Page 2 of Fae Unleashed
Beryl’s curse was doing exactly what she wanted it to do. But when I turned to march away from the hesitant man, he caught my arm and pulled me back in. Confusion churned inside me when I looked up into his pale violet eyes.
I’d kissed this man.
And I’d thought, at the time, that he’d kissed me back.
Had I been wrong? The moment had been kind of tense. Beryl had been working her way through the defenses outside the Seelie castle. Our time had been limited. Maybe he’d kissed me back because he’d assumed I would be the last woman he ever laid eyes on.
Now, Rhoan was working hard to make sure I knew my place in his life: as his queen and nothing more.
Once again, I found myself ready for this all to be over. I wasn’t cut out to be a princess or a queen. I was barely even a good fae. Raised in the local wolf shifter Pack, I only knew how to be a broken shifter and nothing else.
“Let’s go home,” I said, defeated.
Rhoan
My princess seemed miserable.As badly as I wanted to pull Cerri close and comfort her in her time of need, I knew that getting any closer to Cerri would end in disaster for everyone. I had to keep my feelings locked down so that I could continue to do my job as her knight.
The beast, an Unseelie creation inside me, wanted nothing more than to curl up in Cerri’s lap and let her pet the patch of fur between its monstrous horns.
Insipid creature, I thought to myself. It would sacrifice everything for some head pats. The trade-off hardly seemed worth it. The beast, on some level, understood that. It fed me images of things that Cerri and I could only do with human bodies, things that made my face flush red-hot.
Unable to keep the beast’s impure thoughts out of my mind, I had to hold my arms at my sides and not take her hand as we stepped in-between to return home. I hated letting my princess use the magical fae teleportation on her own since she was so new to it, but I also couldn’t risk touching her when I so badly wanted to pull her into my body.
Thankfully, Cerri learned very quickly. The fae magic slid over my body and dumped me out in her apartment, right behind her. I was even more thankful when Delphine poked her head up from the couch and welcomed us back.
Cerri stopped in her tracks like a deer caught in the headlights. This time, I had to touch my princess. I put hand on her shoulder and reminded her that Delphine, the elven assassin, wasn’t trying to hunt us anymore. Del was on our side.
This close, I heard Cerri’s labored breathing, rushing in and out of her so fast that I knew she wasn’t getting any oxygen. So, I cupped the back of her head and tucked her into my body.
“You’re safe here,” I whispered into her wild blond curls.
The white streak in her hair had spread further. It contrasted starkly against the cinnamon highlights in her curls. Had she noticed it yet?
Everything about her had changed since leaving the Seelie castle. It was like she’d left a piece of herself there, and now she was confused as to where it went. If I could, I would go back and retrieve what she’d lost.
The Seelie castle was still locked away under Beryl’s control. The woman made sure that the only claim we had to the local fae throne was Cerri’s bloodline, and that was it.
Cerri pushed away from me and turned before I could catch a glimpse of her face. Somehow, I knew that if I looked in her eyes, I would see dejection and fatigue.
We had so much more to fight for, a long road ahead of us with harder battles, yet Cerri seemed defeated already. We’d made no great leaps or strides for the Seelie Court. It seemed as though we were hanging on by the skin of our teeth.
“What crawled up your asses?” Delphine asked, blindly cutting through the tension.
I glared at my old friend, but it was Cerri who spoke up.
“I hope the glass in that couch pokes you in the ass when you’re in the middle of a good dream tonight.” Cerri stormed past Delphine and into her bedroom where she slammed the door.
Delphine looked me in the eye. “What did you do to that woman?”
Though, from the look on Del’s face, it seemed like she already knew. Her lips formed a grim line. She glanced back at Cerri’s closed door and shook her head.
“I know,” I growled. “I’m being careful.”
Del held up both hands in surrender. “I didn’t say shit.”
2
CERRI
