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“I thought you were in love with Ophelia.” She’d never asked Burke that. She’d never needed to when it was always so obvious. Even now it wasn’t really a question but more of a statement.
“Am I?” He chuckled, picking her hand back up. “We better get back to the dance floor before we are missed.”
Without her heels, the dress covered her feet and she had to lift her chin higher to hold Burke’s steeling gaze.
“Are you not in love with her?”
“Ophelia has never had any feelings for me.”
He was evading the question.
The pressure of his hand against her lower back kept her held close to him. She shook her head, two small curls, that had managed to pull themselves free from her tight updo, clung to his suit jacket. The space between them had all but disappeared and she was so close to being able to lay her head on his shoulder. Would he stop her? She was his queen and he likely wouldn’t dare. Did she want to?
“I didn’t ask if Ophelia loved you.”
“Ambrose.” His tone was suddenly serious. “I would have never left you if I had any other choice.”
“What?” She felt the blood drain from her face.
“It is nothing for you to worry about and it is my job to bear it. But know that leaving you was never what I wanted. I wanted to marry you then and that desire has never faded.”
“Burke. What are you talking about?” Any queenly poise she had held before was quickly slipping away.
He looked away. What couldn’t he tell her?
“You are my weakness, Ambrose.” He barely spoke above a hush. “Weaknesses get exploited.”
She could hear her heart thumping inside of her ears. The music, the guests, all of it fell away as she stared up at the man who could not return her gaze. Just when she felt like she was getting her feet under her, when she’d found Ephram and learned to trust and love again, when she’d grown used to the powers and the voices and all things utterly new… here Burke was making it feel as if she was standing on shifting sand.
The song came to an end. Burke didn’t drop her hands. He didn’t bow to walk away. He stood there, waiting for the music to pick back up. He’d left her before but it didn’t appear as if he was leaving now. Until someone tapped him on the shoulder.
Ephram stepped around him. “Might I cut in?”
“My queen?” Burke asked tentatively.
“I—” Ambrose stared at her past and her future. She had to pick one and though there should have been an obvious choice she struggled with the decision for longer than she felt she should have. “Thank you for the dance, Burke.”
He bowed respectfully, stepping wide to allow Ephram to sweep in. The Fae took no time ushering her into the next dance. This song was slower, the movements more intimate.
“You looked flustered,” Ephram said.
“What did you hear?” She was still staring past him, watching as Burke walked away, snatched a glass of sparkling liquor from the tray, and tipped it till it all drained away.
“I heard him professing his undying love to you if that’s what you mean.”
Lies. Lies. Lies.
The voices chanted in her mind.
Boys,it hissed dragging the ‘S’ out like a snake.Boys lie.
Yet, Ambrose knew there was no lie here. Ephram’s Fae hearing allowed him to pick up on conversations from across the room with ease. And hadn’t Burke done just that? Hadn’t he expressed his love for her?
“I don’t understand,” she said vaguely to both the voices and Ephram.
“What is so confusing about loving you? I find it as easy as breathing and just as necessary.”
When you’d spent so long thinking the man you’d loved had only pretended to care it was easy to believe that you were unlovable. Ophelia had made sure to rub that in too. Ambrose was never enough.
