AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She bent and trailed her fingertips over the dark soil, letting heat into the earth, refusing to look at him for a moment. “I know.”
“I’ve manipulated you,” he continued.
She paused and looked up at him. “Not really helping, Keenan.”
“Do you trust me?” he asked again.
Aislinn straightened and faced him. “I do.”
“Do you want to be near me?” He didn’t approach her. Unlike his aggressiveness since he’d returned—and when she’d first met him—he was almost reserved now.
Still, she had to pause for several breaths before she could answer: “I do.”
“Why?”
“You’re my king. Something inside of me insists that I reach out. I can’t even stay mad at you when I know I should be.” She wiped the soil from her hands onto her jeans and paced farther away. “Never mind. . . . I want to know what you learned while you were out. Now is not the time for this.”
“Actually, it is.” Keenan watched her with an intensity that made her want to run. “The time for waiting has ended.”
“You can’t mean . . .” She shook her head. “You just got back.”
Keenan stayed out of her reach as he spoke. “Will you let yourself love me, Aislinn?”
“You’re my king, but . . . I love Seth.”
“I need to belong to one person, who belongs only to me. I have done as I must for centuries, but there is a part of me that is not as fickle as Summer can be,” Keenan said. “I need all or nothing. Either we are truly together, or we are truly apart.”
She shook her head. “You’re really asking me to choose now?”
“I am.” He reached out, but didn’t touch her. His hand was in the air next to her face, but he didn’t close the distance. “I need you to decide. Now. The court needs to be as strong as possible.”
“Whatever you learned . . . Talk to me,” she pleaded. “Maybe there’s another way, maybe . . .”
“Aislinn,” he said evenly. “I need you to decide. Do we go away together or do I go alone?”
She felt warm tears trickle down her cheeks. “Yesterday, you told me I had a week. You told me yesterday.”
“Would your answer change if we waited?”
Aislinn hated the understanding in his voice as much as she had hated it when Seth offered it to her. They were both wonderful, both good, both people any girl would be lucky to know—but she only loved one of them. If she could save her court and keep Seth in her life, that’s what she would do. If Keenan wasn’t near her, she wouldn’t feel the pull to be with him. She hadn’t felt it—much—these past six months, not like she had when Seth was away.
“Would you want it to change?” she asked.
“I want to be loved; I want to be consumed by it.” Keenan traced her jaw with the barest touch of his fingertips. “I’ve loved Donia for decades, but I’ve lived for my court for centuries. I need more than an ‘I think’ this time, Aislinn. Do you want me enough to be mine? Do you care enough to try to love me? Do we become truly together for our court? Claim me as your king, or set me free to try to be with the faery I love.”
“I do want you,” Aislinn admitted. “Not just because of the court. You’re my friend and . . . I do care for you. I can’t imagine never seeing you again.”
The Summer King stroked her cheek with his thumb. “Can you offer me your fidelity? Your heart and your body and your companionship for eternity? Do you want my fidelity? Either love me or kiss me good-bye, my Summer Queen.”
She felt tears slip down her cheeks. He’d looked for her for almost a millennium, but she couldn’t give him what he needed. She’d returned strength to their court, but the love she felt for the Summer Court wasn’t the sort of love he wanted from her. She leaned into his caress. “Why do I think that what happens next is going to be . . .”
“To be?” he prompted softly.
“Something I’m not ready for,” she finished.
Her earlier fears of ruling the court without him cras
hed around her. He’d been their king for centuries, and she had only been fey for a bit more than a year. How do we rule from separate areas? Split the court? Can we even do that? She bit her lip.
