by May Dawson
Alisa winked at me across the table. I stared back at her, stony-faced. What the hell kind of game was she playing? She clearly wanted me to be in her debt.
I followed her out of the cafeteria, but she was surrounded by other first years, and I didn’t get the chance to talk to her.
That afternoon, after combat training when we were all trekking back to the campus after a brutal series of matches in the woods, when we were all bone-cold and bloodied, she suddenly materialized at my side.
“I assume you want to talk to me from the way you’ve been following me and glowering meaningfully?” She asked lightly.
I scoffed. “I haven’t been following you.”
Her brows arched, her lips tilting at the corners. There was something so distinctly feminine in her mischievous nature, I wondered how no one else saw it.
I glanced around at the dark figures trudging down the snowy hill toward campus. No one else was lingering.
Then I grabbed her arm and pulled her back toward the forest. She glanced down at my fingers circling her bicep and said lightly, “You know, you could just invite me to join you. I came to talk to you.”
I scoffed at that but released her. We’d just entered a copse of trees, where the air was scented by the evergreens soaring up toward the sky around us. Thick, heavy flakes of snow drifted lazily down from the sky.
“Who are you, really?” I demanded.
Her face barely changed, except for her smile widening. “I didn’t peg you for a philosopher, Duncan. Who are any of us, really?”
“I know you’re not Faer,” I said, determined to break through that damned shiny bubble of hers. “What’s the summer princess doing at the academy?”
She just stared at me. “I think you’ve lost your mind.”
I huffed a laugh. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to ruin your fun. If you want to be at this miserable school, more power to you.”
“But you wanted me to know that you know.” Her brows arched above those silver eyes. “You want me to be grateful.”
“Please,” I growled. “As if you don’t want me to be grateful—for your little rescue earlier.”
“I didn’t rescue you,” she said.
I turned and started to head out of the circle of trees, my feet cracking through the fresh snow.
“Fine,” she said from behind me. “Maybe I did see a chance to help you. To make a friend. How dreadful of me, I know.”
I stopped. “Why would you want to be my friend? What’s in it for you?”
“You autumn court types have problems.” She caught up to me, her head below my shoulder. “We all need friends, Duncan. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but life is fucking dreadful.”
I snorted.
“You want to know who I really am?” she asked, shoving her hands into her pockets. “I’m a princess who wishes I could disappear—into knighthood, into another world, I don’t care. Anything but this.”
“Tough life, Princess.”
“Yeah, I know. Your life must be so tough too, right, Prince?” She raised her brows at me meaningfully. “After all, we’re gifted with magic and power, with wealth and beauty—”
I shook my head, but she was undeterred. “Oh, you know it. You and I are pretty people, despite your best intentions to ruin that face with a perpetual frown.”
Then she went on, “So there’s nothing wrong in our lives. Can’t be.”
I just stared at her.
“So who are you?” she asked, her tone still easy. “Are you just the grouch who lives to fight and hurt people?”
“Stupid question,” I said, then headed toward the academy.
“Just because you’re afraid to answer it doesn’t make it a stupid question,” she called after me.
I faced her. “You know I can ruin whatever the hell you’re up to. Why would you antagonize me?”
“Because I’ve decided we’re friends,” she said, “and so I’ve decided we can trust each other.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“Yes,” she admitted. “But you’ll learn to love it.”
Side-by-side, we headed back toward the academy. Whether I’d wanted to walk next to her anyway, we were going in the same direction.
And there was no escaping the summer princess.
Chapter Seven
Alisa
Present Day
When Azrael and Tiron returned to our room, we headed downstairs to the pub to eat.
“Let’s enjoy four walls and a hot meal while we can,” Azrael reminded us. “Once we cross into spring territory tomorrow, we need to keep to ourselves. Alisa’s family has enemies.”
I barely had time to register that bit of news, because Tiron bumped my shoulder with his. “Brace yourself. You’re a hero now.”
Tiron’s eyes sparkled at me. Duncan added, “One village at a time, and you can wrestle the crown from your brother in two hundred years, easy.”
When we walked into the pub, it was full of people. They cheered as they knelt, and even though there was a table for us—laiden with food, surrounded by four empty chairs—it took me a long time to work my way there. Everyone wanted to meet me and talk to me.
I wanted to talk to them too—this was the first time I’d really gotten to know normal Fae. Unlike in the city, where high and low Fae seemed to stay far separated, here they intermingled, living as one community. Jori attached herself to me; she told everyone about how she’d discovered me, and I laughed.
“You should stay inside for nightfall and leave in the morning,” a Fae woman nursing an older baby told me. Both of them watched me with bright amber eyes, although it took a bit of effort on the tot’s part, since he seemed determined to keep the nipple in her mouth. It looked painful to me. “It’s dangerous at night, all the monsters.”
“There are more?” I asked.
“No, Alisa,” Duncan called, without even turning around.
I pulled a face, and she smiled.
“You’ll do good things for our people,” she said warmly. “There’s no rush to do them all tonight.”
I felt the heat of Azrael’s presence behind me, even before he rested his hand on my shoulder. His warm, sexy voice felt like a rumble through my body when he said, “Thank you. I think we will take your community up on your hospitality tonight—we could all use some rest before we get on our way.”
