Undraland books 7 9 bund.., p.29
Undraland Books 7-9 Bundle, page 29
“Okay. I... that’s fine. But Linus first, right?”
“Of course. We’ll trek across Nøkken in the morning.” When Jens kissed my cheek, there was a note of permanence to the gesture – like he understood better this time around who we were, and that we wouldn’t fall away from each other.
“I’m going to sleep, guys. And Jamie, no more Gar, if you don’t mind. I’m pleasantly sleepy, and don’t feel like going further down than that.” I gave them all a half-hearted two-fingered salute and made my exit.
Twenty-Four.
Tucker’s Doubt
I made quick work of changing into actual pajamas so no one could suggest my prairie getup from the night before. My soft cotton shorts and worn baby blue tank top brought a level of comfort to edge out the forthcoming anxieties we would soon face. I was bent over my green backpack, making sure everything would be ready to go in the morning when I heard a knock at the door.
Tucker’s smile was in place, but his eyes were wary as they regarded me. “Turndown service?”
“Aren’t you used to me turning you down yet?” I teased. “What’s up, buddy?” I let him in and finished laying out my clothes for the next day. “Foss drink you under the table? He’s a take-no-prisoner kind of guy when it comes to that stuff.”
“Why didn’t you say no out there?” Tucker asked, cutting to the chase. He clicked his fingers over the wick of the taper candle by my bedside. “I can tell you hate the idea of being passed around.”
I shrugged. “I’d do anything for Foss. He’s one of my favorites. He did a good thing he didn’t want to do by marrying me last time. Saved me from all kinds of bad things. I can be cool with whatever this time around. I don’t like it, but it is what it is.” I sighed, folding my shirt for the morning and laying it atop the dresser. “Figures, doesn’t it? Jens and I are in a good place finally, and now this. Promise me Paris will be uneventful. I can’t take much more relationship drama.”
The candlelight danced off Tucker’s features, making him appear younger. “Paris will be beautiful. It never disappoints.” He sat on the edge of Nik’s bed, making himself comfortable without invitation. He had a certain charm to him, but I wasn’t sure at what point I was allowed to grow weary of it and tell him to get lost. “Do you really think you can raise Linus from the dead?”
“Are you serious? I wouldn’t have dragged everyone out here if I didn’t. You see how easy I go along with whatever. This was me putting my foot down. I’m positive we can. My mom preserved his soul in the same way Pesta preserved the souls in Be. Easy Peasy. Just dump his soul back inside and presto! I get my other half back. I’ll get me back.”
Suddenly it hit me that in no time at all, Linus would be alive. In all the planning and plotting and paying my dues, the payoff seemed too far away to properly celebrate. It had taken us four days to cross Nøkken before, and for half of that, Jamie and I had been bewitched by Mace to be too happy and out of our minds to be of much use.
I was going to have my brother back. I clutched my vial and stumbled backwards. My eyes were wide as I tried to wrap my mind around the life I’d lost that I’d have bits of back to hold onto. “Linus. We’re getting my brother back!”
Tucker quirked an eyebrow at me. “Are you just now realizing that?”
A wave of anxiety hit me out of nowhere. “He needs clothes. I didn’t even think to bring him anything! And snacks. I didn’t bring much food from our world over here. He’s going to wake up so disoriented. Shoes! He needs size nine men’s shoes. And I don’t want you all giving him knives and whatnot. The last thing we need is to get him back to life and then he does something foolish and stabs himself with a knife thinking he’s a ninja.” My face soured when the words escaped me. I’d just stabbed Havard through the chest, and here I was fretting about the same thing happening to my brother. I could just picture Linus’s body with ribbons of red floating out like slow-moving silly string through the water. “No knives!” I declared.
“I’m sure Jens will be heartbroken.”
At mention of Jens, I winced out of old habit. My neck felt the phantom weight of the collar the sirens had fitted me with. I clawed at my neck to remove it. “No! I won’t be quiet!” I shouted to Tucker, whose eyes were wide as he took in my freak-out. “When Linus comes back, I don’t want to see even a hint of a weapon out.”
