“How do you know they don’t?” I fired back even though he was mostly right.
“The fact that you’d have to ask that question makes me doubt your intelligence,” he said. “Then again, I already have good enough reasons to doubt that.”
My mouth dropped open. Literally. “Did you just say that to me?”
“I am confident that I spoke in your native language and quite clearly.”
Anger flashed through my system. “You don’t even know me.”
“Oh, I know you.” His voice dropped even further, eliciting an unwanted, confusing as hell shiver from me. “I know exactly what and who you are.”
My fingers curled into a fist. “I don’t even know what you’re suggesting.”
“You know just as well as I do that the Order doesn’t give a damn what may or may not have happened to a few Summer fae.” As he spoke, the space between us seemed to have evaporated. “And you stand before me, claiming that you do while you won’t even admit that the people you work for couldn’t care less.”
I opened my mouth and then closed it. Damn, he had a point. A good point, but that didn’t mean I was apathetic. “I do care. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have taken this file. I wouldn’t have told Tanner and Faye that I would see what I could find out. If you actually did know who and what I am, whatever the hell that means, you’d know that I wouldn’t lie.”
Faye’s audible sharp inhale warned me that my voice had risen even though the Prince’s hadn’t, and at least she could hear me.
I didn’t care. Frustration and irritation had long since replaced the healthy sense of fear. “And seriously, dude, can you let go of my arm?”
The Prince ignored my request yet again. “You are nothing but lies and façades.”
My entire body jerked at that comment, striking too close to home for comfort. “Let go of me.”
He held my gaze as he slowly lifted one finger after another, releasing my wrist. That bitter knot was back in my throat. The Prince had let go and his heavy lashes lowered, shielding his powerful gaze, but I swore I could still feel it. “My apologies,” he murmured. “That was uncalled for.”
A feather could’ve knocked me over right then. He was apologizing? The Prince? “Yeah, it was.” I swallowed hard, taking a step back from him.
“Even if it is true,” he added.
“Wow. Way to ruin an apology,” I muttered. “Not that you probably even know why you just apologized.”
“I do. It hurt you. Those words.”
“What? You can smell that, too?”
Those heavy lashes lifted, and the intensity of his gaze pierced me. Suddenly I thought back to the day I woke up in the hospital, to those eyes. “I can sense many things.”
Oh.
Oooh.
I had the distinct impression that he was talking about earlier, when I was thinking about the dream I had. And boy, didn’t that make me want to crawl up in a hole somewhere. At that moment, I made a mental note to legit not feel anything when I was around him or any other fae.
One eyebrow, several shades darker than his golden hair, lifted.
“Wait. Can you guys read minds?” I asked, voice hushed and thinking I didn’t know nearly as much about the fae as I thought I did.
“We don’t need to.”
Relief hit me, but it quickly faded when his words cycled back through my head.We don’t need to.Meaning picking up on our emotions probably gave them enough insight on what our thoughts were.
Nice.
“Well…” I held the folder closer to my chest. “That’s freaky.”
His lips twitched.
