Cyra's lips were tilted in an amused smile as we walked out of the room, but a few seconds later, they parted in a gasp. Her fox ears laid flat across her head, and she raised an accusing finger.

"You sealed a mating bond."

Oh, good lord. I blushed as her nostrils flared, clearly scenting the sex and magic wafting off us. These damn Fae and their noses. How was I ever going to deal with the constant assault of smells when I finally shed my human side?

Calix crushed me against his side and bared his teeth. "We did. So keep your wandering eyes and hands to yourself, Cyra."

The Autumn princess threw her hands up and shook her head. "I'm all for spreading the love, but I wouldn't touch anyone in a mated pair. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because we hadn't sealed the bond. You know we do not speak openly of such things."

That was news to me. Our little spat the night before could have been easily solved if he told me it was for cultural reasons. I bit down on my lip and squeezed my thighs together to quell the sudden ache between my legs. No. I think I quite preferred how last night turned out.

"Luna." Calix gripped the hair at the base of my neck and pulled my head back. "Stop whatever you're thinking right now, unless you want me to shove that dress over your head and fuck you in front of her."

Cyra straightened, looking positively delighted by the prospect. I swallowed, not certain I hated the idea either. But then, despite what I'd said earlier, I was in no mood for quick, and if we started fucking again, we would never make it to see the queen.

"I thought mates didn't do public displays," I said, doing my best to push away the intense desire flooding through me.

"There are always exceptions, little moon, especially in the first months and years of a bond."

"Years?"

Cyra laughed and twirled a piece of scarlet hair around her finger. We had started our way down the hall. Calix threaded his fingers through mine.

"Oh yes. The lust between mated pairs is especially high at first, and the stronger the bond, the longer that intensity lasts. True mates, though. I don't think it ever fades." She stopped to pluck a golden leaf from a tree branch growing out of the wall.

"We have a story we like to tell. Of the true mates, Iona and Pyro. They followed the old ways of the Fae and bound themselves in a ceremony before their family and friends. She wore a dress of the finest pixie lace and wove flowers through her hair and antlers."

Mesmerized, I leaned closer to her as she talked. The ceremony she described sounded a lot like a human wedding, with flowers and food and dancing. Which made sense, considering the Fae often married humans.

But then she said, "At the end of the night, she climbed upon the altar he had built especially for her, and he mounted her. It became the largest and longest recorded orgy in our history. They have written songs about her screams of pleasure."

"And...and how long did it last?" I asked.

Calix squeezed my hand, and when I glanced at him, I noted the tense lines around his eyes and jaw. And there was something else. The sweetest smell of pine and sugar.

"The sources don't agree, but the average documented time is five years. They stopped only to sleep and eat food brought to them by their servants."

"Five?" My voice was a harsh rasp. "That's impossible."

"Perhaps for your human body, but..." She shrugged a shoulder and put her hand on a dark wooden door that was carved with leaves and stretched at least twenty feet tall.

"It's a story," Calix whispered. "That young Fae girls like to read to one another at sleepovers."

"Why are you so certain it's not true?" Cyra asked.

"Because if it was something that happened between true mates, then you wouldn't have been able to pry me off Luna." His starlight eyes flared brightly. "Never has there been a truer mate bond than what is between us."

"Oh, gross," Cyra said, shoving open the door and gesturing in front of her. "After you two lovebirds."

Calix rolled his eyes and pulled me into the most beautiful place I'd ever been. The aisle leading to the throne was shaded by towering trees of oak with leaves made of literal jewels. Rubies, yellow diamonds, fire opals, and garnets. Glittering and tinkling when they bumped against one another as they hung off boughs as large as some tree trunks.

Throughout the space, lanterns dangled from branches. The warm firelight flickered and fractured through the precious leaves, sending a cascade of sparkles over the ground. And they encased all this inside a cathedral of ornately carved tan stone.

"Oh hello," I said as a red fox ran up to me and put its tiny front paws on my legs. It swished its bushy black-tipped tail in response before barking and running back into the forest.

"You like it here."

I looked up at my mate and nodded. "I've always loved Fall."

"More than summer?"

Knowing what he was getting at, I leaned my head against his arm. "Perhaps once. Now summer has its own charms."

That earned a smile. One that fell into a straight line that gave away nothing as we approached the queen. Her throne was carved from a stump whose roots they had left in the ground. The arms and back were made of many twisted branches that surrounded her like a cocoon, hiding her in the shadows.

"I suppose you will not be supplying me with my future grandchild," she said. A shaft of light revealed half of her face. A near match for her daughter's and just as stunningly beautiful.

"My apologies, Queen Orla, but know that I would not have spurned you for anything less than my true mate."

"Charming as always, Calix, son of Orion, or should I call you King Calix now? If you can your get kingdom back." Queen Orla slid out of her chair and shook her golden skirts to straighten them. Her bottle green eyes swung to me. "And for a human lass. Earthborn to hear it told."

"Yes," Calix said, not elaborating. No one was to know I was a Changeling.

"How fortuitous. Your union will produce powerful offspring. Though..." She tilted her head and stepped closer to me. "You do have the look of the Autumn Court, child. How old are you?"

Heart pounding, I worked moisture into my suddenly dry mouth. "Thirty."

"Human years or Fae?"

"Human."

"So 300 years in Fae. Hmm."

"What are you suggesting?" Calix demanded, his voice tight.

"Did you know I had a sister?"

Calix shook his head warily. "I did not."

"She disappeared long ago. Just before the Vow, and I suspected she was with child." Queen Orla wiped the corner of her eye and cleared her throat.

"That's a stretch, don't you think?" The quiver in the question betrayed my emotion. "Of all the humans in the world, how likely could that be?"

"Oh, for a child of the Fae, magic is always at play. It always seeks to send you home. And that would mean..." This time, when she cocked her head to the side, I caught sight of her fox ears. "You are a princess of the Autumn Court."