Page 52 of A War of Three Kings

I lie awake as the hours pass, anxiety rippling through my body like jolts of fire in anticipation of the conversation I must have with Aldrin. I will lay myself bare before him, and he will judge whether I failed him, despite how hard I tried—and whether he will be able to forgive me again.

Caitlin and my father enter the pavilion, and I listen to their breaths as they become slow and regular. It is a struggle to sleep in the same room as my father without lashing out at him. Had he listened to a single word I said, he’d know Aldrin was never a threat. Strange, for a man who always empowered his daughters and made their voices heard. It is like something has triggered a deep trauma within him. We don’t talk anymore. We descend into screaming matches instead.

When my father starts to snore, I slip out of my pallet, pull on wide-leg riding pants and tuck my tunic into the belt. I trip over my feet as I tug on ankle boots while hopping to the door. Hopefully he will never notice I am gone.

I slip out of the pavilion and startle the guard on the entrance, nodding to him but not slowing. The soldier looks at me, perplexed, as I walk away. His job is to stop anyone from sneaking into the tent, not out of it.

The night is incredibly still. Not even birds or bats move across the indigo sky, lit up by a purple kaleidoscope of stars. The odd snore tears out of the tents as I pass, and the crackles and pops of the dying fire become a distant sound, but the camp is otherwise still.

I light a small fire orb and peer into the structure of vegetation that Aldrin built for his shelter. There are nightblooms all over it, their white petals open and glowing as they bask under the moon.

It would be beautiful if the sight of the man sleeping within it didn’t steal my breath away.

Aldrin sleeps naked to the waist, his blankets tossed haphazardly across him, exposing so much of those defined muscles. There is a peace to his features that is never there by day anymore. The deep frown is gone from those dark, arching eyebrows and his lips are slightly parted.

An intense urge to crawl into his bed with him slams into me, and I bite my lip hard to stop myself. I stand there, gawking at him like a creep for long moments.

I take a step closer and a branch crunches under my boot. “Aldrin,” I whisper.

He moves so fast my eyes can hardly track him, pouncing out of his tent with a knife in his hand. One blink and he is before me, his face an inch from mine. His eyes are feral, gleaming with murder in the moonlight, and his lips twist in a snarl. He doesn’t recognize me for a heartbeat, still stuck in his dream.

Aldrin looks every bit the terrifying fae king.

I suck in a breath and stumble backward. I almost fall on my ass, but he grabs my arm and steadies me. My heart hammers against my ribcage, and I can’t see a thing; half of my hair has flopped forward and covers my face.

Calloused fingers brush against my cheek and my curls are tucked behind my ear.

“You’ll give a man a heart attack, waking him up in the middle of the night like that.” The brutal expression is gone from his face, replaced by an amused smile. “Did I scare you?”

I stare at him, unable to form words. By the darkest realm, I long to touch him. Aldrin’s dark, long hair is in disarray, just like when it is sex-rumpled. Even though he grips my shoulders lightly, the muscles of his biceps bulge, and his perfectlysculpted chest is on full display under the moonlight. I know exactly what it feels like to run my fingers down his abdomen and slip them beneath the belt of his pants to find his huge, hard cock.

His smile only grows as he watches my eyes soak up the sight of him, trailing down his body then flicking back up to his lips. I shake my head as shivers run down my spine.

“We need to talk.” I desperately try to focus on his eyes and fail.

Aldrin raises an eyebrow. “Talk, is it? In the middle of the night, when we are both half-dressed?”

I glance down at myself and realize the hard shapes of my nipples are visible through the light cotton of my tunic and undergarment.

“Talk,” I say. “My father makes sure we get precious little opportunity.”

I stalk off to the grassy region between the edge of the tents and the woods beyond, looking for a patch to sit on. Aldrin flicks his wrist, and two woody chairs grow out of the ground from multiple entwining roots. I sit in one. It’s more comfortable than most chairs, as its structure shifts to mold to my body. Aldrin leans forward over his knees in the seat opposite me.

“Why are you fighting this war for me, Aldrin?” The words tumble out of me.

Aldrin’s eyebrows shoot up. “Do you really need to ask that question? Do you not already know how I feel for you?”

I hug my arms around my body as I shiver despite the warm night. “Even after everything? The way my family treated you. The constant disdain from my people. The way I failed you.” My body locks up with tension as my voice breaks.

“Even after all that.” His amber eyes turn cold and his jaw sets. “But I need to know—where were you, Keira? While I was starved, poisoned and deprived of sleep, where were you? Whenmy people suffered, when your family accused us of crimes, where were you?”

The blood drains from my head at the anger darkening his features, and pain blooms in my chest, expanding until I cannot breathe. My mind wants to shut down from the sheer onslaught of guilt, but he deserves answers.

“They told me you were safe, that they were taking care of you. I had no idea?—”

“What do you think I was doing for over a week, Keira?” Aldrin snaps. “Reading a cozy novel by the fireplace?”

“I couldn’t find you.” The pure desperation of frantically searching for him fills me anew. “I searched everywhere and tried everything. I dragged Diarmuid into the ancient dungeons so many times to search for chambers they could be hiding you in. All I could dream of was the inky darkness heavy with dust and mildew, and the sight of century-old bones discarded in every cell. I spent every other moment in screaming arguments with my father and grandmother, but there was no breaking them down.”

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