Page 12 of Courting the King of Cliffs

“Well, aren’t you pretty,” one of the men flirted. “What’s your name?”

My face warmed.

I’d tried to meet men, to look for a mate back in the wind fae kingdom, but they all recognized me immediately and had no desire to date Storm’s adopted daughter. A lot of them were scared shitless of him. And of me too, by default.

The earth fae had a thing against authority figures, though. I doubted being his daughter would sway their emotions at all.

But I did still want to maintain my anonymity.

So I threw out the first common name I could think of, knowing that anyone in any of the kingdoms would recognize both my given name and my nickname. “Della”

They all introduced themselves to me, but I forgot their names as soon as they said them. Something to do with rocks. Maybe if they told me after I’d had a few more days away from Harper and Storm, I’d have a better chance of remembering.

“So, you’re staying in the king’s room,” Long-hair remarked, studying me with interest.

If there’d been something in my mouth, I definitely would’ve choked on it.

“There have been rumors that he’s taken up a more modern lifestyle, testing the waters with women. Are they true?” Medium-hair asked, leaning closer to me.

“I don’t know,” I managed to say.

It was time to come up with a damn good excuse, because I was not going to accidentally confirm that Granite had been sleeping with random women when I had no idea whether or not it was true.

“You’re in his room, though,” Short-hair pointed out.

A female fae strode up to me and asked me what I wanted to eat and drink, distracting me temporarily. “Um… something with alcohol? And whatever’s most popular?”

She nodded, smiled at me and the guys with me, and then left.

I hoped she came back with the drink fast. I didn’t drink alcohol very often, but it seemed like I’d need it to get through this meal.

“I’m good friends with Storm’s niece, Dissiri,” I explained. “Grew up in the wind kingdom and all. We met when my parents and I were helping rebuild the capital city, when he and Harper moved back. Someone close to me recently died, and I needed to get away from home, so she asked Granite if I could stay here. He was kind enough to loan out his room.”

The men seemed to buy the story. No one in our inner circle would ever spread the gossip about mine and Granite’s magic causing each other pain, so they couldn’t have known about that.

“Does he have a relationship with the princess, then?” Short-hair pressed.

“No, they’re just family friends. The kings all look out for each other. I’m not sure why she asked him.”

“Well, the fire fae are violent bastards, and the water fae would say no. That’s probably why,” Long-hair said.

I nodded.

He honestly wasn’t that far from my own personal reasoning.

“So you’re single?” Medium-hair checked.

I coughed to hide a snort at his straightforwardness. “Extremely.”

The woman arrived with my drink, thankfully, and I took a big sip. It was much stronger than what I was used to, which surprised me a little.

“What do you guys do for work?” I asked, before they started questioning me more about “Dissiri’s” love life.

They started explaining some dreadfully boring business, and I nodded as if I was interested, sipping my drink way too frequently. It was gone quickly, but the woman brought another one over without me asking, and I sipped on that one too.

“So you guys own like, a third of this city?” I checked, as I finished the second drink twenty minutes later.

My voice sounded loud in my own ears.

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