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Opal
Shadow Keep might have appeared abandoned from the outside, but inside, it was alive and overflowing with the hum of activity.
And I was tired of staring at the same walls, riffling through the same pages of books that couldn’t hold my interest, and of my own twisting, dangerous thoughts.
Upside down and inside out, they twined and separated and unraveled only to knot into bite-sized chunks of growing anxiety that would always end with me pacing the room.
Yesterday, I’d stayed in my rooms, feeling the king’s indecision and need as though it were my own. For as much as I hated to admit it, it was my own. He hadn’t knocked, hadn’t entered as though the place belonged to him—for it certainly did—and I hadn’t had the guts to seek him out.
Today, even amongst the steady vibration of life on the other side of my cell door, I could feel his absence. That and my own self-loathing were my constant companions, and I wanted to be rid of them.
The stars made you just for me.
Growling, I collected my tea tray and decided I’d return it to the kitchens myself. He wasn’t here, and I shouldn’t have cared if he was. I was on a mission to save my people, this entire realm, so encountering him was part of that plan. Using him, taking advantage of what the stupid stars had ordained, was all I had.
But I knew it was no longer that simple.
Mate.
There was no questioning it, no fighting it, though that was exactly what I’d been trying to do since that night in the cave. I’d keep fighting it. I vowed to. Rejecting a mate, a bond forged between two souls, was not exactly common, but it happened time and again.
Though in rejecting one’s mate, they typically did not see them again or at least did their best not to. For an untold period, I was stuck with mine. So I had to discover if there was a way to reject the inevitable as others had done while also being in such close proximity—while all I could think about was shredding his flesh from his bones at the same time I fantasized about shredding his clothing from his stupidly magnificent body…
The door opened silently, the hall empty outside, as per usual, and I shook my thoughts away.
One day at a time.
It’d been two since I woke alone in his bed, his scent as smothering as the furred blanket he’d draped over me, and I’d gained no clarity. Only more torment to accompany a new breed of want that now laid nestled beneath my skin.
It seemed to purr at the thought of him, at the memory of his smooth skin sliding over mine—
“Princess.” I stopped at the bottom of the stairs and blinked at the young pixie. She curtsied, spindly fingers lifting her apron from her long, delicate legs. “May I take that for you?”
I should have said yes. Instead, I offered what I hoped was a sweet smile, my cheeks still warm, and asked, “Actually, I was hoping I could see the kitchens?”
The pixie blinked, her green eyes large and her pink lips slack.
“If you don’t mind,” I tacked on. “It’s just… well, I’m terribly bored. I would love to offer a helping hand, but I understand if that would offend you.” Such things were true. To take over someone else’s task was akin to making them feel or seem inferior, and though many had tried to adapt to a more kinder way of thinking over the thousands of years of our existence, it still stuck with many. “I’d be happy to merely deliver it and then see myself to the library.”
Eyeing me curiously, the purple-haired pixie nodded once. “Okay.” Sweeping her hand behind her, she said, “Allow me to escort you, then.”
Relieved, I followed eagerly, nearly losing a spoon from the tray. “What is your name?” I asked as we rounded the stairs and moved swiftly down the long hall.
“Gwe
I smiled. “Then now we are even.” At the top of a spiraling set of wooden stairs, knots of oak in the railing worn smooth under my hand, I couldn’t help but prod some more. “How long have you served your king?”
“The king employs us all,” Gwe
“Gwe
Gwe
I didn’t miss the jab in her words, no matter how succinct nor sweetly said—nor did I miss the way the female called Mer tensed at the long wooden counter in the center of the next room, her back to me.
She turned, her golden ringlets pulled into a tight, low bun at the base of her thick neck, and scowled. With a cluck of her tongue, Gwe
I gestured to where Gwe
“But we send someone to do that for you.”
“She wanted to explore, Merelda,” Gwe
Merelda’s brows creased at that, deepening the lines upon her face. She had to be twice my mother’s age, her impatience proving that beyond her looks. “A tea party with the elves? What in the star-forsaken crud do you mean?”
“You didn’t hear?” Gwe
Merelda’s displeasure returned at that, and she hissed over her shoulder at the pixie. “The only thing you’ll need saving from is that rolling pin meeting your forehead if you talk such nonsense again.”
Nonsense? Saving them all was indeed a stretch. I wasn’t sure I had it in me to even bed the king, let alone lure him into a pretend game of love that might soften his heart.
“But the prophecy—”
Merelda clicked her fingers, and the pixie’s voice disappeared. Gwe
With a loaded sigh, Merelda watched her go, then looked back at me. I knew that look, had seen it upon many a face during my short life, so I braced myself—chin up, shoulders squared, fingers linked before me, and a small, patient smile in place.
“Child,” the cook, head cook I was guessing, started. “A warning to you, if I may?” It might have been a question, but it was worded as a warning.
Still, I nodded, my eyes trained on her stern brown gaze.
“I don’t know why you’re here. I don’t know what you’ve got tucked up your silken sleeve, but I will say this—he might be infatuated, but he is still a king, and to usurp a king, especially one as powerful and revered as he…” She puckered her lips, tossing her towel over her shoulder. “The consequences would ripple for generations to come. This must end with yours. With him. No one else needs to bear what he has been forced to.”