AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It was no ruse. I thought kissing could cure me. It turns out kissing isn’t enough.” He grins crookedly. “But regardless, I wanted to kiss you from the first moment I saw you.”
“You could have asked.”
“Would you have let me?”
I don’t know what to reply. The answer may beno. But I remember how I’d felt when I’d first seen him. His beauty had been a knife to the heart, his words cutting me and at the same time healing me. He’d looked so handsome and powerful and strange as he’d come out of the water, as I’d realized what he is, and still I fell for him, right then and there, and…
“… something for you,” he’s saying, smiling at me.
“What?”
“I said I have something for you.”
I frown. It’s as if I’ve been inside this picture before but the man speaking those words was Iason. “What do you mean?”
“A gift.” He reaches under his braid—how many things does he keep there? Next thing I know he’ll be taking out a picnic basket and a blanket—and lifts something shiny dangling from a fine chain. “For you.”
“What is this?”
He lets it pool in the palm of my hand—a bracelet with the hanging charm of a merman on it. “Fitting, isn’t it?”
“How… where did you get this?”
“You won’t believe the things that people throw into the lake. I found a sword once. Very old. It was stuck inside a stone.”
“A stone?”
“Yes. I left it there. Figured whoever left it there might come looking for it someday. But it seems people throw jewelry into the water for good luck, and sinceIam the current deity of the lake… I can do what I want with it. I mean, chances are they made this charm in my image.” He winks. “And now I’m giving it to you.”
“Adar…” I laugh. “You can’t do that.”
“Why not? Your people loot ancient tombs and offer you the jewels they find in them. Your prince is about to give you the ring his grandmother and her grandmother wore. I don’t have…” His voice cracks a little. “I don’t have my grandmother’s ring to give you, I have nothing of my own, but… I found this. It belongs to nobody, not anymore. It belongs to me. And I want you to have it. As a token.”
“Of your affections?” I whisper.
His face twists. “Of… appreciation. Of thanks.”
“Oh.”
“Damn.” He rubs at his brow. “I shouldn’t be doing this. Why am I doing this?”
“Doing what? Being nice to me? Giving me gifts?”
He shoots me a half-smile. “Letting my guard down.”
“I hadn’t noticed you letting any guard down.” I grin at him. “I mean, that would imply talking about yourself, right?”
“Would it?” He licks his lips. His scent is that of wet rocks and earth, salt and musk. It makes my mouth water. I want to lick his skin, see if it tastes the way he smells. I want to kiss him again. “What do you want to know?”
“Who you are? For a start.”
“Fair enough. Like I told you before, I am Adaren Cassad Azer of the Opal Tails, King of the Opal Court. Or, I used to be. My younger brother Gadal is King now.”
“What happened?”
“He craved power. Wanted the throne for himself. To obtain it, he made a deal with the Empress, an evil creature who is trying to take over the world of Faerie. The deal was that she’d take me out, curse me, and leave him as successor to sit on the throne.”
“But that’s monstrous!” I pull his hand to press it between both mine. “He’s your brother. Doesn’t he love you?”
