"You have a bond?" Taro said.

I raised my brow at Arthur. He shrugged. "I'll explain later."

I huffed out a breath. Fine. Returning my gaze to Taro, I found myself on the end of an appraising look. I pointed my knife at him. "Back to business, Taro. Who asked you to put them in touch with Malone? Either you answer, or I'll have Marianno here get the name from you."

I wouldn't actually ask Marianno to do it. However, my patience was wearing thin. The threat worked like a charm.

"It was a fae," Taro said. "Madeleine Byrne."

Arthur glanced at me. I shook my head. The name didn't ring any bells.

"How do you know her?" Arthur asked.

"We had a ...personal arrangement, from before I rose to head the witchcraft council."

Aha.

"And how did you make the connection," I asked. "Between Martine Malone being hired and uncle Robert's death."

"I overheard a conversation she was having on the phone," he replied. "She mentioned that Malone disappeared while on a mission to get rid of Robert Walsh. Of course, at the time, I didn't know of your presence. I only made the connection when I heard about you, and that you were raised by Robert Walsh. It was easy to draw conclusions."

I sighed and plopped down on the couch next to Arthur. Finally, we had a lead.

*** ***

"I hope you don't mind that I used you to threaten the guy," I told Marianno once we were driving back to Arthur's place. 

We had left Taro in his suite, unharmed. At least, I thought he was unharmed since Arthur stayed behind with Taro for a few minutes before catching up with us. He didn't smell like blood, so I didn't think he'd killed the witch.

Marianno's smile was bright in the rearview mirror. "Not at all. Use me to your heart's content, my lady."

Marianno looked like the subject didn't bother him. But there was something... I sensed something off in him. "Are you sure?" I frowned.

Arthur glanced at me.

"Yes," Marianno replied.

I rolled my shoulders. He still felt off.

"Why are you asking?" Arthur said.

"I don't know, I just feel like..." I looked over my shoulder at Marianno. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Marianno and Arthur shared a look. Then Marianno smiled, and this time it was a more sedate smile.

"I am fine. I simply... wonder whether it bothers you. My gift, that is."

"Oh," I shrugged. "I mean, not really. It would bother me if you were flippant with it. But you're not."

"How do you know I'm not flippant with it?" he asked, amused.

"Because that's not who you are," I said. "Besides, Arthur trusts you, so I do, too."

I narrowed my eyes at Arthur, who was driving the car with a small smile. "Although I'm not sure Arthur's moral lines align with mine."

Marianno chuckled. "If it makes you feel better, the fae have a natural mental resilience compared to other races. So do you."

"Hmm, that's good to hear." I tapped my fingers on the window sill. "Do you guys know her? Madeleine Byrne?"

"No," Marianno said. "But going to Ireland, I believe we'll have a chance in pursuing that thread."

"What about tonight's attack?"

Mariannno sighed. "Nothing jumped at me. If anyone in the hotel is involved, I haven't sensed it. But you've seen the place. It is brimming with immortals, both those who reside there and those who came to visit."

Right. Even my father was there. A niggling suspicion bloomed in my guts. I shook my head.

"Anyway, what did Taro mean?" I asked. The only response was the smooth hum of the engine and the rolling of tires as the car took a turn into a dirt road. Marianno cleared his throat. 

"Well?"

Arthur sighed. "There has never been an instance of a mating bond for one of the Five."

"What?!" I asked, shocked. I had never heard of it. But then again, I only started learning about the mating bond recently. Uncle Robert, obviously, hadn't broached the subject with me. And humans weren't privy to many of the more personal details of the immortal world.

"That's..." I shook my head. "Are you sure?"

He nodded. "Many people actually think we do not have a bond. Your father knows, I told him when we ...spoke. Others suspect. But the vast majority think that your title of mate is only an honorary title. Much like Lady Amelia is to your father. They do not have a bond, but it is customary to address her as his mate."

Hmm... that explained some of the reactions I got before. Oh, well. I didn't really care if others didn't know. 

