Page 99 of The Beast King's Bride

“Now you trust me to stay?”

“Now…” He hesitates. “I trust you in all things. You’re free, Ash, to come and go as you please. I swear it’s the truth.”

I want to turn around and throw my arms around him but settle for squeezing his hand that’s splayed over my stomach. “I don’t want to go.”

His arm tightens around me and he buries his face in my neck. We ride like this and I don’t know what’s going through his mind, why he’s so quiet once again.

We ride on, coming to a town by a wide, slow-moving river, and the Fae come out of their stone-built houses to watch us pass by, not looking surprised.

“They’ve seen you pass by for years and years,” I say.

“Yes.”

“Do they even know what you do for them?”

He presses a kiss to my neck and straightens. “Vaguely.”

“We should show them.”

“I won’t turn my power into a show for the masses. Kings have done what I do for as far back as memory and history goes. I’m not going to present it as something extraordinary.”

“Talen. You’re losing their support. A show may be what is needed to get it back.”

He nudges Embar forward and we trot ahead of the guard, toward a great bridge spanning the river. “I don’t think it matters.”

“Of course it matters. Remember, we need to buy time, to stop the rebellion. I see what you mean, and I appreciate the thought behind it, but this is important. Show them that you’re working for them, for the land, that you’re not only riding about controlling them, making sure they don’t rise up against you.”

“Is that what they think? That I ride about, trying to control them?” He snarls.

“In the human lands, that’s what the people would think, if they don’t see what happens after you ride by. In my world, the king might ride with his royal guard to display his gold and power, make sure that the peasants cower and don’t entertain any thoughts of rebellion.”

“Maab’s tits.”

“Please… do it for me.”

“No.”

“You said the people have been fleeing, blaming you,” I argue. “Now the nobles also know about your other form, about how the curse affects you, and I’m sure rumors spread. So show them that you’re not a passive pawn of the Empress. That you’ve been working hard to keep them safe and well. They don’t know you, Talen.” Not like I’m starting to. “They probably think you go out for rides to pass the time and sit around eating from golden plates. They need to see you working alongside them if you want to gain their trust. They’d see you for what you really are, selfless and kind.”

“I’m not selfless,” is all he says as we canter over the bridge, the pounding of Embar’s hooves over the stone echoing, drowning out our voices.

But he is. He can’t see it for himself. Only if he sees himself through other people’s eyes will he believe it.

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