Beyond the Aching Door (The Fatebound Duology, #1)

by Victoria Mier

slight hitch in his voice.

“I will not allow any harm to come to you,”

“Well, I’m changing the fucking deal,”

the King looked at her as if she might be the sun.

Oh he loves her body, mind, and soul

maiden with Pre-Raphaelite waves of red hair leaned over a small balcony, offering her token to a dark-haired knight astride a powerful black destrier.

Love this

She stepped toward him gingerly, having the strangest feeling that even such a powerful creature could—at some point—break.

Then, slinking out of the darkness, came a voice as low and dark as the night itself. “If you dare to harm her, I will slit your belly open and invite the Cŵn Annwn to feast upon your entrails.”

Touch her and die

She watched the King readjust his grip on the shadow-blade and realized very quickly that he was not the type to trade insults back and forth with the enemy.

Thank god bc that shit is stupid.. just kill him

“Did you stab him?” the King wanted to know.

“Yes,” Raegan replied, holding up her soiled knife with all the glee of a kindergartener at show-and-tell.

His mouth curved into the no-man’s-land between a smirk and a smile. She ached for nothing but to drag his lips down to hers. “Beautiful,” the King said, only just louder than a murmur, and Raegan had no idea if he was speaking about her assault on the Protectorate man or . . . her.

haste. But this is a wild place. And wild places are still mine.”

“Doesn’t it matter what things used to be just as much as what they are now?” At that, he swung his gaze to meet hers, eyes black in the gloom. “Yes,” the King answered. “I suppose it does.”

Y’all’s history matters. What you used to be matters.

“You keep coming back,” he said, as if that explained anything. “Always mortal. Always doomed. And yet you will not cease.”

Fucking hell.. that has to be HARD

“You and I, Overhill, have known each other for a millennium.”

He was not her once-in-a-hundred-lifetimes, and she was not his. Not anymore. A bottomless sorrow enveloped her, the edges folding in on themselves, and Raegan felt something deep inside her fracture. She had managed to lose a grand and beautiful impossibility—a love that haunted her from one life to the next, echoing across space and time. Her throat closed off, and she dropped her head into her hands, fingers digging into her scalp. Emptiness lurched from the corners of the room. Her vision blurred.

What the fuck…

It was just like Layla had said when they’d broken up. Raegan was too hard to love. Even for the person who had done so for centuries, until he just couldn’t take it any longer.

I might cry… fuck

Together, they could try to change the ending.

Cardigan.. tried to change the ending… Peter losing Wendy

Then the King released a breath, the line of his shoulders sagging. “I know,” he said, holding her gaze in a way that once again made her realize how ancient he was, his gray eyes fathomless. “I know, Overhill. I too had the dream last night.”

Wait… shut up. They share the dream?!!

“Are you looking for her?” she asked in a raw whisper.

Ooof that fucking hurt…

She wanted to throw herself on the ground and weep, to beg and bargain, to forgo everything and forsake everyone if only she could have him back. Instead, Raegan looked away from the King, wishing she had never said anything about the dream at all, wishing she had forgotten it the moment she opened her eyes, wishing Death would just fucking keep her next time.

“Are you saying that men were mad the Fey were more powerful than them, so they released Kronos, and now we have fucking capitalism?”

and so without another single intelligent thought, she tightened her grip on the book the King had pressed into her hands and chucked it over his shoulder at the opposite wall. It made a soft thud on impact, the pages crinkling against the stone, spine crumpling as it landed in a heap on the ground below.

Her second outburst and I’m dead!

“Get a grip, High King!” Raegan shouted, surprised at how loudly her voice rang out in the space. “Do you honestly think I’m going to stay behind to read and knit or what-fucking-ever because you can’t handle your own shit? Because that’s what this is. I’m finally back, and you can’t handle the idea that something might happen to me. Guess what? Something always happens to me. You’re always going to lose me. Get used to the goddamn pain.”

Oh. My. God. Gagged. I don’t know whether to bow or scream!

No matter what she flung at him, he never retreated like everyone else always did. Instead, he held himself in exactly the same place, his body hovering above hers, arms caging her in. “Fine,” the King spat at her, his lip curling with fury.

Raegan hadn’t even processed that she had bent the Unseelie King to her will before he caught her jaw between the fingers of one hand, holding her gaze with those deep gray eyes. “Get dressed,” he snarled, the planes

Skeptical, she gently put her dress on the ground and then turned back to the mirror.

If this works she’s fucking genius

A few years ago, she would have lamented the way her stomach was far from flat beneath the tight dress and second-guessed the amount of cleavage on display. But now that she had a Fey king’s life to ruin, it all felt perfectly right.

Nothing sensible or wise won out. None of Raegan’s street smarts or even a basic regard for her physical safety was able to overcome the thick, beating desire that consumed every inch of her body. So she prowled to the King, planting one hand on either side of the chair, just as he’d done to her. For good measure, she slid her knee onto the chair’s seat, right between his thighs. “Is this good enough?” Raegan asked him, one eyebrow arched, staring down at him.

Oh my GOD!!! AHHHHHHHHH

“Do leave my books out of your tantrums in the future.”

“This title is quite rare,” he replied, gaze holding hers again, molten amusement in his expression. “It should be treated with more care. There are some things, Overhill, that demand a finer, more experienced touch.”

Sir… I don’t think you mean this book…

She leaned closer, pressing her leg against the King’s inner thigh. “I’m not used to being gentle,” she breathed. “You’ll have to show me what you mean.”

GAGGED

Oh I think she wants you to asshole

Do you intend to make me say it aloud?”

Yes please

he had always been able to withstand her edges, jagged as broken glass.

The King helped her out, every touch lingering for half a heartbeat longer than necessary.

All her thoughts swept away when the King slipped his arm around her waist, fingers splayed across the curves of her belly. With their bodies fitted together like lost puzzle pieces,

“If you do not close your mouth,” the King murmured in her ear, “you will look quite unsophisticated, which is decidedly not my type.”

“So then beg.”

GAGGED

Are they gonna ever kiss or fool around?!

The King pulled one hand away, which was enough for Raegan’s mind to clear a little. But such clarity lasted only a moment, as he used his free hand to reach for the lip of her stool and pull it closer to his. Trying and failing to push the thrumming of her unmet hunger to the side, Raegan turned to face the bar—and the King.

Posseove kings are my thing

But she could not stop her eyes from slipping to the dark-eyed, raven-haired being beside her. Because at this moment, all Raegan really wanted was the King.

Really want you to act in this tonight

“Like this,” he said, a muscle in his jaw leaping as the words left his mouth. One powerful hand gestured noncommittally toward her.

“You were this,” Oberon repeated, the words soft. “You were . . . just like this.”

Her entire body burned for him,

Too short!!!

and eternity? And worst of all, Raegan wondered if the strange feeling that had unfolded in her chest for a moment back at the bar could be crushed now that she recalled the sweetness of its bloom.

LOVE

“Renhines pennaf,” Blodeuwedd said in a tear-choked whisper, tucking the crown of Raegan’s head beneath her chin. “My queen is returned. After all these years.”

“You and I were both flowers plucked by greedy hands,” Blodeuwedd said, her words fervent, eyes holding Raegan’s. “They thought they might contain us in pretty vases or breed us for more blooms. But the plucking turned us into something else, didn’t it? Something with wings and talons. Do not forget that.”

“It is excruciating,” he said in a low voice, “to watch you.” And the King reached for her.

Oh he WANTS to fuck her too