The Unseelie King (Maze of Shadows #4)

by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

“You know what’s worse than fearing you’ll never be loved?” He stood and cracked his neck. “Knowing you never will.”

Why did I wish to die? Because I do not wish to endure heartbreak again. But here I am at the precipice once more. Because I think I am in love with you, selkie, and I know you will never feel the same way in return. That is my fate.

“Why did you not tell me any of this?” He laughed and, opening his eyes, smiled up at her as best he could. “Yes, because that is a conversation one wishes to have. ‘My dearest love, I am an ancient and unstoppable monster from beyond the pale who wishes to destroy two worlds for I am unable to help myself. Pass the mustard, would you?’”

“Do not say goodbye to me,” he murmured. “I do not think I could take it. This is but a parting until the morrow. I am eternal, my little witch. And I will come back to you someday—even if it is when this world has turned to dust, and I am ethereal once more. Go within my Maze, and embrace it, and you shall embrace me.”

He did not care. He would stand. And he would defend the woman he loved. For she had chosen him—him!—knowing the truth of his soul. Finally knowing who and what he was. And she had kissed him…and chosen to stand beside him.

“I would not ask you to be anything but what you are. I love you more than I can put into words, my little witch. My Seelie. My queen. My adversary. If I want you to love me as I truly am, how could I do anything but give you the same respect?”