Jamie could feel my panic. This is for your own good, syster. You’re going to upset yourself if you keep this up. Jamie downed another shot, and then poured another, sucking it down.
Tucker stood slowly, moving the candlestick to the wooden bedside table so it better lit the whole room with its dim flicker. He held his hand out to me as he sat back down on the side of the bed. “Come here, käresta. You’ve got a lot swimming up in that pretty little head of yours.”
I calmed down, narrowing my eyes at him as I placed my hand in his, standing before his seated form. “Why do your compliments always sound demeaning?”
“Is Jamie listening in?” he asked casually, examining our linked fingers.
I checked, but the bond was sufficiently numb. The pleasant feeling of alcohol trickled through me, sedating my panic over my unpreparedness to meet my brother again. I wasn’t drunk or anything, but my shoulders began to relax their grip on me so I could calm down. “No. He’s been drinking, though. Thought I was getting too worked up. What’s up?”
Tucker’s hushed voice was heavy with a note of secrecy. “I’m a little out of my element here. I swore I’d never come back to Undraland, but here I am. I followed you on this mission, Lucy. I’ll help you however I can, but know this: Pesta was an evil woman. I knew her long before her ridiculous petition to set up the Land of Be to save her hide.”
“You knew her? Huh. I can’t even picture her out of Be, just walking around like it’s nothing. What was she doing hanging around you?”
“You forget my charm. Just because you’re immune to it doesn’t mean all women are.”
I blanched and took a fumbling step back, dropping his hand. “You... you what? You hooked up with Pesta?” I shoved my hands under the hem of my tank top and wrapped them up in the material, exposing an inch of my stomach to hide my hands from view. I was wearing his ex-girlfriend’s blood like it was body paint at a rave.
Tucker shook his head. “It’s nothing. It was a year of on again, off again. I don’t know if you noticed, but she tends to air on the side of the dramatics. Possessive as anything.” He pressed his finger to his lips. “And keep quiet about that. Not many people know.”
“Um, okay. That’s kind of a big bomb to drop.”
“Well, I drop it because her word isn’t exactly trustworthy. Doesn’t it seem strange that she would help your mom? Hilda the Powerful who tried to kill her and stole her rake?”
I shrugged. “She killed my parents. I assumed that was enough. She probably didn’t expect them to act on the information so quickly and preserve his soul. Linus died not long after they crossed over. Pesta probably thought she’d followed through on her deal, but my parents wouldn’t have time to put it into action, so she thought she’d won on both accounts. That my guess, anyway.”
“I’m sorry your family died.”
I waved off the obligatory pity apology. I’d had enough of those to last a lifetime. “It’s going to work, Tuck. I’m getting Linus back.”
He stood, taking a step forward so he was towering over me. I really hated it when they did that. “I just want you to prepare yourself for the possibility that it might not work.”
It was as if he’d slapped me across the face. “What are you saying?”
His hands traced my triceps and gently gripped the skin there to focus me. “I’m saying that when I finally rid myself of her all those years ago, I ran to the Other Side without a dime in my pocket. She’s the worst kind of manipulative. Downright terrifying when she’s crossed.” He kissed my forehead. “I don’t want you to get your hopes up.”
My forehead burned where he’d touched it. I was nearly shaking with rage as I stapled my lips shut so as not to scream at him. My nostrils flared and I geared up to unleash as much wrath as I could access in my buzzed state. “Don’t you ruin this for me! I’ll get Linus back! I’m getting my brother back in just a couple days!” I shook my head and struggled to free myself from his grip that had become too hard to be comforting. “You’re wrong! You’re dead wrong! Pesta told my mom, and my mom did it right! My mom wasn’t an idiot! I’m sure she checked her facts before doing it all! You’re wrong!” I could feel clarity eluding me under the weight of my heightened anxiety and the Gar.
Jens let himself in and extracted me from Tucker, who explained the situation in a few short breaths. “Okay. Get some sleep, Tuck. And maybe don’t put your hands on her anymore.” Jens rubbed my arms and held me while I seethed.
