“You squint through it with one eye.”
She has to bend slightly to get to the eyepiece. I’m instantly assaulted with a depraved fantasy of throwing her skirt up and fucking her like this. The cockstand I’d quelled earlier returns with raging force. I squeeze my eyes shut against the wave of need.
I want her in my bed, yes. But that’s not all I want from her. I want to peel back her secrets, layer by layer. I doubt I would have become so obsessed with her had we been formally introduced at a dance. Her contradictions are as compelling as her beauty and warmth.
“What am I looking at?” Her bewilderment is plain.
“There should be a cloud formation. If you watch it long enough, you’ll see lightning pop within it and the outline of a castle. I believe I have found the fae gods’ retreat.”
Elsie’s soft gasp tells me she found it.
“Incredible,” she breathes. “How did you find it?”
“By poring over old texts until I nearly went blind and spending sleepless nights searching the night sky.”
“That must have taken you years.”
A little less than one, if I were being honest with her. Truth isn’t the point tonight. Elsie stands up and rests one gloved hand on the telescope.
“It was worth the effort.” I hold her eye until a blush steals across her cheeks and she glances away. I gently cup her face and bring her gaze back to mine. “Chasing down the brightest star in the sky. Knowing its importance to the realm.”
“You shouldn’t keep that knowledge to yourself.” She peers up at me. “Magic is fading from the land.”
“We once hunted the fae for their magic. Why would they want to return?” I used to travel with Killian to the outer reaches of the realm in search of the last monsters in Belterre. To kill them.
“Belterre was their land first. The Blessed Realm. Don’t you think it’s wrong that we drove them out of it?” says Elsie.
I sidestep her question. My forebears were the ones who drove the fae away, and Isanthian prophecy says they will one day return to reclaim what was theirs. Their return could mean the end of my family’s rule. Isanthia would fall.
Wrong or not, I won’t be revealing that I have found the fae’s retreat. They can stay there forever, as far as I am concerned.
“Your glamour is unusually potent, Elsie. Where did you get it?”
She blanches. “I’ve never used magic before. Only this once.”
“Half the women here are drunk on the stuff.” The cheaper the glamour, the more intoxicating the effect.
“You won’t have me arrested for partaking?” Elsie asks worriedly.
“It’s only one evening.” She doesn’t seem intoxicated at all. The magic floats on her, a shimmery gloss on an already beautiful woman. “Don’t make a habit of it. That’s all.”
“I won’t. I’ll never use it again.”
Her sweet laughter floats to my ears. She presses her gloved palms against the stone wall and looks out at the sweeping vista. I can’t help but think how perfect she’ll appear when standing beside me on the balcony to announce our wedding. Her hair will be up like it is now, her dress fluttering in a light breeze, the sun shining on her smiling face. I’ll be the one to place a crown on her fiery tresses.
At night, her hair will fall down around her shoulders like living fire. Only I will ever have the right to see her undone, and I intend to guard it jealously.
I move to stand beside her. To my immense gratification, Elsie doesn’t shift away when I place my arm around her waist. We stare out at the kingdom we shall rule together in comfortable silence.
A woman who doesn’t need to fill the silence with idle chatter is a rarity, in my experience. I like that she doesn’t fawn over me. Then I remember that she doesn’t know I’m the prince.
Why would she fawn over me?
A gust of wind snatches at the jacket draped around her shoulders. Elsie clutches the lapels as it flutters around her body.
“Shall we go back down?”
“Please.” She gathers her skirt to descend the steep stairway. Moonlight glints off shimmering silver shoes. I want her to lift it higher. Expose her legs all the way up to her thighs.
