Page 96 of This Is Not True Love’s Kiss

He nodded and took the bread, giving us a brief smile and closing the door.

Aoife and I continued on, and I wasn’t ready to stop our game, not ready to stop planning our future. “Castle is already confusing. Besides, I think it’s time for a change. We’re entering a new era in Fairwitch Isle, one with a Fair Folk queen and a mortal king. We’re merging our communities, our customs, our cultures. Castle can adapt too. I won’t have you living in a place that constantly reminds you of the worst moments of your life.”

Aoife shook her head, her glossy black hair shimmering. “You’re so stubborn,” she said. “I have a feeling I can keep arguing with you, but you’ve already made up your mind.”

“We can talk to the council, propose a plan, work with Castle on a new layout that everyone is happy with.” I brought her hand to my mouth and pressed a kiss to it. “And you and I can have a new bed chamber, one that belongs to us both.”

She swallowed thickly. “If we make it past today.”

I blew out a breath, a familiar anxiety creeping up on me. I hadn’t recognized it as anxiety until Aoife had called it out. Now I realized that’s exactly what this was, my need to control everything. It was the only way I could push down this dread bubbling up in me. “We’ll prevail like we always have.”

She squeezed my hand. “It would be nice if we knew what the brotherhood was bringing.”

Back to reality. It was far too soon.

I shoved a hand through my hair as we strolled toward the cobbler’s business and Aoife left a loaf on his doorstep.

“I still think we should meet them, attack in the forest,” Aoife said. “Instead of waiting for them to find us, let’s find them, show them our strength.”

She’d made this argument multiple times now, and I’d disagreed, the council siding with me. All of us felt more comfortable fighting from our home front, where we’d at least have Castle’s magic aiding us.

“No,” I said. “We don’t know what kind of magic weapons they have, what kind of danger we’d be walking into.”

“So instead we’re just doing nothing. Waiting to die.” Frustration laced her voice, and I felt it too.

“You’re Aoife the Warrior Queen,” I said. “You led an uprising against Fairwitch and lived to tell the tale. You will lead your people to battle today, and you will show the brotherhood exactly what they have to fear.”

She made a sound of discontentment, and I laughed.

She cut me a look. “What could possibly be funny at a moment like this?”

I rocked on my heels. “I always thought you and I were worse off because of how different we are, how much we disagree.”

“And you don’t think that anymore?” she asked.

I stopped and tugged her into me, my hands going to her hips. I loved being able to dig my fingers into her soft body, loved feeling her melt against me. “No, I don’t. I think we make each other better. You push me to be better.”

Her face broke into a dazzling smile. “Well, I still think I’m right.”

I huffed, and she leaned up on her tiptoes, just about to press her mouth to mine when Fargus flew from the forest, Meera running behind him.

“Your Majesties,” Fargus yelled.

I squinted, looking past the cobbler’s shop to the trees in the distance, figures emerging from behind them. Figures in maroon cloaks.

My stomach dropped.

“They’re here.” Meera panted, her sides expanding and hollowing with each rapid breath. “The brotherhood is here.”

CHAPTER 53

Lor

“Sound the alarm bells,” I yelled to Fargus, who swooped down and then upward and toward the bell tower in the distance.

He got there quickly, pushing into the bell, the chime echoing through Fairwitch Isle. Doors opened and residents flooded the streets in a panic.

“Get to the castle!” I yelled. “Go, go, go!”