“He’s wrong! Linus is waiting for us. We should go right now! Why are we waiting? Linus could be in pain! Did you ever think of that? Your body separated from your soul? That can’t feel good. Linus needs me!”
Jens glowered at Tucker. “You see what you did? Next time you want to be helpful, try guard duty. Jamie’s out there getting drunk, and we’ve got a long trek tomorrow. Get him to bed.”
Tucker held up his hands in surrender. “Lucy, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. Of course Linus will be okay.”
I lunged for him, but there was little force to my fight, thanks to Jamie. “Don’t you patronize me! I’ll show you! You’ll look at him and see that Linus is fine. He’s fine!”
“Goodnight, Tuck.” Jens shooed Tucker out the door and shut it, exhaling as he watched my fists shake with rage. “He didn’t mean anything by it. Tuck just walks around with his foot in his mouth. Ignore him.”
“Do you believe me? Do you think this’ll work?”
Jens ran his hand over his face. “Honestly? Before the river, I wasn’t convinced. But after Havard was real and actually did what he did to me? I wouldn’t be surprised if Linus was kicking my butt at Tekken inside a week.”
I flung myself into Jens’s arms, holding the man I adored. He knew me, and what’s more, he trusted me enough to let me lead on occasion. “I love you.” When I brought his face down to kiss him, there was a romance in the candlelight and a fire in my belly that climbed up inside me and attached itself to him.
Jens cupped the underside of my thighs and hoisted me up to wrap my legs around his waist. “I could feel you losing your cool all the way from outside,” he said between kisses. “Is that how laplanding is?”
I didn’t want to talk about laplanding. I didn’t want to talk. I wanted to makeout with my boyfriend without conversations about magic and his best friend. I mean, honestly. Is that too much to ask? I didn’t answer him, and let my preference be made clear in the form of my tongue lightly brushing his.
I didn’t know how long we had before I had to pretend to be married again, but I was determined to make use of every second until then.
Twenty-Five.
The Marriage Bed
Foss was set on passing out at the kitchen table with Jamie and Tucker, but Jens intervened, cutting them all off and sending the men to bed like the naughty boys they were.
I helped Foss to bed, letting him lean on my shoulder to keep his balance. What I would do if he actually fell, I’m not sure. Dude was big.
“’M not tired,” he insisted when I sat him down on the mattress. His lips were set in a tight scowl, and his dark eyes focused on his ring that hung around my neck, instead of my face. I took his socks off, smiling that he still wore the same brand I’d bought for him.
“Of course you’re not tired. Did you want to change?”
“’M fine. I can take care of myself.”
“Clearly.” The Gar was hitting me in waves. I only hoped I would make it to the bed before I passed out. Jamie hadn’t had as much to drink as Foss, but enough to make me glad there was a bed nearby. “Okay, I’m going to sleep. Goodnight, darling husband.”
He looked up at me through his haze. “You don’t want to be my husband.”
I tilted my head at the odd duck he was. “I don’t want to be anyone’s husband.”
“Jens. You want to be Jens’s husband.”
I was losing track of what we were talking about. “I’m too tired for this conversation. Can you be cool? You’re not going to hurl in the bed, are you?”
He took his shirt off and stood to remove his pants. The candlelight danced on the dark skin of his toned belly. “I told you, I’m fine.”
I slipped into the bed, taking the far side next to the wall so he didn’t have to stumble over me and crush me when he inevitably lost his footing. Given how “fine” he was, I didn’t doubt that he’d be unconscious within minutes. I wasn’t too far behind. The bed was cozy when I compared it with the complicated root system in the Elvage forest I’d had to maneuver around to make myself an uneven nest in. I closed my eyes and wished for the next few days to fly by.
There was weight next to me, and then warmth that slid in at my back, heating my body and endearing me to the fuzzy feelings both within me and without. Foss’s bare chest pressed up against my spine, his arm snaking around my waist and palming my stomach the way he did when he was picturing his child growing there. I shivered, and he kissed the back of my shoulder. I knew he was thinking about having a baby. It was inevitable, what with Britta’s sweet swollen belly around the house and everyone jabbing us both at our sham marriage. Foss was lost, but I always knew where to find him.
