WAIT FOR LOVE (Lovemark #4)

3. Olivander-1

3

Olivander

“Unity is my mate,” I explained, ripping the piece of parchment from Dori’s hand and irritably crumpling it back into a ball before tossing it onto the pile of a dozen other discarded letters I’d never sent. “And you weren’t supposed to read that.”

“Sorry,” she said, not sounding sincere at all as her eyebrows lifted in surprise over my moody, embarrassed tone. Then she c****d her head curiously. “So you’re mated to someone already? That’s, uh, that’s cool. Congratulations.”

I nodded distractedly, my mind shifting to Unity. “She’s much younger than me, however. So I, er, she went off to an academy—that is, a school for young ladies—when she was young. It was her idea; don’t think I sent her away because I didn’t want to deal with her.”

Dori frowned curiously over my uptight tone before slowly answering, “Um, okay. The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind, actually.”

“Oh.” The tension in my shoulders relaxed, making me realize I needed to work on the knee-jerk defensiveness I always experienced whenever I talked about Unity’s education.

I’d listened to too many nosy, judgmental insinuations over the years about why everyone else thought she’d left when she had, so now, the mere mention of her being apart from me instantly got my dander up.

But Dori didn’t seem to care one way or another.

Which was…

Nice.

So I relaxed and explained the situation as best as I could. “She was always in awe of the learned ladies whenever they came to court. They had this sophisticated air of wisdom and knowledge about them that she craved. And so, when she asked if she could go, I couldn’t tell her no. I’ve never been able to deny her anything.”

“Hmm.” Dori furrowed her brow in confusion. “So next question…”

“Another?” I asked dryly. “I’m shocked.”

She scowled over my sarcastic tone before saying, “Why did she need your permission to go to school? Shouldn’t that have been something her parents decided? Or is that not how it works here?”

“Oh, it is,” I answered. “Parents typically rear their own children. But I was Unity’s guardian since she was basically born until she turned eighteen.”

Dori shook her head, more boggled than before. “You’re your own mate’s guardian?”

“I was,” I repeated. “She’s come of age since then and no longer requires one, but she was solely my responsibility until she reached her maturity. And no, that’s not how it usually works here, either.”

“So what made you the exception to the rule?”

I sighed. It was already too late to get into this kind of discussion. The sun had set and weariness weighed heavily on my bones, plus my chest always compressed with unwanted nostalgic pangs whenever I thought of Unity. But Dori had patiently explained her world to me. I should return the favor and brief her about the customs and accepted practices in this one, especially since she was being forced to live here, whether it be permanently or just for the time being.

“The kingdom we live in here—High Cliff,” I explained, pointing to it on the map for her. “It has an edict for all its people—from royalty down to peasants—to get these tattoos on our faces at birth.”

I tapped my finger against the mark of a heart inside a spiraled circle that sat on my left temple, next to my eye.

“Okay,” she said slowly, obviously unsure what this had to do with anything but still following my explanation.

When I tapped the tattoo another four times, electric sparks shot from it.

“Whoa!” Dori reared back, her eyes widening with alarm. “What the hell?”

Her reaction made me smile. “Once you have the mark applied to you by a high priestess, which is a magic-bearing woman of pure heart, it will reveal your true love to you at—well—we call it at first sight, but you actually begin to sense them before even seeing them whenever they move within close-enough proximity to you. It’s like you just feel them inside your head with you.”

“Weird,” Dori murmured, wrinkling her nose, even as her eyes gleamed with interest, showing how intrigued she was by the idea. “And you sensed Unity as your mate, or whatever, when she was only—”

“About two moon cycles—er, months—old,” I answered. “And I was thirteen.”

“Wow.” She blew out a low whistle. “That’s crazy.”

She seemed to be commiserating with me, so I nodded solemnly. “It happened when my father’s emissary from Tipton came to visit the castle with his wife, who had recently borne a child, which they brought along with them. My mark alerted me to my true love’s presence, and I followed it to the nursery where Unity was being fed by a wet nurse.”

“Wicked.” Dori shook her head in amazement. “So, what did you do?”

“Well, after I announced that she was mine, the emissary and his wife immediately put her under my guardianship, thrilled to learn their progeny was destined for royalty. And then…” I swallowed bitterly, remembering the next part as if it had just happened yesterday. “Then they left her with me to raise however I saw fit when they returned to Tipton.”

“Wait. They just left their newborn child with a teenage boy? Like, abandoned her?”

“I am a prince,” I answered on a cringing shrug, even though I didn’t believe that was a solid enough reason, either. I agreed with Dori’s horror and had never been a fan of the Marescas’ decision to leave Unity with me. She should’ve had the love and guardianship of her parents in those early years.

“To them,” I tried to explain aloud, however, “it was a great honor to bequeath their daughter to me. So... That’s what they did. Without waiting for her to grow up first.”

“But—”

“I know,” I cut in with a telling look. “Trust me, I know. I had no idea how to raise a child. I felt too young to take on such a responsibility. But being my mate, she felt too important for me to just dump off on some nursemaid and forget, so…” I shook my head, at a loss for words. “I learned how to become a father of sorts.”

