Page 93 of Fake Dating a Human 101

Andthen, there it was: Lily lifted her head, glanced down the table at Luc, and said, “If this food makes me feel dizzy, or dance, or do literally anything but be normal, I’m going to shoot your head off.”

Shayne had to plug his nose so he wouldn’t snort a laugh all the way down the table.

But if that wasn’t enough, Lily turned to the others and added, “And seriously, does this taste like garbage to anyone else?”

Luc’s rosy lips spread into a tantalizing smirk. “You’d make a great fairy queene, dear Lily. Only the fearsome ones throw fits over their food.”

Shayne’s smile fell. “Easy, Foxy,” he warned as he reached for his water goblet. “We might mistake that for a proposal.”

Luc shoved his plate away, then lifted his pale hands and folded them on the table. “It can be one if she wants it to be one,” he said. When he smiled, a sweet fragrance rippled down the table, and the candle flames flickered. Everything grew a little warmer, and Lily’s gaze was sucked in Luc’s direction like he held the end of a magnet. Shayne’s fingers tightened around his goblet. It was already horrid enough that Lily was dressed in a sleek black dress from Luc’s palace and had her hair brushed by his servants, but now she was breathing in his furry fox fragrance?

Shayne slammed his water against the tabletop and stood from his seat. “I have something to go do,” he claimed. He turned and marched for the hallway, only realizing once he was there that he’d been gripping his water goblet so hard he forgot to let it go.

As soon as he was in the hall, he peeked around for doorways, certain he could find a roomsomewherewithsomethingbetter inside it for Lily to wear. Even if it was burlap.

But he hadn’t taken three steps around the bend when he heard Lily’s hushed voice sail through the dining room and ask, “Does Shayne have feelings for me? Like, for real?”

Shayne’s feet came together on the cold floor. He realized he was stuck there, blending into the rows of ancient fairy statues lining the walls.

Had she actually forgotten how fairy ears worked—again? Did she really not realize Shayne could hear the question loud and clear even down the hall?

It was Mor who replied with certainty. “Sky deities,no,” he said.

Shayne breathed a sigh of relief. At least Mor had his back. He was lucky Lily hadn’t asked Cress or Dranian. Neither of them would have kept their cool.

“Then why can’t you look me in the eyes?” Lily asked Mor, and Shayne grabbed his hair in his fist.

It wasn’t like she didn’t know. He’d already told her; he’d already yacked his faeborn face off and spewed everything into the air. It shouldn’t have stressed him out to have her flat out ask about his crush after all he’d said already. But still…

Shayne whirled around and tiptoed back toward the dining room. He leaned in, spying around the doorframe just in time to see Mor shove an enormous clump of meat into his mouth which Shayne knew full well was so that he wouldn’t have to answer Lily’s question.

The scheming little detective went on, “When Cress liked Kate, you could all sniff his fairy crush. Shayne can’t possibly like me without you knowing, right?” She didn’t admit to them all the nonsense Shayne had said to her in the woods.

Dranian spoke up out of nowhere, “That’s because Cress had no experience with romance and females and bumbled around like a fool. The inexperienced ones can’t hide it. But Shayne has plenty of experience with females and romance and hiding things and—”

“Never mind!” Lily waved a hand to shoo him off, her face all twisted and bothered now. “I wish I never asked,” she mumbled as she pushed her plate away.

Shayne relaxed against the wall. He wanted to give Dranian a high-five for being the winner of the conversation and for bringing it to an end. It was all good now. It was all safe—

“You’re an open book though, dear Lily.” The sound of Luc’s voice was like a dull knife scratching against a sleek rock. Shayne’s head whipped back to see Luc level his silvery, creepy, unblinking gaze on Lily until she shifted in her seat.

Mor cast Luc a doubtful look. “What are you talking about? I’ve tried reading this human a hundred times. She’s not an open book.”

“You forget that I steal secrets, Trisencor. And I stole all of Lily’s secrets a long time ago,” Luc stated.

“What?!” Lily dropped her cutlery. “When did you steal my secrets?! That is such a violation of human rights!” She pointed at him with her knife. “That’s why no one will forgive you for what you did to Violet, you moron! Un-real!”

Luc sipped his water and leaned back against his glitzy seat. “Then I should add that I didn’tneedto steal your secrets, dear Lily. I figured out everything about you long before I stole anything,” he said. “And also—I’m not a human, so your ‘human rights’ rule doesn’t apply to me.” Then he raised his glass toward Mor and Cress. “If you all practiced studying people a little more instead of relying on your fairy senses to tell you things, you might have picked up on her feelings a long time ago.”

“What feelings?” Cress demanded. He leaned forward to see around Mor, and he looked Lily over. “She doesn’t have any feelings. She’s like a lump of rock. She feels nothing.”

“She does, actually,” Luc corrected. “She’s just one of those rare humans who fairies can’t discern, you fools.”

Cress grunted and folded his arms like he didn’t believe it for one second. Mor cast Luc a look of warning, but it did nothing as Luc tapped the table with his forefinger like he was leading some absurd group therapy session no one wanted to be a part of.

Shayne almost barged in and put an end to it. He had the thought to go flip over Luc’s chair with him still in it. He swished out from behind the wall and marched into the room, but he froze in place when Luc said, “Dear Lily, you are so madly in love with that barefoot North Fairy that it’s hard to notice anything else about you.”

The smashing sound of a goblet hitting the floor rang through the room. Shayne didn’t realize it was his goblet. Thathe’ddropped it. That all the noise was coming from him, and now his feet were wet and his pantlegs were damp with cold water.

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