Page 288 of Kingdoms of Night

“Doing what?”

“You can’t swear to a fae. Your words become a contract.”

“My word is always a contract. My word is my bond. As a knight and as a man.”

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Enid let out a gush of air. The worry returned, deepening the crease of her brows. “You are too good.”

Geraint curled his fingers around the hand at her nose. He rubbed his thumb over her forehead before lacing their fingers together. “You’re the second person today to see my chivalry as a character flaw.”

“It’s not a flaw. But you must promise me you won’t swear again to another fae.”

“I swear I won’t swear.”

“Candor,” she sighed. “You just swore to me.”

“So?”

“I’m a fae.”

“You’re my wife, the woman I love. I would do anything for you.”

He’d said the words matter-of-factly. Because they were the facts. Enid’s gaze was wide, as though he’d uttered a curse.

“You love me?” Her question did not sound like she was about to swoon over the declaration. “I don’t…”

She didn’t what? She didn’t feel the same way?

Is that why she was staring down into the ground? Is that why she smelled off? Is that why she was lying to him now? Because everything in him told him she was keeping something from him.

He had opened himself up to her fully. But she was holding back. Was she holding back the fact that she didn’t love him? That this marriage remained one solely of convenience and her heart would never be his?

CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

He loved her?

Enid hadn’t thought this day could get any worse. She had heard about human males falling in love with fairies. It never ended well for either party. Either the human would be trapped in the fae world, where they would forever be treated as a lesser being. Or the fairy was trapped in the human world, never able to truly be themselves for fear of human ignorance causing violence against their person.

But here in Camelot, Enid was safe. She was treated as an equal now that they knew she posed no threat. However, she did pose a threat. Her very presence here had opened the door to a monster under the soil.

A monster who could supply her with a gift to the man who had just declared his love for her.

“I don’t know if I can do that,” Enid said. “I don’t know if I’m capable of… that. I don’t know how?”

“To love?” asked Geraint.

Enid nodded. She shut her eyes so that he wouldn’t see the shame in them. Here in this town, people embraced and showed their emotions so freely. There was very little fear and so much trust that she often wasn’t sure how to move about without the darkness she’d known so well her whole life.

A fingertip beneath her chin brought her head up. Her husband waited until she opened her eyes to speak.

“Loving you is the easiest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” he began. “That first moment that I saw you, it was like my heart woke up. It beat differently. I moved differently. Ever since that day, I’ve wanted nothing more in this world than to be near you.”

Enid understood that. He had drawn her attention the first time she’d seen him. True, they’d been pitted against one another by her father in a death match. A match where they’d both come away the losers. Her because she refused to play by her father’s rules. Geraint because he had fallen for the trick.

Unlike Geraint, Enid’s heart hadn’t beaten differently since that day. It had kept its same erratic pace, always on alert for danger. She hadn’t moved differently, either. She’d always had to watch her back and her sides out of fear.

Until now.

Enid could barely remember the last time she’d been afraid. Her heart rate had slowed since the first touch of Geraint’s lips to hers. She hadn’t had to watch out for attackers since she’d come into his arms.

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