Page 54 of Fae Unleashed
He traced the black lines across my back. I shuddered in response. The heat returned, but it was second to my curiosity now.
“You’re like a pixie queen, but with moth wings.” He pressed his hand flat to the inky black lines.
His smile made me forget all about the Unseelie curse. It didn’t matter so long as he still looked at me like that.
I spun around in his arms. “Let’s get out of here.”
His hand drifted down to my hip. Indecision flickered in his eyes, making them tight at the edges. I quickly stepped back out of his grasp so that he understood what I meant. This wasn’t a date. I wasn’t trying to seduce him anymore.
I just needed a break before things got crazy. That was all.
* * *
Dressed,I took Rhoan’s hand and stepped in-between to escape my apartment. We stepped into Bad Moon Café together. The bell over the door chimed in time with our arrival. Behind the counter, Addie’s eyes widened with joy.
She beckoned me close and lowered her voice just between the two of us. “Audra is here. She’s reworking some of the wards on the café. I think something bad is about to happen in Lakesedge, and she knows it’s coming.”
I swallowed. A warm blush reached my cheeks.
Before I could admit thatIwas the bad thing about to happen, Addie’s gaze lifted to my hair. Her brow furrowed. She gave me an up and down look, taking in all of me. I could only offer a sheepish smile.
“You look like some sort of moonlight goddess,” Addie breathed.
Taken aback, I didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t at all what I expected. Addie gestured to the black tattoos over my shoulders. I didn’t know what possessed me to wear and off-the-shoulder sweater dress, but I was grateful now.
Addie’s praise brought a lightness to my steps. She shoved a peanut butter cup latte into my hands and told me to call her when I needed help again. I paused, for a moment, and debated asking her about my future.
My friend didn’t dabble with fate threads anymore. She’d figured out that changing someone’s fate had repercussions after we learned about my own frayed future threads. She wasn’t going to risk it anymore.
Rhoan’s hand brushed the back of my own. My heart thumped in my chest. I turned to him and caught his wide smile right before he hid it.
If I could have captured this moment, here in Bad Moon Café with my friend and my knight, I would have put it inside a locket and held it close to my heart every day for the rest of my life.
We walked through town side by side, our hands still brushing one another every so often. It was like he couldn’t get enough of my touch, either. I craved more. I wanted him to grab ahold of me and pull me into the warmth of his embrace.
But we kept our distance, even in the little park that used to house the leshy and the pixies. It was oddly unkempt and empty without the small fae, but at least I knew they were safe in the castle.
Rhoan and I sat in the grass. I sipped my drink and watched people walk by. I caught a few Unseelie coming around, perhaps for a pixie snack. They took one look at me and my wild white hair and turned on their heels.
Beside me, Rhoan folded his arms behind his head and fell back in the grass. A flannel picnic blanket appeared beneath him. The purple and black checkered pattern suited him. I couldn’t help but smile down at the little show of magic.
I ran my fingers over it and asked, “Is this real? Did you pull it in-between, or is it an illusion?”
He smirked and shrugged. “I have a story I want to tell you.”
“Is that so? You’re just avoiding my question. The blanket is an illusion. Isn’t it?”
“Once upon a time,” he said a little forcefully to let me know that there would be no more questioning.
I smiled into my latte and bit back the urge to laugh. Rhoan smiled, too. For a moment, I allowed myself to imagine him as my king. I tried to put my father’s crown upon his head, but it didn’t suit him. Rhoan deserved a circlet that would sit lightly over his silken hair. I imagined star sapphires embedded into the silver. Another star sapphire on his left ring finger.
My cheeks warmed. I forced myself to look away while Rhoan went on with his story.
“There was a bratty little Seelie princess. She had a halo of gold hair and liked to lounge in the sun, but she didn’t know that all suns set eventually. Even her own bright rays would turn dim and soft, gentle as the light of the moon.
“This little princess was woken up late one night. A friendly face appeared over her own. It was a woman she’d known all her life. The woman held her finger to her lips to tell the bratty princess to be quiet. The two would play a game…a game calledescape.”
Rhoan fell silent for a long moment. I watched him, expressions shifting across his face like he was leafing through the pages of a book to figure out what he wanted to skip and what he wanted to keep.
