The Fae King's Curse (Between Dawn and Dusk #1)

by Jamie Schlosser

“May I feel your face?”

“It’s not that easy. The only way I’ll ever see again is if I find my fated mate.”

If I so much as kiss someone else, the spell will be permanent. Forever.” He shrugs.

“Read to me, please.”

“You only get one portal a year?” That’s new information. I was under the impression he could hop around to wherever he wanted. “And you use it to come here? To see me?” “There’s nowhere else I’d rather go,” he says, certain.

“Yes, I can and I am. I won’t go that long without seeing you. I can’t.” His voice cracks.

“I love you, Kirian. I’m in love with you.” My eyes sting. Damn it. I promised myself I wouldn’t cry. “Every day, when you come back to me, I’m terrified you’re going to tell me you found her—your mate. And it’s going to break my heart, because it’s not me. It’ll happen eventually, and I know when that time comes, I’ll never see you again. If you really care about me, you’ll leave right now and never come ba—”

his breath ghosts across my mouth, right before his lips press to mine.

“Why?” I demand, panting. “Why would you do that?” Gripping my shoulders, he leans down until we’re nose to nose. “Because I can live without my sight, but I cannot live without you.”

“That all sounds great, but I have a life somewhere else.” “How can that be true when I’m not there with you?” Kirian comes closer, and I can feel the heat coming off his body. “I’m your life, Quinn.”

“I’ll never love another the way I love you.” He drops to a knee. Grasping my hands, he bows his head and presses my knuckles to his brow. “The first day I met you, you did so much more than pull me out of the water. You gave me something to look forward to. You didn’t judge me. You became my sanctuary, my happy place. I crave your company and your attention, and I feel like I might die if I had to go the rest of my life without you.”

“Fuck that, Quinn,” he responds gruffly, lifting his face. “The only person who owns me is you.”

Sometimes over the course of the year, he’d grow darker. Colder. Grumpier. But most of the time on his birthday, the shadows around him seemed to lift.

I need him just as much as he needs me.

I’m yours and you’re mine.

“They came into my castle and tried to hurt my mate,” he mutters, his voice gravelly with emotion. “Mine.”

she brushes her fingertips over my shoulder blades again, right over the invisible slit to one of my wings. I hold in a shudder. Just like a faerie’s ears, it’s a hypersensitive spot on the body. Touching me there is basically foreplay.

“If I lose you, I’ll die. I can’t face the rest of my life without you. I live for you now. I—I think I always have, if I’m being honest.”

“I need you. I’ve never wanted anything this much,” I say, going for her mouth again.

“My body is yours. Do as you please.”

Quinn is mine. Until the end of time. Forever.