“Yes,” I admit, unable to explain why I just stood there and watched them without revealing the horror I felt.
She motions me forward, shaking off her interlude with the king as though I interrupted nothing of consequence. No intimacy. No real feelings. Just two bodies scratching an itch.
“Well,” she says lightly, “I can tell you he’s not nearly as much fun since he lost his memories. He’s changed a lot since I last saw him.”
My throat bobs.
I’m both sad and jealous that she knew him. She’s obviously trying to rile me up by implying I don’t know the real Ezra, that I’m stuck with some skewed, watered-down version of him.
But what if she’s right?
“Tell me about him,” I ask, taking the bait.
“The man I knew was impulsive and passionate...” She chuckles to herself. “There was never a dull moment as long as Ezra Lightbringer was around. He needed to be the center of attention and loved leaving a lasting impression, especially where women were concerned.”
A strange look clouds her face as she tucks her dark hair behind her ears. “He was a serial flirt, plowing through the girls at the Royal Academy more efficiently than a reaper collects souls.”
I cringe at that. “You went to school with him, then?”
“Oh, just ask the question that’s burning your lips.Yes, I fucked him. Many,manytimes.”
The amusement on her face chafes me raw.
“We almost got married, he and I, but Willow Summers needed a husband, and I suspect her dowry was too good to pass up. Too bad, because she never loved him.”
Iris grimaces again.
“Why would she marry him, if not for love?”
She glares at me with that faint, disbelieving frown again, like she can’t decide if I’m being obtuse or downright stupid. “Fae often marry for power and connections, of course. The match made sense on paper, but Willow was gay, so their marriage was doomed from the start.”
Gay.
Iris, aside from her crude storytelling abilities, is offering my traitorous heart exactly what it wants: a loophole. Proof that Ezra’s marriage was never real, that there was never some great love mourning his absence. She’s handing me an excuse to believe that whatever exists between us might survive the truth, and I distrust it immediately for how badly I want it to be true.
“And he didn’t love her either? Not even a little bit?”
“Oh no. Back then, Ezra only had eyes for Beth.”
What? A third girl?
I should be thinking about Nick. About the king I’m about to beg for help. About what he did to my mother and me. Instead, my thoughts keep circling back to Ezra as I try to reconcile the ghost I fell for with the prince Iris remembers. The man I saw in the mirror, the one who taunted me to leave my fiancé, was confident and brazen and infuriating, but he only has eyes for me.
“Meanwhile, I was stuck with his brother, Elio,” Iris adds, a sour pout twisting her mouth. “But Ezra didn’t mind the rules so much back then, so we had quite a bit of fun together.”
“And now you’re fucking his father? How does that work?” I ask bluntly.
She arches one perfectly plucked brow at my outburst. “What can I say? I like blondes.”
With that, she heads off toward the back of the throne room.
“Wait! I’m just trying to understand.”
“There’s not much to understand, Red.”
I shudder at the nickname. I might have red hair, butRedis not what I am.
Iris goes on. “Loving a Lightbringer will bring you nothing but misery. As a Spring Fae, I’m kind of an expert on true love. You should walk away before you’re in too deep. It will spare you a lot of heartbreak. Sex with Ezra Lightbringer... Nothing compares to it. Nothing ever got me quite that high again.”
