Chapter 8
From the grim set of Cuan’s jaw, she was really not going to like it.
“Well, whatever your idea is, it has to be better than having my brain chugged like a craft beer by evil elves.” Tamsin braced herself. “Tell me.”
His chest rose as he drew in a deep breath. He straightened to his full, towering height, shoulders as stiff as if he was facing a firing squad.
“We could mate,” he said.
It was so unexpected, she thought she’d misheard. She spent a second trying to work out what he’d actually said—Bait? Wait? Hate?—before giving up. “Sorry, what?”
“We could mate,” he said again, pronouncing the words carefully. “You and I. Now.”
“Uh,” Tamsin managed to get out, mouth suddenly dry. “And by mate, you mean…?”
“Join our bodies and souls in the most deep and intimate way possible.” His tone was still studiously neutral, as though he was proposing a business merger. “It is our most sacred tradition, even older and more powerful than tithing. If you were mated to a fae, then you could no longer be treated as a mere plaything by the high sidhe. You would be considered unseelie fae yourself, by right of the mate-bond. It is the only solution. We must mate now, before I am next challenged.”
“Whoa, whoa, back up the truck.” Cuan’s face went comically blank, and Tamsin hastily added, “I mean, I’m still struggling to understand what you’re saying. Are you seriously proposing that we get married?”
Cuan paused for an instant, as though having to translate this. “I have heard of that human ritual. Marriage is when two people exchange vows to love and honor each other, forsaking all others, yes?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“We would call that hand-fasting. Mating is much more.” He crouched down so that their faces were level, his eyes utterly serious. “You must be very clear on what this involves, Tamsin. Mating is a profound, permanent union. It is not merely the physical joining of our bodies in shared joy, nor just well-meaning words of promise. It is magic, our deepest magic, and not one to be undertaken lightly. Our fates and souls would be forever intertwined. If you choose this path, it cannot be undone.”
Her mouth was hanging open. She spent a moment shutting it and opening it again, no doubt looking ridiculously like a fish out of water. Then again, that was exactly how she felt.
“Okay,” she said, finding words at last. “Right. And you’d be happy to do this with me?”
“Yes,” he said simply, and nothing more.
Tamsin searched his face. He seemed absolutely sincere. There wasn’t the slightest hint that he had lost his mind in the last two minutes.
“Cuan, you’ve literally known me for one day,” she said. “And you were unconscious for most of it. It would be way too soon to consider sharing a Netflix subscription, let alone our very souls!”
“I am aware that this may seem somewhat hasty,” Cuan said, once again demonstrating a remarkable gift for understatement. “I would not even have suggested it had not time been so short. But I could be challenged and killed before the moon sets, leaving you alone and defenseless. You know what fate you face. This is the only way I can guarantee your safety.”
“Even so, you can’t be serious. Me, magically bound to you? Permanently? It’s insane!”
“If we were not in such desperate straits, I would never have dared to suggest it.” He dropped his gaze to her hands, voice roughening. “I…I appreciate that I am hardly the sort of man you could have dreamed would be your life-mate.”
A hysterical laugh escaped her. “Oh boy. You got that right.”
He flinched, just a little—but then lifted his head again, meeting her eyes steadily once more. “I know that I am not the mate you deserve. But I would strive every day to be worthy of you.”
“No, that’s not what I—argh!” She rubbed her forehead, feeling a headache coming on. “Cuan, you seem like a great guy. You must be, considering what you’ve already done to try to protect me. But proposing to spend the rest of our lives together? This is taking your whole white knight thing way too far.”
Cuan was looking bewildered again. “I am not a knight. And my armor is brown.”
“See? This is exactly my point!” She waved her hands in the air. “We barely even speak each other’s language! Why on earth are you willing to sacrifice so much for me when we’ve only just met? For all you know, I could be a, a kleptomaniac serial killer with a collection of lovingly polished human teeth stashed away in my sock drawer.”
One corner of Cuan’s mouth quirked up, very slightly. “If that is a confession, I remain undaunted. My teeth are not human, after all.”
Looks like sex on a stick and has a sense of humor, some little inner voice pointed out. Are you sure you want to object to this whole let’s-mate-to-save-your-life scheme?
Tamsin shoved her libido back down again. “Cuan, I can’t let you do this. No matter how honorable you are, or how much you want to protect the poor defenseless human, this is going too far. You can’t permanently bind your soul to mine just because you feel sorry for me!”
“That would not,” his voice dropped to the faintest breath, “be the reason.”