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“Either.”
“For you.”His gaze screamed possession, but his tone?She couldn’t read it.
“Why?”Because she couldn’t share what she’d just learned, what she’d agreed to.Not if he didn’t want to try for a permanent relationship.It would make good-bye that much harder when she watched him walk through the goblin glass without her.
“To say I’m sorry.Notfor thinking you should be queen.You’re the best possible future for the realm.But for pushing it on you.For not letting you make your own choices.”
She should tell him about the plans she’d made.But first, she needed to know his.“If I stay to rule, what would you do?”
“I’d stay with you.”His answer was immediate, sincere.
Hope sparked in her, quickly overshadowed by shame and doubt.He’d watched her fight, watched her rage.“We’re both villains in other people’s stories.Me for apparently anyone who wants the goblin throne, and you for whoever it is you’re trying to atone for.”
“Delia Donovan, the witch I almost killed.Her sisters.I can’t atone.I can’t be a hero.But I can’t stop wanting you either.”
“After seeing what I did to Artanya?Didn’t you read fairy tales?Villains don’t get happy endings.”
“You defended yourself.”He clipped the words into weapons, sliding into argument as easily as she slipped skins.“Jura, me.Hell, the entire realm.”
“I almost killed her.Iwantedto kill her.”
“But you didn’t.”
“You’re safe whether or not you keep up our arrangement.I set up accounts and identities for you back in the other realm.In case…”In case I became queen and couldn’t come back with you.In case we could never be together.In case I died like I thought my mother had.
He shook his head.“I found the letter you hid in your pet book.I know how far you went to hold your end of the bargain while we were still in the human realm.But this stopped being a job when you kissed me.Or maybe before then.”
What was that supposed to mean?“You know you don’t have to pretend that we’re a couple.Not anymore.”
“Who’s pretending?”He waved his hand between them.“Whatever the connection is between us, it’s real.”
“It is?”Because she wanted it to be.Damn, did she want that.
“Yes.”He reached for her again, stopping inches away, his powers sparking over his skin.“Every time they try to tear us apart, I lose my mind.When they took you to the dungeons.When you fought Artanya.When you chased after Petra, knowing what she’d done to your uncle.”
“I couldn’t let her get away.”
“I know.”His magic danced across his knuckles, mesmerizing in its lethal grace.“But when they told me they’d sent for a healer and then I saw you slumped against the wall—I’ve never been so scared.I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, couldn’t think my way through it until I saw you were okay.Until I could hold you.”
“I…” She didn’t know what to say.Not when he sounded so raw, so desperate.
“We’re in this together.”He hesitated.“Unless you’ve changed your mind.”
Her breath caught.His words, the naked vulnerability in them, were like a jolt of his magic straight to her heart, buzzing in a tingle that spread from her chest to her fingers and toes.He’d seen her at her worst and he still wanted her.But she had to be sure.“Because of the prophecy about you marrying a royal?”
“Because you’re amazing and strong and brave.Because even though I was a dick to ghost you, you still came back for me twice.I don’t deserve you, but I want to.Any man who would settle for less than forever with you would be a fool.I’ve been many awful things, but never that.”
He’d taken all her locked-up-tight fears and picked open every one, setting up each what-if and knocking it down like the closing argument of a century.Forget about queen, she felt like a friggin’ goddess.“So we’re in this together?”She hid the shake in her voice, the joy and wonder and exquisite happiness that made her want to scream.“For better or worse?For goblin or not?”
“Yeah, we are.”He flashed a take-on-the-world smile that melted her.
She needed to kiss him, to make good on their promises.But the voices of maids discussing cleaning plans invaded their private just-for-two bubble.The thud of heavy boots signaled guards approaching as well.“I don’t guess it’d be regal of me to make out with you in the hall.”
“Fuck the rules.”Perry sounded as if he might shove her against the wall and satisfy both their cravings despite the incoming interruption.
“Mmm, but if I make the rules—”
“Then you can break them.”He brushed his lips against hers, the contrast of firm lips, scratchy stubble, and soft touch sending sparks through her as electrifying as his magic.
