A Midwinter Fantasy - Leanna Renee Hieber [44]
She had a point, he realized. Mace had seen more than one sylph with a master who was totally unsuitable, but once someone became a master, there was no changing it. Yet, while Lily’s words were true, he could only stare at her, unsure what to say.
Lily smiled. “I’m hardly planning on dropping dead tomorrow,” she reminded him. “But I don’t want to worry about this, either, and I want to meet the woman. I want to make sure for myself that she’s good enough for you. And . . . I’m hardly able to provide for all your needs anymore.”
That was also true. Mace still made love to her, but it was rare and done with the gentleness of stroking a dove, fragile and soft. That’s what Lily had become for him, and his fear of breaking her with his lust was something he’d obviously not hidden as well as he’d thought.
Her smile turned into a smirk for a moment and then faded back into that grim practicality he’d always loved. “Look around the Valley and see if there’s a woman you think you could spend another lifetime with. Perhaps someone you could truly love as deeply as some of you silly things do. At least, be open to the idea.” She looked at him directly. “I give you permission.”
“All right, I’ll be open to it,” he promised, knowing she meant for him to make love to this unknown woman: he would need to in order to be sure there was hope for a bond. Regardless of his words though, he had no intention of actively doing any such thing. He leaned forward to kiss her, his mouth gentle against hers. Lily bent into it, one gnarled hand reaching up to stroke his cheek, clean of hair in this form, the way she liked. He’d be open to her idea, and he would find a new master once she was gone, for otherwise all that remained for him was banishment and loneliness. Right now, though, he couldn’t imagine anyone replacing her, and if he was honest with himself, he didn’t think there was anyone out there that he could form a true soul tie with. Not the way Heyou had with the queen or Ril had with Lizzy and even Leon. He wasn’t that lucky.
He’d long since surrendered any hope that someday he might be.
Chapter Two
The boy was gone.
Mace found out about it when he was in a council meeting, where he sat on the board to represent the sylphs. Leon Petrule was talking, still the Valley’s chancellor at fifty-nine, though Mace had heard rumors that his wife gave him three more years to retire or she’d cut his ears off. Mace had been thinking to himself that he doubted the human would ever allow that to happen when he felt Lily’s usual calm placidity flip over into horror and rage, and he was bolting for the door before he even realized he was moving.
“Mace?” The queen gasped from the head of the table. There was no order in her tone, so he kept going, shifting his form and racing for the nearest sylph vent to the surface. People ducked out of his way, running from the black cloud that was his natural form. They always did. In the Valley, all battlers preferred their human bodies, and the stronger ties they gave to the human women they loved. To see a battle sylph in his real shape was to know that somewhere nearby was a threat.
What’s going on? asked Ril, the other battler on the council, speaking directly into his mind. Ril’s tension was obvious, and it spread through the rest of the hive. In another minute, the battlers would all be rising.
My master needs me, Mace told him. He felt Ril’s tension ease. This was personal, not something that would involve the hive as a whole. Mace had seen other battlers run off for no reason more pressing than that their masters were feeling lusty, but his Lily had never called him for that. Their lovemaking was controlled and planned. Other than the time one of her orphans decided to fall out of the tree in the front yard and break both his legs, she’d never put out a call that drew him from his work.
She wasn’t at their home. Instead, Mace tracked her a short distance away, to another neighborhood with houses similar to their own, most of