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Was he going to give it to me?
“About what happened in the forest,” Kierden said, slipping his hands in the pockets of his shorts.
Oh.
This wasn’t about the room at all.
“When you grabbed my hair?” I frowned.
“Yes. I don’t apologize often, but…” He let out a long breath.
Was he actually going to apologize?
He hadn’t even hurt me.
“It wasn’t my intention to cause pain. Iamsorry.” His words seemed genuine, though unnecessary. And I believed him when he said he didn’t apologize often, so I wasn’t going to tell him not to.
“You didn’t really hurt me, but thanks for apologizing.”
Relief crossed his face, and he changed the subject abruptly. I figured he was glad to be done talking about it. “I plan to spend all day at the event. You’re coming, to avoid the pain of our separation.”
Guess he was back to giving me orders. I didn’t mind it as much as I had the day before, for some reason. “Alright. Does everyone always fight naked?”
He scowled. “At the events, yes.”
I flashed him a smile. “Then it’s my lucky day.”
His scowl deepened.
I hoped he was remembering the way I’d touched him the night before, because I was.
He opened the door for me, still looking unhappy about my question.
My lips curved upward at his discomfort, though. At least I could bother him as much as he bothered me.
We headed out shortly after that, taking a walking path through the city so our bonded esu could continue catching up on sleep. There were fae with their companion animals everywhere, and a lot of their eyes lit up when they saw me and Kierden. Many of them were picking fruit, and some even had flowers tucked behind their ears. I wasn’t sure which of us they were smiling at, but considering the silent, respectful nods they gave him, I assumed it was me.
Walking through the trees and over bridge after bridge connecting them was fascinating. I looked at everything, unable to decide what to focus on. It really was an entirely different world than the one I’d grown up in.
“My farmers have already asked that you be assigned to their fields in the hours since you’ve been here,” Kierden told me, after we’d walked for a while in silence. It wasn’t a short distance, but I appreciated the chance to get out and move.
“Really? That would be perfect.” I smiled, waving back at a fae woman who waved at me.
Kierden said into my mind.“It would not be perfect. If you focus your magic on our fields, you’ll drain us both faster.”
“I have no control over my magic. Focusing it doesn’t do anything, remember? It drains consistently into whatever is around me, so if I lived on a field, I could grow food. Then your people wouldn’t want me to leave.”
His scowl deepened.“You could learn control.”
“How? I had nothing but time to learn it in my town. My magic flooded out of me in just a few hours, leaving me exhausted constantly. If I couldn’t figure it out then, how would I figure it out now?”
There was a long pause.
The king finally heaved a great big sigh and said,“I’ll try to teach you.”
“We’d just end up arguing. And besides, I don’t think your magic works the same way mine does. It feels really different.”
“Perhaps if you learn how to stop draining my magic, we’ll get along better.”
