When she paused for a lengthy time, Cassius murmured, “I learned this from my tutors, lamb.”

“Did you learn why most of the charmed folk left Airen?”

“No,” he muttered.

“Can you guess?” she asked gently.

“Yes,” he sighed.

“There is a reason naught but the trolls and yeti, griffin and gogmagoggs reside in Airen while Wodell and The Enchantments are rife with pixies, sprites, gnomes, fairies, and as for The Enchantments, unicorns.”

Cassius stared at the animals, wondering what would possess someone to mutilate that beauty.

His attention was taken when Elena’s fingers tightened around his.

“My many-times great grandmother learned to speak with a goodly number of creatures. And this she did with the unicorns. When it came close to the time the sisters would take action against their masters, she made a pact with them. The unicorns would forever be safe in her land of female warriors. And in return, they would give us that land.”

Cassius’s head shot to the side so sharply, Elena lifted hers to catch his gaze.

“The unicorns built The Enchantments?” he asked.

She nodded.

“It was not your grandmother?”

“It was her spell, the craft of my bloodline, but it was the unicorns’ magic.”

“By the gods,” he whispered.

“Yes,” she whispered in return. “It is also why they now reside only in The Enchantments. It’s where they’re safe, for regardless if it is forbidden, there were many who coveted the horn of a unicorn and thus they took them. So it’s not only Nadirii magic that keeps The Enchantments hidden to all but our sisters. It is also the unicorns. The unicorns united with my bloodline, my queen.”

“What other man knows of this?” he demanded.

“None,” she admitted.

He turned to her. “Elena, you should not have told me.”

Her brows drew together, tiny lines forming between them. “Can I not trust you with this?”

“If something were to happen to the unicorns…”

She held his gaze steady and finished for him, “The Enchantments would fall. We could possibly keep them strong for a time, but it would take much magic. It would deplete us and eventually…” she trailed off and shrugged.

“This is why you shouldn’t have told me,” he growled.

“Cassius—”

“Intelligence that crucial to your defense must be protected at all costs.”

“You’re to be my husband,” she reminded him.

He had no response to that.

Liviana, his dead wife, had not had state secrets that needed to be guarded by any means necessary.

He had never in his life experienced this level of confidence shared.

Her expression assumed a look of concern, even fear. She started to draw away, and Cassius felt her withdrawal.

He also took measures to stop it for the moment he felt it, he could not bear it.

Tightening his fingers around hers, he pressed them to his stomach.