Page 46 of Destined for the Fae King

Lysandir stands in the middle of the pathway. His crossed arms are the only thing that belie the apparent carefree ease with which he stands there, legs spread, taking up far too much space.

“You.” I fill the word with all the accusation I can muster. “Why are you here?”

“You appeared to be in distress, so I followed you to make sure you were okay.”

Distress! I almost laugh at the nonsense of it all.

“I’m fine. Perfectly fine,” I blurt.

His brows pinch, head twitching in apparent confusion before a look of clarity sparks in his eyes and his features smooth out. He sighs. “You humans and your lies.”

I’m not lying,I want to say. But I am. I so am.

A hard look settles over his features. One hand lifts like he might reach for me, before he drops it again. “Mira, did my brother do something to you?”

Heat rushes to my face. I want to sink below the dirt and hide. “How much did you see?”

“Enough.” He crosses his arms. “Kissing someone you hope to marry shouldn’t leave you like this.”

“Shouldn’t it?” I ask, voice filled with bite. “When I know that he’s probably kissing all the other women too?”

Lysandir winces at that. The small tingle of satisfaction I feel isn’t nearly enough, but it’s something.

“Still,” he continues, “a kiss should make you feel something but not—”

The calm tone of his voice raises my hackles.

“The only one making me feel anything right now is you,” I snap. He doesn’t deserve my anger. Distantly, I know that. But all my walls are crumbling, and he’s the only one nearby to fling the debris at.

“I was going to say, happiness. Joy. Pleasure,” he replies with that same annoyingly even tone. “Not…” He gestures toward me. “So, what did he do, Mira?”

“He just kissed me, okay? Nothing else. He was perfectly respectable.” A bit too much.

Lysandir crosses his arms again. Something flickers across his features that I can’t decipher. “So, it wasn’t him then, but your reaction to the kiss?”

The words land like a shove to my chest, and I step back, lips thin.

“Just leave me alone, okay?”Let me wallow in peace for goodness sake!I turn on my heel and hurry back down the pathway, as fast as I can go and still call it a walk. I don’t need to look behind me to know that Lysandir follows. I can feel him. I always feel him, like he has his own kind of gravity that inevitably pulls me toward him.

I turn a corner, not slowing down. The path forks just ahead, and I make another quick right, hoping to lose him. Another two steps and the path splits again, so I make another sharp turn.

My feet skid on the dirt pathway as I come to an abrupt stop, taking in the sight before me. The narrow path has opened into a circular space with a fountain in the middle and a few benches around it, varying trails leading off in two other directions.

But that’s not what has my eyes flying wide.

Adeline is locked in an embrace with one of the guards. His hand is fisted in her hair, tilting her head back so he can kiss her neck. A soft moan slips from her pink lips.

Adeline. Sweet, innocent Adeline, kissing someone who is decidedly not the king we’re supposed to be wooing. It’s against the rules. Treasonous. But beyond the shock of seeing her like this,there’s a little thought whispering in my ear that’s louder than all the rest.

You’re not the only one.

Her cheeks are flushed, eyes closed in pleasure. But they could open at any moment, and she’s at the perfect angle to see me standing there gawking like an idiot. It’s not me she needs to worry about though.

I rush back around the corner, encountering Lysandir just a few steps from coming upon a scene that hecan’tsee.

“Mira?” He looks me up and down, a question in his eyes as well as his words.

Without thinking, I wrap my fingers around his upper arm and try to haul him with me as I move past. “Let’s go this way.”

---