Page 62 of The Witch Queen

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” I say slowly, but Carex interrupts me.

“Why not? Lots of fae couples go through up and down periods. My own parents have had three different marriages, and they’ve ended things temporarily in between them each time, but always decide to come back to one another. We can have a whole new relationship. We’re different people now, just like my parents.” He pulls me tighter, and I feel smothered.

“We’re not them, Carex.” I try to pull out of his grasp, but he grips me tighter. I push against his chest, my eyes blazing with anger, and he releases me, but keeps my hands firmly grasped in his.

“Laurel,” he pleads. “Think about this night. This song.”

Now I’m fuming, and suspicion about the song causes me to rip my hands out of his. “Did you set the musicians up to this? Tell them to play this song?” He doesn’t answer, but his sheepish look and flushed cheeks are all the answer I need.

“We were so good together,” he whispers in a desperate attempt to keep me here.

“We actually weren’t, Carex. We didn’t end only because ofme. And you’re still the same male you were then.” I will a small orb of water to collect near his face, not even honing it into a dagger, and Carex’s eyes widen in fear. “Exactly,” I say before turning from him.

He grabs my wrist again, this time tightly, forcing me to face him. “Please, help me understand—”

“I was hoping to have the pleasure of dancing with Her Majesty,” a familiar and comforting voice says behind me. Thorne angles his body between Carex and me, his scent washing over me and drowning out everything else.

“We’re still dancing,” Carex sneers with the sheerest mask of polite courtier.

“Doesn’t look like that to me,” Thorne hisses, taking my arm and removing Carex’s hand from my wrist before placing his hand on my shoulder. “Your Majesty, would you like to dance with me?”

“I would, thank you.” In an instant, Thorne has wrapped me in his arms and spun me away. As we turn, Carex returns to my line of sight. He looks furious, eyes narrowed, shoulders tense, hands balled.

“What happened to running him through the gut with a light spear, witchling?” Thorne growls. I laugh.

“I would have, butsomeoneinterrupted before I got the chance,” I tease. Thorne shrugs.

“I’m not sorry. I don’t take kindly to males touching females when they don’t consent. Daddy issues, remember?” he says with a wink. I want to press him, to ask about what his father did to his mother, but I drop it. Not here, where he’s the Shining Prince, with no worries or fears. I know better than anyone the need to separate the vulnerable person behind the mask from the public face we wear.

“Thank you,” I murmur. He only pulls me closer, the heat of his hand through the thin silk of my dress both deliciously warm and scalding hot. As we perform the movements of the dance, my body heats, and not from the activity.

“Let’s go outside,” I say, surprising myself. “I’m hot and want to cool off.”

“Can’t say I disagree,” he growls with a devilish glint in his eye. I can only roll my eyes at him for what feels like the millionth time as we walk to the small terrace built off the side of the palace. As soon as we walk outside, the frigid air cools my flushed cheeks. “Fuck, it’s cold. I know I say that literally every time we walk outside. Butfuck,”Thorne says, exasperated and shivering, though still looking every inch a prince.

“You’re so whiny,” I tease, even as I wrap him in a warm magical embrace.

“Thanks,” he says, and I give him a flirtatious wink. Suddenly, snow begins to fall around us in thick, dense flakes. Thorne’s eyes light up as he stares up at the sky. “Is this snow?”

“What do you mean, is this snow? Of course it is!”

Thorne shrugs. “I’ve never seen it. Doesn’t snow in Velmara.”

My jaw practically drops to the floor. “Seriously?”

He places his hand over his heart. “I swear it on what little honor I have. Which is practically none. So you’ll never know, I guess.” He winks.

I giggle, the sound so unfamiliar to my ears that I almost choke. Thorne smirks at me like he knows the effect he has on me, but it sends me spiraling. Am I just another pretty face among a sea of beautiful females? Do I look just like Aria does when she’s near him, fawning and blushing every time he looks my way? I study him closely, looking for answers I know I won’t find. When he notices, his eyes turn serious.

“What was all that about, anyway? With Carex? Is he still talking about the guards seeing me? It didn’t look like a conversation between advisors to me.” He says the words with forced nonchalance, like he’s making a joke with a friend, but I can see his tensed shoulders through that tight suit jacket.

I smirk. “Not your business.”

“But I gave you such a pretty necklace. Doesn’t that atleastgive me the honor of being the friend who you tell all your boy troubles to,” he says with a mock pout, flecks of snow turning his hair and beard white, and I can’t help the laugh that escapes me.

“Fine,” I say, groaning. “He wanted to resume our former affair.”

Thorne’s eyes dilate and his nostrils flare. “And I’m assuming you don’t want to, judging by how quickly you tried to get away from him.”

---