The Wicked King (The Folk of the Air, #2)

by Holly Black

“I have heard that for mortals, the feeling of falling in love is very like the feeling of fear. Your heart beats fast. Your senses are heightened. You grow light-headed, maybe even dizzy.”

“For a moment,” he says, “I wondered if it wasn’t you shooting bolts at me.”

I make a face at him. “And what made you decide it wasn’t?”

He grins up...

“They mi...

“Kiss me again,” he says, drunk and foolish. “Kiss me until I am sick of it.”

He hates you. Even if he wants you, he hates you. Maybe he hates you the more for it.

“If you’re the sickness, I suppose you can’t also be the cure.”

“But I believe it is only that her beauty is … unique.”

“Excruciating. Alarming. Distressing.”

“I hate you,”

“Say it again,”

He looks as though he’s confessing.

“I see a new monarch coming,

So much of winning is waiting.

“Your ridiculous family might be surprised to find that not everything is solved by murder,”

“We would be surprised to find that,” I call back.

Jude,

are you afraid of me?

“I remember you,” says the door. “My prince’s lady.”

“You’re mistaken,” I say.

“He sent me to kill you,”

beside someone who terrifies me the more I feel for him.

“We show her that I am no feckless High King.”

“And how do we do that?” I ask.

“With great difficulty,” he says. “Since I fea...

“Yes, my sweet villain, my darling god.

And with that, he kisses me on the mouth.

“Sweet Jude. You are my dearest punishment.”

“She will not,” he says.

“She didn’t have to command me, Jude. She didn’t have to use any magic. I trust you. I trusted you.”

“Marry me,” he says. “Become the Queen of Elfhame.”

“Yes,” I say, but my voice fails me. It comes out all breath. “Yes.”

“To what are you agreeing?” “Okay,” I say. “I’ll do it. I’ll marry you.”

“I exile Jude Duarte to the mortal world.

“Deny it, then,” I yell. “Deny me!”