,
unicorn? Show me." Yet in her heart, she already knew the
answer.

Before her inner eye the scene altered. This
time, it was she who lay dying in the prince’s arms, a gaping wound
in her chest. With his head bent forward, Elathan's face was
covered by his moonlight hair that spilled all over her, drenched
in her own blood. She felt the sudden urge to brush it back from
his brow, to see if he cried for her.

“I can’t feel sorry for you,” the unicorn
told her, “for it is not in my nature. But I wish I could have
shown you something else. Now it is your destiny to choose. Will it
be you … or him? I cannot see everything that awaits you, but I
know that only one of you can live.”

“He will live,” Igraine decided, not
hesitating for a moment. “If you believe that I even need to think
about this, you are very wrong, unicorn. The storytellers will have
to find another hero. I never cared too much about old legends
anyway.”

“Then it is done,” Aon said. “You need some
rest now, human.”

And her world went dark.

Chapter 17: Sleeping
Beauty

Elathan carried Igraine out of the caves,
cursing the damn unicorn with every step he took. She still lay
unconscious in his arms, her head lolling against his chest while
he walked. Her eyes were closed, her lashes throwing dark shadows
on her pale cheeks. Too pale, he decided. What had Aon done to his
human?

“Nothing,” Aon had said when a very angry
prince had confronted him with just this question. “I only told her
what she already knew.” When Elathan’s hand had moved to the hilt
of his sword, fury blazing up in his golden eyes, the unicorn
added, “The mortal woman will live for now, Sire. You have my word
on it. But she needs to rest. The human mind was not made for the
intensity of my visions.”

“What did you tell her?” Elathan’s lips were
pulled back in a sneer, revealing his sharp white teeth. Aon didn’t
seem to be very impressed, showing his deadly fangs in what was
supposed to be a smile. “It was your choice not to know your
future, my Prince,” he answered. “Your … slave,” he used the
expression deliberately, grinning when the elf winced, “… it was
her own wish to see what I offered to show her. So she alone will
be the one who might tell you. But maybe you will never know, if
she chooses to keep this in her heart.”

The prince had had enough of the unicorn’s
cryptic answers. With a last warning glance to Aon, he swept up
Igraine in his arms and walked away, feeling a sudden urge to leave
this place, beautiful as it might be. Just because he had been
living in caves for ages didn’t mean he liked them. He hated them,
in fact. The forest was his home. He loved to walk under the old
trees that whispered his name whenever he came near, breathing in
the fresh moist air smelling of moss and the earth, watching the
animals busying themselves with hunting for food, mating and
raising their offspring. Despite his immortality, having seen
nearly anything, the elf never grew tired of watching the ongoing
circle of life.

And he knew that he never would grow tired
watching Igraine.

He directed his gaze back to her graceful,
almost elven features. In her deep, exhausted sleep she looked as
innocent as a child. Not even knowing what moved him to do this, he
looked around to see if Aon followed him, then hugged her close and
buried his face in her silky hair. Sighing, he deeply breathed in
her sensual scent.
Mine,
he thought once again. She was his
secret treasure, but much more than that. Igraine was a part of him
now, she belonged only to him. And he did not intend to ever share
her with anybody. He would never let her go. He simply
couldn't.

Elathan didn’t need a magic flame to find his
way back to the cave’s entrance. On their way into Aon’s lair he
had kept everything in mind - every change of direction, every turn
and bend of the tunnels. His sharp eyes could penetrate the dark
well enough. When they had entered these dark corridors, the light
had been for Igraine’s sake only. He didn't want her to be
frightened. It brought a smile to his face when he remembered how
her hand had felt in his while they searched their way through the
heart of the mountain.

It was the blackest part of the night when
the prince finally stepped out of the cave entrance. He was
relieved to see the open sky above, glittering with stars. Elathan
walked along the rock and crossed the slippery stones over the
river with ease, despite the fact that he was carrying Igraine. He
heard the agonized cry of a dying animal far away in the woods. It
seemed as if his unicorn friend had gone hunting at last. He must
have left his home of eternal darkness through other tunnels than
the ones Elathan had used. Aon was the most dangerous predator in
the forest, unpredictable when he went out to still his hunger.
Elathan knew that the unicorn had tasted humans before, but only a
few whom he had deemed worthless and impolite. The elf had kept his
hand at the hilt of his sword all the time while the creature had
searched Igraine’s mind. He had been ready to strike, even if he
knew that a fight with the unicorn would very possibly mean his own
death, too.

