Chapter 141

It seemed to have worked. Whatever Nesta and Feyre had read in the book that Lucien had given them had appeared to reassure them that the plan to use the bond would work, and they had all sat and talked and Elain couldn't remember the last time that she had felt so completely comfortable and content. To see her sisters interact with Lucien in such a comfortable and inclusive way made her heart happy, and she couldn't wipe the smile off of her face. This. This was her family.

"You look extraordinarily pleased, Petal." Lucien's voice was soft, breathed against her ear, as he leaned in to her. Turning her head, and lifting her gaze to meet his, Elain nodded. Wrapping her fingers around his wrist, she brought it up, pressing a kiss to the palm of his hand, her eyes still on his. Heat flared in his russet eye, and Elain turned her head just a little so that he could cup her cheek with his hand. "You let me know when you're ready to go to bed." His voice was still soft, but Elain could hear a rougher edge to it, and she smiled at him. His hand slid from her cheek around to the back of her neck, and he leaned in to press a kiss to her forehead.

"Now." She murmured, smiling as she heard his heartbeat quicken. Lifting her chin a little to meet his eyes she saw the hot spark behind that russet eye and he nodded.

"You want to take this?" Feyre passed Lucien the book he had given to them, and Elain watched him take it with a smile.

"Anyone notice where that priestess went?" Nesta asked, and Elain turned a little to survey the room. She hadn't seen Sorcha since she'd thrown the fruit at her for what she had said about Lucien, and how she had made him feel. She also hadn't been looking for her.

"I think she walked out a while ago." Feyre replied, smiling as Rhys approached and seated himself on the armrest of her chair. One of his arms snaked around Feyre's shoulders, and Elain watched her sister lean into him. "She hasn't come back."

"Probably gone to corner someone else." Elain muttered and Feyre tilted her head. Realising that she hadn't told her sisters what she had come across in the hallway, she reached a hand out to her younger sister. She knew that Feyre didn't need to touch her to look into her mind, but she felt this made what she was offering clear. It was evident that her sister understood her, because a light frown appeared between her eyebrows before Feyre leaned forward to take her offered hand. The brush on her mind was light, and Elain tried to concentrate on what she had seen when she had gone looking for Lucien earlier.

When Feyre released her hand, Elain was surprised by the anger in her younger sister's eyes. She watched as Feyre's blue-grey eyes focused on Lucien, looking him over, as her frown deepened. It was then she remembered that Lucien had told her that it had been Feyre who had found him with Ianthe in the forest when the priestess had tricked him and shackled him to a tree, and that it had been Feyre who had saved him that day. An unbidden image of Lucien, his back to a tree and his pants undone, flashed before Elain's eyes and she couldn't help comparing that image to the one she had seen in the hallway when Sorcha had trapped him against the wall as she knelt before him. Horror washed through her and, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Lucien's head turn her way, evidently having felt something of it down the bond.

Anger flared within her, and she remembered the night she had first seen visions of what Ianthe had done to Lucien. It had been the night she had first told him that she loved him. She had decided then that she never wanted anyone else to ever touch him. Not after everything that had been done to him by Ianthe, and certainly not when he didn't want it. He should not have had to endure that kind of thing again. It wasn't fair.

"Petal…?" he asked, his hand taking one of hers gently.

"Take me to bed." She breathed, low enough that the others wouldn't hear her. The smirk that crossed Rhys' features suggested that he had, in fact, heard her however. Lucien got to his feet, lifting her with him, a hand beneath her elbow. Elain's attention caught on Feyre's face however, and she could tell that her sister was silently communicating with her mate. She watched as Rhys frowned, his violet eyes doing a quick sweep of the room before he nodded, his hand brushing the back of Feyre's neck.

Nesta was looking from one of them to the next, clearly having seen some kind of communication between them but nobody had shared with her what was happening. "What are you doing?" she asked, looking up at Elain.

"We're going to bed." She replied softly, and Nesta's gaze shifted to Feyre who uncrossed her legs.

"And we are going to speak to Helion." The High Lady of the Night Court said firmly. "Nesta, would you like to join us?"

"Uh… Alright."

Elain caught Feyre's eyes as Lucien began leading her toward the door and, when Feyre lifted her chin slightly, Elain knew that her sister was going to tell Helion exactly what Sorcha had done. The thought sent a flush of satisfaction through her and she smiled at Lucien when they got out into the hallway. "Not a bad evening afterall…" he said, tucking the book he was carrying up under his free arm.

Elain thought again of the way that her sisters had treated him when the four of them had been sitting and talking, and she smiled. "I guess so." She replied, looking up at him, and smiling when she saw that his hair was still tucked behind his ear, where she had put it, allowing her a complete and unobscured view of his face.

It didn't take them long to get back to their room, and by then Elain was trying to sort through everything she could feel. She was delighted at the progress with her sisters, especially Nesta, and she was happy that Lucien was so evidently also pleased by it. Beneath that, though, she was upset. Sorcha had crossed a line, both in what she had done in that hallway, and then later with what she had said. Remembering the embarrassment that she had been able to feel coming off of Lucien at the priestess' words, Elain's heart hurt.

As soon as the door was closed behind them, she turned to face Lucien, watching as he set the book down atop a pile of others. Moving closer, she went up on her toes, wrapping her arms around him, and leaning into him when she felt his own arms come around her waist. "What is it?" he asked, and she could hear a smile in his voice.

"Tell me how you feel." She murmured.

"How I feel?" One of his hands settled against her back.

"About what Sorcha did." Elain lay her cheek against his chest, "I was thinking about Ianthe…"

"Oh." Disgust and shame reached Elain down the bond then, and she frowned. "I'm alright." He said gently, his hand running up and down her back. "Sorcha isn't the same as Ianthe." He told her, "Ianthe wanted to mix my bloodline with hers… Sorcha just wants a way to make herself important. She isn't directly after me." He kept stroking Elain's back as he spoke, "I've seen her following Eris around, and sitting in Tarquin's lap…"

"I hate that she touched you." Anger bubbled within her and Lucien smiled down at her. He lifted a hand to her cheek, his fingers tracing her cheekbone.

"I hate it too, my love." He murmured, "But she's gone and it's not her hands on me now."

She figured that he knew the effect those words would have on her, and she smiled as something in her chest eased a little. Returning his smile, Elain slowly ran her hands up and down his arms, making a show of it, smiling more widely when this earned a soft chuckle from her mate.

"Is that all I get?" he asked, his own fingers moving across her shoulder and to her throat. Elain watched his face as he gently traced the garnet necklace as it lay flush against her skin, and she watched heat flare in his russet eye. "Have you ever taken this off?"

"Not even once."

Lucien's eyes lifted to meet hers and she smiled gently.