Robin Owens: Heart Fortune

They left the room and Glyssa’s parents followed them, her mother with Zem and her father carrying Lepid.

At the door he and Glyssa received kisses from the Licorices and admonitions to rest. Not that they’d been doing much of anything else.

Jace smiled at the older people. No trace of the former wariness had outlasted the announcement of their HeartBond.

Rhiza D’Licorice eyed him. “I’ll send some lunch up. Sit on the balcony and eat, get some sun.” She put Zem on his shoulder.

“Uh-huh,” Jace said, opening the door. Lepid walked in, tail lower than usual. He sniffed at his bed, then went out the open balcony door. Jace placed Zem on the perch. They both gave a tiny shudder. They’d both used that object to fix the image for the long teleportation in their minds. Zem dipped his beak in his water and drank.

“I’m so glad you’re here and safe, Zem,” Glyssa said.

He didn’t look up. I am, too. I love you all. Up on FamMan’s shoulder now.

“Of course.” Glyssa lifted the bird to Jace’s shoulder then linked fingers with him.

They walked hand in hand through the door of Glyssa’s sitting room to the balcony overlooking the estate’s tangled gardens. An edging of tall pines separated the D’Licorices’ land from the PublicLibrary that the Family treasured so much.

He dropped her fingers to move Glyssa’s chair out from the café table but she ignored it, stretched her arms high as she stepped full into the sun. He felt a very welcome flicker of lust in his groin.

FamMan, I would like to perch on the rail, said Zem. Jace lifted the light bunch of feathers Zem had become. The bird didn’t have any broken bones, but like the rest of them he was exhausted, though the bond between Jace and his Fam remained strong, solid and bright blue.

Jace set Zem on the far end of the white tinted wooden rail that held both shade and sun so the Fam could move to another spot if he got too warm or cold.

This city is not too bad, the trees aren’t as large as at my home, and the human and animal smells are interesting, Zem said. He lifted his beautiful wings and stretched them in the sun. It will be good to have warm shelter in the winter.

“We could get some bad snow,” Glyssa said. “I’m not sure how much snow the area around Lugh’s Spear receives.”

Not a lot, Zem said, and began to groom his feathers.

Glyssa leaned against the rail and looked down at the land, then angled her head toward the large structure of the PublicLibrary. When Jace approached, she turned her head and smiled. Her face wasn’t as thin as it had been after their ordeal, but still showed smudges under her eyes. She looked fragile. Gesturing to the landscape, she said, “I want to soak up the view this winter. We won’t be back to live here ever again.”

“Probably not.” He picked up one of her hands resting on the rail and kissed it. “HeartMate.”

She sighed and her smile widened. “I never get tired of hearing you say that.”

FamWoman and FamMan, Lepid added as he curled in the sun.

Glyssa laughed. “Those are good words, too, revealing our connections.”

FamMan and FamWoman, Zem said.

“Lovely Fams,” Glyssa murmured.

“Great Fams,” Jace said at the same time.

He kissed her fingers. “But there’s one thing I haven’t said yet,” he replied, all too aware of those three small words.

Her eyes widened and the atmosphere seemed to rustle with anticipation. She reached out and took his hands in her own. “I love you,” she said.

His heart just thumped hard in his chest. She hadn’t said those words, either. He’d been too skittish around her for her to trust those words to him. Maybe she’d been too proud to say those words to him when she thought they wouldn’t be returned.

He just realized now how much he needed to hear them.

HeartMating and HeartBonding, all that meant love, but the simple phrase was a whole lot more necessary than he’d thought. In fact, her soft tone echoed through him, finally sank into his bones where they’d always warm him.

“I love you. I will forever,” he said.

She slid against him, wrapped her arms around his neck and their tongues played together. He closed his eyes and simply enjoyed her taste, having her in his arms. Again he felt the beginning of desire and welcomed that.

I love you, too, FamWoman and FamMan. I have said that OFTEN. Lepid lifted his muzzle and opened his mouth to smile and let his tongue loll in a grin.

Zem snicked his beak. I love you both, too.

When she pulled away, her face was rosy and she was smiling with a spark in her eyes he’d missed. He shook his head.

“What?” she asked. “I’m getting mixed feelings from you.”

“You should be getting all my love, HeartMate.”

Now she just beamed and leaned against him, slipping her arms down around his waist. She let out a breath. “I love you, HeartMate.”

“You know I’m phenomenally lucky.”

“Pretty much,” she agreed. “Pretty lucky, especially when it counts.”

“You said phenomenally lucky in the ship.”

“I wanted to get out. Go, team! We all needed to believe to our depths or we wouldn’t make it.” She leaned back, meeting his eyes, serious once more. “We almost didn’t make it.”

“Almost.”

We knew it would be scary, Lepid said, the tip of his tail giving a twitch. But we knew we would WIN!

Zem whuffed a tiny sigh, tilted his head to look at the fox. The optimism of young ones. We had no choice. The bird shuddered. It was terrible in the ship, no open air at all.

“Sshhh.” Jace went over and gave his Fam a soothing stroke, then returned to Glyssa.

“I’d like you to test your Flair with T’Ash and his Testing Stones,” she said.

“No.” He cleared his throat. “As I was saying, I’m phenomenally lucky.”

She smiled up at him.

He put his arms around her and squeezed. “Because I’m a risk taker. But, let me tell you, Glyssa Licorice, FirstLevel Librarian, you are the greatest risk I ever took, with all my heart, all of me.”

“Nah,” she said. “I was your sure thing.”

Shaking his head, he said, “But I didn’t believe that. I was always afraid to believe that.”

She felt incredibly good in his arms, fit there like no other. “I didn’t believe in love or HeartMates . . . in a healthy love.”

She didn’t loosen her grasp, and he reveled in the closeness, knowing she’d always be there with him, for him.

Smiling up at him, she said, “But you believe now.”

“Yes.” He stroked her hair. “I can feel it now. But I still say you were my greatest risk and I’ve been phenomenally lucky.”

“We’ve been phenomenally lucky.”

He stared into her brown eyes. “And we’ll be lucky for the rest of our lives.”

“Yes.”

Yes, said Lepid and Zem together.

“We’ll see through the excavation—a lifetime of work. And we’ll be founders of a new town.” She patted his chest. “In twenty years, you’ll be very respectable.”

“I hope not.”

She turned away from the view and took his hand. “We have the time and the resources to craft our future and a Family.”

“Very true, and will spend all our lives together and loving each other.”

“A future of discovery.”

They turned away from the view and that past and moved on to the future together, proving their love in bed.