She immediately dropped to kneeling at my side, her eyebrows drawing together, her four hands reaching for my two. But I had enough awareness to pull back and not allow her to touch my cool skin.
“What is it, Your Highness?” she said quietly. “Are you unwell? Is something wrong? Please, m’lady, if you’re going to spend the day alone in your chambers again, at least let me fetch one of your sisters to keep you company, or perhaps yourmother. Please, Princess Primelle. It’s not good for one to never see or speak with other fae.”
Unless they’re a vampire.
Of course, I didn’t speak that thought out loud, but just as I was going to insist that I was fine and she had nothing to worry about, a blast of mistphasing magic filled my room.
And Kole was there.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
My jaw dropped at Kole’s sudden appearance. Even more so when I got a good look at him. Stubble covered his cheeks, and dark circles lined his eyes. It looked as if he’d been awake for the past three days, just as I’d been. But he was here, although I didn’t know for how long. Perhaps, he only came back to officially say goodbye.
I rose stiffly from my seat. “Betsee, will you please give us some privacy?”
The lady’s attendant took one look at Kole and me, and she hastily dipped her chin and darted from the room.
As soon as the door closed behind her, silence descended. Alone with the warrior, I opened my mouth to speak, ready to beg if needed that he forgive me for being the worst possible mate in the history of the realm, but in my next breath, Kole was in front of me, cupping my cheeks and pulling me to him.
His mouth angled over mine, and his warm breath and taste flooded my mouth. Arms wrapping around me, he crushed me to him, and all I could do was embrace him in return as a sob of relief slammed into me.
My hands wrapped around his broad shoulders, encountering his huge sword in the process. Tears sprouted inmy eyes, and in a choked voice, I whispered, “I thought you left me. I thought you decided you couldn’t be with me anymore.”
“Never,” he growled and pulled back just enough to look at me with such intensity that I stilled. Even the questions forming on my tongue, wanting to know where he’d been and why he’d shut me out, didn’t come. His gaze wasburning, almost frighteningly so. “I’d like to play a game with you, Primelle. A game like we used to play. Is that okay?”
My vampire urges immediately responded. Lust spiraled through me so potently that I had to squeeze his shoulders hard to stop myself from attacking him.
“Okay,” I said breathlessly. Anticipation oozed through me.
The corner of his mouth kicked up, and he shook his head. “Notthatkind of game, my love. At least, not yet.”
My love.Stars Above.He still cared about me. Hehadn’tabandoned me.
I cocked my head. “Then what kind of game do you mean?”
“It’s a game about fae, more of a story than anything. I’m going to tell you a story, and I’d like you to respond, to let me know if you like my story while following my lead. Can you do that?”
I nodded, but confusion filled me. To disappear for several days, without any word as to where he was going or why he’d left, and then to return and immediately ask to play a game with me was odd. Incredibly so. But Kole seemed intent on seeing this through, so I licked my lips. “I’ll follow your lead.”
He moved his hands to my shoulders and backed away enough that I could see him clearly.
A glow formed in his eyes, sparkling in his irises until they flashed like sapphires. “My story is about a male and female. The male was a warrior who was tasked by a very powerful organization to protect the female, even though she wasn’t aware of it. And the female didn’t know who he was or why he’dbeen appointed to her, but she eventually found out that she was a princess and that she’d been banished from her kingdom because her parents feared she would be killed.”
My eyes blew wide open, and it struck me what Kole was doing. He was speaking of him and me, obviously, but doing so in a way that wouldn’t actually identifyusas the characters in his story.
I nodded quickly, letting him know I understood, so he continued.
“And then one day, this female left her home and ventured to a distant relative’s house. She stayed there overnight, and when she returned, she wasdifferent. She was still the same female she’d been before she’d left, but she was also altered. Her skin was paler and cooler. She seemed scared half the time for no apparent reason. And she was quick to reassure everyone that nothing was wrong every time someone grew concerned.”
His gaze burned more, and tears sprouted in my eyes. Koleknew. Kole knew something had happened to me at my uncle’s. He’d figured it out. I had a feeling the books we’d read on the Isle of Song were part of that, but there had to be something else too. He knew enough to know that if he asked me questions point-blank about my uncle or clearly alluded to that he knew what had happened on my uncle’s estate, that I would be forced to use my magic on him, and he’d discovered how to let me speak of it without igniting my uncle’s commands.
Gratitude and immense joy spread through me, and I nodded so vigorously that tears began to pour down my cheeks. Despite that, a smile bloomed upon my face. “That sounds very hard for that female. To have become different but to have to hide it. To have to tell everyone that she’s fine.”
I waited to see if my uncle’s magic would take hold of me. Even though I was nearly certain that Kole knew I was a vampire, he hadn’t voiced it, so there was still a kernel of doubtabout what he knew. And thankfully, blessingly, my uncle’s command stayed at bay, just like the Council’s magic had stayed quiet when Kole and I figured out a way around that too.
Kole’s nostrils flared, and his jaw began to tick. Energy rose in his aura, but he took a deep breath and stepped even closer to me. “The male began to suspect something was very wrong with the female since she wasn’t acting like herself, but she was so insistent that she was okay and so quick to move him out of harm’s way every time he began to wonder. It was almost as if she was afraid for him. But while he understood that something was wrong, he also didn’t know what. Not until they began to read some books.”
A sob choked out of my chest, and I squeezed his shouldersso hard. It took everything in me not to fling my arms around him. Composing myself, I nodded vigorously again as more tears spilled onto my cheeks.
