Undone

Page

A Totally Bound Publication

Undone

ISBN # 978-1-78430-577-2

©Copyright Belinda Burke 2015

Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright May 2015

Edited by Jennifer Douglas

Totally Bound Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Totally Bound Publishing.

Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Totally Bound Publishing. Unauthorized or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

Published in 2015 by Totally Bound Publishing, Newland House, The Point, Weaver Road, Lincoln, LN6 3QN

Totally Bound Publishing is a subsidiary of Totally Entwined Group Limited.

Warning:

This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has a heat rating of Totally Sizzling and a Sexometer of 2.

UNDONE

Belinda Burke

The first step on the road to addiction is desire…

Tighe is Summer’s prince, the second son of the Summer Queen. The blindness of his mortal father cursed him with eyes that see too much, and now he wanders the woods of immortal Summer alone. He is an outsider in his own country or at best a curiosity—never someone anyone truly wants.

Faelan is gancanagh, one of dark Summer’s most treacherous beings. Beguiling as he is beautiful, he, like all of his kind, was made to incite lust and longing, even as he seeks true love. For anything mortal, anything unprepared, even to be in his presence is dangerous.

When the two meet by chance, Faelan can’t help but be curious about this half-mortal prince—and the prince is more interested in a companion than questioning what kind.

Tighe has never seen anything but the lie behind love. Faelan is love’s lie and knows it. Is the beginning and end of everything between them inevitable? Which is stronger, need—or nature?

Dedication

For Riddhima,

Who is Far Away but never forgotten.

Chapter One

It’s over between us, whatever it was that we had.

The Summer air was bright, but the beauty of the day did nothing to soften the words that Tighe had come to say to his lover. Blinking, shaken, Nuala stared back at him with something shimmering in her eyes, maybe almost-tears, not quite. Tighe, you don’t mean it. You can’t!

I do.

But I love you!

You don’t. He watched her for a long moment, daring her to speak. She said nothing, and he shrugged, almost smiling. They always say nothing. He reached out to the curve of her cheek. You might want to or wish you did. You don’t. Why would you say you do when you don’t? He pulled back his hand and shrugged again. Goodbye, Nuala.

Tighe!

He walked away and didn’t turn back to face her. She would be watching for him to do just that, for any sign that he would give in and return to her. But I won’t, Nuala. Over between us, he’d said, and he’d meant it. She had come to him years ago seeking the secrets and the strangeness of the son of her mistress, her queen. She had been so sure of her own beauty, her own charm, that she had been laughing and unafraid, at least at first. There had been no worry in her when she’d met his eyes.

She had been unafraid until she had learned the truth. Until she knew what it was he was really seeing, the secret heart of her, essence and echo. Fear had grown from that seed, had hidden a no behind every yes. I saw everything you are, Nuala. Ever since you have been pulling away, and now—

The lie had been in her voice. He hadn’t even needed to look at her to see the truth, but it was right there, right in front of him. The only lie he couldn’t forgive. So now it’s over, and in a day or a month or a year of Summer time, she’ll be healed of me, while I go on forgetting how to forget.

He could keep no one. He would be alone without her, as he had been alone before. I knew it would happen. Already he was missing her. If only there was someone else…but who would bother? He had grown famous in Summer, and for a while it had seemed as if he’d never have a shortage of partners. There were so many eager to try their luck. But luck wasn’t with him—or them.

It occurred to him that it might be time to leave Summer again, wander out of the hidden kingdoms of the west and travel into the gray, to seek some other secret world—the silk lands, the dream lands, the Yaksha kingdom or the ships of the middle sea. But that was running away, and he knew it.

Instead, he walked around the front of the palace, entered the great gates and strode through the gleam of the entrance hall looking for his mother. She was in her throne room, alone in her high seat and smiling. Even when she looked up and saw him she was smiling, not a flicker of distress. It was disturbing.

Not since the first time he had met her, a boy of twelve, had she failed to react to the peering curse of his glance. Now all he saw in her was softness and a loving glow. I thought you should know. Nuala won’t be happy for a while.

"You left her? Tighe." She sighed.

That was all, and he was surprised. Did something happen? You’re not yourself, Mother.

She stood and descended the stairs that led up to her throne. "You noticed? Of course you noticed. What do you see, Tighe?"

"You look…soft." He couldn’t find words for the rest of it—the glow of her, a fragile radiance suspended in every movement, in the widening curve of her smile.

"That’s all? Tighe, you must be slipping."

She laughed at him, and he felt a hitch of angry aggravation. Slipping? If only. She came near him, put her hands on his arms and leaned close to his ear.

"If you can’t see it, I’ll tell you. My secret. Tighe, you’ll have a brother soon—a shining boy, a precious treasure. A baby brother, isn’t it wonderful?"

He could only stare at her, ten thousand thoughts competing for dominance. A brother? Pregnant, his mother. That she had a lover didn’t surprise him, but her joy, her softness made no more sense now than it had at his first sight of it. Is she crazy? The whirl in his brain resolved into one worry. "Mother, are you insane? A child now? We’re at war, at war!"

She lifted an eyebrow at him, faintly amused and that was all. And so we have been your whole life. What of it?

You…

"I’m in no more danger now than I was when I had you, Tighe. Maybe less! Aren’t you pleased at all? Aren’t you happy? You’re always so lonely. I thought you’d be pleased."

Tighe chuckled, aware of how hollow the sound was and unable to stop it just the same. "Pleased. How do you