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“And yet you still do not smile,” I retorted, finding his powerful gaze almost too hard to keep.
“Is that what you wish of me?” Faenir’s lips hardly twitched, but his golden eyes seemed to glow as though smiling from within.
“I wish nothing of you,” I replied, finding my tongue thickening in my mouth. “However, if you want us to truly leave an impression in spite of your grandmother then perhaps you can convince those watching us that you are actually enjoying yourself.”
“Oh, Arlo,” Faenir murmured. “Let it be known that I amthoroughlyenjoying myself.”
We were so close now that I felt his warmth spill from him. My chest was inches from his torso. I gripped onto the material of his jacket as his own fingers tapped across my back as though he stroked the ivory keys of a piano.
The music changed the longer we spun amongst the room. The melody slowed then quickened in pace as the sounds began to tell another story.
“Have you danced with many men before?” His question came out of nowhere and had me faltering over the wrong step. Faenir caught me though. His arms wrapped tighter around my waist and kept me pinned to him.
“Not that it matters.” I caught Myrinn smiling out the corner of my eye, whispering something to Gale who, in turn, returned her mischievous grin. “No. At least not dancing in the same sense as this.”
Faenir’s jaw tightened as strands of raven hair blew across his face to obscure the flash of an expression. It did not hide it well.Jealousy. It was the reaction I wanted, to toy with him as I would food on a plate.
“I think it is time to leave.” He came to an abrupt stop. The crowd audibly reacted to his suddenness.
“Going so soon?” Haldor swept across to us, detaching from the striking Samantha and breaking us apart from his powerful presence. “Faenir, not that you would know, but it is custom for partners to swap during a dance.” He then looked to me, hands held out and asked, “May I?”
“Do not—” Faenir began but I cut him off.
“I would love to.”
Haldor smiled from ear to ear. “Samantha, dearest, wait for me. It is best my cousin keeps his hands off you. For your sake…” With that Haldor took me into his arms and pulled me away. The crowd took this as their moment to swell onto the dance floor and I lost Faenir to them.
I felt the burning warmth of his eyes bore into me even when I could not see him.
“He will not like this,” I muttered, looking up through my lashes at Haldor. Whereas Faenir did not take his eyes off me, Haldor seemed more interested in the reactions around us.
“Faenir is not one for liking anything,” he replied finally, rough hands holding me close to him. His warmth was not as welcoming as I would have imagined. It boiled and crackled, as though a fire filled his veins instead of blood. “But if you are to help him claim the crown from Claria’s clawed grasp, then I feel I should do my best to get to know you.”
“I get the impression that you all do not like the Queen… which is strange since you are family.”
“Family does not constitute love as I am sure you have been led to believe. You cannot choose your family; love is earned not granted just because of shared blood.”
My skin crawled at his comment. Auriol had not earned my love, and yet she owned it.
“I imagine you share the same wish that Faenir does not take the crown. Would this not ruin your opportunity to become King?”
Haldor laughed at that. The space beneath his hand grew hotter and I was certain my clothes could combust. “Myrinn is the eldest and thus the next in line.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
Haldor closed in, his face lowering to mine, and I was certain I felt the ground tremble beneath a far-off growl. “Faenir is many things, and a King is not one of them. Evelina is a place of life. If he succeeds, then he will ruin this realm and everything it stands for.”
I tried to pull away but couldn’t. My heart picked up in my chest, the music also reached a painful crescendo that vibrated through my bones and skin.
“Is this the part where you warn me?” I scowled at him. “Because anything you are going to say has likely been covered by your most welcoming grandmother.”
“I am not going to threaten you,” Haldor replied, voice no more than a whisper beneath the music. “Even I know that would be a mistake.”
“Then what do you want from me?”
Haldor’s hands relaxed. His expression shifted from his narrowed gaze to a softening smile that smoothed out every inch of his handsome face. “The same thing we all want from your kind. A chance.”
I could not ask what he meant by that as I slipped from his weakening embrace, and he melted into the crowd.He left me alone. Bodies of strangers pressed in around me. Turning frantically, I searched for a way out, for a face that I recognised.
