A Dance with the Fae Prince (Married to Magic, #2)

by Elise Kova

Whenever someone tries to tell a lie to me, I smell smoke. Whenever I tell a lie, I taste metal.

My whole life I’ve been a vessel, allowing others to fill me with their wants, needs, thoughts… There is so much of everyone else that there is no room left for me. And now, when I need something of my own creation to offer, I come up short.

“Maybe,” he whispers, “I’m trying to protect you because I’m stunning. Because if you were to look at me with those eyes that Oren tells me are like a tempest sea, I could never let you go.”

I really hope that I’m wrong about that…because my mind isn’t a place that anyone should spend too much time in. It’s dangerous enough for me, and I live here.

“Love is the closest thing we have to meaning in this world. The love of a mother for her children, the love between friends, the love of a husband and wife, love for who we are and all those who strove before us to hand us the world we have now—love is why we live, why we fight, why we carry on when things get tough…it is not always easy. But it is our reprieve from true hardship, not the hardship itself.”

“Why is it that it is so much easier for me to process being treated like a thing than a person? How is it that the latter hurts more?” I blurt. Giles blinks several times over. His brows arch upward, knitting together in the middle. I can’t stand his pity already. “Because now you know this is how you should have been treated all along. Because you know that if one person sees you, respects you as they should, then there’s no excuse for anyone else not to. The fault does not lie—has never lain—with you, but rather the shortcomings of those you have been surrounded by. You were always worthy.”

“But I swear to you, Katria, with all I am and all I will be…as long as I draw breath, I will never let them, or anyone, hurt you again. You will never have to go back to that house. And should you ever wish to, because you feel that confronting them in the cruelty they have wrought will bring you some peace, I swear I will stand by your side if you need me.”

“Because I love you, truly. I love you in a way that makes me want to sacrifice for you. That makes me want to move the mountains, or oceans, or stars, to merely see you smile.” He strokes my cheek again, looking down at me with all the wonder in the world. “That is what love is, Katria—what it should be. You are worthy of that love, from me, from others, and from yourself.”