Page 105 of Fake Fae-Ancée

"I don't think she wants to marry Prince Yuri at all. And she doesn't want to be queen either. She acts as if it was all her plan, but the truth is she’s acting on orders just like a certain assassin I spy with my little eye."

"Shut up!"

"Awful business." I rolled onto my side and eyed him from my prone position. "Being forced to do things you don't want to do. Not to think of the consequences."

"Stop talking."

"You don't fit into all of it, though."

Nox stirred, his dull eyes blinking at me once. I pounced on the gap in his defenses.

"I'd been wondering why you were working for the Bears since this thing started," I said. "The Dark Guild is even worse enemies with the Bears than the Fae. You didn't fit front and center. And my Anima as a prize for your services? Come on." I snorted. "You have enough Anima of your own. No need for you to betray your guild and go to such expense — just for a little bit of Fae Anima."

Nox looked at me from white eyes, face tense, and leaned forward in his seat.

"What difference does it make what you think?" he asked.

"I think you're into the bitch."

Nox jumped up from his seat. "Watch your tongue!" he growled.

Ha! Bull's-eye.

"Hey, take it easy, cowboy. Anastasia is just as into you as you’re into her. That's what I'm saying, the whole thing makes zero sense. She doesn't even want to marry Prince Yuri."

Nox froze where he stood.

"She doesn't?"

"Oh, dear." I sighed, bracing myself on my elbows. "You'd do anything for her, wouldn't you? You'll even help her marry someone else. Even if she's forced to."

"You don't know anything, Fae-Scum!" Suddenly Nox was right in front of the cage, snarling at me. "She's worth a thousand times more than you and I put together. She's worth dying for."

"Dying, I see." I snorted. "But is she also worth living, and a lifetime of watching her be with someone else?"

I held his gaze that was white and empty, like fog enveloping a mountain. But something flashed behind his impenetrable wall.

I smiled. "Isn't it nice when two people fall in love?"

"I'm not in love," Nox snorted and turned away.

"Yeah, whatever."

"It could never work." His dark figure in front of the cage slumped his shoulders.

With a groan, I braced myself into a sitting position. It felt like digging myself out of a grave.

"Says who?" I gasped.

Nox turned around again. "Don't be stupid. You of all people know what it's like not to be good enough for someone."

I laughed. Nox frowned.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing." I continued to laugh. It was exhausting but I forced myself to do it. "Nothing at all. Just the fact that you're denying it. And how she makes you jump through all her little hoops and you’re not even getting anything out of it."

"You don't know anything!"

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