“You can’t have me, even though you want me.” His fingertips leave a trail of heat across my collarbone. “All of this will be for nothing, because once you’re gone from here, once we’re done with each other, you’ll go back to those balls.”
The lust pauses and frustration circles me.
“You’ll dance and you’ll dance and you’ll dance, giving everything of yourself, but no one will care. You’re nothing more than someone to be married off, forced to help your family’s magic even though you don’t have any of your own. You’re their puppet, always doing what they want and never doing anything for yourself.”
His words ring true. He’s right. Once we’re done, I’ll return to dancing and smiling and pretending to want to meet all those wizards and werewolves, vampires and whoever else. But I don’t want that. I don’t want any of them.
“You’re trapped,” he purrs, the low rumble of his voice making my chest pulse. “You’re chained to a life that you don’twant, and before you know it, some average-looking wizard will show up and tell you that he loves you. But you’ll always wonder if he’s lying, using you to get to your family. Yet he’s your only hope because you must save them. So you marry him.” He pauses, breathing into my ear, sending a flame of anger igniting down my spine. “You bear his children. You live your entire life doing what everyone else wants and expects from you until the day you die.”
It’s all so close to the truth, so bitterly close that anger churns in my gut like a cauldron about to boil over. The weight of this truth crashes down on me, smothering me, crushing my lungs. I can’t breathe. I can’t think.
Then Feylin whispers, “And your husband’s name is…Edward.”
Anger bright as a thousand suns hardens like a fist inside my gut. It tightens, quivering under the weight of its own power. I try to reach for it, grab hold, but the ball shifts.
And then it explodes. Light blinds me as a tornadic wind rips through my hair and clothes, bringing with it the sound of rustling trees and snapping branches.
The power consumes me, wrapping me in a stranglehold of magic that’s so intense it burns my skin. After several long seconds it ever so slowly melts away, leaving me a shaking, trembling mess.
My knees give and I collapse to the grass. The light was so bright that even with my eyes closed, it still blinded me. But after a few moments I’m able to blink them open, peering through dark dots at my surroundings.
Broken tree branches lay scattered across the lawn. The grass is bent like it’s been smoothed out with a giant hand. And Feylin?
He’s gone.
Panic claws at my throat as my gaze rips across the lawn. There, lying about twenty yards away, face up, is the king.
“Oh my gods, I’ve killed him!”
My legs barely obey when I force them to run across the grass.
“Feylin!” I fall to my knees beside him. His face is motionless, his beautiful features frozen. “Feylin, wake up! Please don’t be dead. Please!”
My brain’s a mess, but somehow I remember that the first thing to do in CPR is check for a pulse. I press my ear to his heart and wait, listening. Very faintly, his heart drums beneath his shirt.
I raise up and touch his face. “Feylin?”
He’s still not responding. Okay. What’s the next step? Loosen his shirt? I pull open the collar and sit back. Next, his mouth needs to be open. As I reach to part his lips with my fingers, he stirs.
“I was holding out for mouth-to-mouth,” he murmurs, his eyes fluttering open.
He’s alive!
And joking.
“You dog!” I swat him. “I thought you were dead.”
“You’ve got to work harder than that to kill me.” He sits up and lazily scrubs a hand down his jaw. A second later his eyes brighten. “But you, Addison Thornrose!”
He leaps to his feet, grabs me by the arms and pulls me to him. Before I can protest, he takes me by the hips and lifts me into air. “You did it! You are something. You called the magic and you did it!”
He’s beaming up at me, and I’m mirroring his smile as he holds me up in the air with my hands resting on his shoulders. For a moment we stare at each other, and it’s just him and me, the two of us, and no one else on earth exists.
I want to capture this moment and memorize it, brand it onto my heart for the rest of my life.
When he slowly lowers me and I’m nestled back on the grass, tipping my face up to his, that’s when it all sinks in.
“I used my magic,” I murmur, wonder lacing my voice.
