Page 38 of Queen of Ever

Briyala was studying me with her head slightly cocked, sympathy warming her eyes.‘Listen, I know you’re upset with him and a party isn’t the best place to talk.But if I were you, I’d want to hear what he has to say, and tonight is probably going to be the best chance you’ll get if you’re hoping not to be noticed.After tonight, everyone will be spying on each other and keeping tabs on who goes where and does what.And with you being engaged to Solas—’

‘We’re not engaged,’ I said immediately.

‘The court doesn’t know that.And Solas won’t take kindly to being made a fool of.It would be best for you to get it out of the way tonight, while the magic holds.’

If Marietta had given me that warning, I might have thought she was overreacting.But when Briyala said it, it sounded serious and it sent a chill down my spine.With their beauty and their appearance of civility, it was easy to forget how dangerous the fae could be.But if I went back to the Summer Palace without talking to Tarian, I might never have another chance.

‘He found me already,’ I found myself admitting.‘He tried to talk to me.And I left.’And now I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d squandered my chance.If I could find my way back to that hole in the wall he’d led me through, would he still be there?And if he wasn’t, how would I find him a second time in all this madness?The magic made my head ache, and as I watched the other fae mingling and gyrating with abandon, I couldn’t help but wonder what the appeal of it was.I might have been fae now, but I still felt more human than anything.The thought of trying to comb the party searching for him sucked.

‘Not to brag, but I’ve known Tarian a very long time,’ Briyala said with a smirk.‘I’m sure it won’t take too long to track him down.’

‘Why are you helping me?’I asked.I knew she said there were no hard feelings, but it still felt strange that she would help the woman who had taken her fiancé from her so underhandedly.

‘I may not want to marry Tarian, but we’re still friends.I want him to be happy,’ she said.‘Besides, I kind of like the idea of him owing me one.’She flashed me a wink before taking my hand.‘Come on.If we take a stroll around the outskirts no doubt we'll stumble across him.He’s probably as far away from the middle of the party as he can be without actually leaving.’

I followed Briyala’s lead, finding my tension easing in her presence.She wasn’t at all what I’d expected.

It wasn’t long before we had drifted far enough from the festivities that the drumming and the music and the voices had become a low murmur.I could feel we were going in the right direction, feel it in that familiar pulling at my soul.We saw him before he saw us.And as Briyala had said, we found him far from the revelry, leaning against a wall with his arms folded, watching the dregs of the party washing around the shadowy corners of his domain.He wasn’t wearing his mask anymore, and I could easily summon the image of him ripping it off when I’d walked away, fed up with the whole premise of the party.

But now that he was right in front of me, I didn’t know what to say to him.How to continue the conversation we’d begun before but make it end differently.He’d done some terrible things, but then, so had I.I’d lashed out at him, wanting to hurt him the way he’d hurt me.Maybe there was no coming back from that, maybe it was just broken.

But what if it wasn’t?

‘Go put him out of his misery,’ Briyala whispered in my ear before sidling away, making just enough noise that Tarian turned at the sound.She’d made sure I couldn’t back out, and I felt like I should be grateful for that, even if I suddenly felt vulnerable, like I was standing naked before him.

‘Imogen,’ he said.And just that one word, my name in his mouth, made me drift closer.

‘Someone convinced me this might be our best chance to talk,’ I said, my eyes falling to the ground as I clenched my skirt in hands.What was I doing?This was a bad idea.But as hard as this conversation was probably going to be, we needed to have it.I couldn’t put it off forever.‘After what happened that day...your mother, the magic, all that...I guess we probably need to talk.’

When I looked up at him, he’d somehow managed to close the distance between us.‘What happened was my fault.I made a rash decision when I left you at Dreadhold to go and confront the queen.I was impatient and I didn’t think it through.I should have known she would lash out at you for it.I never meant for you to get hurt.’

I didn’t know how to respond to that, to him being so vulnerable and honest with me.It did nothing to quiet the longing to touch him that had gripped me since I’d laid eyes on him again.It did nothing to quash the doubts I had about leaving him.

Of course, when I’d left, I hadn’t taken the consequences into account, either.The plan was to go back to the Human Realm, not end up stuck in the Seelie Court with Solas.‘I suppose we’re both guilty of that,’ I said.‘Not thinking things through, I mean.’My eyes dropped again but his hand darted out, cupping my chin, forcing me to look at him.He searched my face, jaw tight, like he was biting back something he wanted to say.

‘What are you thinking?’I found myself asking.

‘I’m trying to figure out what I could say to keep you standing here so I don’t have to watch you walk away again.’

A squeal of laughter burst the moment.I sprung away from Tarian like I’d been burned as a pair of lovers stumbled past us, hand-in-hand, murmuring to each other before one swept the other up in his arms and they began kissing wildly, like we weren’t even there.I swallowed, feeling trembly and too full of blood and breath and feeling and...everything.

‘This is hard,’ I said, laughing awkwardly to try to shake the tension.It didn’t work, especially when his mouth pulled into a crooked half smile, creasing his eyes and making him suddenly look like that softer, lighter version of him I’d caught glimpses of in the cave with the stars and the night drakes, and by Haddock’s lake when he’d scooped me from the water and sat with me by the fire.‘Briyala said this might be our best chance, but when there’s so many people—’

The smile vanished as quickly as his hand darted out, catching mine.‘Don’t.We're not finished yet,’ he said.He glanced around.‘Come on.’Then he was drawing me down a cramped passageway, trying the handle of each door we passed until he found one that opened.He pulled me through into the room beyond, closing the door just as another group of laughing fae came darting down the passage behind us, passing by with a chorus of yells and whoops, like they were chasing each other.We held still, listening as they passed, and when the noise faded away something in the air shifted.I was staring up into his dark eyes, and I knew I was in trouble.

Chapter 15

Imogen

Thedoorwasatmy back, my only escape from the room.Tarian was so close to me, the darkness wrapping tightly around us, making the space seem smaller, more intimate, cut only by a few pale shafts of moonlight filtering through a window, or perhaps just a hole in the wall or a piece of collapsed ceiling.And hesmelledso good, warm and masculine, stirring memories of what his skin had tasted like, of the way his hands had run over my hips, the touch of his lips, of his tongue—my breathing began to shallow as I tried to think of something else—anything else.

But his eyes were trained on me, and there was intent there I could read as clearly as if he’d spoken it.A shiver ran up my spine and I swallowed hard.He moved in closer and I backed up half a step, my back hitting the door.There was nowhere left to run.

‘Tarian, we shouldn’t—’

‘Shouldn’t what?’he asked, his voice a low rumble as he took another step toward me, closing the distance between us, leaving my mind scrambling for logic as my body started to come alive with heat.I should have known better than to let this happen.He was like a drug to me, and if I’d thought that effect had lessened at all during our time apart, I was a damn fool.

‘We should...think this through,’ I said, dragging the words out of my mouth.My mind was struggling to stay ahead of the instinct clawing through my body, leaving me feeling raw and exposed and far too hot.If he touched me, I might just ignite.

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