I rolled my eyes. “No wonder everyone here is so difficult to get along with.”
He led me out of our hall and toward the courtyard. “What doyou mean?”
We walked down a new corridor, one marked with a five-petaled forget-me-not. “Koan and Jolter have introduced me to a few people from Bridgetown, and they’ve all been really nice. I’ve enjoyed the time I’ve spent with them. They said that most of the people who live here, in the fortress, are higher nobles, and that’s why they’ve seemed more judgmental.”
“It is possible.”
“Seriously?” I walked faster to keep up with the king’s increasing pace. “Nobles using shoes as a symbol of status just confirms what they were saying.”
“Humans and fae do not use shoes to show their wealth?”
“Well—” A blush ran up the back of my neck. “I wouldn’t actually know. We didn’t interact with humans very often because my parents were sure they’d judge us for their marriage. For myself, I’d go barefoot anytime I didn’t need shoes. There is nothing more glorious than warm soil and sunshine on your toes at the same time.”
We’d cruised through several winding corridors and stopped in front of two double-wide doors. His green eyes lit up as he turned to me. “Perhaps we need another cultural experience.”
I grinned back. “Perhaps.”
“Have someone take you outside sometime when the sun is up, and I will find a place where you can show me this combination of soil and sunshine and bare feet.”
Something light and warm lifted in my chest. I liked spending time with Aedan, and hearing him invite me to do so was exciting in a way I’d never expected.
His hand clenched the door handle in front of us, and he almost bounced with enthusiasm. “I often cometo the library in the mornings to try to find information on fae and how to remove my curse. It occurred to me this morning that you might enjoy it too… because you asked for history books before.”
These were library doors? I reached for them without even thinking. He put a hand up in front of me. “Does that mean you’d like to see the library?”
“Yes,” I huffed at him. “I thought we were in a hurry!”
He almost grinned, and a wild light filled his face like the feral smile from when he asked me to sing to his rose tree. “We are,” he said, “but the idea of a little suspense is suddenly very appealing to me.”
My jaw fell, and I blew out a huff of air. Was the Mighty Elf King teasing? I laughed and pushed my shoulder against his outstretched hand.
“Fine,” he growled, “but… close your eyes.”
“You can’t be serious.”
He slid his body between me and the door, blocking the entrance with a wall of muscle, a fine coat, and a sword on his belt. “Please?”
Please. Not any kind of insistence. How was I supposed to resist the great king’splease? I closed my eyes and lifted a blind hand.
His warm fingers wrapped around it, and then another warm hand landed between my shoulders. “May I?” he whispered.
I nodded, sure my voice would betray the flutters in my heart when he touched me. It didn’t make enough sense. I should hate him. I should hate him for what he did to my family and for the way he’d trapped me in Sirun. But I couldn’t hate anyone who was trying so hard to be better, especially when he alreadyhated himself for what he’d done.
And that effort to improve was attractive.
My thoughts and emotions spun in a wild frenzy as he guided me into the library. It must have been huge because we walked at least twenty steps past the entrance before he let go of my hands and back. He radiated enough power that I felt his presence directly on my side as he whispered, “This is good. I… hope you like it.”
I opened my eyes, prepared to make some joke about his suspense, but the words caught in my throat. My jaw fell, and I didn’t even care. I had never seen anything so grand. The ceiling arced at least a hundred feet above me over a room so huge I couldn’t see the end in front of us. Dozens of walls twenty feet tall protruded from the edges of the room, each lined from top to bottom with shelves of books.
Above those walls, two balconies sprawled the edges of the cavernous rooms with more layers of books. A spiraling staircase connected the three levels, and hundreds of thumb-sized lights floated throughout the entire space, casting a magical glow on thousands and thousands of books. My father would have wept at the sight.
I just stared. I spun a slow circle to try to take it all in, and then stared at the high domed ceiling again. Did those magic lights stay floating all the time, or had the king just put them there for me?
A hesitant voice came from behind my shoulder. “Do you… like it?”
I spun back to look at him. “Do Ilikeit? I’ve never seen anything so—” I huffed a quick chuckle to try to hide the catch in my voice. “It’s… amazing. I don’t even have words. It… it’s just magical.”
He threw a glance at the domed ceiling, which was closer tothe color of the early morning sky before sunrise than I’d first realized. “I added the magic light since it’s still dark. During the day, the ceiling lets in sunlight, and the entire space fills with the energy of the evidence of lifetimes of effort to create it.”
