I promised him I’d be fine while I crunched my way through the snow, now grateful for the boots Cyrus had insisted I put on earlier. They weren’t practical in the Elemental Fae realm, but now I understood why he’d wanted me to wear them.
“Your surprise is this way,” Cyrus said with a smirk.
“This isn’t the surprise?” I asked, my eyes wide. Just being here meant the world to me.
Titus rolled his eyes as if my question insulted him. “Please. Do you think just a realm jump is all we had in mind?” He took my hand and guided me down the street, ignoring the humans that stared at us. While my fae could technically blend in, they couldn’t hide how otherworldly and freaking gorgeous they were.
“They’re staring at you, not us,” Cyrus corrected me, hearing the direction my thoughts had gone.
The side of my mouth lifted up in a wry grin. “Because I’m starting to look like a snowball with this growing stomach?” I guessed. “I’m painfully aware of how big I’m getting. You all have been kind not to comment on it.”
Cyrus rested a hand on my belly, his love seeping through me along with his magic. “Everyone is watching you because you’re radiant, Claire.”
Agreement surged through my mate-bonds, reassuring me that I wasn’t the walking marshmallow I envisioned myself to be. To my mates, I was the picture of beauty and fertility. That thought made me lift my chin with pride.
When we passed through the main streets from downtown into the more rural area, puddles formed where the city had oversalted—something about my hometown I’d forgotten.
Sol held out a hand, stopping me before I stepped into one of them by accident. Then he glanced at a car that blocked the higher ground and stormed up to it, gripped it from the bottom, and lifted it over his head.
“Sol!” I shrieked while Cyrus rubbed his temples.
My earth mate blinked at me. “What?”
Vox glanced around before sending a gust of wind magic to push the car off of Sol’s shoulder. It looked as if it might crash to the ground, but Cyrus swept a layer of snow underneath it to cushion the blow.
Exos patted Sol on the shoulder, my Earth Fae mate still confused about what had just happened.
“There are rules in the Human Realm,” Exos explained, his words holding more patience to them than I had right now. The last thing I wanted was for interrealm laws to be broken when I was about to give birth.
The consequences were dire—a necessary measure to keep fae from revealing themselves to non-fae species.
The Human Realm was one of the last remaining neutral zones. Thus, fae valued humans in a variety of ways, and many of those benefits would be in jeopardy if the non-fae ever found out how they were being used.
It was a bit strange to think that way since I used to be human. Well, I wasn’t truly human. But half-human and unaware of my heritage.
Anyway, the train of thought was so natural now, when it used to be quite foreign.
But maybe humans shouldn’t be taken advantage of so—
Relax, Cyrus demanded in my thoughts, the word an order. You’re here to rest, not to devise more political schemes.
I glowered at him. “I am relaxed,” I said out loud and stormed through the puddle. I could rest and scheme at the same time.
Cyrus whispered the puddle away from my steps, casting it out like a mini tidal wave that froze in beautiful arcs.
I rolled my eyes. “Now who’s risking breaking interrealm laws?”
“Nobody’s around,” he said, his voice cheery as he guided our little group around the corner. “That’s why we picked it. We want you all to ourselves.”
I gasped when I spotted what he meant. A darling cottage rested at the end of a long trail of snow, filled with a field of browned cornstalks in neat rows behind it.
“Do you like it?” Cyrus asked.
Tears filled my eyes and tumbled over my cheeks. I sniffled and wiped them away with the back of my hand, but they kept coming and soaked into the fur lining of my coat. “Oh, Cyrus—all of you. Yes! Yes, of course I love it.”
“She’s crying again,” Sol said, sounding distressed. “I don’t like it when you cry, little flower.”
“I’m fine,” I promised, slipping my hand into his and giving him a squeeze. “Really. These are happy tears.”