Page 162 of The Forbidden Fae King

It could be a bloody fight to retreat from this, especially when I cannot harm a single one of them. I never promised I wouldn’t tie them up.

A man mounted on a black stallion sits at their head and he is a truly imposing figure. The lord protector has Keira’s fiery red hair that blows in the wind, with a short beard to match and a deep green gaze.

Those eyes narrow with deadly intent as they fall on me.

Recognition glows within them.

Keira tries to step over the threshold of the temple, and I grab her around the waist and hold her back.

“I can’t follow you beyond here,” I whisper in her ear. The building still offers us some cover. It means I don’t have to hold this draining shield to my back or sides.

“Take your damn hands off my daughter!” The lord protector roars, and my hands slip away, as though they follow his command instead of my own. “Keira! Come to me, sweetheart. Stand behind our soldiers where you will be safe from him. You do not understand who he is.”

“Father, he will not harm me,” Keira calls out. “Aldrin has not come to kidnap me, but to make me an offer I can accept or decline of my own free will. The high fae are not what you think they are.”

“Sweetheart, come here and we can talk about it.” There is an edge of true fear in the man’s voice. He must think I am a monster here to devour his daughter.

Keira does not move. Instead, her back becomes ramrod straight. “On my pilgrimage, Aldrin was a true friend. He helped me and protected me. He even saved my life a couple of times.” I cringe, because I only saved her from the danger I put her in.

“You don’t know this man.” There is a hint of hysteria on the lord protector’s face. “Not like you think you do.”

The blood drains from me. Every single muscle in my body ripples with tension, and I think I am going to be sick.

This is the moment of truth.

Edmund is going to reveal the one damned thing I never got the chance to tell her. Because I ran out of time. Because I am a coward. This is the worst possible way for Keira to find out what I have kept secret.

“Nor do you!” Keira bellows back, finally losing her patience.

“Has Aldrin told you we have met before, he and I? That this isn’t his first venture into Appleshield lands?” Her father spits.

Keira whirls on the spot, staring at me with huge, vulnerable eyes and an unspoken question on her lips.

“Aldrin. King of the Spring Court,” The lord protector barks my title as though it is a curse. “I told you I would kill you if you ever returned to my lands. If you tried to take my second daughter again.”

“What is he saying?” Keira’s face is incredibly pale.

Words escape me.

“This high fae visited our realm decades ago.” Edmund moves his stallion closer to us, as though he intends to grab his daughter and pull her away from me. “To negotiate a peace treaty between our lands. He wanted open trade and migration. I was a fool enough to entertain those notions, despite the treason to our crown, until he suggested a marriage to solidify the alliance. This fae wanted my second daughter to take as his consort back to the Otherworld. He wanted you, Keira. He has clearly been hunting you ever since.”

Dread pumps through me.

Nothing matters but the woman before me.

Keira stares at me as though I were a stranger, or the demon the rest of the humans believe me to be.

She takes a step away from me. “Is this true Aldrin?” she half-whispers.

It shatters my very soul to see her recoil from me.

My breath catches in my throat. “It wasn’t like that. I didn’t comehere looking for a consort, just the negotiations, but the prophecy came to my sister in a vision while we were in these lands and I thought she saw my future wife in them. I thought she saw my m?—”

“Why didn’t you tell me you had been here? That you had tried totakeme before!” Keira screams at me, taking another step backward. There is such fear in her eyes as those prejudices I had worked so hard to break lock back into place. It utterly breaks my heart. “How can I trust you, Aldrin?”

My chest tightens to the point of pain. “I didn’t know you were the same person when we first met. And then, I never found the right time to tell you. Gods, I tried so many times.”

“He would have dragged you away as a child!” Edmund roars, adding fuel to the fire burning between us.

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