Page 100 of This Is Not True Love’s Kiss

“You’ve only had one suggestion,” Lor said, still pacing.

Nevan snorted, and now it was Cillian kicking him under the table.

“Can we just play cards?” Wolfe asked with a sigh. “Niamh is getting close to her due date, and I don’t want to be gone too long.”

“Enid’s with her,” Nevan assured his brother. “She won’t leave her side, and she’ll send for you if anything happens.”

Cillian snapped, straightening in his chair. “I’ve got it.”

Everyone looked at him.

He slumped back in his chair. “Oh wait. We already said jewelry, didn’t we?”

Lor sighed and dropped into his chair. “Maybe I’ll ask one of your wives. They’re so much better at this.”

But what Lor didn’t realize was that Castle was the best. He should’ve come to it to begin with because it knew exactly how the king could surprise his wife. It was time to set its plan into motion and show the king and queen just how far they’d come.

CHAPTER 55

Lor, two years earlier

Ihadn’t seen Aoife for nearly two weeks since that disastrous day I’d awoken her from her kiss. I’d been immediately imprisoned on charges of treason against the crown, but everyone soon heard my story, realized I’d been a rebel spy, realized I was on their side. It helped I had a golden crown hovering over my head, that it was clear Castle wanted me as the king. In the end, not much else mattered.

Now I’d been released from the dungeon, and it was time to find my future queen. We had much to discuss.

It was easy to track her down. She’d been staying with Ambrose, one of the other Fair Folk. I didn’t know their relationship, but I was assuming it wasn’t platonic. That was fine. Aoife owed me nothing. We weren’t even betrothed. Not yet, anyway.

I walked around the bend of Fairwitch Isle and spotted her in the distance, sitting atop a rock, staring out at the forest that spread out behind our home.

She stiffened and turned to stare at me. Unlike our first meeting, today she wore simple soft brown trousers with a sleeveless tunic tucked in, and leather boots. She scooted over, making room for me to sit next to her on the rock.

I hadn’t had much time to study her after I broke the curse, but she was stunning with her shimmering russet skin and long black hair that flowed down her back. Her golden eyes were big and round, and her nose curved, hooking at the end.

“I’m sorry about the other day,” I said.

“Me too,” she said quickly.

“We have a lot to figure out.”

“We do,” she agreed, “but I’ve been a statue for two thousand years. I’ve had two weeks to catch up on a millennia of news.”

My instinct was to remind her that we were to be king and queen of Fairwitch Isle, and we had a lot to do, but a heaviness weighed down her words, and I held my tongue. “Very well.”

“Can we just sit here for a little while?”

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and when her hand dropped, her pinky finger grazed mine. Such a simple touch. It was barely even a touch, but she didn’t move away, and neither did I.

The briefest spark of . . . something shot through me, and as we sat there, side by side, gazing out over the forest, I wondered if maybe this relationship wasn’t doomed after all. Maybe we could be more than just an arranged marriage. Maybe, one day, this could turn into true love’s kiss.

CHAPTER 56

Aoife

Everyone was acting so odd today. I’d woken up with Lor already gone, which wasn’t abnormal, but he usually at least gave me a quick kiss each morning. Then Margaret had appeared in my office, chattering on, which wasn’t so weird—the weird part had been that she hadn’t given me a single piece of gossip. All her chatter had been about banal things like what I’d had for breakfast and on a scale of one to ten, how burnt I liked my toast. It was almost like she was nervous, something I’d never seen from the painting.

Now I stood in Ceri’s dress shop as she bustled around me, cheeks pink and flushed, a pencil shoved behind one ear, a tape measure in her hands as she took my measurements. Again.

I stood on a short pedestal. “I hardly think this is necessary,” I said. “You just took my measurements last week.”