Having reached the pool formed by the mighty
waterfall, he gently lay her down at the water's edge. “Wake up,
mo ghrá
!” he murmured, caressing her hair. When she didn't
move, he stretched out beside her in the soft grass and touched her
forehead with his, entering her mind. She searched for her in the
darkness, but there was nothing. His heart beat quicker with the
sudden fear to lose her forever.

But as he blindly reached out into the
emptiness, calling her again and again, he noticed the soft voice
of her beautiful soul answering, weak but unmistakable. A surge of
relief washed over him. He had not lost her. There she was, hidden
in a far corner of her mind, closed up by a mental wall she had
erected herself. Obviously she was trying to shield herself against
something that frightened her, but he was not sure what it was.

The answer came to him in an instant.
Knowledge. Aon had revealed something to her, but whether about her
past or future, the prince couldn’t tell. Igraine held that part of
herself safely enclosed, to keep herself from thinking … knowing.
Elathan didn't want to penetrate her defense by force, otherwise he
would hurt her even more. But whatever it was, it had terrified her
so much that she preferred being unconscious to facing her newfound
realization.

Damn the dragon’s son and his prophecies,
Elathan thought.
Come, Igraine,
he called out to her.
Come back to me.

No,
he heard her faint answer.
I
don’t want to see. I just want to sleep for a while, not knowing.
Please, my Prince, hold me and let me sleep.

Igraine.
He let his voice grow
stronger and louder until it echoed in her mind, making her unable
to ignore him.
You will not sleep now. Not like this, when you
can drift so far away that I might not be able to find you anymore.
I will let you rest when you are back with me. Do not heed what the
unicorn told you. I always believed myself to be the master of my
own destiny, despite all prophecies. The future is yet unwritten.
You will make your own choices, Igraine. But not now. As your
prince and protector, I command you to come back to me.

He felt her resistance, but he continued,
well knowing that she had not the strength to defy him.
Come
back. I need you, sweet Igraine. You are mine.

When he sensed her struggle to forget her
fear and return, he noticed that he had not convinced her by giving
her an order. It was his confession that he needed her that seemed
to have changed her mind. Her eyelids began to flutter, then
relaxed as she drifted into slumber once more. He cursed softly.
She still lay far too lifeless in his arms. He had to try something
else. What she needed was a good reason to come back, something
that was palpable. And she needed it right now, before she
retreated into her secret place of shelter again. Elathan was not
sure if he would still reach her if she decided to flee even deeper
into unconsciousness.

“Wake up, sleeping beauty,” the prince said
before he pulled her in his arms and kissed her lingeringly. He was
positive that she felt all of it, even if her eyes were still
closed and she didn't move. Her blood was united with his. Whether
she liked it or not, her body would always react to his touch. It
would make her feel alive again.

Besides, he had to admit that he could not
resist her allure any longer.

Her warmth. Her joyful, heartfelt laughter,
filling his heart with a peace he had never known before. The green
depths of her eyes, darkened with passion every time he took her,
entering her sweet, welcoming body. It was like coming home. The
way she looked at him when he angered her, eyes blazing, proud and
fearless like a warrior goddess in all her furious glory. Her soft
skin, so sensitive to his touch. Her hair, shimmering dark against
his skin when he let his fingers slide through her tresses. But it
was how she smelled that drove him crazy whenever she was near.

He kissed her lips very tenderly at first,
barely grazing them. They felt like velvety rose petals that were
almost too delicate to his touch. Still he sucked her lush lower
lip into his mouth, tasting her like a delicious treat, biting just
a bit. It pleased him when her lips looked swollen from his kisses.
He traced her with the tip of his tongue, slowly and carelessly as
if he had all the time in the world. Then he continued with her
upper lip, nibbling and suckling some more before his kiss
deepened. She did not move, but her heart beat faster. Yet she
responded to him. He felt her quickened pulse under his fingers
while he caressed her throat. Slowly, his fingers wandered further
down, slipping under the neckline of her gown.