Heart Fire (Celta Book 13) (39 page)

His arms opened and embraced her. And his breath shuddered out against her, and she realized his whole body trembled. With fulfilled hope.

Leaning her torso away from him so she could look into his eyes, she said, “We are HeartMates. I accept you as my HeartMate, Antenn Blackthorn-Moss.”

“We are HeartMates,” he replied, his voice rough. “I am honored to be accepted by you as your HeartMate, and I accept you as mine, Tiana Mugwort.”

All those words sank into her, but she felt his need and her own for more. “I love you, Antenn Blackthorn-Moss.”

“I love you, Tiana Mugwort. Stay with me, here, with the Turquoise House for the rest of our lives.”

“Yes.”

“Hold on,” he said, keeping her tight against him, then sent a message mentally.
TQ and Fams, we are teleporting to the bottom of the secret stairs of the entryway to the HouseHeart.

TQ replied,
My FAMILY!

“Yes,” Antenn said aloud.

“Yes,” Tiana said.

Felonerb and Pinky purred in agreement.

I have redecorated my HouseHeart entryway. Especially for my Family!
TQ said.

“Oh, good,” Antenn murmured, lifting and dropping his brows.

You will enjoy it!
TQ assured them.

“All right. Can we still teleport to the bottom of the stairs?” Tiana asked.

Yes! That area is clear. More clear than before.

“Thank you,” Antenn said politely, and then they were gone as he ’ported them—both Tiana and TQ giving him exact coordinates.

The light was brighter and before them stood a series of four different doors set into a white clapboard wall: a bright red one with brass latch and knocker, a turquoise one with an intricately engraved silver knob, a black door with a pattern of gleaming copper diamonds, and a green door with painted yellow button flowers.

“It’s a maze!” TQ caroled. “You will love it!”

“Uh-huh.” Antenn let her slide down his body. He was ready for sex, and that stirred her, too. He took her hand and they faced the doors—each wide enough for a couple—for
them
to walk through together.

A
nd it will be easy for you, because I know you and you know me!” TQ said.

“Do we say the rhyme?” Tiana asked.

TQ paused. “No. I have disabled the rhyme until we can craft one together.” One of the door latches rattled, though Tiana couldn’t tell which one. “The cats are delayed because they are fighting.” TQ sighed.
WE WILL ALL MAKE A RHYME FOR THE HOUSEHEART TOGETHER, EVEN CATS!
TQ projected.

The cats grunted, almost in unison, then continued with their fight.

“They’ll be down later,” Antenn said absently. He’d been studying the doors. He squeezed her hand and grinned. “You take the first door.”

Naturally she walked to the green door with the Mugwort flowers. She didn’t even have to touch the handle.

Once they were inside, the wall behind them became solid and another wall with four different doors appeared on their left.

With a little laugh, Antenn led her to the very feminine white door with a heart-shaped window and tiny turquoise hearts running along the edge near the hinges. Again, when they approached, the door opened. Once more the wall solidified behind them, and they turned to the right and saw another set of interesting doors.

The Turquoise House was right. The trip through the maze was easy and fun for them . . . the light changed overhead, as did the flooring: fuzzy spellglobes beaming the yellow light of the Earthan sun, a moonsless night with only colored galaxies illuminating the sky, deep forest branches above and leaves below, a touch of rocky cavern.

They reached another small room with a door in each wall, but the one to their left Tiana recognized as the HouseHeart door. Antenn squeezed her hand and she turned with him to face it.

They sighed together, and Antenn let go of her fingers and studied the other walls. The last door they’d come through had remained open for once and beyond that, Tiana could see the maze of all the variety of doors. “That is fabulous, TQ,” Antenn said, taking her hand again. He must figure that they were so in tune they’d move together . . . and since they’d done so instinctively through the maze, he was right.

“I liked it a lot,” Tiana said.

The nearest door, a red one with a circular window above a shiny brass knocker in the shape of a hand, glowed.
Thank you
, TQ sent to her mind.

