Chapter 38: Fortification

Sy brought the poker with us to the bedroom, I think as a bit of a security blanket. We laid down together on the broad bed with its picture windows looking out over the stormy mountain ravine. We were too preoccupied to notice the view. We lay together, clothed, and safely enfolded in one another's arms. Sy kissed my lips, my nose, my eyelids, and I pressed my forehead against his, treasuring the small, sure contact of skin to skin, of his hand stroking my waist, my back, of my arm draped around his strong, lean form.

I heard the storm fade, the thunder going soft in the distance.

And no Seelie or Unseelie appeared to drag us apart. No Jarrah, no Raelen, no armored warriors of a Seelie Queen or an Unseelie King…

"Sy," I said, beginning with our small ritual of offering the other's name. "We need to talk about the whole prince thing."

"Do we?" he sighed, and I felt his dear, wolfish smile as he kissed me. "Can't we just keep on ignoring it?"

"I mean, I wasn't ignoring it per se,