Page 51 of Fae Champion

“You should.”

“Well, I don’t.” But he pulled me beside a loud, boisterous group of older men and women who, based on the rosiness of their cheeks and raucous laughter, had been downing with abandon whatever their goblets held.

He stationed me so close to the bunch that two men turned to greet Rush, who nodded ahello, then gestured them to turn back around. He leaned into me as Hiroshi, Ryder, and West lingered, casting nervous looks toward the end of the room that held the thrones.

The small, bloody spy of an appendage had followed us. Rush breathed against the curve of my neck. “We have seconds before everyone will notice us here.”

“Then maybe you should tone down the fierce beastly man vibe and stop looking like you’re two quick seconds from hiking up my skirt and plowing into me, our audience be damned.”

Based on the heat that ignited in his eyes as he pulled back to study my face, it was the wrong thing to say—or perhaps the precise thing. After taking in the feral nature of his wicked grin, I was an instant from hitching up my dress for him and giving the entire court a show before I completed my march toward condemnation.

Guards in the sky-blue colors of the queen popped up behind Ryder, Hiroshi, and West, pinning meaningful looks on us. Rush hadn’t yet seen them.

“If you still want to say something, you’d better bequick about it,” I said.

“We can never be together,” he grunted, the sound like a rough thrust to my inflamed thoughts, “but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to show you what we could be like together. To prove to you what taking your maidenhood means to me. What I want”—he nipped at my neck; I yipped—“to do to your entire body.”

My mind growing rapidly hazy, I said, “You didn’t take anything.” I glanced at the ear, wondering if we were being quiet and the crowd beside us loud enough. “I was the one who gave, and nothing I gave was all that important.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. It’sveryimportant.”

“Well, doesn’t matter much now anyhow. We’re out of time. And like you’ve said a hundred times, it can never happen between us.” I stared at him until his eyes traveled from my mouth up to mine. “If you’re going to turn me in, you’d better do it now.”

The ear rose toward the cathedral ceiling and zipped away, dodging the orbs of silver light, so abundant they mimicked starlight.

“I don’t want to,” Rush growled softly. Goosebumps swept across my skin.

“Sure you do,” I said uncharitably, already shielding myself from what was to come, from more of him. “You follow Her Majesty’s orders, don’t you?”

He hesitated, looking toward his friends though it didn’t look as if he properly registered their impatience. “I also follow the king’s to protect you.”

My smile was sad, defeated, tired, accepting … and that frightened me more than anything I’d seen so far tonight.

Abruptly, I stepped away from Rush’s touch. “Since I don’t know what’s going to happen to me, I’m going to get something to drink. But I’ll be quick, and then we’ll do what we came here to do. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Rush stared at me without reply. I didn’t wait for one. I stalked toward the nearest refreshment table, eyed an ice sculpture of a felled dragon—shocker—the overflowing silver platters of glistening fruit and cheeses carved into bouquets of flowers, and then an array of opaque decanters.

“What’s in them?” I asked of the hummingbird-sized fairy who sat atop the pale silver tablecloth, twirling a long strand of her hair—loose and a near-blinding violet—while flicking her slipper on and off.

She went completely still. “So it’s true. Youcansee us!”

“Sure can.”

“I thought Morwenna was pulling my skirt.”

Morwenna had been the fairy with the white hair, I recalled, assigned the supervisory task of making Russet Sterling’s death as gruesome as possible.

“Nope,” I said. “But I don’t have time to chat.”

“Oh, I know. We all do. The queen’s waiting for you.”

Quickly, I glanced behind me, noticed too manysets of eyes on me, and turned back around. “Everyone knows?” I hissed.

“For sure. The queen ordered extra entertainment for tonight to … celebrate.”

“Celebrate what, exactly? And what kind of entertainment?”

The tiny fairy stood to stare up at me. “If I were you, which I’m glad I’m not, I wouldn’t want to know.”

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