“You’re very creative.”

The door to their right hummed and they swiveled to see it—also shining turquoise and with a crackling of electricity like lightning.

Tiana chuckled. “Show-off.”

“Cut the electricity, TQ. You know us.”

“Yes. My Family.”

“Almost,” Antenn said. He tilted his head, and then Tiana heard it, too. Yowling threats as two cats threaded through the maze.

Stupid doors!
Pinky said, with a hint of panting even in his mental voice.

You are just little and fat. See ME jump through this window! See ME open this handle with my NOSE!

“Talk about show-offs,” Tiana muttered, but sensed both CatFams were easily negotiating the maze. And before she could say anything else, Felonerb sat by her feet, beaming up at her. He’d never be a beautiful cat, not like Pinky, but his fur looked healthy and smooth over his lean but not skinny body. He had no new scratches.

And he smelled good.

At the same moment, she and Antenn placed their hands on the door and chanted a jingle. Soon, soon, her muse would demand that she write a tiny ritual for her home and her Family, the Family that would come from her and Antenn, to enter the HouseHeart.

The door swung open and they walked in, the floor under her feet soft and springy, giving up a rich scent—moss. “Very nice, TQ,” she said, and paused a pace inside the door as her eyes adjusted to the lower light.

Felonerb and Pinky hurried by her, along the wall.

See, she is here. She still has not moved
, said Felonerb of the cat on the wall. He sat in front of her.

Pinky sat beside him.
We must send her energy and love. I know this.

I would rather go hunt rats,
Felonerb grumbled
.

Our humans will soon get boring and we will go hunt, meanwhile a little love for the Cat will be just right.
Pinky purred and kneaded the moss.

Tiana laughed, heard Antenn’s chuckle, too.

Then her vision sharpened and she saw the mural on the opposite wall, no longer Maroon Beach. Her avatar and Antenn’s, prominent in the foreground, golden auras about them showing they were HeartBound.

Not yet. But soon. As soon as they bored the CatFams. Her body began to ready, her sex to crave release. From the corner of her eye, she saw Antenn’s body harden.

“Huh.” He frowned at the mural. Tiana followed his gaze and blinked. In the far background, over the treetops, rose a hill with a winding path. Atop the hill stood a castle of domes and spires and round towers, one too fanciful for even an Earthan Colonist to build in NobleCountry when they’d landed on Celta. An imaginary castle. Especially since the stone glowed turquoise. “What’s that?”

Antenn followed her gaze, then flushed and muttered something she didn’t catch.

“What?”

He stood straight, took a pace away from her, opened his hands, palms up, and then closed his eyes. His mouth formed silent words. A moment later, a model of the intricate castle appeared resting on his spread hands.

Tiana gasped, stepped close, and touched her index finger to a glass dome that she could see through to a tiny grand staircase.

Antenn’s breath whistled in and he stiffened more, pushed the model toward her. “Dearest Tiana.” His voice strained, he coughed, and continued, “Dearest Tiana, do you accept my HeartGift?”

The sexual energy that emanated from HeartGifts was banked, so the gift itself had a spell to minimize lust on it.

She discovered her mouth had instantly dried, and she stepped back, more to see the entire model instead of fantastic details, but it was the wrong thing to do. Antenn’s mouth twisted.

So she shot out her hands and grasped him around his elbows, taking the weight of the model on her arms, too, and met his hazel gaze.

“Yes, I do.” She coughed slightly.

TQ said, “There is a table in the northeast corner here for the castle.”

They turned and looked at the table, dark wood with diamond-shaped studs of silver. Antenn made to take the model, and Tiana held on to it fiercely, scowled at him. “This is
mine
.”

You are giving the fun-thing-to-look-at AWAY?
wailed Pinky.

Antenn grinned, said an anti-grav couplet, and let her have it.

Pinky continued to whine.
It has little peoples in it I want to bat around!

