Page 140 of Flirting with Darkness

His gaze flicked away. “Hmm.”

“And here I thought you might humour me to get me to go through with the wedding.”

He said nothing, which seemed his standard response unless I asked a direct question. Gods, he was hard work.

“But then, I suppose for all I know, you could just use your fae charm to make me marry you, right?”

It wasn’t as though I knew what fae charm felt like. Maybe that was the real reason I’d first gone to Ariadne with her fae-touched magic all those years ago and stopped the other kids from beating her. Maybe it was why I felt protective of her. But… no, that wasn’t magic, it was just that she was alone and small, and unlike my brothers and sisters, she had no big sister keeping an eye out for her. And I couldn’t let that bullying stand.

Faolán made a soft grumbling sound in his throat. “Charm is not my forte.”

I snorted and muttered under my breath, “I’m not arguing with that.”

We walked on down the side of yet another hill. Although running every morning gave me some quiet time alone, I wasn’t used to being around people and having silence. Sure, there was the creak of snow underfoot and birdsong came from overhead as we walked through a wooded valley, but he said nothing. It made my back itch.

“So, is it really true that fae can’t lie?”

“There’s a geas on all fae to not tell a direct lie.” He pushed back a fern frond and let me go first.

A geas. Those magical obligations placed upon people in the faerie tales, some a curse, some a blessing.You must do this; you must never do that.In some stories the hero’s specific geas was impossible to break. In others, it could be broken, but with deadly consequences.

“But you told the pack we were engaged.”

He stared up at the leafy canopy as though bored. “We were when I said it.”

I winced. “So you can’t lie, but that doesn’t mean you always tell the truth.”

“The truth is slippery.”

Great. So their inability to lie was no guarantee of anything. I couldn’t trust anything he said.

We continued in silence for a few minutes until the path branched, one way continuing through the forest, the other winding up a steep hill.

He took the latter, long legs eating up the slope as quickly as they had covered the flat. “The skyshrine’s up here.”

“And what is a skyshrine exactly?”

He huffed a sigh and muttered, “So many questions.” He gestured above. “It’s a shrine in the open air.” He widened his eyes at me like it should’ve been obvious.

I trudged up the path after him, breaths coming quicker, legs complaining by halfway. He’d said marriage would keep me safe. It wouldn’tmeananything, just like my tavern conquests never meant anything more than fun, but…

But human entanglements with fae always ended in tragedy. That was one area all the stories agreed on. It was why I needed to find Ari before it was too late.

And even without that, marriage was different from a tumble in the stables with someone travelling through town, even if it was only marriage for a bargain.

I’d always pictured that when Peony and Rory—the littles, as I called them—were a bit older and Ma and Pa didn’t need my help so much,thenI’d think about settling down. A man from Briarbridge with a profession, so we would have a way of making money. A sensible option. My flings were with wilder men—the ones who’d never settle down, who lived for adventure. But flings were different from marriages…

And here I was back at the start.

Even if it was only for a year and a day, marriage meant something. It was a partnership. Settling down. It was meant to be a special day that marked a turning point in my life. Ari had promised to sew me a dress for it. We’d spoken about pilfering a rose from the Hawthornes’ front gardens so I could wear it in my hair.

We reached the crest of the hill. Ahead—well, I didn’t need to ask if we’d arrived.

A granite altar stood under the open air, flanked by two trees, an oak and a yew. The oak’s young leaves, newly unfurled, were a light sap green against the clear sky, while the yew’s needles contrasted in a dark, cool shade of green.

The hairs at the back of my neck prickled, and I realised I’d come to a halt at the sight.

This was where we’d be married.

---