“Now if you don’t mind,” he added, “I’m going to steal our queen away so she’ll stop and eat some dinner.”
I gave him a funny look as we headed back to the table, but I didn’t press him on how he’d called me our queen. Later, but not here.
A band took to the stage—just a husband and wife with fiddles and gorgeous voices who seemed determined to outdo each other—and people began to dance on the dance floor. Some of the children were still up, and their parents whirled them around on the floor. I smiled, watching them all as I ate the stew, bread, cheese and apples they’d prepared for us.
“You were hungry,” Tiron said as I mopped the last of the stew up with my bread.
“It’s the nicest meal I’ve had in awhile.” I hadn’t realized how much I hated eating alone in my room until now.
“The food in the castle isn’t good enough for you?” Duncan asked.
“No, it’s not.” I pushed the plate away and met his eyes evenly. “I’ve been lonely.”
The words hung between us, but I wouldn’t take them back. Duncan averted his eyes, staring down at the table between us.
“I’m sorry,” Azrael said suddenly. “I should’ve…” He shook his head. “I handled this all badly.”
“To be fair,” Tiron said, “You never kidnapped your ex-girlfriend from the mortal world before, then reckoned with a twisted past only you remember. That’s got to have a learning curve.”
Azrael just stared at him, his brows rising above those gorgeous purple eyes. I laughed out loud; I couldn’t help it. Tiron was irrepressible.
“Let’s drink,” Tir
on said, raising a glass.
“Yes,” Duncan said with emphasis, taking his own.
“To second chances,” Tiron said. “And finding ways to be…less lonely.”
He glanced around at all of us, and I realized every one of these males I cared for—despite all the challenges—had their own aches and losses that altered them.
For worse, yes. But for better, too.
Maybe the loss of my memories had changed me in good ways, as much as I longed to know my past.
“To second chances,” I said, and we all clinked our glasses. Every one of us drained the drinks.
“Now,” Tiron said, pushing back his chair. “I’m always kept away from parties at the castle because, I don’t know, Faer hates my face. Which is ridiculous.”
He cupped his cheeks lightly, beaming a big grin at us as if to prove how cute his face was. Which, given his sharp cheekbones and gorgeous gold-flecked green eyes, was certainly true.
“So now I’d like my chance to dance with our queen.” Tiron held out his hand.
I didn’t hesitate. I slipped my hand into his, no matter how tired I was, and let him pull me to my feet. As the two of us joined the crowd dancing, a cheer went up. It was strange to let the music sweep me away, surrounded by smiling people who seemed to genuinely like me. They seemed to truly believe I was the hero they needed.
We danced in circles together until I was laughing and exhausted. The little ones had left the pub, and the lights had dimmed.
The music switched to a slower song, and I rested my head on Tiron’s shoulder as he held me close. I could feel his chest muscles shifting against my cheek through the crisp material of his shirt.
“Why are you guys calling me our queen now?” I asked.
“Now that we’re out of Faer’s clutches?” he said softly. “Because that’s what these people need, Alisa. They need for you to be our queen.”
I hesitated. “I don’t know how to be a queen.”
Just like Duncan feared, I was afraid that I wouldn’t be worthy once I had my memories back. But I dared not speak that out loud. It couldn’t be true—I had to still be myself, even once I reclaimed my wayward past.
“Yes, you do,” he said, his voice warm. “I saw the queen of summer today: raising her wings to bait a monster, diving into the dirt to save a child. You never even hesitated. You’re already their queen, Alisa. It’s just going to take time for everyone else to wake up to that reality.”
His eyes were so bright and confident that I felt both a warm glow in my chest, and a sudden rush of fear that I would fail them all, and him in particular.
“But you’re already awake,” I said, my voice teasing.
“From the first time I saw you.”
He was still holding me close, and I breathed in his crisp scent, all clean snow and pine. His lips were lush, a rounded, almost pouty lower lip softening the chiseled line of his jaw. My gaze flickered from those lips up to his emerald green eyes.
I knew that if he didn’t kiss me, I was going to kiss him. And then his lips brushed mine, the two of us stopping in the midst of the party. He kissed me with a curious glint in his eye, as if he weren’t sure what I’d do. I ran my hands up his chest to his shoulders, looping one hand around the back of his neck as his lips parted against mine. Our tongues teased together, and his hand dropped to my hip, holding me still—as if I’d ever walk away from him.
“Music stopped,” Duncan called over the crowd, but the laughter that echoed around the bar seemed friendly.
Tiron and I stepped apart, but he didn’t hide his grin as the two of us steered back to the table.
“I don’t know why any of us fight when we all want the same thing,” Tiron said lightly. He lifted his glass, which had been refilled. “To a peaceful and happy land—for all four courts.”
“Are you trying to get us drunk?” Duncan regarded Tiron skeptically even as he hefted his own glass.
“I’m trying to improve your disposition.” Tiron returned.
“So yes,” Duncan said. He leaned back in his chair, tilting it on its back legs, and called, “I know the musicians need their break, but while they’re resting, I thought I should mention… my brother is actually an incredible fiddle player.”
