Page 186 of Bride of the Midnight Prince

My sorrow and my death will give these people life.

The pool goes black.

I stay where I am, clinging to the edges of the bowl, my elbows stiff.

Then I remember that there are still more people. These last eleven.I must finish this.

I sweep aside the gauzy black veil to find Rahk waiting just outside.

His black eyes fall straight to me. I go stiff with fright.He cannot see who you are,I remind myself. I’ve got to act like a fae. And yet, how desperately I long to greet him as a friend. As far, far more than a friend.

Act like a fae.

I smile at him, giving him a pointed once-over and biting my lip as I wink. It makes my stomach curl, but heismy husband.

His gaze has already passed over me, focusing on his destination—the pool.

I should let him go. I’ve wasted enough time as it is.

But when he moves to walk past me, his scent wafts over me. Clear night skies and wind. It takes me back to what it felt like to be wrapped up in his strong embrace, to lose my head every time he kissed me. It takes me back to what it felt like to receive his many gifts, to be rewarded by his laughter when I said foolish things. He doesn’t look like he has ever laughed, but I know better.

The letter he left me wasn’t enough. Notnearlyenough. This is the last time I’ll ever see him. I cannot just let him go.

“I heard you’ve been to the human lands,” I say, ignoring my better judgment.

He stops briefly but doesn’t even look at me. “I have.”

“What kingdom did you visit?”

The only show of his surprise is the flick of his gaze to mine.Finally,he looks at me.

“Are you familiar with the human kingdoms on the edge of Caphryl Wood?” he asks, almost suspiciously. And he’s right to be suspicious—I would imagine that fae think of the human world much as the humans view the fae’s: all one people, in one homogenous kingdom, speaking the same language, ruled by one king. Most fae wouldn’t know to ask such a clarifying question.

“I collect tales of the humans in my spare time,” I reply. “Once, I had the privilege of visiting. I miss it dearly.”

His interest is immediately captured. “You’ve been to the human world? I have been both to Aursailles and Harbright, but I’ve spent more time in the latter.”

“Truly?” I say brightly, drawing upon the persona I reserve for playing the noblewoman to give a pleased laugh. “Harbright was where I visited! It was ages ago, but the memories are so clear I think of it as yesterday.”

“The smells too, I imagine,” Rahk says, with just a tinge of that twinkle returning to his eye.

“The smells too!” I agree, hoping my enthusiasm covers my lack of experiential understanding. “The food was appalling.”

Rahk smiles at that, and triumph thrills in my belly. “I found it to be unexpectedly pleasing, but I have never been particular about food.”

“The white liquid drink was the most egregious crime.”

“Milk?” His smile widens. “If the food was so appalling, what do you miss about the human lands?”

We’ve stepped aside from the veil, and someone slips past us to see what awaits them in the mirror’s reflection.

“The scenery, for one. There is something beautiful in its simplicity.”

Rahk nods in agreement.

“For another, those four-legged creatures that everyone rides or pulls their wheeled boxes on, with the long tails. Those creatures were beautiful.”

That earns me a proper laugh. The sound draws the weighty gazes of Lord and Lady Nothril, and I try to shift slightly behind Rahk so they cannot look at me too closely. Rahk notices the dark and curious glares at once and steps into a secluded spot shielded by the arrangement of the cavern walls. I follow him, taking care not to trip and fall into the river from the force of my pounding heart.

---