The female witch who was all over Arthur at dinner flashed in my mind. My lips twitched with the need to snarl. I ran my tongue over my teeth. Ouch. My canines were sharp. Arthur chuckled. 

I rolled my eyes. "Right, you can be amused. I'd like to know how you'd feel if the tables turned." Not that I got that much attention from men, a fact that did not bother me at all.

"That will not pose an issue," Arthur said.

I scoffed. "Why? Because men usually don't hit on me."

"No," he said. "Because I will obliterate the first one who tries. The others will fall in line."

"Why can't I do the same?" I mumbled. The idea of crushing the women who flirted with him was very appealing. I was getting really blood thirsty.

"You can," Arthur said.

I glanced at him. "Really?"

"Yes," he said, a genuine smile lighting up his face.

"How about we announce the bond between the two of you," Marianno piped in, amused. "For the sake of the female population, if nothing else."

"Ha, ha," I deadpanned. 

Arthur's palace appeared in sight. He parked the car. As I unfastened my seatbelt, the door on my side opened. Arthur stood there with a smile, leaning his arm on the door. I glanced to his seat where he'd been only a second ago. Damn, he was fast.

"Trying to impress someone?" I said, brushing past him as I exited the car.

"Yes. You." He wrapped an arm around my shoulders. Its weight was reassuring and comforting, yet my skin almost burned where our bodies touched. The bond sizzled between us, making me lightheaded.

"Arthur! Any news?" Amanda called from an open window on the second floor, Harvey standing behind her.

"Nothing urgent," Arthur said. He didn't raise his voice, yet it carried in the night air.

Amanda waved and closed the window.

Marianno was already speaking with Kat and Charles in the foyer.

"It's unlikely that another attack will occur," Arthur said. "However, I want everyone to stay on guard."

"Yes, sire."

"How's your thirst?" Marianno asked me.

I took time to reply. If I wanted to have better control over myself, I needed to be honest with the people who were here to help me. "I feel good right now. But earlier in the hotel it was a little bit... difficult."

When I heard that Taro could have a hand in uncle Robert's death, anger almost blinded me.

Marianno nodded. "Good. You can do without till tomorrow. But if you feel off, let me know."

"Will do, thanks."

Arthur and I left the three in the foyer and went upstairs. He pulled me to his room and closed the door. "Now, about your promise."

My shoulders relaxed. It was interesting how tension left my body when it was just the two of us. I unfastened my sword, put it on the nightstand and sat down on the bed.

"There really is nothing to tell," I said, watching as he sat down on the bed, leaning on the headboard. 

He patted the spot next to him. "I still want to know."

He put his hand on my knee once I was next to him. I sighed. The gilded walls of his room, the intricate carving on the bedposts, the silky sheets beneath me, nothing registered to my mind. I was in a far away place and another time, when everything was dark.

I didn't know how to share those two years. Nothing important happened during that time. Yet it felt as if they had the biggest impact on who I was today. Being alone for a long time altered a person on a fundamental level.

"What happened after Robert died?" Arthur asked.

I was grateful for the question. It gave me a starting point. "I buried him. I think I stayed next to his grave for ... I don't know, more than a day. It was thirst that made me move."

The feeling of a dry throat was still vivid in my mind. I didn't feel hungry. I didn't sleep. I just sat there next to his grave until my mouth turned dry and my head ached. It was the first time I had a headache. I guess dehydration affected immortals, too.

"I went to a nearby stream. We used to get our water supply from it. I remember dumping my head under the water and..." I sighed. "I thought about how long it would take for me to drown."

Arthur's hand on my knee tightened. I pursed my lips to the side, feeling exposed.

"Anyway, when I couldn't bear the loss of air any longer, I drank my fill and stayed there. Then I felt hungry, so I looked for some berries and ate them. Then I went back to sit next to uncle Robert's grave." I frowned. "I think I did that for a couple of weeks."

I had been weighed down in place by grief. I'd never known such sadness. The sense of loss was ripping my insides apart.

I took a shaky breath. I always shied away from reliving those days. But having Arthur nearby was a firm reminder that it was the past, and I was no longer that scared little girl whose world had been overturned.