Azrael stared at him for a long second. Over the laughter of the crowd, he demanded, “What did I ever do to you? How am I getting dragged into your spat with Tiron?”
But he sounded good humored even though he complained. At the crowd’s shouts and urgings, he went up to the stage and accepted the fiddle. He tucked it under his chin, and then he began to play a fast, bouncing reel that had people dancing.
The music made my heart lift. He was so good at playing, but most of all, he was so handsome when his face was intent on the music, his eyes alight and his body swaying in time with the fiddle. I’d never seen that side of him, and it reminded me that I barely knew him. But I liked what I’d found so far.
Slowly, I became aware of Duncan watching me, as I watched Azrael. When I turned to face him, Duncan stood from the table. He towered over me, and I looked up at him, surprised by the sudden movement. I thought he was going to ask me to dance, like Tiron had.
Instead, stony-faced, he stormed out of the pub and headed for the stairs at the back that led up to the inn.
We’d all been having so much fun, but I was suddenly pissed off. Duncan had to ruin everything, didn’t he?
“I’ll be right back,” I told Tiron.
“Don’t do it,” he warned me.
I flashed him a bright smile, pretending I didn’t understand what he meant.
I headed up the stairs. Duncan was about to let himself into our room, and he turned to me with a startled face when he saw me. He quickly rearranged his features into grouchy.
“Why’d you leave?” I challenged him.
“Tired,” he said shortly. “We’ve got a dangerous journey tomorrow. Maybe I don’t want to be hungover for it.”
“We were having fun,” I said. “All of us together, actually… enjoying each other’s company.” I could tell he was about to scoff at me and I shook my finger at him before he could. “Don’t you dare tell me you weren’t. I swear, Duncan, you’ve spent so long being mean you don’t know how to be anything else. And we can all see through your attitude. And does that act even really protect you?”
He stared at me. “You’re monologuing again. But I think this time, you’re drunk.”
“You should just—”
“I shouldn’t just anything,” he said abruptly, leaning his big body against mine, pinning me to the wall. I could’ve ducked under his arm, but I wouldn’t run away from an argument with him. I stared back at him, heat blazing between the two of us.
“I know very well how much I can enjoy your company,” he said, and the fire in his eyes brought a flush to my skin. I couldn’t tell if I was mad or aroused. Maybe both. Duncan tended to make me feel both. “But I’ll tell you the truth, Alisa. I’m not getting invested until I see who you are with your memories restored.”
The words felt like a punch in the stomach, even if part of me understood where he was coming from.
“Maybe that would make sense,” I said hotly. “Except you already are invested.”
“Oh?” His brows arched over those cold blue eyes. “How so?”
I closed the distance between us and brushed my lips against his. For a second, he resisted, his lips cold and unyielding.
Then he broke, kissing me back furiously. The two of us traded hungry wanton kisses, his hands skimming the curves of my body. I pressed myself against his chest, wanting more and more of him. I didn’t want to just kiss him, I wanted to push through that shell of his and actually have Duncan. Because I was pretty sure the cold, sarcastic man I knew wasn’t all he was.
Azrael’s voice rang out in the stairwell. He laughed at something someone said at the base of the stairs before his feet started lightly up the treads.
Duncan shoved off the wall, away f
rom me. He gulped in a breath as if he’d been drowning. Those deep blue eyes sparked with fury as they bore into mine, as if I’d bewitched him somehow, but he only had a second to glare at me before Azrael turned the corner.
Azrael came to a stop and stared at the two of us, his expression reflective as he tilted his head to one side; then Duncan headed for the door to our room. He clearly wasn’t even going to acknowledge anything had just happened.
Maybe he was a little drunk himself, but Azrael leaned one shoulder against the wall, shoving his hands in his pockets, and said, “Maybe he’ll tell you the story.”
“What story?” I asked.
“Duncan’s always loved you,” he said. “But even I can’t get the story out of him. What happened, how you broke him. And you don’t remember.”
I faced Duncan, who had his hand on the doorknob to our room and a look on his face that was more terrified than when he faced any monster.
“Well?” I asked. “Is it story time?”
Duncan glared between the two of us, then said, “I’m going for a walk. Going to check the village security.”
“So many words to say I’m running away.” I said lightly, even though my heart was beating faster.
Duncan leveled me with a look. “Believe me, Princess, I doubt you want to hear it.” Then he pushed past Azrael before jogging down the stairs.
“Well, there’s no more dignified way to put it!” I called after him. “You are running away!”
Azrael rested his palm lightly over my mouth, cutting off whatever else I was going to call after Duncan. “You are especially feisty tonight.”
“I think we’re all a little extra, thanks to Tiron,” I said.
He was smiling at me. His body was so close, even now that he’d taken his palm from my lips, and I breathed in that warm, spicy scent that made me think of lying in front of a cozy fireplace.
He ran his thumb over my lower lip. “You are very scary. I can see why Duncan had to run away.”
“Oh?” I asked, brows arching. He leaned forward, and my back arched, my face tilting up toward him. His lips met mine in a soft caress. He tasted like wine and chocolate.