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In love with a girl I’d have bowed to long before she became my queen.
would spend the rest of my days making her flower crowns if she wanted to be a queen. My queen. Not Kitt’s. Not Ilya’s. Mine.
“I don’t need you to fight my battles.” “Oh, darling,” I murmur, “I know you don’t. But if I am to be your Enforcer, then you better get used to it.”
This shake of her head is imploring. “I am no one’s queen.” “Is that so?” My fingers find her cheek before trailing down the smooth slope of her nose. “Then you have no idea how much power you hold over me.”
the Ordinaries within it rides on this.” I tip my face until her forehead meets mine. “I’m too selfish to let you go so easily.” “Then pretend.” My thumb drags lazily over her bottom lip. “Does that mean I have to drag you into a closet every time I want to touch you?”
“You’re quite the poet, Prince.” Moonlight pools in the dimple that accompanies his grin. “And you the muse, darling.”
He kisses the pad of my thumb before the war begins.
“So bow at my feet with a sneer, if you must. I won’t see it with your face to the ground.”
Or maybe I’m tired of feeling useless, feeling trapped in this life I don’t know how to live.
“So damn the Trials. Pae, let me force every person in this kingdom to their knees for you.”
My feet are quick to find their way toward the queen’s quarters. It feels wrong, and yet, so entirely fitting that she is occupying them.
considering I’m the one who told Andy it was in need of repair. With her hard work in mind, I gently rap my knuckles against the wood rather than kicking it off the hinges.
I’ve gotten rather good at memorizing every sound she makes. Every laugh from her throat, every shuffle of her feet, every sigh against my mouth.
“My room doesn’t have you in it.” My lips twitch. “Hence why I’m in yours.”
“And my pretty—” I kiss her gently, feel her mouth melt against mine. “Pretty Pae.”
My voice is low. “Oh, I know.” My fingers find that damning ring, slipping it off even as my mouth moves against hers.
“Don’t do that,” I breathe. “Do what?” I duck my head. “Ruin me.”
My fingers lift her chin. “So, in the wise words of Adena, this is simply a good way to say bye until… whatever the hell.”
“Paedyn.” I tip my forehead against hers, aching to say what she is so scared of. In that field of poppies, I told her how impossible it was to stop myself from falling in love with her. And yet, the three damning words have yet to fall from my lips. I love you.
“Every person who has ever said that to me is gone. And I… I need you more than I need those words.”
I smile, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “It will take far more than mere words to drag me from you, darling.”
“Shh.” I cut off her words with the single sound. “It’s okay. You made me strong.” A tear rolls down her cheek, and I wipe it away with a knuckle. “You made me strong,” I whisper again.
“So I look like hell?” “If you look like hell,” he whispers with a sly grin, “then I’m fortunate to be going there.”
I have never been so terrified—and I’ve spent my whole life in fear.”
My fingers find his free hand. “I don’t want to gain power if it means I lose myself in the process.”
but I will always be an impostor among the truly powerful.” He’s shaking his head, hiding his gaze from me. Both of my hands are cupping his face now. “I worry about you, Malakai.” The sound of his full name has those gray eyes fluttering closed. “If I die—” “Stop.”
“Pae.” His voice is ragged. “I would lose my life for you before finding something else worth living for.” His fingers weave into my hair, slide along the back of my neck. “You are my inevitable. In life and in death.”
powerless.”
What if it was paeden
“My parents never came back,” I hear him say, voice breaking. A piece of me shatters at the sound of it, at the grief already filling his voice. Jax has lost so much, so young.
So I spin her in the moonlight. Smile when she laughs at my expense. And let her step on my toes.
down at the baby girl, seeing little more than her lack of power. How could he, a Brawny and king of gods, produce something so weak? This is an
there. “Paedyn, I love you. Like nothing else before, I love you. And I’ve been waiting to tell you since I realized your eyes are my favorite color and your freckles the only constellation worth looking at. I could lie—say that you’ve stolen my every thought and heartbeat like the thief you are, but all of me was already yours. Pae, you are my inevitable.”
“I love you. I love you. I love y—” His mouth is on mine, tasting the words from my lips. I breathe him in greedily as tears mingle with the kiss. His hands run down my body, gently memorizing every curve beneath the robe. Sighing into his mouth, I twine my arms around his neck. I feel delicate in his embrace, as though he is holding something priceless. Love.
“My pretty Pae. Look what you have done to me.”
“You love me.” “Then.” His hands cup my face. “Now.” My lips brush his. “Always. And I’ll find your shoes for you in every lifetime if you’ll allow it.”
“I promised that if I had you”—his thumb traces the curve of my lips—“it would only be because you let me.”
tilts his head, wearing a dimple-framed grin. “I’m quite good with corsets.”