I traced the veins on Arthur's hand with my finger. It looked pale against his golden skin. "I was so sad. And so afraid, so damn afraid it made me angry. I was afraid that someone else would come for me. And afraid of what I'd do without uncle Robert. It made me angry. Uncle Robert was dead and I was thinking about myself."

"You were fourteen. A child," Arthur said.

"I know."

"A child should be afraid, in such a situation. It is not odd or demeaning. It does not mean you mourned Robert's loss any less."

I leaned my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes, the weight on my heart lifting a little. "I guess."

Arthur turned his hand and linked our fingers. "What happened next?"

A spark of joy pierced through the fog of heavy emotions. I smiled. "Bears happened."

Confusion was clear in Arthur's voice. "Bears?"

"Two bear cubs. They were small, so I thought their mother must be nearby. My time in the woods I knew that you do not approach a baby bear even if it was alone because the mom could be nearby. Mother bears are viciously protective." I shuddered, remembering patching up uncle Robert's wounds once when he stumbled upon a bear and her cubs by accident. The bear's claws were not silver, but they might as well have been. Uncle Robert's wounds were so deep that they left scars. I shook my head. "Anyway, I left them alone. But they followed me. And they kept following me for a couple of days."

"You have a knack for animals."

I shrugged. "I don't know. I think it's just because I gave them some of the fish I caught."

Arthur seemed about to say something else, but he held his tongue.

"Anyway, I figured that their mother must have been gone. So I just... took care of them. Looking back on it now, those two bears were the ones who pulled me out of my head. And well, I guess that's all that's worth mentioning. I just took care of the two bears, and they took care of me. About a year and a half after uncle Robert's death, I knew that I couldn't live that way forever. I was so alone. There was a point where I craved human contact."

I rubbed a spot in my chest. The emptiness I had felt by the end of those two years was a physical pain.

Arthur's fingers tightened on mine, and his guilt filled the bond. I raised my head to look at him. "What is it?"

"I'm sorry," he said. "I will not close the bond again."

"Oh." I blinked. I hadn't even realized it. Maybe that was why I hated when the bond was closed. The void it left behind reminded me too much of that time. But... "It's not the same."

"Is it not?" Arthur asked. "Whatever the case, I will stand by my word. Although it might be difficult at times."

"Well, that's what I want. I can deal with whatever it is you're trying to shield me from."

"Yes. I guess you can."

I rested my head back on his shoulder.

"So you went to the humans?"

"Mhm. It took me some time to gain enough courage. But by then the bears were adults, they no longer needed me. I had no excuse to stay hidden in the middle of a forest. And the need for revenge started brewing in me. So I left."

"And you lived with the humans," he said. "I believe you're the only immortal who has ever made this choice."

"Well, it wasn't really a choice," I said. "Uncle Robert had drilled in me the need to stay hidden from immortal eyes."

"Being a headhunter was not a wise choice of career, then."

I shrugged. "It was the only way I knew how to get my fingers on information about Malone. Though I'm sure uncle Robert was turning in his grave."

"Robert trained you well," Arthur said. "If you were anything like you are right now, he would have known you would end up in the middle of immortals sooner or later."

"He probably did."

A rock settled in my throat. I blinked back the tears. I wished uncle Robert was here. But if he was, I wouldn't have found Arthur. It was a bittersweet feeling, knowing that losing the most important person in my life back then was what led me to know Arthur.

I couldn't imagine my life without Arthur. And that was a revelation that stole my breath. Arthur was embedded so deep in my very being that I knew I would raise hell on earth before I gave him up.

I looked up to find him staring at me. The strength of his emotions mirroring mine through the bond. His eyes were warm and brimming with so much love, they reached the farthest corners of my soul and smoothed the shards of loneliness.

I reached up and kissed him. There was no going back to a life without him, there was no giving him up.

There was no reason to hold back any longer.

He pulled back, his fingers brushing the skin beneath my eyes, and asked. "Yes?"

"Yes."

*** **** ***

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