“But she’s actually your mate? Wait. In your world, are mates supposed to be like—”

“Partners?” I finished for her. “Yes. They are.”

“With, like, intimate—”

“Yes,” I hissed, growing more and more uncomfortable by the second.

“Eww.” She recoiled in aversion before shaking her head and asking, “So how the hell is that going to work for you guys now?”

“That’s a good question.” One I’d been asking myself for years. “I have no idea how she’s supposed to transfer from my dependent to my lover.” Even the idea made me shudder with more apprehensions than I could list. “That’s another reason I let her go to the academy before she reached maturity.”

“Yeah.” Dori bobbed her head in total agreement. “I mean, what if you started desiring her before she was old enough, or—ugh—actually, no. No, I can’t get past that one. I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.” She pressed her lips together tightly and turned an unbecoming shade of green.

“I had similar concerns.” I still had them. “I had never considered her in that way. Not once. I couldn’t even fathom starting to see her as an object of lust. And though it felt like severing an arm to let her go, I knew some time apart would be the best for both of us. I needed a bit of space to separate the child from the woman. And she needed some freedom from me. All she’d ever known was how to be my other half. I wanted her to be able to think about just herself for a while, learn who she wanted to be as a person, discover her own hopes and dreams, bloom how she wanted to bloom.”

“Aww.” Dori smiled softly as she pressed a hand to her heart. “That’s actually kind of sweet.”

I winced. “However, that was nearly nine years ago,” I confessed. “And I haven’t seen her once since then. She finished her education at the academy two years past, yet she didn’t come home then as everyone assumed she would. She decided to stay on for a bit to help teach. I didn’t argue with her decision; I don’t think I was ready either. But a bit has passed now, and I was thinking maybe we could at least visit face-to-face after all these years. Except...”

Damn. Another cringe filled me as I glanced at the discarded note, remembering exactly what I’d written on that particular draft.

Dear Unity, I was hoping to extend you an invitation to come home, but I must now decline as my life is no longer secure here. In fact, maybe you should seek an alternate haven, telling no one where you are, and I’ll find you when it’s safe. With love, Olivander.

“Except your life isn’t secure here,” Dori finished my explanation for me, glancing at the note again. Her attention suddenly veered back to me. “But why aren’t things safe here?” she asked, only for her eyes to widen with dread. “Oh hell. Helping me hasn’t put you in some kind of danger, has it?”

When I hesitated, her back straightened, and her eyes went wide. “Vander?”

“No,” I rushed to say. “No. It’s nothing like that.” Not really, anyway. Sending her a tense smile, I lifted a calming hand. “I, um, there’s another issue entirely that I promised to help Indigo with. There are three Graykey children out there, you see, whose father recently died. I’d like to find them and provide them with some protection if I can because they’d be terminated if my father ever got wind of their existence and found them.”

“What?! That’s terrible. Why in the world would anyone want to hurt three innocent kids?”

“Because of the curse,” I explained. “It’s difficult for the people of our world to consider any Graykey innocent, no matter how old they are. The entire family is prone to breaking out into mad fevers of random bloodlust where they start indiscriminately murdering each other and then everyone around them. It usually only lasts for a short period, but it always leaves a bloody mess of c*****e and destruction behind. It’s felled kingdoms before.”

“My God.” Dori winced and pressed a hand to the base of her throat. “And your friend, Indigo, is married to one of these Graykey people?”

“Yes, but Quilla figured out a way to avoid the more savage side effects of the curse. Which is why I wanted to be the one to find the children first. If I could save them the way Quilla saved herself, then there would be no need to kill them. They could go on to live full, happy lives, apart from the curse.”

“Wow. That’s a noble goal.” Dori blinked at me as if this was the first time she’d ever seen me. “You’re actually a really good guy, aren’t you?”

My face heated over the compliment.

Clearing my throat, I said, “My father wouldn’t agree. He refuses to have any tolerance or understanding when it comes to Graykeys. So I’m being forced to do this without his knowledge or permission. And if he did find out what I was attempting, he’d see it as an act of treason. Son or not, he’d have me whipped and hanged within a week.” After a thoughtful pause, I added, “Or maybe he’d go straight to a beheading.”

It was hard to guess what he’d do. But I was sure I wouldn’t like it.

“Shit.” Dori gulped loudly. “That’s not cool. I guess helping me really isn’t your biggest concern right now, is it?”

I sighed, then wiped my face with a hand. “Helping you is still a risk, but no, it’s not my main worry. Not many know about your world, though, or the portal that can open between the two. So I am uneasy about the possibility of anyone else—namely my father—realizing that there’s more life out there than this. He might take it as a threat, or…” I shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know what he’d do but I have a feeling you wouldn’t be quite as welcome here to him. And I’d prefer not to take the chance of finding out exactly how he’d react. Which means that I have more than one secret I’m keeping from him. And if he catches on that I know something that he doesn’t, he could easily use Unity to force me to talk, so—”