Slanting a look at his cat, then Tiana, Antenn said, “He was such a sweet cat when we were younger.”

Peoples I can bat around?
Felonerb hopped up to Tiana’s shoulder and looked down.
I do not see.

Pinky sat and licked his paw.
Have to take roof off.
He lifted his nose and stared in another direction. I
know how to do that.

“I don’t want either of you Fams to do that,” Tiana said as she carried the castle over to the table, a difficult process because she kept seeing tiny details that delighted her. “Who are the people, Antenn?”

“Uh, the last Captain of the starship
Nuada’s Sword
and his wife, Fern. I saw a viz about them once. They were my heroes as a teen.”

Everything in Tiana softened. “Lovely.”

“Yeah, yeah. You need help?”

“No, it’s light and there’s a groove in the table. It’s a fabulous table, and just exactly right for the model!”

“I had it made,” TQ said. The room rustled around them. “I have been linked with Antenn for a long time.”

“Oh.”

“I didn’t know that,” Antenn said roughly.

“Yes, in the back of your mind, or the depths of your heart,” TQ said.

Antenn hunched a shoulder.

“I like the model very much, but I think Pinky is right,” Tiana murmured.

I am always right.
The small beige cat preened.
About what?

“It’s a wonderful thing to look at. I think I’d like it in the MistrysSuite rather than down here in the HouseHeart.”

Antenn joined her. “We can translocate it later. And I’ll show you how to open each wall and the roof, later, too.” He cleared his throat loudly. “I gave you my HeartGift and you accepted.”

She looked up and found his intense gaze fixed on her. “I accepted your HeartGift. I accepted, earlier, that we are HeartMates, and so stated.” Heat washed through her. “I accept that when we next make love, we will HeartBond.”

“I gave you my HeartGift,” he repeated.

Felonerb thwapped her on her head with a paw.
You must give him a gift.

Antenn stepped back abruptly. “I know I wasn’t closely connected with you.”

She nodded slowly, suddenly breathless; time to take another level of commitment to this man, their relationship, the Family and home they would share. She’d wanted to put this moment off a little, because she was still overwhelmed, but she would not hurt him further.

Her eyes looking deep into his, she held out a hand,
felt
where her HeartGift was, and translocated the scroll to her palm. It felt as it had before, a heavier, weightier papyrus especially created for very important documents out of top-quality linen.

She’d made the papyrus herself during Passage, a dreamquest that freed her Flair and had her reaching for her HeartMate.

With a big breath, she held the rolled papyrus tied with a white velvet ribbon between them. It, too, had an anti-lust spell on it, for the moment. Concentrating on not rushing her words, she said, “Antenn Blackthorn-Moss, do you accept my HeartGift?”

He nearly snatched it from her grasp. “Yes.” But they yet stared into each other’s eyes. “What is it?” he asked, and she felt flushed warmth staining her cheeks again. “It’s a wedding ceremony, with my vows . . . and yours.”

His eyes widened and he broke their gaze, but his fingers trembled as he opened the papyrus. He blinked and his eyes focused on a phrase, and he read:
In all the world, at the setting sun, under twinmoons and bright skies, I have found you and found love and love you, my HeartMate, the one who completes me.
He swallowed, let the papyrus curl up, opened his mouth, shut it, and shook his head, though he didn’t hide the sheen in his eyes, the huge welling of love flooding their bond, the acceptance of her, his
need
for her.

As she needed and accepted him. So she cleared her throat and said, “Will you marry me, Antenn Blackthorn-Moss, as day turns to dusk in the outside grove at GreatCircle Temple, next full twinmoons, my HeartMate?”

“Nearly two weeks,” he croaked. “So long.”

“And will you, Turquoise House, accept us as your Family?” Tiana asked. “Where we can live and raise our children, who will be yours also?”

“Will you do that, Turquoise House?” Antenn asked.

“YES, TIANA. YES, ANTENN! You have always been my Family.”