Page 424 of Flirting with Darkness

I glare at him. “Don’t put words in my mouth.”

He gives me a half smile. “Then what, may I ask, is your issue with it?”

I take a moment. Not as long as he’s prone to, but long enough. “I thought you were going to kill me. The whole time.The whole time.I thought you were dragging me off to be punished for keeping you hostage.”

“And you’d be right. If you ever wish to return to my realm, you’ll have to meet with the council of other fae kings and they’ll decide if any punishment needs doling out. But I figured, since I’d forgiven your misguided actions, they likely would too. Especially once I revealed the nature of our relationship.”

If I weren’t already sitting…

My head spins with the new information, the new context of all his actions.

He put me in my favorite dress to protect me, yes, but also because heknewit was my favorite. He hunted and cooked for me. He told me to keep speaking to his mind because he liked it….

“I—I don’t even know your name,” I whisper.

The king smiles. “You do. You’ve known it all along, little bird. Just as I knew yours the minute your heart and mind opened to me.”

That first night he called to me in my dreams, shortly after my eighteenth birthday. Shortly after Father had officially given me my first duties as Keeper.

I recalled little of what he said that first time, the first dream. All that remains is a still image in my mind’s eye.

A beautiful lord in a lovely garden telling me I was his love forever and always. “I thought it was a trick. I thought you only wanted out.”

“I did, in fact, want out. But it was no trick, pet. Like all royal fae, knew you were my love the moment your mind opened to me. And I knew I’d do anything to get you to realize it as well. Now, how can I help that father of yours?”

I’m rendered speechless by his confession.

My arm goes to my chest, not to cross them or deflect his words, but to rest my splayed hand against my stuttering heart, against the warm, swirling excitement caged beneath my ribs.

I know his name?

I couldn’t recall a time when he’d told me. Not once.

Yes, I heard the rest of it. His confession of love everlasting. But I didn’t have time or space for that right now.

So, I shake my head clear of the thoughts, my chest free of the swirling breathlessness, and give him the bones of my father’s predicament.

“So I need to make him a believer.”

“You need to convince him you’re not a demon, and soon, before he rallies the whole town together and sends me off to an asylum.”

The king’s words rip from his throat in a vicious snarl. “He’ll send you nowhere.”

I pull his hands toward me. “You can’t hurt him.”

“If he’s threatened you—”

His words halt as I press a fingertip to his lips. “He’s only doing what he thinks is right. Remember that. But we need to hurry. This might take some time.” I stand, as does the fae king.

He nods to my bedchamber door. “Lead the way, darkling.”

I stop short at that, thinking at first I just misheard him. “Did you just call me darling?”

“I did not. I called you darkling.”

I don’t ask what it means. I don’t need to. The weight of the pet name wraps around me, settling into places deep within me. Places I didn’t know were empty until the feeling of that name filled them in.

I take a moment, letting the high level off, take the fae king’s hand and head downstairs.

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