Page 511 of Flirting with Darkness

“Tor?” it was the only thing I could think of that made sense. I couldn't imagine any other time I'd met a Fe besides Tor.

Annoyance flashed across his face. “You keep talking about Tor. Why? He is the ugliest, most cursed Fae amongst us.”

I twisted so that I can see his face better, hoping to read him. “What do you mean?”

“I mean exactly what I just said. I am Fae, and we cannot lie. Not the high Fae, and not the nobles most of all.”

“Just tell me how I bound myself to Tor.” I wasn't sure I trusted him when he said he couldn't lie to me, but I filed that away to explore later.

“You and Tor are connected through the magic, which means you are connected to the magic of my land. That makes you the only mortal I could marry.”

“But why would you want to?”

“An excellent question, one I have asked myself many times. However, I have my reasons for wanting a mortal bride.”

His words made me bristle. “Then you should give me a reason for wanting a Fae prince.”

“Oh. But I can,” he said, his hand skimming my side, lighting fire everywhere he touched.

I bit my lower lip, wanting to be immune to him. “That’s nothing but… glamour.”

“Nothing? And you are the one mortal who is impervious to glamour?”

“Tell me why.”

“You should be honored. My father intended to have a competition of the highest Fae nobles to see who was worthy of my hand.”

“Like a game show?”

“If a game show ends in curses and death.” His lips brushed against the shell of my ear, sending a shiver of feeling down my spine. “And your antics so far today may have convinced my father there should indeed be a competition for a place beside me.”

“Send me back.”

“Why? You hated your world.” His hands settled on my hips, drawing me ever just so slightly firmer down on his thigh. “You longed for this one.”

“I didn’t know this one existed.”

“Liar.” His voice was a whisper into my ear. “You hoped it was. And now you’re here… be brave.”

“I will.” But not in the way he wanted. I wasn’t bravely going off to marry this random prince.

I needed to find Tor.

I rose from his lap and headed down the dais, past the shocked beautiful faces. When I reached the massive doors that led out of the throne room, I couldn’t move them.

“Let the mortal child go.” The prince ordered.

Only then did his soldiers sweep the doors open.

I stepped out into the marble hallway, doing my best not to run.

The Fae prince had lit a strange, restless fire in my body, but my mind had always belonged to Tor.

8

The prince had ordered for them to let me go, but it would have been more helpful if he’d ordered them to drag me back to my apartment in chains or something—not that the Fae guards seemed as if they’dneedchains—because I got hopelessly lost in those long, echoing marble halls.

I thought I heard something behind me, turned to see a pair of tiny, chittering fairies dashing toward me across the marble. Their voices were high and I couldn’t understand anything they said. They were suffused with glowing golden light. I stopped, struck by their charm and beauty, and they stared at me curiously. Slowly, their wings spread and fluttered curiously, and they started across the marble toward me.

---