I free a trapped breath I wasn't aware I was holding. Never in a hundred centuries would I have thought I'd be in this position, where I'm chatting with Kingsley, laughing and joking, while heading to have dinner with the fey king and queen … and Rhyland.
How is this my life now? How do I just forgive them so easily after everything that's occurred between us?
Well, if you can get the Eternal Readers to speak to Fate for you, you may not have to-
The door opens back up, giving me not much of an opportunity to analyze my plan.
"Hey." Rhyland slips into the hallway and closes the door, greeting me with a small smile. A small smile that throws me off, like everything else that's happened this evening.
I wonder how long it will take me to get used to this new life, to get used to him being nice to me. And Kingsley, too. And how much of their niceness comes from the fact that I'm queen. Would they have ever been nice to me if Fate hadn't given me a crown of stars on my head?
"Hey," I reply, remaining informal, despite our overdressed status. And we're both overdressed to match.
Like me, Rhyland is decked out in all black, from his boots, to his jeans, to the button-down shirt and vest. A studded belt loops his waist, and leather bands embellished with coiling steel decorate his wrists. He also has on a red tie that matches my choker, along with a crown of bleeding stars and metallic vines.
The only main difference is his crown is perched on his chin-length blond hair while mine weaves around my long raven black locks.
"We match," I state the obvious, loathing that we do, that we go together so well.
Except for the hair.
That announces our differences, and anyone who knows anything about the vampire world will be able to tell. Tell that he was made to be king, while I was not. Even Dex said so. Although, he didn't use those exact words. Just stated that I'm the first queen in a long time to have raven black hair and eyes.
"Yes, we do." Rhyland scans me from head to toe, and then he sinks his teeth into his lip. "You look beautiful."
I suppress a laugh. "Um, thanks."
"I mean it," he insists. "You're beautiful, Raven, whether you think so or not."
"And did you think I was beautiful all those times you helped Nadine lock me in the attic?" I sink my fang into my tongue. This isn't the time to start a fight, Raven.
He stares out the window where shadowy figures belonging to the guards shadow the fields. "You being beautiful had nothing to do with that."
"Then, what did it have to do with?" I observe him, the way he squirms, the way he won't look me directly in the eye. He's uneasy about something.
He gives a stiff shrug. "A lot of things."
"There you go being vague again." I huff out a breath. "How do you ever expect this to work between us if you won't even answer simple questions?"
"They're not simple questions," he mutters then squares his shoulders. "But you're right; I do need to work on answering your questions."
I perk up the slightest bit. "So, you'll explain some things to me?"
His gaze skates to mine, and he nods. "After we have dinner. I don't want to talk about anything important with the fey in the castle. Their hearing is impeccable."
"Can I ask one small question? It's something that's been bugging me."
"I guess so."
I pick at my midnight blue nail polish. "When you were talking to me in my mind last night … Can you do that all the time? Read my thoughts, I mean?"
He remains silent for several heartbeats. "It's not really that I read your mind, so much as I can communicate with you."
"My parents can do something similar, but only because they're soulmates."
"They're lucky, then."
"Why can we do it?"
He gives a one shoulder shrug. "I think it's a protective mechanism between the king and queen. Last night, when I first did it, it was because you put yourself in danger. The connection faded once you were safe, probably because our link is still so new and fragile."
"Our king and queen link?" I ask, and he nods. "You can't read my mind right now?"
He shakes his head, but he grins impishly. "Your worry makes me really wonder what you're thinking about."
"Toenails and warts," I say with a straight face.
He chuckles, his eyes crinkling around the corners. "Sounds like you're pretty morbid, if you ask me."
"I totally am. Hope that makes you want to stay out of my head from now on."