Page 29 of The Fallen Fae King

I kiss again, and this time, I feel a more confident kiss from Lanlin with a surge of cautious hope.

Will Lanlin forgive me?

“Is there anything else in there?” I ask.

Daire glances back at the box. Then his expression brightens.

He drags out the pair of bronze daggers, which Lanlin once gave to him as courting gifts, holding them up in dazed awe.

“He said that he isn’t a fae dazzled fool,” Daire says, quietly. “But he is. Why would he arm his enemy?”

“Maybe because he knows that you’re no longer his enemy.”

Daire doesn’t reply, staring into the box.

His gaze is dark and unreadable. “Our crowns are inside here. He gave back my crown. Why would he…?”

His voice is brittle, fragile.

Uncomfortable, I push the tray to the side, shuffling forward to reach my hand out to him. He never misses a chance to take my hand.

Like I expected, Daire scrambles onto the bed. He clasps my hand, holding it up to his chest, over his heart.

“We’ll get through the ceremony,” I promise. “Then when we’re alone with Lanlin, we can tell him…”

“What?” Daire snorts. “Heka has fucked everything up. I should never have believed Maximinus that Sin was easy to manipulate or that his court was filled with savages. I didn’t want to come here like this but still, I knew the risk and consequences if I was discovered. I was prepared to pay any price as long as you survived…”

“Fuck that. We will both survive.”

“Maybe this is the prophecy coming true.”

“I don’t accept that.”

Daire’s voice is as haunting as when he sings the songs from his long-lost Winter Court; my blood chills. “I’ve been outrunning death since one spring morning when my world was burned to ash, feathers, and bone.”

“Then keep running.” I drag him closer.

Our knees touch.

I’m breathing too fast, terrified of something that I don’t understand.

I feel like he is turning to shadows, slipping away in front of me. I can’t hold onto him.

I am trembling.

“I’m tired, love.” Daire’s wings curl around him, warm when his words only fill me with an icy cold.

“That’s why you have me.” I kiss him, desperately.

If I am kissing him, then he is still here with me.

He kisses me back, equally desperate.

He pushes me onto my back in the center of the bed. We are lost in a void of white. The drapes quiver like wings around us.

Daire’s eyes are wild. I am panting.

“I love you.” Daire strokes down my face like he is trying to memorize the outline of it.