Page 67 of The Fae Girl 1

And yet here she was acting like all she wanted to do was show off the Fae girl to the entire court.

I glanced around, looking to see if I could spot her, but wherever the damned girl was hiding I couldn’t see.

A girl walked up to me. Curtsied low. Pretty smile on her pretty face.

“High Prince Fain.” She said. “Would you care to dance?”

She was Lord Lilas’s daughter. Not a bad match, that is if I wanted one. She was attractive enough. Rich enough. I’m sure she’d make a fine wife. Just not mine.

“No thank you.” I said before looking away. She’d been bold to walk over here. Perhaps that was her thinking, that I wouldn’t insult her in front of so many onlookers.

She blinked. Her face flushing.

“I would care for a drink.” I said, jerking my head. Saving her from complete embarrassment at my dismissal.

She smiled, relief clearly evident as she walked beside me.

Maybe I was a brute. Maybe I was as much of an arsehole as Nela often said I was. I didn’t mean to be. I certainly didn’t intend to be. I just didn’t think. I wasn’t the smooth talker, wasn’t the savvy courtier so many others were.

I guess that’s what happened when you grew up the way I did.

I was a soldier first. My brother’s commander first. That was what the world had made me. That was who I was at my core.

Lady Lilas chatted away. Sipping from a glass while I grunted in reply. Eventually she disappeared off. No doubt to find a more attentive suitor.

I looked around again, my eyes finally falling on her.

She was stood almost in a corner. As if she was trying to hide away. As if she was trying to blend into the tapestries.

I smirked as I watched her. Clearly she was as uncomfortable as me. She finished a drink. Then immediately picked up another.

Where Nela and Indi were I don’t know. I scanned the room, trying to locate them. They were meant to have stuck close. Meant to have kept her safe and yet here she was all alone.

No.

She wasn’t alone now.

She was with someone.

The worst possible of all people.

Rillon.

I stepped closer. Just a tiny bit. Watching the pair of them. If she sided with him, if she paired herself with him, we’d have serious problems.

“They make a fine couple.” Indrya whispered into my ear.

I turned glaring at her. All the sycophants that had been flitting about her were gone. It was just us. Me and her. “What did you just say?”

She smirked. “Wanna bet that Rillon claims the prize before Uther even returns home?”

I raised an eyebrow. “You’re willing to risk it are you? Risk losing your lover, and for what?”

She smiled even wider. “Isn’t it obvious Fain?” She whispered.

“Isn’t what obvious?”

She jerked her head, her eyes casting to where Rillon was now holdingherhands against his chest. My gut twisted. My body reacted to it. To the sight of her touching him.

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