Page 129 of The Forbidden Fae King

My entire chest tightens with pain as foreboding fills me. I have to force myself to be still, when I only want to bundle her up in my arms, because I get the feeling she doesn’t want my touch right now.

Keira finally turns to me. We are the only two left in the courtyard. She wraps her arms around her, as though she tries to hold in thepieces of herself. Her eyes are hooded with shadows and a sad frown pinches her brow.

The sight of her pain cuts through me. “Come here, Keira,” I reach for her. She steps back. “Speak to me. How can I fix this?”

She shakes her head.

“I’m sorry I put you in so much danger. That you are terrified. I will do better, I promise. I won’t be blindsided again.” My fingers brush strands of hair like spun gold and liquid rubies from her face.

Keira shudders in a breath. “I’m so sorry, Aldrin.”

“Sorry?” I ask in confusion, taking a step closer. “You have nothing to be sorry about.”

She pulls away from me. Tears form at the corners of her eyes. “I want you to take me back to the portal. I am going home, Aldrin. Back to my realm. It is where I belong.”

The world spins around me as reality itself seems to shudder. I knew this was coming, but I never believed it. My blood turns to ice. I cannot imagine a life without her in it. I don’t want that life.

Cold sweat breaks all over my skin and a deep chill runs down my spine, at the look of sheer determination in her eyes. That dagger in my heart twists and I could fall to my knees for the pain of it. My throat seems to close up, and the simple task of breathing is much too hard.

She was always going to leave me, but somewhere down the line I had hoped I was enough to make her stay.

I search her face, trying to spot the lie, needing to know that she doesn’t really want to return. That she needs me as much as I need her. Tears run freely from the corners of her eyes, making tracks down her face and pooling into her hair, but she doesn’t become the sobbing mess I fear I am seconds away from descending into.

Maybe she already cried all her tears.

“Take me back to the portal, Aldrin,” she half-whispers and my heart absolutely shatters. “I am going home.”

In my lifetime, I have been stabbed, burnt, turned into a pincushion with arrows, but no physical wound has ever hurt this much.

Chapter 33

Keira

Aldrin stares at me, hurt rippling across his face and his body completely frozen. For the first time since I met him, he has no words. The light dies within his amber eyes and they turn stone cold, as the blood drains from his face.

Bitter pressure builds and builds in my chest until I fear it will explode from raw grief. I cannot breathe around it. The sheer pain turns my limbs numb and makes my head spin. I am drowning in it.

I want to run to Aldrin; to kiss his lips and tell him I don’t mean it. That I want to stay here with him, but I can’t. If I give in even the slightest bit, I will collapse into his strong arms, and I won’t have the strength to walk away.

“Surely you don’t mean it.” Aldrin’s gaze tears away from me as though the sight burns him, but they are dragged straight back. “I want you to stay, Keira. I want you at my side. I—” His voice breaks. “Ineedyou.”

“We both knew this was coming, Aldrin,” I half-whisper.

“Tell me what you need,” Aldrin urges. “and I will give it to you. Just stay. Another week. Another month. Whatever you can give me. Don’t leave now, not for fear that I can’t protect you.”

“Aldrin, it is ludicrous for me to become embroiled in your civilwar, when my people need me. Can’t you see that?” A sob escapes my lips. “I cannot help you get your throne back if I stay here. I won’t be able to help restore magic to either realm. You said it yourself with that prophecy.” I take in a deep breath, readying myself for the final blow. “I must become a queen in my realm and prepare the humans to make an alliance with the fae.”

His beautiful features crumple at my brutality. I don’t want to hurt him, but I need him to understand. “I don’t care for your usefulness, Keira. You are more than your connections to me. Please tell me you are not going back forhim.”

My stomach drops and my veins turn to ice. “If it were a choice between men, I would always choose you, Aldrin, a million times over, but it is so much more than that.” I shake my head. “I can’t turn my back on my duty, my people and my family.”

“I can’t bear the thought of you withhim. Of being another man’s queen. It would drive me to insanity.” Aldrin runs a hand through his hair. “He doesn’t treat you right. He doesn’t worship you like I do.”

I soak in every inch of his perfect face, committing it to memory. The lines of his razor-sharp cheekbones and squared jaw, his amber eyes beneath prominent, arching eyebrows. His perfectly straight nose and thin lips. I will never know a man this beautiful again.

Something within me breaks beyond repair.

It feels like it is another woman entirely who steps away from him. “I am leaving Aldrin. You once told me you would never hold me against my will.”

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