Page 88 of This Is Not True Love’s Kiss

It made sense given that the brotherhood was closing in, and Lor and I had been working nonstop with the royal guard to come up with a plan of defense. We’d taken shifts so that while one of us was with the guards, the other could be getting rest.

That was the most likely explanation for why I hadn’t seen him. Except . . . what if I’d hurt his feelings by not telling him I loved him back? Maybe he’d realized I was too difficult after all, not worth the trouble of loving. Maybe he’d given up trying to breach my walls.

“What’s wrong with me?” I groaned. “Why couldn’t I just say it to him?”

“Do you love him?” Niamh asked, the whole room suddenly silent, everyone staring at me.

I was nearly four thousand years old, and I wasn’t sure I knew what love even was, wasn’t sure that I wanted to know. “It’s so . . . binding, those words.”

Niamh’s face softened. “It is, isn’t it?”

“It’s terrifying,” Enid said, voice thoughtful, and her eyes glazed over like she was in another time, another place. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”

“Really?” I asked. I stopped pacing, looking at each one of these women who loved a Wolfgang brother.

“Oh love is never easy,” Niamh said.

“But I didn’t say it back.” I squeezed my eyes shut. “I wanted to. It was there, on the tip of my tongue, but I just couldn’t.”

“That’s okay,” Ceri said. “You don’t have to say it if you’re not ready. There’s no rush.”

“They have been married for over two years.” Marsten crunched on a carrot, and this time it was his back that Vine poked.

“Ow,” he said.

“Why don’t you sit?” Ceri gestured to the chair across from her.

I listened, dropping down, knees bouncing. “He hasn’t talked to me since then. He’s avoiding me.”

“Or he’s busy ruling a kingdom and preparing for an impending attack?” Ceri pointed out.

I huffed. “Perhaps.”

“Lor isn’t a child,” Niamh said. “He’s mature, and he would never expect you to say something you weren’t ready for.”

“But why am I not ready?” I asked.

Niamh leaned forward and put her hand on my knee. “Wolfe kissed me, told me he loved me, and then said we could never be together.”

My mouth dropped open. “What?”

“Oh, that was a good story,” Margaret said, her voice a little too gleeful.

Niamh nodded. “It’s true. And look how it turned out for us.” She gestured to her round belly.

“I stabbed Nevan with a syringe that put him to sleep so I could run away and leave him forever,” Enid offered.

My gaze swiveled to her.

“I forgot about that!” Margaret chimed in.

Ceri tugged on one of her golden curls. “I was chosen to participate in magical marriage trials that forced me to confront my feelings for Cillian.”

“How have I never heard a single one of these stories?” I asked, shocked by these admissions. “Every one of your relationships sounds . . .”

“Complicated?” Niamh said with a raised brow. “That’s because they were.”

“They are,” Enid said. “That’s what happens when two people come together and promise to love each other. It’s always going to be complicated.”