Taste of ecstasy

Chapter 37

The garden of the Fairy Court was unnaturally still.

It was a sacred place, usually thrumming with life crickets, soft whispers of wind in leaves, faint bursts of laughter from the inner chambers but tonight, silence blanketed it all like snow. A soft violet dusk hung over the court, stars just beginning to tremble awake in the sky. Alexander stood in the centre of the moonlit clearing, tension carved into the hard lines of his shoulders. His ceremonial robe was untouched white silk with Idris's emblem and yet he looked like he had returned from war. There were sleepless bruises beneath his eyes. Dirt on his boots. A tremor in the hand that curled at his side. Ruelle stood across from him in her long lavender cloak, her black hair tied back in intricate knots, her amber eyes quietly glowing. There was always a certain knowing in her an ancient softness that came from age and wisdom alike. But now her gaze was unreadable.

"You want to take him as your prince?," she said finally.

Alec nodded once, curt. "Yes."

"You want to make him yours."

His jaw tightened. "I already have."

Ruelle studied him in silence. Then stepped closer.

"Does Magnus know you're here?" she asked, voice gentle.

"No," Alec answered. "I came without telling him."

Ruelle tilted her head. "That is not like you."

Alec looked away. "I couldn't risk him stopping me."

There was a long pause. Only the faint rustle of leaves dared to interrupt them.

"I've always honoured your choices, Your Majesty," Ruelle said slowly, "because I have seen the goodness in your heart. You're a fierce king, a better brother, and a man who has sacrificed far more than he's been given credit for. But Magnus is not a trophy you can carry back to your golden castle. He is... fragile. Wild. And still healing."

Alec stepped forward, unable to contain himself now.

"He is not fragile....and is exactly why he must be mine officially"

Ruelle's brows arched delicately.

Alec's voice cracked with urgency. "Killian is coming for him....now? Out in open"

At that, the garden held its breath.

Ruelle's smile vanished.

"He's stirred again?" she asked.

"He sent spies into Idris," Alec said. "Two of them made it as far as the forest line near the northern border. One of them wore a cloak with Calmaria's crest stitched beneath the hem."

Ruelle inhaled, slowly. "And Magnus?"

"Doesn't know. I had the men killed and their bodies burned. No evidence left."

"Killian will not stop."

"I know," Alec whispered. "That's why I need him with me. Where I can protect him... and no one holds any suspicion against him when he will legally be my responsibility..I am just declaring the courtship Ruelle not a war"

He stepped closer, eyes blazing now with the sharpness of a storm. "Ruelle, you know what that man did to him. You know what Magnus has lived through. He still wakes up with a tremor in his voice sometimes even if he wakes up in my arms. He still flinches when a door shuts too hard. He doesn't speak of it, but I know."

A pause.

"I see it in the way he grips his paintbrush like it's the only thing anchoring him to this world."