I reached my hand behind me and tickled his scalp with my nails. “It’s alright. I know it’s not easy.”
His fingers stroked my stomach, dragging from the dip in my hip up to the middle of my ribs and back down again. The motion was slow under my tank top, but hypnotically tantalizing. “I want to have a baby. I want a son.”
“I know, sweetie. I know. And someday you will. Someday you’ll have everything you want with a woman who wants those things, too.”
He caught my hand that was on his head by the wrist and pinned it to the pillow near the headboard. My breath caught in my throat as he continued playing my body like it was his fiddle, the added note of the restraint adding an edge of provocative danger I was not anticipating. “Can you give me what I want?” he whispered in my ear, making me squirm in his grip. I was covered in goose bumps, and my breath came out in shallow gasps that made my chest jump.
“You know I can’t!” I whined, hating how much I loved him, and that it was never enough. “Foss, don’t do this. It’s so dangerous. Everything you’re thinking isn’t helping either of us!” When his hand dipped to my knee and dragged up my thigh, I ripped my hands out of his restraint. “You said you’d let me go! That you wouldn’t keep tearing me in two!” I shook my head and turned around to face him. “You’re making me hurt you, and that kills me! I love you, Foss! Don’t make me hurt you again and again!”
Foss came to himself just enough to acknowledge the danger in the game he was playing. “I... You’re right. I’m sorry. I know you’re not my wife.” He closed his eyes. “I miss you.” He touched his heart, and my chest ached at the tenderness. “It’s harder than I thought, to stay away from you.”
I didn’t know what to say, but when he drew me back down, I went where he led. He wrapped me in his much larger body, pressing my stomach to his and looping my leg around his hip so he could hold me how he liked. “Foss, you’re only wearing your boxer briefs.”
He paused, bringing my hand up to his lips so he could kiss my fingers. “I don’t care. It’s the same as shorts.”
“Except Jens would murder you.” I shivered when his hand dipped below the covers and traced the line on my skin above my shorts at the small of my back.
“I packed in a hurry when I saw your star change. I didn’t bring anything to sleep in.”
I sighed. “Of course you didn’t.” I pressed my cheek to his bare chest, listening to the heartbeat that urged me closer, but never close enough. “Goodnight, Foss.”
“Goodnight, lovely wife.”
Of course he kissed me. Harlot that I am let it go on for nineteen whole seconds before I pulled away. “I said goodnight. Don’t make me kick your butt.”
His eyelids drooped from the late hour and too much Gar. “Don’t you know? You already own it. I own you, and you own me. I don’t like it.”
“I know. Me neither.” I watched the candlelight dance on his darker skin as sleep took him under. He was peaceful in slumber, beautiful, even. Without the permascowl, he looked younger and impossibly more handsome. I loved him in that fond way you remember the one who got away, even though we were wrapped around each other indiscreetly.
I finally slept. It was deep and without torture, thanks to Foss and the candle that stayed lit through most of the night. I was awoken to Foss’s soft snore hours later, and when I picked up my head, I was completely on top of his supine body with his hand cupping the curve of my backside. He was dead asleep, so I didn’t slap him, but I did slide off him. My motion turned him onto his side, his body seeking out mine even in sleep. He ended up with his cheek snuggled to my bosom like it was his coveted teddy bear.
I wanted to push him away on principle, but I couldn’t. He was precious. Precious in sleep and precious to me.
Twenty-Six.
Queen Lucy’s Man of Valor
I awoke to a knock on the door and Foss’s face in my boobs. “Get up. Honey, you have to wake up,” I whispered.
“Five more minutes,” he mumbled, nuzzling my cleavage in ways that made me blush and shiver. “I’m so comfortable.” He pressed his warm lips to the scar on my chest that bore his emblem.
I ran my fingers through his short hair. “Darling husband, get up before I roll you off me and dump you onto the floor.” Then to the second knock I called, “Just a second.” I tapped Foss on the back of the head.
He groaned, stretching atop me and reaching up to peck my lips. “Best night of sleep I’ve had in months.”
