Page 52 of How to Keep a Fae

Jayga

He’s back. I’m glad he’s back. Relieved, truth be told.

But something is off—wrong. He has changed while he has been away, and I have a weird feeling that I can’t seem to shake.

I should be happy. Adaline will be herself again, the bright, playful fae we love. We can go back to the smoking hot threesomes.

So why do I feel turned upside down?

Why am I waiting for the next revelation?

Why do I feel like I’m about to be displaced?

“You’re unusually quiet today,” August says, breaking the tense silence.

We’re on patrol, our horses moving at a walk as we give them a rest. That’s the way this goes. He went on a quest with an imperial, one who happens to be his father, but it’s business as usual today.

“You’re not exactly chatty, either.”

He arches a brow. “I’m never chatty. I’ve just spent months with my father. He can go entire weeks without saying a single word.”

He’s joking, right?

“You’re messing with me?”

His lips finally twitch.Bastard.

“What’s he like then? How come you never mentioned him?”

“So that’s what this is about?”

I don’t answer, which I suppose is an answer.

“He has been largely absent from my life. This is the longest time I have spent with him, and I was only half jokingabout his nonverbal ways. I even found myself missing you a couple of times.”

Nonverbal? Who even talks like this? Why did I delude myself into thinking I could share a woman with him? We’re like polar opposites in every way. “But you got to know him on this trip?”

“Yes,” he says. “I got to know a small part of him on this trip. He’s old. Even for an imperial.”

“How old exactly?”

Fine, I’m curious now.

“He was at Sendar.”

“Well, fuck. That’s, like, really old. Guess you’re not going to condense all of that into a few months of nonverbal travel.” Gods, now I’m talking like an ass.

He shrugs. He’s not looking at me. I rub absently at the center of my chest. I don’t think he’s listening to me. Which isn’t unusual, but I do usually coax the odd chuckle out of him, and I’m good.

“He said something to me about Adaline. I’m still—it’s a lot to take in. We need to talk about it. Properly. Somewhere not on a damn patrol.”

“Okay.” Fuck, my heart is pounding out of my chest. “Is he sanctioning us…”

“No.”

That was blunt—cutting. “You can’t drop shit like that and then stop!”

“RIDE!”

---