Page 109 of A Bride for the Winter King
LORI
Iadjust my hair in the mirror of Iris’s bedroom, wearing a white halter dress peppered with glittering sequins. The front of the skirt clings to my mid-thigh, while a long, dramatic train dips to the floor behind me.
“Breakfast is already in full swing, I figure?” I ask as Elio enters the room. “I overslept.”
I move to look at my husband, but it’s Ezra who has breached the peace of my morning routine, not Elio. Iris’s lover crushes me against the wall at my back. “I ought to punish the birthday girl for being late to her own party…”
“What are you doing in here?” I seethe. My gaze falls to the discarded jacket sprawled over the piano bench, and I push against Ezra’s chest. “Elio could come back at any moment.”
He paws at my waist, his thumb slipping under the knotted bow at the nape of my neck. “I don’t care. Turn around,” he says in a hoarse whisper.
“Oh, E.” Fire fills my blood as I obey. Ezra combs my hair to one side, and I arch my back, but instead of untying the knot holding my dress up, he scratches deep lines behind my ear. Themotion is painful and unexpected, his nails peeling off a layer of skin and smudging the glamor runes hidden at the base. My entire body tenses.
“I knew it,” he breathes.
I spin around, confused. “What are you?—”
Ezra’s face melts into one I know so well, and my soul screams. A heartbroken Elio stands in front of me, his powers of deception vanishing in a flash.
“You’re not really Fae, are you?” Elio twists the round shell of my ear between his fingers almost viciously. “You’ve been lying to me all this time.”
My throat bobs. “I had to. Freya and my mother tried to petition the old king for a frost apple through the official channels, but even their combined magic couldn’t keep me from aging on the inside. I was dying, Elio.”
“And to show your gratitude, you choose to fuck my brother at every single one of your parties, the two of you probably snickering in tandem, thinking you’d get away with it.”
“I love him,” I declare, as though it excuses everything.
My arms and legs shake, but I hold Elio’s accusing glare with more poise and righteousness than I ever thought possible, considering the circumstances.
“Ezra only cares about himself. He’s using you to get to me.” Elio hits his breastbone with his fingertips a few times to emphasize his point. “He’s punishing me for outshining him. You realize that, don’t you?”
“You’re wrong.”
He hides his face in his palms with a dry snort and presses on his closed lids. “I can’t leave you, as you well know. We could live apart or take turns touring the realm or whatever; we’ll figure it out. But this affair ends now.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.”
“Iris, we have a duty to our kingdom. To the souls. We can’t be at war with each other.”
“You talk about duty when you should be talking about power. You are the most powerful Fae alive, yet you act like you’re the same as before. A second-born son with no prospects.”
Elio sucks in air, pupils dilated and dark. “That’s cold, even for you.”
“I want out.” I bare my teeth. “You should have warned me about the ice. This magic you gave me… numbs me to the core. Ezra’s the only one who makes me feel alive?—”
“Believe me, I wish I could take my vows back, but you and I, we’re forever.” Elio rakes a hand through his hair. “And you know what’s worse? If you had told me back in the maze that the real reason you wanted to marry was to get a frost apple. If you had told me in confidence that you were half-Fae and needed it to become immortal, I would have given you one.”
“Just like that?”
“Thanatos help me, I loved you, Iris.”
“But you don’t anymore.”
His eyes burn. “How could I love someone with such a black, rotten core?”
Ezra slithers inside the room, his voice almost teasing as he says, “That’s no way to talk to a lady. What’s going on here?”
“He knows about us,” I sigh.
