Page 20 of The Endless Dance

But that would have to wait until later. I had a High Lord to deal with.

Sighing, I walk back out, unsurprised to find Draekoh hasn’t moved an inch.

“It’s a bit over the top, don’t you think?” I ask casually, knowing full well the male who had had everything served to him on a golden platter his entire life was going to disagree.

“It is.”

“I’m sorry, what?” I turn away from the glass doors I had been about to open and gape at him.

He shrugs. “I haven’t always lived with this kind of wealth and finery.”

Oh, he was going there, was he? “Yes, I heard about that. The whole Lost Lord bullshit.” Fuck. I was going to get brutally murdered before I’d even spent my first night here!

Draekoh, however, laughs. “The staff do enjoy their gossip.”

Right. It wasn’t just my life on the line.

I quickly change the subject before I can get myself and my handmaids into trouble. “Why have I been roomed in your wife’s chambers?” I blurt.

Draekoh’s grin grows. “My wife’s chambers? I suppose the staff can contain their gossip about some things.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I glare, folding my arms across my chest.

Draekoh rises in one smooth motion. “While fae marry, like humans, there is also an extremely rare bond two fae can share. A bond much stronger than any marriage. We call it the mating bond.”

“Mates?” I frown. Waverly, my flatmate, had been an Australian woman living in New York. And she called everyone mate.

“You doubt me?” Draekoh tilts his head to the side, studying me. He crosses the room slowly and leans against the glass door beside me. “Have you ever been in love, Little Bird?” His lip curls in distaste at the question.

I slam my lips closed and refuse to answer, though my heated cheeks are answer enough to him. His lazy smirk returns.

“Of course you have, humans and their fickle emotions.”

Furious, I turn and slide the door to the veranda open. A cool breeze immediately caresses my warm cheeks. I take a deep breath, but I don’t walk out. I don’t need to. The view is similar to what I saw on arrival, but higher up and facing the ocean rather than the city.

“Love, Little Bird, is inconsequential when compared to a mating bond. Love is a grain of sand on the beach below us. The mating bond is the entire ocean.” I can’t help but catch my breath at his words. They came from directly behind me, whispering against my bare neck. “It is rare. So rare. Many fae spend their entire lives searching for the one who completes them, to no avail. The mating bond is poetic, soulful, passionate, and complete. It is the very reason for being.”

I swallow thickly. “Just sounds like love to me,” I manage to say after a moment.

Draekoh laughs. “Little Bird, love is an emotion given freely and all too easily to as many partners as you wish. But there is only ever one mate. Fae mate for life—”

“Like penguins?” Ugh, shut up, Delta.

“Precis—” Draekoh pauses, and I grin at his confusion.

I turn, and immediately regret it when I come nose to chest with the High Lord, not realising how close he had been standing. I look up cautiously and meet his furrowed brow.

“Like what?” he demands.

I press my lips together to stop myself from laughing. This whole situation was absurd, and here I was bringing penguins, of all things, into it?

“Penguins,” I say again. “Little flightless birds that waddle around like this.” I turn and waddle out onto the veranda with my arms straight by my sides and hands sticking out. “They are very cute,” I finish lamely, turning back to find Draekoh watching my little parade with a most intrigued look on his face.

“What, exactly, is the point of a flightless bird?” he asks, following me outside.

I shrug, bravely stepping closer to the High Lord. “What is the point of anything?”

Draekoh looks down upon me with a deep frown lining his forehead. “You are an incredibly rare specimen, Delta.”