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“Please,” Faenir said, reaching up but hesitating before he touched me. “I should not have said anything to work you up. You have been through a great deal, I only wish for you to relax now.”
I was not giving up the conversation that easily. “Stop placing your guilt upon Myrinn. It is not her presence that threatens my life.” I regretted the words the moment they left my mouth. Faenir’s handsome face screwed into one of agony. If my words were a knife, it would have cut deep.
“I am sorry…” I began as Faenir turned back away and peered beyond the window.
“But you are right. Nothing you said is incorrect. I am to blame, I know that.”
I was, but my deliverance did not need to be so careless. “All Myrinn wants is for the people of your realm to see you as more than what you have been painted out to be. There was no malice behind what she has done.”
“And she told you this?” he muttered.
“Myrinn petitions for you to become King. She thinks you are the only one powerful enough to prevent the death of Evelina and I think she is right.”
“So, she is setting me up and going against my own wishes?”
I reached out and gripped his hand, which was balled into a fist beside him. As soon as I touched him, Faenir released a breath and his hand relaxed. “Beside the fact that you have been told your entire life that you are not to be King, why are you so adamant about not making your own decision on the matter? Tell me, Faenir, help me understand why you do not want such a thing.”
“How can I rule a world in which I cannot touch? A King or Queen should inspire love in their subjects. I embody the very opposite of what love is.”
“You do not need to physically touch a heart to make an impact on it. Love is not physical; I only wish you would recognise that.”
“Love.” Faenir practically shuddered as he spoke the word. It seemed to hurt him. “I am a killer. My own parents brought me into this world as a product of their love and yet I killed them. Everything I touch is destroyed. If the crown falls upon me, then I will destroy it as I have with everything else.”
Something white flew past the window so fast that I hardly registered what it was.
“Yet here we are, my hand upon yours, and you have not destroyed me. In fact, I would say you have had the opposite effect. There is love in you, Faenir. You just need to trust it.”
Another blur of white beyond the window. This time it thudded against the glass and distracted us both.
“What…?”
I leaned over Faenir, hands propped against his thigh as I peered outside. The carriage moved with such speed that it was hard to focus on anything. Again, another thud occurred as something unmistakably white fell beneath the wheels of the carriage and out of view.
“Slow down!” Faenir commanded, slamming a palm to the wall that separated us from the coachman. He did not need to ask again. We both jolted as the carriage slowed suddenly.
As the world calmed beyond the window, it was clear what was waiting. Lining the streets were elves of all kinds, children, adults, huddled together so close that they formed a wall between the city and us.In their hands were bundles of beautiful white flowers; long, pointed petals so white I first believed them to be carrying handfuls of snow. They threw them as we passed, letting the flowers rain down upon the carriage. They littered the road, crushed beneath the wheels as we rode over them.
“Why are they doing that?” I asked, breath fogging on the glass.
Faenir replied as gentle a whisper, “Lilies. In Evelina, the flowers represent forgiveness. It is a message.”
“They ask for our forgiveness?”
“No,” Faenir replied sharply. I turned to look at him, noticing the lines of his profile and the returning spark in his golden eyes as he studied the faces of every elf we passed. “They are asking for your forgiveness. For what has happened to you.”
A shiver coursed up my arms as I added, “To us.”
“No,” Faenir said. “They owe me nothing.”
“This is what Myrinn wished,” I said, pleading for Faenir to see what I now saw. “For the people of this world to sympathise with you. Can’t you see? Look at them, Faenir. Truly look at them and recognise the truth in their faces.”
“I do not require their sympathy.”
“No, you don’t.” I couldn’t hide my smile as I looked back beyond the window and watched as the sky rained with lilies. “But you require their support if we are ever going to see you take what is rightfully yours.”
The crown.
“We?” Faenir’s eyes tickled across my face. His lips were so close to my cheek that I felt his warm breath.
