Chapter 4

'I was looking for you everywhere, hoping for my other dance,' Magnus says, leaning against the doorway.

'Sorry, Magnus. It's been a big day, and I think I'm going to retire for the night.'

'Great, bedtime it is,' he smiles, unstraps his leather armour vest, and tosses it onto the armchair by the fireplace. He then begins to remove his belt.

'At the very least, wait until I leave the room,' Alec growls. 'I don't want to see you disrobe,' he says, disgusted. 

'Then don't let the door hit you on your way out,' Magnus replies as Alec storms out of the room.

Left in nothing but a long tunic, Magnus climbs into bed, pulls me into his chest, and falls asleep.

Reaper squawks and caws perched on the stone window sill. Magnus throws his straw-stuffed pillow, hitting Reaper. He falls out the window to avoid being struck by the pillow flying toward him. I sit up to see a few black feathers floating in the air and hear wings fluttering outside the window. Reaper flies back up onto the sill, displeased.

'Don't look at me like that, Reaper. I've already told you to stop behaving like a rooster. Be glad I didn't also throw my pillow at you,' I tell him.

Magnus puts his trousers and brown leather armour vest on while I skip out the door to find Alec in a dark passageway staring out the window.

'Good morning, Alec,' I smile.

He kisses me tenderly, 'Are you feeling better after your sleep? Do you feel recovered enough to travel to Emerald Island today, or we could stay another night here if you haven't regained your strength?'

'Why would Nina need to regain her strength?' Magnus asks, approaching us with a look of confusion.

Alec briefly steels himself but then tries to hide his discomfort. He ignores Magnus and keeps his eyes on me.

Magnus is also my mate. It's only fair he knows what happened last night. It wouldn't be right if I kept that from him.

'Alec didn't want to do it, but I told him too. He was losing his senses, becoming feral, even though he had been drinking blood from deer. It turns out that once a blood flame is marked, the mate also becomes the vampire's food source. Alec struggled to control himself and drank a little more than he should have, making me feel faint. I was able to repel him off of me when I knew he had taken too much. I slept well and feel fine now, so it's no big deal,' I say.

Magnus's jaw shifts as he clenches his teeth and fists together. His eyes turn black, and he scowls at Alec.

'It was a mistake. I did not mean to- 'before Alec could finish his sentence, Magnus lunges at him, and they break into a fight. I sigh and cross my arms at them as they tumble down the stairs choking each other. I 'skedaddle dash' passed them nonchalantly as Fern, Lilac, May, Ria, and Ela poke their heads into the foyer from the dining room to see what the commotion is about.

'I didn't mean to harm her,' Alec yells, rolling onto Magnus.

'You could have killed her!' Magnus yells, rolling over, now on top of Alec, as he throws a punch.

'But, I didn't, and she is okay now,' Alec says, throwing punches back at Magnus.

'Only because she had to use a spell to stop you!' Magnus yells after a few more punches.

They fight for a few more minutes with the odd bruise, split lip and ruffled clothing and now a bigger audience with Maia, Damon, Yiselda and Kadva now watching on with worry. Finally, they lay still on the floor, exhausted and panting. I step closer to them with arms crossed and tap my feet. They both turn their heads to look at me.

'I hope you two are pleased with yourselves? Do either of you feel better now?' They shake their heads no, 'Has fighting fixed the problem?' I ask. They shake their heads no with guilt again. 'Next time you both decide to get into a fist fight with each other, at least have the courtesy to do it outside away from everyone,' They both stand but keep their heads down, unable to look me in the eye.

'Apologise to Queen Maia and King Damon for your behaviour and fix your ruffled clothes so you at least look somewhat presentable, unlike your bruised and bloodied faces,' I chastise them.

Running their fingers through their messy hair and tugging at their clothes to straighten them out, they both apologise, 'Sincere apologies Queen Maia, and to you, King Damon, for our behaviour,' Alec says.

'I'm sorry too,' Magnus says with a huff and crosses his arms, sending a glare to Alec.

'Great! Breakfast time,' I beam as if the fight never happened.

Everyone gives each other weird looks and enters the dining room.

We are served pancakes with syrup.

'Lifto Levitatous,' Ela says.

A pancake from Fern's plate rises and lands on Ela's plate. She smiles and rubs her hands together in victory.

'Hey!' Fern pouts.

'Spawniate,' I say and watch my pancakes multiply. I slide a few pancakes onto Fern's plate.

'Thank you, Luna,' Fern says.

'You're welcome,' I reply.

Ela's toad jumps in the air and lands in the jug as I reach for the syrup. A splash of sticky syrup splashes out onto the table.

'Todd!' I growl.

'Sorry,' Ela says with a nervous laugh and reaches over the table and scoops him up. 'So, who wants syrup?' she laughs, holding the jug up with her other hand.

Queen Maia bursts into laughter, and then we all laugh, even Alec and Magnus.

'If only breakfast was this interesting every morning,' Maia says to Damon.

He laughs and shakes his head.

'We will miss the entertainment, but I'm sure we will see each other frequently,' Damon says.

'Most definitely, which reminds me. I need to make a star portal here so we can visit each other anytime without travelling across the water,' I say, standing up.

Maia follows me outside into the courtyard to find a good spot to place it.

'Perhaps, behind the forge here? It's a well-hidden spot with all these shrubs and trees,' Maia suggests.

'Perfect,' I say, inspecting the area.

Together, we collect five stones. I draw the circle and star, and we place the stones on each peak.

'There,' I say, taking a step back, 'All done.'

'How does it work?' Maia asks.

I smile, take her hand, step into the circle, and appear at Wolfwell with Maia.

'Are we in Wolfwell? Already?' she squeals with shock.

'Yup! Let's go and say hi while we are here?' I suggest.

'Sure!' Maia nods.

We visit my parents first, have a drink of tea with them, and then visit Nadia. After that, Quinn, the little fae, takes me outside to show me the new flowers she planted.

'Did you know flowers listen when you talk to them?' she says.

'Um, no, I didn't know that,' I smile.

'They love it when you talk to them. It makes them happy,' she says, leaning over to smell one.

'Is that a fairy ability? Being able to talk to flowers?'

'Anyone can talk to flowers, but only fairies know they listen. Krug and Boomer think it's stupid to talk to flowers.'

'Well, that's their loss then,' I say to her.

She smiles brightly but then it changes to a smirk. She grabs a small pouch from her pocket. 'I want to give you something,' she says.

'Oh, a gift for me? You don't have to gift me anything.'

'Oh, but I insist,' she says, pouring sparkly gold specs from the pouch onto her hand. It reminds me of sand but finer and prettier as it glistens. Quinn blows the contents into my face, then runs off giggling and says, 'Fairy dust!'