Sophie:

I followed Ciardha down a dark tunnel which was seemingly underneath the building. It was silent between the two of us, filled with awkward tension. He had informed me that we were in the catacombs, winding underground tunnels that connected everything in the city. They dated back millennia, no one knowing why they were first built or how far they extended.

"This way," He called, snapping me out of my momentary trance.

"These go on forever," I huffed.

"Don't wander off, you may never be found again if you do," He said, his voice serious and gruff.

The warning caught me off guard, and I awkwardly laughed for a second. He shot me a look and my laugh got caught in my throat, and I coughed awkwardly.

We walked in silence, and I trailed closely behind him. I had the urge to slip my hand into his, to feel that sense of comfort in the familiarity, but I held back. I held my head high as I followed him in the dark shadows. I had no fear of what surrounded me, instead, enjoying the darkness. I had to figure, people weren't actually scared of the dark, they were scared of what was hiding in the shadows of darkness, but here I stood, with the so called king of darkness, the devil, so I was pretty sure it couldn't get scarier than his darkly handsome face.

We climbed a set of stairs, coming out of the darkness. As we did, I heard grunts and shouts of exhaustion. When we climbed to the top of the stairs, I saw maybe twenty men fighting shirtless. My eyes beelined to their chests, and I couldn't help but stare at their bare, impossibly muscular body. But the most intriguing thing was the tattoos covering all of their bodies, black ink swirling and making angles on their angular body.

Suddenly, Without warning, I was picked up and thrown over Ciardha's shoulder. I made a high pitched squeal at the sudden movement and the intense sparks setting off across my body. He started quickly running down the same stairwell we just came up.

"Yo- what the hell, man?!" I yelled, frustrated.

He sighed, and set me down, but I could tell anger was rippling down his body as he stared at me, his eyes dark and shadows drawing around his clenched fists.

"Don't look at them," His voice was gruff and deep.

Against my better judgement, I followed the lead of every defiant and stubborn bone in my body. "Why? You're not the boss of me."

"You're- You're my mate, that indeed does make me the boss of you," He looked like a belligerent child as he crossed his arms and his blue eyes flared.

"No, it most certainly does not, and I will not be your mate if you don't treat me like an equal," I said, picking up my skirts and heading up those stairs willfully.

He reached out and caught my arm, forcing me to face him. When I looked into his eyes, they were no longer flaring in rage, but soft, sad and pleading. It broke my heart, especially knowing this pain I had inflicted upon him myself.

Goddamn, Man-child, I thought to myself.

"You- you wanna not be my mate?" His voice softened and broke as he spoke. He looked desperate and broken.

I sighed, "No- that's not what I meant. We can discuss this more later, but I refuse to be treated like a child or a slave. Not by anyone, but especially not by you, the person who you claim I'm fated to be with." I stared at him, searching his eyes, trying to make him understand.

he gritted his teeth and straightened himself up, "You're right, I apologize, I was acting like a fledgling, I really do apologize."

I nodded at him slowly, "Good, now you should teach me how to kick some ass in there." I point up the stairs and begin running up them. I can sense him trailing closely behind me.

We reached the top again, and now the men that were once working were standing at attention, clothed. I had to work to prevent an aggressive eye roll from appearing on my face. I spotted Conrí swinging daggers in his hand standing by the door frame.

"Laochra," Ciardha barked, and all the men bowed their heads, "Show some respect to your future queen."

I looked to Ciardha in confusion, but shock shot through me as one of the men walked towards me and took my hand. He knelt before me, and pressed his forehead against my hand he held.

"I swear myself to you, to protect you and your heirs for all of eternity, I swear my loyalty to you above all others except your one equal, our king. You will always have my allegiance- I give you my word."

I almost cried at the words he said, I had never had anyone swear allegiance to me, to promise to protect me and my children always. I felt... moved. Beyond all words I knew a fae's word was binding as a blood oath. If that wasn't overwhelming enough, the other men all followed suit, each professing thier undying loyalty and allegiance to me.

I looked towards Ciardha to see pride gleaming in his eye. Once they had all finished, and returned to their posts, I looked out at them.

"Well- who's going to train me, to fight me after you've swore to never lay a hand on me?" I jeered, and the group laughed heartily.

******

Training was hard. I was very excited to get training, but severely disappointed when all my fantasies of wielding cool weapons went down the drain. As soon as I had asked where my sword was, the entire room had burst out in laughter. I was told I needed to get 'fit' before I would wield any weapons. I showed them my leg muscles, to prove I was strong, which resulted in Ciardha using one single finger and poking me in the back with a force that left me face first on the floor. Guess I do need training.

We trained for about 3 hours before I was drenched in sweat and I felt like I was going to pass out. Ciadhra escorted me back to my room to change for our "afternoon and lunch plans". In all honesty, I was quite excited about being able to just... feel free. I felt freer than I had ever even felt at home with my parents. 

These thoughts pondered my mind as I stood under a hot shower, the water pouring over my sweat soaked body. 

Thank god they have showers in this court as they do in the summer court, I thought to myself. I had a habit of using all the versions of the words I knew- my inability to be Gaelic or ancient Irish was really becoming apparent. 

Maybe- just maybe- I didn't want to go home. Well, I wanted to go home back to the world whihc made sense and the sun shined, but I didn't miss a lot of the hub-bub and the... mundaneness of the world I was used to. And I certainly didn't miss my parents and being constantly controlled, monitored and critiqued. Who knows- maybe this world is... ok.

Hey y'all! I have spent a ton of time organizing and world planning- there's so much you don't know yet! I am so excited and I hope you are as well- I appreciate the comments and votes more than I can say.... thank you so much. Also- pictures/music or nothing at the headers? I've heard mixed reviews on other books...