Page 126 of Kingdom of Betrayal and Unknown

“Okay, fine. I see that you still haven’t changed your mind on that.” She chuckles. “That obviously hasn’t changed.”

“And it’s not going to change so don’t expect it to.” I give her a pointed look. “Are we good now?”

“Yeah, we’re good.” She takes a step toward me.

I wrap my arms around her, giving her a short hug before taking a step back.

“Maybe next time, we should just talk to each other instead of sneaking around, trying to figure out what’s going on. We’ve been best friends our whole lives, and we have so much more to go. I don’t want to have a falling out because we both thought we changed when in reality we really haven’t,” I offer, but I know Skylar has changed. She would never spy on me or go behind my back on several things, before.

Kieran was right. I’m going to have to keep a close eye on her, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be her friend.

She nods. “I agree. Let’s not allow the prince to get in between us. We are better than that.”

“We are.” I chuckle.

CHAPTER 38

“Did you get the salve I gave Henry?” Zahra asks as she steps out from behind the tree.

I scream, dropping the bucket of ice on the ground and groan as most of it falls out.

“Would it kill you to maybe try and not scare me every single time you talk to me?” I ask.

She shrugs, a smile on her face. “Would it kill you to pay better attention to your surroundings?”

Sighing, I close my eyes for several seconds to calm myself down. Whenever I talk with Zahra, I always end up using all my patience with her. She makes me want to rip all my hair out.

“I do pay attention to my surroundings,” I snap, picking up the ice and placing it back in the bucket. “Sorry, you Fae are so light on your feet that no one can hear you but your own kind.”

I take a deep breath before looking at Zahra, who has a smile on her face, a bigger one than before.

“We have some perks to being different. And from the looks of it, you haven’t been putting the salve on your hand.” She looks down at my hand.

It’s still swollen and angry from the beating I got from Hilga. It hurts to move, but I’ve been pushing through the pain to try and get my chores done.

“I didn’t know whether it was genuine or not. I didn’t want to put it on and then be marked somehow and get in trouble,” I explain. “You have to understand.”

She just looks at me, blinking several times.

“Henry is a palace guard. I don’t trust easily. When he hands me a random jar of salve and says a mutual friend whose name starts with a Z wanted me to have this but wouldn’t let me say your name, it made me suspicious,” I explain, annoyed. “For all I knew, he could have been giving me something illegal and waiting to see if I would use it or not. It could have made my hand turn purple so when the prince saw me next, he knew I used something I wasn’t supposed to have and then I’d get thrown into jail or banished to Tarravega.”

Does she not realize how careful I have to be since the prince has me on his radar?

“I can see how it would have made you suspicious,” she finally says. “Next time, just trust him. No Fae likes to see you hurt. If this doesn’t stop, someone is going to do something to the human who keeps hurting you. A war is going to start. You don’t want to start a war, correct?”

“No, I don’t, but I had my reasons for being cautious,” I tell her. “Now I know to hide whenever I’m hurt so they can’t see it.”

“Good. If you need any more of the salve, let Henry know and I’ll get you more. That is, unless you see me first.” She takes a step back.

I place the last bit of ice in the bucket and stand fully. “Who is Henry to you?”

Zahra stills and her eyes narrow onto me. “That is none of your concern.”

“He seemed awfully protective of you. Said he was the only one who could say your name out loud,” I point out. “Is he your mate?”

She looks away, and that is all the answer I need.

“I won’t tell anyone. Your secret is safe with me. I won’t use it against you either. I hope we can get this curse figured out so we all can be with our mates,” I gently say.