“Are you alright?”
“Er… yes. What was your question again?”
He arched a brow. “I asked if you fit in back home.”
Well that was a nosy question. I felt a flush crawling up my neck. “Uh… no. Not really. I suppose you’re right. It doesn’t take showing up in a different world to feel like an outsider.”
“Do you get along with your family?” he asked, still studying me.
I treaded cautiously. Why did he even feel the need to converse with me? “I do. My mother died a decade ago. I live with my aunt. She’s the only real family I have.”
Lived. Past tense, because this was my home now… indefinitely. Until the Queen tired of me and drained me like a glass of wine.
“I’m sorry to hear that. The death of a parent… there’s a void that never leaves you.”
“Galen mentioned you lost your father… I’m sorry for your loss.”
It took him a moment to respond. He focused on his drink as he swirled it. “Yes… he died twenty years ago. He wasn’t perfect, but a much more competent ruler thanher.”
I choked on my wine. To say such a thing about his own mother, while she sat so close. His boldness made me smile. I covered my mouth with my napkin, stifling a laugh.
He had an expression on his face that I couldn’t decipher, but it felt as if he was staring straight into my soul, rather than my eyes. And I didn’t like it.
“How old are you and your brothers, if you don’t mind me asking?” If he could be nosy, so could I.
“Galen is the oldest—he’s one-hundred and fifty years old. I’m one-hundred and five. Louis is the youngest, he’s only thirty-three. And you?”
I tried to mask my surprise. Both him and Galen had already lived longer lives than any human could hope to. “I’m twenty-one. You have a few years on me. It’s strange—that you all look roughly the same age. When do you stop aging?”
“We seem to settle into our physical form around twenty-five. We ageveryslowly after that—you see that Arnold has greying hair…” He nodded his head towards the old man. “Fae can live over one-thousand years. He’s considered middle-aged. He’s only had one child in the last two-hundred years. We reproduce rarely, especially now.”
“What must it feel like—to have so much life ahead of you? How would one fill their time?” I pondered out loud.
“Most faeries have a deep love for nature, art… reading. One would assume that wisdom would grow with age, but unfortunately that’s not what I’ve found to be true. Many elders seem to insist on staying ignorant—stuck in another time. The same faeries that claim we’re more evolved than humans, are the ones that prove that we’re not. And of course it’s always the small-minded thinkers that worm their way into power. The castle is full of them.” He curled his lip, not hiding his disgust.
“You speak so highly of your family.”
He gave a tight smile. “We can’t choose our family. But I hope I can create my own someday. It’s a nice thought, at least. Currently, I’m very far from that goal. And glad to be.”
“Who knows, you could be a father already—with the way you boast of visiting brothels.” I covered my mouth in shock.
Had I said that out loud?
His eyes darkened. “So you think you have me figured out, do you? I wonder how my brother—you know, the one you kissed yesterday—would feel about your interest in my sex life.”
Rendered speechless, I turned away from him. And then I had nothing to do besides watch Isla flirt with Galen. Everything he said brought forth another giggle from her perfect mouth.
What could possibly be so funny?
Out of boredom, I decided to delicately breech another subject with Rafael as the third course came. “If humans aren’t allowed in the castle, where does the royal family get their blood? Do you keep them with the livestock?”
I was pushing the limits of table conversation, but felt compelled to provoke him in the same reckless way a child might poke a sleeping cat.
“Brothels are one option,” he said with a rogue smile.
“Brothels? The women working at brothels arehumans?”I hissed in outrage.
“And Fae males and females. But yes, of course. What’s better than blood and magic?Sex, blood, and magic.” He said it sardonically,tryingto get under my skin. My curiosity played right into his hand.
