“You were being arrested when I found you.” He scrubbed a hand across his face.
“No.” She shook her head. “I was in jail when your brother found me, not you. Was I just a game to the two of you? Some competition?” She calmed her breathing and jolts of magic leaked from her fingertips, sending sparks across the floor. “I know why you came for me, but Loch? How does he play into all of this?”
“I don’t know.”
Her eyes narrowed. “And I don’t believe you.”
“It’s the truth.”
“Do you even know what that is?”
A knock sounded on the door and a gruff voice filtered through. “Lord Griffin, are you okay in there?”
“Yes,” Griff called back.
Brea pressed herself back against the cool window. “How did they know you were in here?”
Or that they were arguing? She thought of Neeve’s odd behavior when she brought up the message or the fact that she’d resorted to covert methods instead of speaking to Brea in the ample private time they had. Lifting her eyes to the vines creeping along the ceiling, she looked for any kind of listening devices. But this wasn’t like back home where they’d use cameras and recording devices.
No, here, magic could be anywhere.
She stepped toward Griff, forcing him back.
“My aunt is listening to me.” Her jaw clenched.
“That’s not possible.”
“Yes, it is. Anything is possible here.” She could see it in his expression, in the tightening of his eyes, the flattening of his lips. The truth. He’d known. “I need to be alone.” If she didn’t step away from him, she’d lose her minimal control over the power inside her.
“Brea—”
“Go!” The word roared out of her, a command more than a request.
Griff’s shoulders dropped, and he stared at her for a moment longer. “Not everything was a lie.” The words were so quiet she almost missed them.
When he was gone, she slumped onto her bed, the tension leaving her body as she sucked in a few deep breaths.
Nothing could be as perfect as this new life seemed. She should have known they didn’t want her around for her. It was all a scheme.
As a little girl, she’d never dreamed of being a princess or living in a palace. She’d only wanted to be as normal as everyone else, to have a family who loved her.
But that had been too good to be true.
How much of what Griff told her was a lie? She sat up, an impossible thought coming to her. Would he really lie to her about that? Loch’s words came back to her, and she had to know.
Wiping tears from her face, she left her room, holding her head high as she made her way down the now familiar hall. Only this morning she’d been so happy making her way back from Griff’s rooms.
It took no time at all for that bubble to shatter.
She rapped her knuckles against his door and leaned back on her heels.
He took his time opening the door. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw her. “I thought you didn’t want to see me.” Hope tinged his voice.
She pushed past him into his room. “Is my aunt listening to what happens in this room too?”
Griff shut the door. “No. We can talk freely here.”
Relief washed over her. It creeped her out to think of her aunt listening to everything that had gone on in this room. She hugged her arms across her chest, afraid of the question she’d come to ask.
Griff clasped his hands behind his back, nerves flitting across his face.
“I will marry you,” Brea said.
A smile spread across his lips. “You will? Truly?”
“Yes, but I have one condition. There is a question I need you to answer honestly. You owe me this after all the lies. That is my bargain. A marriage for an answer. Do you agree?”
“Of course. I don’t want to lie to you anymore. I want you by my side as we rule this kingdom.”
“I never wanted to rule a kingdom—or get married at seventeen for that matter. You’d have known that if you bothered to ask. Instead, you plotted with my aunt to get what you want. But I’m starting to see that’s how this world works. You fae are worse than humans, and I never thought that was possible.”
His smile fell, replaced by a look of sorrow. Some part of her wanted to comfort him, but the fondness she’d felt only hours ago was gone, replaced with wariness.
“Ask me your question, and I will answer honestly.” He reached for her, but she stepped away to gather herself.
“Is…” She closed her eyes. “Is Myles alive?”
She opened her eyes when he didn’t answer right away. His jaw tensed and he took a step back, widening the space between them. “Lochlan put this notion into your head.”
“Yes.” She wouldn’t sugar coat it for him. “But he was right, wasn’t he?”
Griff sighed, his shoulders tense. “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
He ran a hand through his auburn hair. “When we left the human world, he’d been taken to the hospital. I do not know what happened to him after that.”
She couldn’t breathe. Her lungs cried out for air, and she bent over clutching her chest. Angry tears washed down her face. “You… you told me he died, and you didn’t even check?”
But Lochlan had. The grumpy Eldur delegate must have gone back to the human realm to find out what happened to her best friend, the only person who’d ever truly loved her.
“Myles is alive.” But could she trust Lochlan’s words?
She wiped a hand across her damp cheek. Griff didn’t deserve her tears, but they weren’t for him anyway. Myles’ smile flashed through her mind. What if she hadn’t killed him?
He had to still be alive.
Straightening, she hardened her expression. “You and I are not friends, Griffin O’Shea. I will marry you and give you legitimacy, but that is all. I could have forgiven the lies about your motive in bringing me here or even the eavesdropping in my rooms. But Myles… that lie is not one I will ever move past.” She walked to the door.
“Brea,” Griff called, his voice thick. “Please.”
She paused before opening the door. “I am not some fae girl who will fall at your feet and beg to be queen. I don’t care if half my blood is of this world. I am human, and we make decisions for ourselves.”
Calling on the magic she still didn’t understand and still couldn’t control, she blasted through the door, sending wood splintering against the wall in the hallway.
As she stepped across the broken frame, she looked back over her shoulder. “You will never control me.”
The day after her fight with Griff, Brea woke with little energy. The triplets brought in her breakfast, setting it on her bed as they’d learned she liked. Their shared looks told her they must have heard what happened the day before.
They didn’t dare bring it up in a room where privacy was only an illusion.
“Where is Neeve?” She pushed the food around on her plate, having no real appetite.
“The queen wanted her to help down in the kitchens,” Triplet One said, her voice way too high this early in the morning. She leaned in. “She’s the only servant Queen Regan really trusts, and with the farewell dinner for the Iskalt delegation tonight, she wanted Neeve overseeing preparations.”