Page 6 of A Fate of Ice and Lies
“Don’t let us keep you,” George said with the same flirtatious wink that infuriated Everly. When Everly growled, George grinned, and I knew his every taunt and jest was because of that exact frustration he pulled from her. “What’s the rumor?”
“Wink at me again, and I’ll pierce your pretty eyes out,” Everly grumbled. She crossed her toned arms over her chest and glared at George with enough heat to burn the tavern.
In reply, George fluttered his lashes. “You think my eyes are pretty, do you?”
“The anticipation is killing us, Everly,” I deadpanned,trying to intervene before Everly and George started arguing. Again.
Everly lifted her full lips in a snarl while George’s grin grew.
In the back of my mind, I felt the human female as if she were shifting impossibly closer to me. I caught a glimpse of her. Not quite in focus, I concentrated harder, and she squinted back. Her beauty stuck in my throat, but when her eyes widened in what seemed like fear, I jolted.
Had she seen me? It wasn’t possible, but what if. . .
Her expression turned curious with a slight tilt of her head. I took her in, memorizing the angles of her face as she seemed to study mine. She lifted her hand toward me. Or maybe it was toward someone else in her actual realm, and I was disillusioning myself into believing our soul mate bond could cross through realms. Before I could find out, I regretfully slammed our connection closed.
“Yeah, spill,” Brenton sang, his hands twined together at the back of his head.
He leaned back on the stool, lifting the two front legs off the ground so that he almost toppled backward. When he regained his balance, he laughed lightly while Everly rolled her eyes at him, but I caught the way her lips twitched as she suppressed her own smile.
I ran my finger over the pointy tip of my left ear, letting my fingers trail over the tendrils of my long hair as I quietly mulled over what’d happened. What shouldn’t have happened, probably hadn’t happened, but felt like maybe it had.
She’d seen me. My mystery girl saw me. She’d reached for me.
Although I stayed seated in place, I wanted to dash out ofthe tavern to my uncle’s cottage, which sat beyond the kingdom where our Guardians had situated him and some of our warriors to patrol for threats from outside the kingdom’s borders. Uncle Hudson was the only fae I knew with any knowledge of humans and their realm. As much as he hated speaking about my female and wished for me to forget her, he was the only hope I had of getting any answers.
And I needed answers to this. Although I was grateful for these small flashes of the female, if it caused her the same yearning or loneliness it gave me, I wanted to shield her from it.
Everly shook her head in annoyance and drew her attention back to me. I raised a single brow at her, prompting her to speak even though my own attention was scattered.
“I heard the tavern where your uncle lives has workers that serve those who go there,” she said. “The workers do everything so the patrons don’t have to help with cooking, cleaning, or getting their own food or drink. Like we do here.”
George wrinkled his crooked nose, broken countless times when one of our training sessions had gotten too heated. Although his magic had healing properties and he’d been able to heal the breaks himself, he hadn’t done as good of a job as a proper healer would have “Why would they need to be served when we can just get what we want?”
With a shake of my head, I chuckled. As if my uncle needed a reason to find ways to be pampered. I’m sure he was once the perfect son of the late king, who waited in his room for servants to bring him whatever he desired. As my father’s most trusted commander, he may have patrolled and hunted for the darker creatures in our realm, but he had more luxuries in his large cottage than we did in our castle.
She shrugged her strong shoulders. “They say the patronscan just order what they want and relax while they wait for a worker to bring it to them.”
“I prefer getting my own food and drink,” Brenton grumbled. “Or when George goes to the kitchen and cooks one of his fine meals.”
George rolled his eyes, but Brenton was right. George was an incredible chef and brought in more customers than any other fae, which was probably why the tavern’s new owner scheduled him in the kitchen more often than any other. And my lack of kitchen skills was what kept me out of it. When I first started coming to the tavern after coming of age eight years ago, the patrons had been kind. Some were even fearful of me. They’d eaten whatever I’d managed to put together without complaint, but after causing some serious bowel issues one evening, Timothee had agreed to let me pay for everyone’s meals a few times a week while I steered clear of the kitchen.
I nodded my agreement as I took in the fae among me. While I saw them as my people and my responsibility, I doubted they saw me as their future ruler. I was just another patron of the tavern who they not only saw regularly but also took meals from and debated with from time to time. I was the fae who shared jokes and bread with them.
While I’d never be a commoner, I was nothing or no one special, and I preferred it that way.
Still, for some time now, I’d felt as if my life was shrinking. Like the carefully crafted walls my parents had erected around me were moving toward me, boxing me in so I couldn’t escape.
It wasn’t just my daily routine. Sure, the meetings with the king and his advisers were tedious, the battle training mundane, and the public appearances with my parents were. . .dull. It was the life chosen for my family by the Guardians themselves. It was an honor and privilege.
I’d always taken my tasks seriously. I respected what the Guardians wanted from me and went beyond what was asked to make them proud. I never gave them a reason to question their loyalty to my family.
That was until I heard her. The female from the human realm whose voice had started off as a whisper. With each passing day that I tried to ignore her, her siren call grew stronger and more pronounced until ignoring her was no longer an option. I couldn’t go to her; I knew that. The fate of her realm depended on me remaining where I belonged. Nonetheless, the temptation to go to her thrummed through my veins like a poison I couldn’t rid myself of.
Of course, I’d be soul bound to a human.
Even now, as the local bard played his ukulele and his daughters danced and stomped barefoot around him, I heard her. I could almost feel the warmth that radiated from her body and taste the tender spot just below her earlobe.
Just as I closed my eyes to take her in, her sudden pain and fear ricocheted in my head. I rose quickly, toppling my stool to the side as I scanned my surroundings, where I still stood at the back of the tavern.
