Page 15 of Fae's Mate
She turns, and when she discovers who called her name, she rolls her eyes.
“Great, the High Lord has come to interrogate me again,” she grumbles.
She is still angry then. The thought of it hurts me. I know we did not part on good terms last night, but she seems unhappy to see me. Yet when I look at her, I am reminded of witnessing the sunrise for the first time.
“No interrogations today,” I confirm.
“Hmm.”
She continues walking, and I follow alongside her. Silently, we pass through a wide stone archway that leads into a vegetable garden.
“I’ve never seen so many pumpkins!” She exclaims.
“I didn’t know pumpkins existed in the human realm.”
“They do. My mother makes the best pumpkin katsu.”
“Cat-zoo?”
She giggles at my misunderstanding but smiles when she explains.
“Kah-tzu. It’s mashed up pumpkin, coated in egg and seasoned breadcrumbs, deep fried and served with cur—a spicy sauce and usually rice.”
“Ahh.” I understandmostof what she has said.
I can’t help but smile when I realise it is the first time she has freely told me something. “Seki… when we spoke yesterday… the conversation did not go as I had intended.”
She raises an eyebrow at me as she glances my way, but she keeps walking without responding, so I continue.
“Fae don’t apologise. It puts the person apologising in debt to the person receiving the apology… But if we did… I would.”
“I cannot imagine you apologising,” she tells me. “I’m curious what that would sound like.”
It is not quite a question, but I answer anyway. “I would tell you I am sorry for insisting we make a deal, for questions to pass between us, and for not answering your questions fully.”
“Hmm, that’s a terrible apology. I wouldn’t have accepted anyway, and you would have been in my debt for no reason.”
Her tone is teasing, but I’m uncertain if she jests. When I frown at her, wondering how I could improve my apology, she glances at me, and a soft chuckle escapes her lips.
“Ask your questions again. I will answer them fully,” I beseech, suddenly eager to redeem myself.
“No deal?”
“No deal,” I confirm.
She sighs and sits on a bench at the far end of the vegetable rows.
“Why did your brother drag us through the portal?”
“What I told you last night was the truth,” I begin as I sit beside her. My thigh brushes hers, sending a pulse of energy through me. I hope she doesn’t notice when I jerk my leg away. “He believes one of you to be his mate. I think he intended to only pull through one of you.”
“Do you know which of us it is?”
“No, he wouldn’t tell me.”
“Where is he now?”
“Below the palace, in the dungeon. I have sentenced him to a month down there for what he did.”
