Page 56 of A Palace of Smoke & Mirrors
Nodding, he pushed himself back to his feet and held his hand out to help me up. I pretended I didn’t see it and stood up independently.
“Was it that bad?” he taunted, a chuckle slipping past the lips that had been so obsessed with mine only moments earlier. He paused. “Or that good?”
My cheeks were ablaze with a telltale blush, but I swallowed my pride, only to feel incredibly foolish a second later when I realised I had to give him my hand so we could travel back into the city.
“That was intense,” I allowed. “But it can never happen again.”
He sighed, closing his hand around mine. “Agreed.”
It didn’t matter what he said.
He was a fucking faerie. He could be agreeing with me, someone he conversed with over a century ago, or a thoughthe had inside of his own head. The only thing that mattered was what I said and did—which was to vow that it would never happen again because I would bedamnedif I let Lucais Starfire placate me with a stuffed pony, too.
nineteen
Entomophobia
We collided with Morgoya in the palace hallway as we dragged our weary bodies upstairs. We’d fallen back into the companionable quiet, exhaustion and unreleased erotic tension wreaking havoc on our nervous systems, and neither of us heard her rounding the corner.
“High Mother!” she gasped, a hand flying up to cover her mouth. “You both look awful. Did the Map attack you, or did you attack each other?”
The High Lady was dressed in attire fit for a mystical ball, as per usual. Her gown spilled onto the floor around her feet in elegant waves, hanging off both shoulders to reveal smooth skin and sharp bones, and it was a sparkling silver so bright that it might have been made from crushed diamonds. Her hair was delicately bundled on the top of her head with pearl-encrusted clasps, a few curled strands bouncing around the sides of her face and her neck. She wore black lipstick to complement the silver dusted around both eyes and over her prominent cheekbones.
“We’re fine,” Lucais groused. “Minor incident with a locust.”
The High Lady swore. “Again?”
“I don’t want to hear it,” he mumbled, waving her away. “I need to take a cold shower.”
My cheeks reddened, flaring with heat as if someone had thrown a bucket of scalding water on my face, and there was simply no chance that Morgoya wouldn’t notice.
Her emerald-green eyes zeroed in on my face as Lucais sauntered off, disappearing around the corner without a backwards glance and leaving me alone to deal with her intruding stare.
To divert her attention, I explained what had happened in greater detail from the time we’d left the faerie bookstore, carefully leaving out all of the revelations we’d had when we were with the Map because I imagined that Lucais would want to talk about that himself.
Her catlike eyes were positively alight with an emotion I couldn’t place. “They sent both caenimandlocusts? And he really went back?”
My bones were aching, the muscles in my back screaming for the upstairs water pressure to massage them beneath a hot shower. “Yeah, but he sure as hell didn’t want to,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes. “I don’t know what his deal is with those things. He acts like heenjoysfighting the caenim, but—”
“Lucais has orthopterophobia.”
I stared at her, blinking in a stupor. “I am exhausted, and I have absolutely no idea what that means.”
“It’s a form of entomophobia,” Morgoya answered kindly. The High Lady put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently before turning her head, a wistful gaze trailing after the High King, who had long since disappeared from the hallway. She let out a long breath, shaking her head as if she couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. “Lucais is deathly afraid of locusts and grasshoppers. He has been ever since he was a faeling.”
Blankly, I followed the direction of her gaze, staring down the empty hallway. I blinked a few times. I opened my mouth to say something, but closed it when I realised I didn’t know what words I wanted to employ.
“Aura?” the High Lady whispered. “You look on the verge of collapse. Are you okay?”
I brushed off her concern. “I wish you hadn’t told me that,” I grumbled as the room started to lean precariously to one side. The adrenaline crash was hitting hard. “I don’t want any more fucking ponies.”
I was so tired I felt like I was about to fall in a heap on the stone floor.
Before the delirium overtook me completely, I forced my aching feet to continue taking one step after another until I’d trekked back to my bedroom, determined to find somewhere softer to land than the corridor.
As I walked away, I called back to her over my shoulder, “I’ll see you at the Court thingy later.”
Morgoya didn’t reply, and I didn’t make it to the hot shower. As soon as I found my bedroom in the palace, I dove onto the bed and fell asleep to the movie my mind played of the kiss beneath the tree and all of the things that very nearly could have followed.
