I don’t know if it’s the hard, lumpy mattress or the fact that I keep acting like an idiot when I meet my soul bond, but my brain simply won’t shut down.
I just don’t understand how the effect she has on me and the effect I have on her can be so different.
She actually seems to despise me, finding it easier to look at the other fae, despite me being the most desired prince across many kingdoms.
Perhaps she truly is human and not a latent fae at all.
But that doesn’t explain my reaction to her.
“Stop overthinking and go to sleep,” Ian mutters from his bed across the room. “We can deal with it tomorrow.”
All of them had some kind of reaction to the beacon. Avery, as they said she was called. But none of them understand the way I’m feeling.
Especially since the whole reason we were called here is because of intel that stated she already had a chaos prince on her trail.
Chaos fae came to this world before we did and their suppressor technology is advanced, so they could be anywhere.
The thought makes me want to go up to her room, throw her over my shoulder, and carry her off to my kingdom where she can be safe.
But how, when she can barely stand to look at me?
Ian is sleeping again already, and all I can do is stare at the ceiling, wondering where she is. What she’s doing. What she’s wearing…
I’m about to drift off when I hear a loud thump from upstairs, the direction of Avery’s apartment.
Is the chaos prince already attacking?
I’m out of bed in a split second, running out of the apartment before anyone can stop me. I barely shut the door as I sprint down the corridor to the steps that lead up to her place.
Sure enough, as I get upstairs, I see a trail of snowy footprints leading straight to her door. There would be no reason for those to be there in the middle of the night.
I see red as I narrow my eyes and stride down the hallway, ready to kick in the door if needed.
I knock loudly, my heart threatening to rip out of my chest with my need to protect my soul match.
The door opens, and I raise a fist, ready to attack the chaos prince who has come to claim what is mine. Instead I grimace as I come once again face to face with the woman who keeps rejecting me.
I quickly drop my hand, feeling even more awkward than I did in our other encounters. “Are you okay?”
She stares at me like I’m stupid. Me. Boreas Everfrost. Prince of the—
“What do you mean am I okay?” She lets out an exasperated sigh. “What are you doing outside my apartment?” Her tone turns patronizing. “Do I need to call your friends?”
I can’t help scowling at her implication. “Of course not. Why would you ask me—”
She shrugs one shoulder. “In case you’re out of it. On something, maybe?”
I suck in a breath. How dare she—
“Anyway, nothing wrong here, so if that’s all you need…” She gives me a shrug, turning to go back into the apartment.
“I heard a thump,” I say, desperately trying to come up with some reason to check things out.
What if a chaos fae snuck in while she wasn’t looking?
“There are footprints in the hall,” I insist.
She looks down. “Oh, those are mine.”
I blink. “Yours? Why would you be coming back in at three in the morning?”
She folds her arms, and I realize she’s wearing a leather jacket that outlines soft, generous curves. My throat goes tight. My hands ache to hold her.
No one has ever affected me like this, and I’m struggling not to show it. Because that’s not why I’m here.
“What I do is none of your business,” she says sharply, drawing me out of my thoughts.
I want to tell her it is my business. That I was sent here to protect her because something is coming for her. Something stronger than she can even imagine.
But I don’t think that will go over well, considering she already thinks me crazy.
I let out a pent-up breath that I must have been holding ever since I heard the thump by her apartment.
“I was mistaken, I guess,” I say, though I know I wasn’t.
She cocks her head. “Yeah… Are you sure you don’t need help getting back downstairs?” There’s concern in her eyes, as though she’s wondering if I’m okay.
My soul match thinks I’m an idiot. Or crazy. Or just odd.
The thing is I’m in agony over wanting her. Every fiber of my magic calls out to her.
She should be in agony too. I’m not the odd one here. She is.
But I can see from her cool gaze that I’m getting nowhere, and since I can’t feel any chaos in the vicinity, I know she must be safe.
So after allowing my eyes to wander once more over her face, memorizing the look of my soul match, I turn to go back downstairs.
“Thanks for checking on me, though,” she calls out behind me.
The polite distance in her voice only makes me more confused.
“Ah, sauce bread. How I love sauce bread,” Flynn says, carrying the mass of boxes over to the couch and setting them on the small table in front of it.
“Stop calling it that,” Tanner says, slanting him a glare. “You know the real name.”
“Yes, but I like annoying you,” Flynn says, opening one of the boxes and inhaling the air with a grin. “Mmm. The one good thing about the human world.”
I can think of one other good thing.
“Why did you run out last night?” Ian asks, pointing a slice of pizza my direction.
I grab a slice of my own so I have an excuse not to answer.
“You went out?” Tanner slants a glare my way. He’s our unofficial leader, but I outrank him in every way in the fae world, so I listen as I like.
“I heard something up by Avery,” I say stiffly, setting my pizza on a plate in my lap. “Someone had to investigate.”
Tanner narrows his eyes. “You aren’t supposed to go alone.”
I shrug. “There wasn’t time.”
“And what happened?” Ian asks, his gray eyes wide.
“Nothing,” I say. “Except when she opened the door, it probably looked like I was about to punch her.”
Flynn bursts out laughing as Ian looks confused, and Tanner glares at me darkly.
“How did that happen?” Tanner asks. He folds his arms. “You aren’t making the best impression on her, you know that?”
I sigh. “I was just getting ready to punch whoever I thought had broken into her apartment. She opened the door.” I shrug. “How was I supposed to know she’d be out that late? I thought human women were more careful.”
“They have to be,” Ian says softly, glancing out the window. “There are no princes keeping order here.”
“Well, she doesn’t keep regular hours, apparently,” Tanner says, standing and pacing in front of the table as we all watch. “Something we should keep an eye on. If she’s out late, alone, it’s almost too easy for a chaos prince to catch her without witnesses.”
I nod wearily. “But what are we going to do about it? We can’t exactly tell her that.” I know because I wanted to last night.
I want to tell her everything.
I want to see her open her eyes to what we are, see her feel the way I do. And she will… someday.