Page 72 of The Fae King's Labyrinth

Calypso

Standing in the middle of the most opulent bedchamber I had ever seen, I shivered as I watched my husband. He slept where he fell, crosswise on a luxuriously soft bed large enough for multiple large fae. Elegant limbs akimbo, he still managed to look graceful in a trick that defied logic.

Dropping his second shoe to rest next to the first one, I surveyed the room looking for something to cover him with. Finally, I spotted a couch tucked in the far corner. A throw hung over the back.

I fetched the throw, and by the time I returned, Azulin had turned on his side and curled into a ball. I covered as much of him as I could before stepping back from the bed.

Closing my eyes, I rotated my head to work out some of the tension in my neck.

What kind of family had I married into? A mad and cursed former king for a father-by-marriage, a twisted and power-hungry mother-by-marriage, and then there was Oran. Despite his sarcastic approach to interacting with his brother, he wasn’t as cold as he seemed. Afterall, he cared for their parents.

Still, what had Grizzlemunch said?If your brother hadn’t sworn not to take the throne—If Oran ever did decide to rebel,I suspected at least some of the fae would join his cause. He was charismatic. Probably more so than Azulin.

However, Oran’s behavior toward Azulin and me hadn’t indicated any subterfuge. On the contrary, he had been very supportive. Or at least, he appeared to be.

I shook my head. In this world of tricksters, it was hard to tell what anyone’s motives were. Crossing to a chair near the bed, I sat and pulled my legs up to my chest so I could hug my knees.

At least at home—no, I shouldn’t keep calling my old village home. It wasn’t my home anymore.

Before I met Azulin, I knew how each person in my world saw me. None of them loved me. True, the children had been carelessly affectionate in their own way, but I wasn’t deluded enough to believe they were attached to me. My sister’s lies and manipulation saw to that.

And my sister and her husband had been open in their opinions that I was only useful because I could work. When I had severely sprained my ankle two summers ago, they had threatened to throw me out if I didn’t keep up my part of the workload even while healing. Even while injured, my conversations with the adults in the village had been about the tasks they required me to do and how I needed to move faster.

In contrast, Azulin clearly possessed some affection for me. I suspected he would remain a strange combination of known and unknown personality facets for quite a while. Only time would reveal all of him to me. However, in our short acquaintance, he had consistently shown me he valued me as a person.

Not only had he offered me a place to live, a role in his world, and the protection of his name, but he had offered me friendship. It was a precious gift that I had every intention of protecting.

But the more I saw of his world, the more I was coming to understand the gravity of what he had done when he married me.

I was his weak link. The chink in his armor. The vulnerability anyone could use to get at him and do serious damage. Horror shivered through me.

What had I done by pressuring him to marry me? The last thing I wanted to do was hurt him, but that was exactly what I had done. Moisture flooded my eyes.

Azulin stirred on the bed. His handsome features tightened, and he frowned. His outflung hand stretched toward me across the bedding. Palm up with fingers slightly curled, it was almost like he was reaching for me. But when I glanced at his face, he still slept.

He was my world now. My place was by his side, and I needed to figure out how to function there, not as a dependent, but as someone who could stand on her own feet and support him. Someone who could defend and protect him. I had to be stronger, faster, and more dangerous than his enemies. But how could I do that in a world where any fae could attempt what the former queen had just tried?

I shivered at the thought of being a will-less vessel for some fae’s schemes.

“Calypso?” Azulin’s sleep-roughened voice called me from my musings.

I lifted my head to encounter his dark eyes glinting from beneath lowered eyelids.

“You’re thinking too loud,” he protested. “Come to bed.”

I glared at him. “You never told me you could hear my thoughts.”

He groaned and flung his arm over his head. “I can’t hear them, but I can sense your mood. And based on the knot in my chest, you’re tying yourself in snarls.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll try to stop.” I took a slow, steady breath and tried to ease the tension in my hunched shoulders.

“I have a better idea.” Azulin moved over in the bed and patted the space next to him. “Come, let me hold you so we both can sleep.”

I eyed him warily. We had shared a bed for over a week now—for sleeping and nothing more. I had become accustomed to him being there, but now I was too tense to sleep.

Amusement brightened his eyes. “I don’t bite.”

“I know. Well, actually, I don’t know,” I admitted. “I’m more concerned that I will keep you awake.”

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