His entire body deflates with my question. He falls back to sit back on the bed, and he drops his head into his hands as he lets out a defeated sigh. He doesn’t answer the questions until his head lifts to meet my gaze again. “I am.” Something akin to regret fills his eyes.
“And you, what? Thought that wasn’t something I needed to know?” My voice rises in volume with each word I speak. “Because in case you weren’t aware that’s probably something you should’ve told me, oh, I don’t know,daysago. Maybe when I told you whoIwas? That probably would’ve been a good place to start.”
“I know.”
“Or perhaps you could’ve said something while we were stuck with each other’s company while we traveled across Alinea.”
“I know,” he repeats.
“Our courtshateeach other. We’re literal enemies. Two sides of a tense conflict. What did you really expect would happen here?”
“I don’t know,” he grits out.
“Were you going to pretendnotto be the prince and we would… what? What exactly was the plan here?”
“I was going to tell you.” His voice is sincere, but he’s also been lying to me this entire time. He’s an incredible actor so I take it with a grain of salt.
I scoff. “Sure.” I pace back and forth through the room, running my hands through my hair. I halt, whirling on him. “Did you know who I was when we met?”
He flinches at my words. “Liv,no. I was telling you the truth when I told you we didn’t know that the princess existed. You were such a closely guarded secret. How would I have known it was you?”
“Then how is it thatyouhappened to be the one to find me when I showed up in Alinea? Are you trying to tell me that that was a random coincidence? Because I don’t buy it.” I pause a moment, looking into his eyes and suddenly get a flash of a memory lost to time.
Not a memory.
A dream.
I’m just about close enough that I could almost start making out features when the figure shifts once more and it’s suddenly looking in my direction. That starlight catches on piercing crystalline, blue eyes staring right back at me.
No. No. Nono no.
“Wait a minute.” I shake my head in disbelief, because there’s no way. But him being here, dreamwalking, is a clear indication that itispossible. “You’ve been in my dreams before all of this.” His eyes widen a fraction. “How did you find me in my dreams? And thencoincidentallyfind me again when I ended up here? Did you create the wisps that led me here? Am I here because ofyou?”
“I swear to you Liv, I didn’t know that you were the Seelie princess before we met.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “That wasn’t my question. I’ll ask again. Did you lure me into Alinea with the wisps?”
“No.” His denial is vehement.
“Were you in my dreams before this?”
I see him picking over his words, carefully crafting his answer before he speaks. “Yes, I was.”
My stomach drops. “Why?”
He hesitates. “I was looking for… something.”
“Did you find it?”
“Yes.”
“And what exactly did that have to do with me?”
“Everything!” he shouts, standing and throwing his arms out to the side. “You’re—” he cuts himself off abruptly and spins, so his back is to me, pulling his hands through his hair roughly.
“I’mwhat?” I ask, venom lacing my words.
He glances at me over his shoulder for a moment, thinking over his response. “Never mind, it’s not important.” He sighs, dropping his head down between his shoulders. “It’s just… you’re the only one I can trust nowadays.”
