Page 86 of Faeling
Her denial was ferocious and desperate, her fingers digging into the material of his tunic.
But before she could argue, he continued. “You are my mate, and I will take you for my wife. And my queen. There’s no otherway.”
Ravenna blinked out into the rainy night, not sure if she’d heard him right.
“I don’t want to be queen,” she blurted. “I’ve never wanted any of this.”
When he might have grumbled or argued, Vallek instead purred louder. He ran a hand gently down the length of her tangled hair, kissing the top of her head before telling her, “And that is why you’ll be a queen for the ages.”
“No.I won’t. I can’t.”
Her heart, still on the floor, fluttered with dread. Fates, it was one thing to be his mate, a carefully guarded secret. Perhaps she could have gotten used to the arrangement, helping him from the shadows as she had before but also sharing his bed and private life.
But to place her beside him on the throne? To declareher—a fae–human halfling—queen of orcs? Preposterous. Impossible.
“You can and you will,” he said, still in that gentle tone that she was beginning to find infuriating. “The gods don’t make mistakes.”
Ravenna laid her palm on his forehead to check for a temperature. “Did you hit your head coming down the cliff?”
Vallek snorted, taking her hand in his and kissing it. “No. I’m thinking quite clearly. Perhaps for the first time in months.”
“I don’t—”
“Is it that you don’t want me, sprite?”
Ravenna choked on whatever she’d been about to say. She tilted her head back again to glare at him. “You know that’s not it.”
Although it didn’t reach his eyes, his smug grin was still insufferable. “Then we will be as all other mates. I will take you to wife. I cannot give up my throne and the unification of my people. But I cannot give you up, either. So you will just have to be my queen.”
All she could do was splutter and stare in horror at his wild jumps in logic. Denial clamored up her throat, but nothing more than sounds of shock came out. No true words or arguments came to her, nothing to truly make him see the sheer audacity and risk of such a thing. All she could offer was wordless, vague concern that doing this would lead to his ruin.
Just as Ulrich said.
Taking advantage of her speechlessness, Vallek pressed, “I’ll make you a deal,skala,as you’re so fond of them.”
“I’mnot—” They had madeoneand suddenly nowthiswas how their mating worked andhewas the one always making deals andchangingthem and—
“Do this for me, stand beside me, and I will aid you in whatever scheme it is you play at.”
Ravenna’s mouth ran dry. “What?”How does he know?
That little grin fell away from his face, and he regarded her seriously when he said, “I know you have plans for something. I’m not a fool—a soothsayer falling into my lap isn’t coincidence. You have many secrets, and I intend to know all of them.”
“Vallek…” Despite her pain, she tried to squirm out of his lap, but he held her fast.
“I won’t pry. Not yet. But when the time comes, you will tell me your secrets and your plan. You will ask for my help.” Leaning down, he touched his nose to hers, taking up all her senses when he said, “And I will give it. If you become myqueen.”
The breath rushed out of Ravenna in a hiss. She wanted to curl up on herself, hide away from that penetrating lapis-lazuli gaze. He knew too much. Saw too much.
It was like he peered inside her, even in the dim light of their little fire, and saw everything. She shrank away—what was there to see but an angry, hurting little girl out for revenge. He wouldn’t find the queen he wanted. She was nothing but a shut-in, sequestered away for all her life by the sea with her gentle mother.
She was nothing grand, nothing special. A halfling of two worlds who belonged in neither. Her visions were more of a burden than a gift.
She brought him nothing but her anger and her plotting. She meant to use him and his people. He was a fool for wanting to put someone like her on the throne beside him. A stupid, cocksure, handsome, noble fool.
Mistaking her silence, Vallek added, “I swear to you, I will keep you safe. And the safest place is beside me.”
He couldn’t promise that—he was willfully ignorant at best, raving mad at worst to think it. But then, she couldn’t make him promises, either. Not if she meant to have her vengeance.
