Page 55 of A House of Cloaks & Daggers

Mates.

Soulmates.

The concept was familiar enough. Faeries only ever married for love, but the allocation of soulmates was less about emotional connections and more about physical compatibility. The mating bond came first, and union of love second—if at all.They believed in fate, but love was as fickle in Faerie as it was in my own world.

I can say no.

In the books I had read before, sometimes, they said no. Sometimes, the love was unrequited, and the union never happened. Even if they tried to force me, I wouldneverlet them—

My hand curled around what felt like a doorknob. I realised that the windows were actually glass doors leading onto a narrow balcony concealed mostly by darkness, so I maintained eye contact with the High King as I checked to make sure it wasn’t locked—and prayed to the House, my only witness, that it would stay that way.

It was unlocked, so I pushed down on the handle and held the High King’s stormy and highly suspicious gaze.

If he would accept the wordnofrom a High Fae mate, he could accept it from me, too.

“I reject the bond,” I declared loudly, and it was only the expression on his face that told me I had used the right words.

Faster than he could react, I shoved the door open and fled into the darkness before the guilt could set in. Lucais’s eyes had widened in fear, anticipating the words…

But it was Wren who roared, the sound full of violent rage as I ran after the tiny orb of faelight that had followed me through the balcony doors. It was Wren’s furious dismay that shook me to my core while Lucais remained silent, exactly where I’d left him, as if I’d taken his heart out of his chest and carried it with me.

I had always felt that if emotions had a soundtrack, then disappointment was loud and ferocious and all-consuming. Heartbreak, for me, had always been quiet. The final traces of the music as it faded into silence right as the playlist came to its end.

Sadly, I realised that Lucais must have felt the same.

Chapter twenty-two

Wren

Winter arrived in Faeriethat night.

It was early spring in the human world, and from what I had gleaned from the Court of Light so far, the seasons seemed to work the same, but snow had dusted my windowpane when I woke at dawn the next morning to shooting pains of hunger, squeezing and releasing my stomach with an iron fist.

I didn’t remember falling asleep the previous night, nor did I recall tucking myself in underneath the blankets when the temperature had plummeted.

The faelight orb had guided me around a shallow balcony walled by a swirling gold railing until I found another glass door, at which point the House took over and led me back to my bedroom by manipulating the candlelight. I’d locked the door from the inside myself and leapt onto the bed, muffling my cries with the feather-down pillows.

I had half expected Wren to storm into my room at some point during the night and throw me out of the House, but nobody had come to my door. There wasn’t a single sound above the howling wind as the snowstorm seized control and drove icicles into the heart of the land.

Breath clouding in front of me, I pushed myself into a sitting position and tried to peer through the fern frost on my window.

Instead of light and colour, the sky was a cool shade of dark grey, and the clouds were heavy and thick, throwing snowflakes between them rather than crystals. Pulling the blankets up to my chin, I swallowed down a wave of nausea as my stomach growled again. I hadn’t touched any of the food the night before, and I couldn’t bring myself to get out of bed and go downstairs in search of breakfast—not after what I had said to the High King.

Lucais’s deafening silence had remained in my head like part of my brain had gone quiet and shut down. Wren’s roaring, too, like he had vocalised the agony that had caused his High King to be lost for words.

Did I hurt him?

Would it hurt to have the mating bond rejected in such a sudden and careless way?

There was no love between us. Perhaps a shared nightmare or two, and maybe even the most basic and carnal form of attraction. Lucais was handsome and had behaved decently enough, so it wasn’t because I found him repulsive, but…

It was ridiculous; the entire story was absurd.

And yet, I had offended both of them with my questions about their thoughts. Faerie customs were so peculiar to my human brain, and some of the things Wren had said and done were deeply offensive to humans, but I supposed that High Faewere a race of people with their own culture and customs, and they should be treated as such.

Magic and madness aside, they were a people, and I was a guest in their home. A tourist in their homeland. And my behaviour…

My behaviour had been appalling. So appalling that even in some human countries, it might have gotten me thrown into a dungeon.

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