“But it is the kelpie’s nature. Lost travelers are his prey, the same way a rabbit is prey to a wolf. The radical seelie want the unseelie ways to end. To force them seelie or destroy them. The radical unseelie feel the same way, but in reverse. They want the human influence off the isle, to free their kind from the shackles of the seelie way. Without human influence, clothes, food, the seelie would cease to exist. We would revert to our unseelie forms and the isle would return to what it was long ago. Can you see the conflict?”
“Yes, but what does that have to do with you shifting sides on the council?”
“What do you think would happen if the council shifted too heavily one side or another?”
I lift my shoulder in a shrug, even though I think I know where he’s going with this.
“If one side or the other got total control, the other side would be eliminated. If the seelie ruled the council, the unseelie would be outlawed, banished, executed. Strapped into clothing, human food forced into their mouths. On the other hand, if the unseelie took control, they would exterminate the humans in their sleep, not bothering with the formalities of war. They would force the seelie to abandon all that they have come to hold dear.”
My eyes widen with realization. “You’re trying to prevent that from happening.”
“I believe every fae has a right to choose. For that, we must maintain balance.”
I sit back in my throne, feeling drained. Everything I thought I knew about Aspen is crashing around me. He may be arrogant and irritating and possibly paranoid, but he’s fighting for something I can understand. For not the first time in my life, I wonder just how wrong I’ve been about faekind. “This is indeed complicated.”
“It is,” Aspen says. “Sometimes I feel like the unseelie are right. That it would be better not to feel pain or pleasure. To take my stag form forever and live on instinct in the pure radiance of my true nature. But other times,” he meets my eyes, “I feel like I couldn’t possibly give all this up.”
“Why did you choose me?” I find myself asking, voice barely above a whisper.
“I told you the first time you asked,” he said. “My words were true. I chose you because you put a knife to me.”
I narrow my eyes. “When you were recovering, you said you hadn’t wanted to punish me.”
“No, you’re right, but my words are true just the same. After the assassination attempt by the Holstrom girls, I nearly agreed to wage war on your kind. The seelie on the council talked me out of it, encouraged me to choose another for the Reaping. I could have left it to random choice, but there was a name I couldn’t get out of my head. The name of the woman who could have tried to kill me but held back, even when I feigned an attack on her at the wall.”
“Why was such a thing so unforgettable to you?”
He shrugs. “If you’d been an assassin, you’d have tried to kill me then. Your ferocity paired with restraint made me think you’d be strong enough to stand at my side, yet not so full of hate that you’d try to kill me.”
“Oh,” I say. That wasn’t the answer I was expecting. “But I didn’t know who you were at the wall. I didn’t even see your antlers. If I’d been an assassin sent to kill you, I wouldn’t have known you were my target.”
“I may have glamoured my antlers and dressed in the colors of the night, but if you were an assassin, you’d have known me anyway. You’d have been expecting me.”
I chew my lip, processing the information.
“Was I right about you?” he asks. “Or are you still thinking of turning that blade on me?”
I look down at my thigh and the blue chiffon hiding the dagger beneath it. I’m not ready to answer that question, so I stand. “I should take my leave, Your Majesty.”
He takes hold of my hand, gently. “I meant it, Evie. It’s Aspen when we’re alone.”
I turn to go, but he doesn’t release me. I’m about to throw him a scowl, but his expression is serious. “Come back to our room,” he says.
“Why, so you can take advantage of me again?”
“I’ll sleep elsewhere tonight. You claim the bed.” Finally, he lets my hand slip from his fingers.
“I’ll consider it.” I feel his eyes on me as I make my way across the floor.
It’s no surprise when I hear him say my name. I turn. “I never glamoured myself in your presence but once.”
I tilt my head. “Excuse me?”
“At the wall. That was the only time I’ve worn a glamour in front of you.”
“But the day I arrived at the palace…in the dining room…you said—”
“I was teasing you, allowing you to believe I’d donned a glamour. But I hadn’t.”
