Page 108 of A Bargain with the Fae King

Sylvie and Galen hurry toward me. Tension flees as my body goes slack in a surge of relief. But just as quickly, I tense up again. Sylvie drops to her knees and reaches toward my tear-stained face. I pull back. Tears blur my eyes again, the pain of betrayal fresh and ragged in my heart. I can’t even look at them.

“Lia?” Sylvie draws back. From the corner of my eyes, I see her glance at Galen.

He shifts on his feet. “We should call for Riven.”

I bite my lip at his name. The tang of blood washes over my tastebuds. No. I’m not ready to see him. After what I just learned, I might never be.

May. I have to save May. That’s all that matters now.

Pull it together.I suck in a breath and fight against my tears. If they figure out what I know, I’ll have much less chance of getting the key and returning here. Maybe none.

Sylvie latches onto my hip. Before I can move away, she slides her thumb into the waistband of my pants, right over Riven’s mark. “Sylvie, what—”

Magic rushes over my skin.

“Lia, what’s happened?” His voice, the one I once adored, pierces me like a dagger.

I choke on a sob. I can’t do this.

Riven drops to the ground next to me and ushers Sylvie and Galen out of the way.

I close my eyes. Tears leak from their corners to run down my face.

“What did he do to you?” The concern in his voice drives another stake into my heart. He holds me close as he wipes away the tears with his thumbs.

Another act? Another lie?

“Who?” Sylvie’s question lingers in the air.

Riven responds, “Sigurd. I feel his magic. Smell him. He was just here.”

“We’ll go after him.” Galen’s voice this time. The sound of boots retreating across the stones follows.

I didn’t want to see them, or anyone, but being left alone with Riven is so much worse. His magic tingles under my skin, sweeping through my body, trying to heal whatever’s wrong with me. It crushes the shards of my heart into powder. He can’t heal this. No magic can.

“My Ciela, please, speak to me.”

I don’t know the word he used. A Faery endearment? I want to hit him, to push him away, to yell at him. But none of that will do me any good.

I gulp a steadying breath and open my eyes.

Riven’s face hovers in front of me. Green eyes laced with concern and a tinge of that inhuman glow stare into mine. I long to close my eyes again, close them and never open them.

But I can’t. Not until May is free.

“Lia?” His hands are still on my face, stroking it softly, each soft touch grating like sandpaper against my soul.

“I’m okay,” I whisper. A lie. Such a lie. “I got overwhelmed. I need some time alone.”

Riven undoes the bracelet around my wrist with such care it breaks something in me that I didn’t know I had left to shatter. The bracelet finds a new home in his pocket before he scoops me off the ground and into his arms in one smooth movement, as if I weigh nothing at all.

Too much, too close. My skin crawls. I fight the urge to wiggle away.

“I’ll take you to our rooms.”

The air bends. The scene around us twists. A pop echoes through the air, and suddenly we’re in our sitting room.

No, not ours.His.

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