Page 69 of Destined for the Fae King

His lips twitch. He crosses his arms and stares me down in smug satisfaction. “And when you kissed me?”

My mouth goes dry.Everything. I felt everything.And now I feel sick over it.

“You led me on.” I poke an accusing finger at him. “You kissed me back. You held my hand. You gave me gifts. And don’t tell me it was a mistake that you were always there, watching me, seeking me out. Because I’m your mate? It is some biologic thing that made you do that?” I nearly scream in frustration. “You should have just told me upfront you didn’t want me instead of acting like that and making me believe you did. Didn’t I tell you I’d rather a hard truth than not knowing—”

“Not want you?” Suddenly he’s right in front of me, staring down at me. His chest rises and falls. Warmth radiates from him, jumping the narrow space between us. “Not want you?” he thunders. “You’re what I want most in this world! You have been for years!”

“I…” My thoughts shut down. Completely. The world tilts on its axis. I’m not even sure I’m in my body any more. All I know is the man inches away from me telling me something impossible.

And then everything rushes back.

“I-I don’t understand.” I reach out my hands to my sides, trying to grab something, anything, to steady myself. But nothing is nearby, nothing but him, and I can’t anchor myself to the thing that’s just upended my universe. Nor can I make feet move. “You just told Wren how horrible it would be to surrender to fate. You entered a damnable competition to try and not have me be your mate. You told me you already gave your heart away. You don’t want me!”

“Mira.” His fingertips graze my cheek, and I shudder. “I want you so badly it hurts.”

Holy shit.

I lean away from the touch I crave like life itself. I want it. I want it so much. But I hardly know up from down.

Lysandir flinches and drops his hand but doesn’t step back.

“But…” It comes out almost as a whimper.

There has to be something. A shoe waiting to fall and crush me.

“I tried to change your future,” he says, calmer now. “Not that you were the woman I was destined to love. My future mate.” His voice cracks over the last word. “Never that.”

“But the king said…” My mouth falls open in disbelief.Never that.

“What did my brother say?” Lysandir’s tone takes a hard edge.

What did he say? My brows pinch. It couldn’t have been that long ago, but it feels like a lifetime. “That you saw your mate,” I say. “That she must have been hideous because you didn’t want her or wanted to change things related to her or something.”

He huffs air through his nose and looks away. “I told Vasilius what he needed to hear so that he wouldn’t question me when I went to the Court of Air to compete for a wish from the cauldron.” He glances back at me. “It was the truth…in a way. Enough that I could speak it and he believed it or believed whatever he wanted to, I suppose.”

The king was wrong. I cling to that thought like a lifeboat.

“It wasn’t that you found me hideous?” I swallow, bracing for the response.

A humorless laugh falls from his lips. “No. Far from it.” He cups my cheek. The urge to pull away has vanished. Instead, I lean into the touch, savor it. “You’re beautiful, Mira.”

Beautiful. How one word can heal so many wounds, I’ll never understand.

“Then what did you want to change?” I ask. There’s something. Not a small thing. I have to know.

His throat bobs. He swipes his thumb across my skin one last time before pulling away. “Can I start from the beginning?”

“Please.”

When Lysandir laces his fingers though mine, I’m eager for the touch. It’s connection, its strength, and I need that more than ever. I still feel adrift, lost in a little boat on the seas and at the mercy of the waves. I thought the fog had rolled back and let me see the truth, but it had plied me with another illusion instead.

Now, finally, his hand in mine, this is real. This is true.

So, I follow as he leads me to the nearby sofa, and we sit down together.

Mate. Holy shit. He’s my mate.

The revelation plays over and over again inside my head.

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