climbed onto her bed and sat cross-legged.
“The queen would not approve.”
She laughed. “The queen will not approve of about ninety-percent of me. We just won’t tell her.” She lowered her voice. “Please. I’d like to make friends here.” She’d never had that urge back in Ohio, but Myles had been all she’d needed. The more people she distracted herself with here, the less time she’d have to miss him, to let herself wallow in guilt.
If it worked like that.
“You do not seem like the kind of lady who’d move into the palace.” Neeve picked up the discarded game on the floor.
“That’s because I was kidnapped.”
Neeve almost dropped the cards. “You’re the girl the queen has been searching for?” She stumbled back. “The one wanted by the Eldur queen?”
“Yeah, didn’t I say that?” She flopped onto her stomach and kicked her legs up behind her. “Listen, I don’t have any plans to leave this room until everyone forgets what an idiot I am. But I’m starving. Who do I call to get some chow around here?”
Neeve set the game on an ornate white table near the hearth. “I’ll fetch you something from the kitchen.” Something in her changed, and Brea couldn’t figure it out. It was like news of her identity shook something within the servant.
After a long stare, she left Brea to her silence.
The Gelsi palace had the best food.
Brea never thought she was the kind of person to like coated duck in some kind of cream sauce she couldn’t pronounce. Or that she’d stuff herself with seven courses of a single meal. At home, they were more the bologna and grilled cheese type of people.
She lay on her bed, her stomach almost bursting in protest. Neeve left after bringing the food, despite Brea begging her to stay and eat with her. Fear had entered her eyes at the proposition, and she went on and on about how servants didn’t eat food fit for nobles. Brea tried to convince her to take a single bite, and she’d run out of there as if her dress was on fire.
The remnants of Brea’s magic trials in the game with Griff were long gone, leaving behind a pristine room once more. She wondered if the people in this palace ever stopped working.
Thoughts of the fire queen entered her mind. She pictured a woman with blazing eyes and a vengeful spirit. As she’d learned from the movies, anything with fire in these fantasy worlds was bad.
That was how she imagined the Eldur queen. Long white hair, a hard expression, and dragons at her disposal. Did this world even have dragons? Griff hadn’t mentioned them. He’d have told her, right? Because, seriously, dragons!
The prospect both scared and intrigued her.
She couldn’t let herself fall into the hands of a dragon queen.
A scraping on her door had her jolting up in bed. She climbed off the heavenly mattress and crept across the floor on bare feet. Raising a hand, she tried to call on her magic, letting it latch on to her fear.
But when the door opened, it clogged in her veins, unable to break free as her mind went blank. Before her stood the most beautiful man she’d ever seen. It wasn’t the first time she’d thought it, but it was the first time since knowing he was evil.
There was a definite family resemblance with Griffin. For one, both he and Lochlan were ridiculously good looking—but she was starting to suspect half of the fae population of the same.
“Brea,” his low growl had her stepping forward not of her own accord.
“What are you doing here?” She had to force the words out.
He shut the door behind him. “We need to talk.”
She only stared at him.
“You’re in danger.”
Chapter Nine
Brea’s breath released in a ragged stream as the angry fae stalked toward her. She backed away until the backs of her thighs hit the bed. “You shouldn’t be in here.”
“Neither should my brother.”
“That’s n-none of your business.” Her words shook. “What do you want from me?”
He glanced back at the door as footsteps sounded out in the hall. When they passed, he released a breath. “I left the dinner early to seek my bed.”
“This isn’t your bed.”
His eyes bore into hers like he could see through every one of her defenses. The man before her had none of the lightness of his brother. Instead, he replaced joy with a deep intensity, just as entrancing as every one of Griff’s smiles.
And also terrifying.
She rounded her bed so it stood